I did forget and thanks to your observation have removed the attachment now. There's not a lot in that report I'd consider a huge data breach but who knows? I trust my FTE brethren!

The one quart replacement might be due a slight under filling during last oil change. Since I do this DIY after I've added a total of six quarts (pre-filling the filter before its installed) I'll occasionally forget to check oil level for a thousand miles or so. That might account for the need to add the single quart; over the past 4-5 oil changes I've rarely lost more than 1/4 to 1/2 quarts in 3,000 miles average.

I was mostly encouraged my 6,300 mile interval still showed good results especially considering their average was just over 4,300 miles in similar engine tests. I don't believe I'll go that distance again but its good knowing it wouldn't be a problem. At the moment I'm not overly concerned with the Ford reman'd engine's health but thanks for the suggestion. I am about 5-6K miles from my normal 50K plug change interval so will take that opportunity to check and photograph my removed plugs, might use my bore scope to look inside a few cylinders---it has a recording function too. That should be interesting.

I will read your link PawPaw---should be interesting and make me a bit smarter OCI-wise!

 

One of the many oil related revelations that were discovered while testing oil for our Nascar team involves OCI. We never went past 600 miles in our engines, but we tested oil until it failed.
The fact that an oil analysis showed that the oil wasn't completely used up, and still met the minimum standard, in no way implies that the used and almost worn out oil still performs as well as newer oil. That's what some of these comments completely miss.
Your oil at a 4-5000 OCI perform much, much better than oil at 8,000 miles that meets the minimum standards. If you are a minimum standards vehicle maintainer, let your engine continue to use "good enough" oil while thinking that you are treating your vehicle well.

 

Your post misses the point as well. The question is not whether old, used oil will test out as well as brand new oil. Of course it will not. Straight out the bottle will always be better than oil with 5000 miles on it as the additives in oil are sacrificial. The additives get used up. And you are unlikely to find wear metals in brand new oil. The only solution to "used oil" is as you have done, change the oil every 100, 200, 300 or 600 miles. The true question is at what mileage, the oil is used up enough to no longer provide sufficient protection to your engine. To determine this point, you can do as many have done and set your own arbitrary OCI. Or you can get a UOA and scientifically determine when the oil, IN THIS SPECIFIC ENGINE, is no longer providing sufficient protection. The problem with an arbitrary OCI, besides being arbitrary, is that the appropriate OCI will vary from engine to engine and oil to oil. As far as "good enough", yes good enough is "good enough". Think of it this way. You have a steel beam capable of handling 5000 lbs. without degradation or failure. The load that will be place on the beam is 3000 lbs. Increasing the beam strength so that it will handle 8000 lbs. provides no additional protection. Is the 8000 lbs. beam better? Yes, of course. But the 8000 lbs. beam is just added expense. The 5000 lbs. beam is "good enough". All modern gasoline engines are durability tested to at least 150,000 miles - 200,000 miles with no special handling. Just following the OEM's recommended maintenance schedule. Increasing your OCI might help you sleep better at night, but that is about all that it will do.

 

I'm not a "minimum standard met" kinda person which is why my OCI's were always closer to 3K miles than the 6,300 miles traveled before my only Blackstone test to date. The cost of an oil change at the 3K interval is very insignificant when compared against replacing an engine and the attendant loss of vehicle use.

If I were a "good enough" kinda guy I'd use as cheap an oil and filter as I could find but that's just not how I maintain my vehicles. So far buying high quality parts/materials have served me well, no known reason to change that approach now.

I doubt my OCI's will go much beyond 4K miles in the future, the Blackstone Lab's report being a bit comforting in its results that the Motorcraft brand oil and the 45K miles reman'd Ford engine are not having issues.

 

I fail to understand why OEM recommended OCIs, developed over decades research and 10s of millions of miles can be dismissed as merely "good enough".

I have seen on this forum and others, and I have found it to be very humorous I must add, a tendency to hail the OEM engineers as "brilliant" when people agree with the OEM recommendation and yet label them as complete idiots when people disagree with the OEM recommendation.

These OEM engineers who developed the OCI, also developed the braking systems, air bag systems, steering systems, etc. in the cars that you drive. You trust all these systems to work as they should, but when it comes to OCI, these same engineers somehow turn stupid and do not know what they are talking about.

How funny is that?

 

Changing oil at some arbitrary number of miles always seemed weird to me. In my daily driver 99 Buick I change the oil when the "change oil soon" light comes on and that's usually at about 5-5500 miles and about every 6 months. Very rarely does it go 6000 miles but it will if I have more highway miles. The 3800 engine has 240,000 miles now and I've had it for about 110,000 of those miles. I always use Valvoline synthetic and it won't use more than 1qt in a change interval.

 

OEMs adopted the fixed mileage number to make it easy for owners to remember. Before "Change Oil Lights" were invented, people did not know when the oil needed changing (or maybe even realize that it needed changing). So OEMs picked a safe number. As oil got better and the marketability of "low maintenance costs" increased, that arbitrary number slowly increased. Finally, through decades of research and real world experience, the change oil light evolved.

Some people, however, did not evolve with the light.

 

Change interval is always an interesting topic.

I remember the first time I ever saw a change oil light. It was back when we used to work on cars at our shop and a customer had a new Buick. He was very adamant about oil changes and all other vehicle maintenance so having that was right up his alley. It was interesting how when it used the car only around town especially in winter how much the change interval would shorten. I can't remember how low it went but somewhere under 4000 if I remember right. Then one time he took the car on vacation out west and I think he drove the car about 8000 miles before it turned the light on because the driving was all highway.

Back then we had an old lady and sometimes her oil change interval was only about 200 miles changing it 2 times a year.

One of my dad's friends father owned an apartment complex where he had designed the heating and cooling system. The AC used a Waukesha engine that ran on natural gas. At first the design started and stopped the engine depending on the demand but this caused trouble. It was then changed so that it could run and then unload and idle instead of stopping so it ran all summer 24 hours a day. It was set up to use a 55 gallon barrel of oil that was swapped out each spring. That's a weird oil change interval.

 

Back in the day, engines burned about a quart of oil every 500-600 miles. So many people figured that the oil changed itself every 2000-3000 miles, so they did not have to.

 

I know a guy who didn't know that you had to change oil. He would just add a little bit every time he filled up with gas. After hearing this we went outside and checked out his car which was an early '80's Chevy Citation with a 4 cylinder. He showed us how it was full of oil and it was, all the way to the top of the valve cover when you took off the cap. Another friend helped him by draining out the gallons of nice clean oil and filling it up to the right level, how to check the oil using the dipstick etc. He just didn't know any better.

 

I was at the local dealership for a minor inconvenience. A recall. They had a 4 year old Explorer towed in. Engine was seized. Full of sludge. The owner never changed the oil. Warranty claim was denied. It happens.

 

Its been a few months since I posted to this thread, had good results with a 6K + OCI, according to Blackstone anyway. Time slipped away, weather was horrible and work was insane---this time I went another 4+ months and 7,000 K miles the latest oil/filer change. This time I used a Valvoline 5W20 oil and Motorcraft FL-820s ( buy those in bulk packaging, just over $4 each. Sample sent to Blackstone and will post those results when they become available.

(I did post those results via an attachment but forgot my personal information was on the .pdf page Blackstone sent me. This time I'll request one copy of each report I'll have be re-sent without that information displayed.)

I really hate going that distance between changes but if Blackstone is trustworthy its not been detrimental to the oil quality at time of change. Of course if the Valvoline doesn't hold up as well as the Motorcraft I've been using I'll re-stock that brand and gift away the Valvoline I bought.

Will post the latest results when they're available--stay tuned!

 

Since you use the FL820S & haven't recycled it yet, would be Very interesting to see what it looks like inside after Mann-Hummel has taken over Purolator.
Recently I've read reports of improvements in that filters media pleat spacing & internal build changes on others, thats eliminated the Base end bypass valve & Relocated it to the Dome end, which isn't optimum for inverted mounted filters, so would be interesting to hear if that change has made itself into This Motorcraft filter yet & how the pleat spacing now looks???

 

My cars and trucks do not log a lot of miles. On my F-150, the odometer could take 5 years to log 9,000 miles. I am not waiting 5 years to change oil. I will do whatever feels right at the moment. My last oil change interval was about 18 months. My van has an oil change light which turned on after about a year. And even then, I waited a few more months. Where some people are trying to get more miles between oil changes; I want calendar days. Even if I don't drive the car, the oil will degrade.

 

Great idea---I'm pretty sure I can find the filter still in a container I keep them before they're carted off to one of my customer's filter recycling bins. I've had the batch of filers for at least 2 (or more) years so its long before the acquisition you mention PawPaw.

What's an acceptable process for removing and inspecting the filter media etc? I can remove the top stamped piece (hacksaw) or should I just cut the bottom away and slice upwards to expose the media while still attached to the stamped end?