Nada. Nothing. Smells like "Delo-on-a-card".

Pop

 

Well what can we say, looks like your ride passed the test, oil looks good & no signs of fuel dilution.
Would be interesting to know how many miles on the oil spot oil & generally what kind of drive cycle for those miles & who's oil filter your using?

 

I'm using a Fleetguard LF-3974, Delo 15W-40, a LF-778 bypass, about 11,000 miles on the oil. Changed the bypass at 5000(it's over-due), and it's mostly short-miles duty around town, though I put a thousand miles on it in one day a week-ago-Wednesday.

I change the oil every 15,000 or so, as it begins to shear down at about 17,000 miles. I send off a sample of the oil about every 5000 miles, and my history is here:
SpringerPop's Lube Bypass Filter

They tell me that I still have a healthy engine, but I wanted to confirm it, so I ran this blot test.

Pop

 

The numbers look good, the oil spot looks good, so the set up, filtering & oil seem to be a good fit for this engine & drive cycle.
I didn't see any TBN tests, have you ever had one run at the 15K end of the OCI?
Crazy high calcium & moly numbers early on, were you using any kind of additive back then?

 

No, I've never sprung for the TBN, even after all these years. Guess I should one of these times I come up on an oil change, just to be sure.

I've always just used the Delo out of the jugs (used to be cans), and never any additives of any kind. I believe the formulation for Delo has changed over the years, probably to comply with some environmental regs. I suspect that's the reason for the different numbers of calcium and moly. Chevron still uses some good amount of zinc, though.

Pop

 

I was thinking since you say mostly short trips around town, that's severe service, that doesn't let the oil get up to full operating temp to evaporate condensate, so that can build up over time, cause acid & deplete the base number faster & on a long oci we need to be more watchful of that, if our drive cycle is heavy on short tripping.

The thing your doing that may be mitigating that is, your likely adding make up oil when you replace the by-pass filter & if so, that helps boost the used oil ad pack & base number.
Taking the 1000 mile trip likely cleaned everything up & got the oil up to operating temp for a good while, to evaporate condensate, so this oci change wouldn't be the most representative time to do the TBN.
Consider doing it after the usual bout of short trips only during the oci, when TBN may be at it's lowest, so you get a good feel for how the base number is doing during your worst case scenario. The wear numbers look good though, so likely nothing gross going on, but if they're suggesting going longer on mostly short tripping during the oci, it might be a good idea to have a base number done, so you have an idea where you are on base number during your worst case oci routine.

Yes I had forgotten the older recipe Delo was using a different kind of Moly & most recipes of Chevron & Havoline had a Big dose of it back then. The newer version moly doesn't require as much, usually from 50-250ppm depending on the service grade & spec they're trying to meet & moly in the recipe isn't causing LSPI concerns.

I'm now back to using 5W30 Havoline, after Chevron improved their flash point last Dec. It's PDS says it's now a synthetic blend & it's flash point is back up to 446F, along with a big boost in the newer recipe Moly I'm guessing, (which is now up to 169ppm in their 5W20), so says PQIA, up from about 50ppm in the first release of recipe of SN 5w30 back in 2011. I can't find a new VOA on the new recipe 5W30 yet, but the 5w20 & 30 used to carry the same amount of moly, so I'm guessing the revised recipe 5w30 got a boost too. They lowered the calcium & boosted the Mg also, I suppose to address LSPI problems in TGDI & GDI engines that's been found to cause LSPI events if ca is above 2000ppm.
So it Looks like they're adjusting the gassers oil recipe, I suppose getting ready for the release of GF-6.
Goodness I digress, anyway, more Base Number thoughts for consideration. Would be interesting to hear how it measures if you decide to run one.

 

It may be summer before I reach a complete dump, but I will be getting your suggested TBN at that time.

Thanks for your very knowledgeable comments. Almost everything I do for this vehicle has reliability in mind, and this certainly adds to that! Again, thanks!

Pop

 

I found this post interesting, so I did the drop test when I changed my oil. A sample was mailed off for analysis, so it will be interesting to see how it compares.

The pictures have shadows; sorry about that. I also cropped them down so they might be a bit pixelated.


Oil "card" after about 5-10 minutes...


Oil "card" after overnight...

 

JFYI. My "drop test" looked great. The oil analysis from Blackstone showed the lead in the oil to be high (17) vs a universal average of 4. I don't think you can replace a true oil lab analysis, but this is as the thread says, a Poor Mans Oil Analysis. JMHO.

 

Your spot test looks good too, nice even dispersement of solids, so the oil isn't saturated, so should be able to keep the engine clean.

What UOA tests are you having done?

How does the spot smell, any strong aroma of fuel?

Would be interesting to know how many miles on this spots oci, what sort of drive cycle has this sample seen, what brand, service grade & viscosity oil is it, what brand oil filter was used?

 

The blotter test should be done with the oil at normal operating temperature I take it?

Sent from a pay phone

 

If the oil is warm, or at room temp when we do the test, it'll register faster so we can get a quicker idea what's going on.

 

If the oil viscosity hadn't sheared down, or wasn't used beyond it's change interval, insolubles looked ok & if the other wear metals were within normal range & this higher that average lead reading is a one time thing, while you were using the specified oil filter & service grade & viscosity oil, that is licensed to meet or exceed the mfgr's. specifications, haven't messed with the engine internals, or computer, weren't lugging, or over speeding the engine, or doing some procedure like a decarb, or internal clean up that had loosened some sludge, then no higher that that reading was, it sounds like a particle streak & not to worry unless it continues.

Yup, your right that the Poor Mans Oil Analysis can't detect parts per million wear, but if we're using the specified lube & oil, fuel & air filtering & changing it as the mfgr specifies & we're not beating on the engine, we're not likely to suffer unusual wear.

If we have lots of miles on the engine, with higher than normal blow by, or a PCV system that's acting out, or hasn't been maintained & isn't doing it's job, or are into extended oci's, then the blotter spot test can help in showing an oil & filter that's saturated with particles & needs changing, or the crackle test can spot water in the oil, or the sniff test can suggest fuel dilution from an acting out fuel injector, or excessive short tripping that's not getting the oil up to operating temp long enough to evaporate condensate, or fuel, or excessive blow-by gasses from a worn engine that's loading the oil with particles.

The spot test outer ring can suggest if we have coolant in the oil, so all in all it can provide a fairly good quick field check on how our lube & filters are doing under the use we're putting them through.

If we choose a oil filter with some paper blended into the filter media make up, it can help remove water condensate from short tripping, or an acting out PCV system, or excessive blow-by & that can help the oil base number hold up to fight acids.

Motorcraft oil filters use a paper/glass media blend, so that's a good thing for us that use them, or a like filter.

 

I intentionally left this information out of my original post so not to taint any discussions. It will all be included when I get my UOA. But I did drain the oil at 43% on the oil life indicator, I only use MC filters and name brand oil of the correct weight and specs.

 

Is that 43% used, or remaining? Whichever, the oil is likely ok & good for more mileage than on it now, unless some unusual event just happened.
Will be interesting to see what the UOA indicates.