Amsoil study of Synthetic motor oil

This picture is of a 4.6 2v Ford engine that I took out of one of my Mustangs. It was primarily a drag race engine and was under quite a bit of stress. The ring landings on the pistons finally failed after 36k miles and countless quarter mile passes. However if you look here at the main bearings, you can still see the original printing on the faces. No signs of wear or premature failure. This engine used nothing but Mobil 1.



This is one of the piston assemblies that came out of that engine. It was actually one of the better one's but you can see how the skirt wear was a bit exsessive and the ring landings are gone. Again, this was after 36k miles and countless trips down the strip.


This is one of the analysis reports I had in Photobucket. This one is for Motorcraft synthetic 5-50 which is what my GT500 came with.


This one's from Red Line 5-50, totally virgin sample (right out of the bottle) to verify additive package content.


That's all I have in my Photobucket account. I'll dig around in my files and old E-mails and see if I can find more. I'm sure I kept them, but they were taken over a few years and different cars / engines, some of which I don't have anymore; so I might have turned the reports over to the new owners or trashed them if they were for old engines.

Thanks for posting the scientific analysts from Blackstone. Good substantive information there. If you find any of your others post them up.

Here's my original fill from the EB.

I'm running Pennzoil Ultra synthetic with Motorcraft filter FL500-S and will see how it tests with 6k miles or there abouts.

Far cry from where I was previously.

Scientific evaluation is really the end all. Things can look or appear fine, but its hard for the human eye to depict the difference when we're evaluating metrics in particles per million across 20 different particle types. It's been stated many times over. Someone has used X type of oil and never had an issue. Well that's great, it really is. There's nothing the scientifically evaluates how the oil was or was not contributing and preventing wear. It simply qualifies there were no engine catastrophic event. Was the cam being eaten up? Where the crank or rod bearings coming apart? The person can't answer truthfully cause there's no captured and scientifically evaluated results.

Here's some history room my previous truck Silverado 2500HD with Duramax. Using plain ol' conventional Chevron Delo 400 LE with STP filter. I was trying to max out the oil, but never managed to get there at 126k before I got rid of the truck. I was shooting for 13k miles on the last interval.

Below is a sample from my G8 GT with 6.0 V8. This sample was using 6 quarts of Mobile 1 and 2.8 quarts of conventional Mobile 5000.

Not exactly steller results or what I was wanting. Never got to my next sample as some jack wagon on a yielded green turned left in front of me on coming and totaled a pristine G8 GT. Still miss that car.

Our '07 Yukon Denali with 6.2 V8. It would consume considerable quantities of Valvoline Dura-blend, Mobile 1 between oil changes. Plain ol' Quaker State had better results out of the oils I was testing on this engine.

Back to the EB. I'm willing to test different oils. In my experience different engines seem to like different oils. I've scoured the internet looking for UOA on the EB. Results are all over as far as mileage. I started short and will build up mileage into the oil change interval as results indicate. The only concern I have so far is raw fuel. Ford implementation of direct fuel injections seems more susceptible in contaminating the oil with raw fuel much more so than other manufacturers. I've seen some samples online that indicated 3% raw fuel present or higher. Not any real scientific quantities to report, just a considerable amount of discussions and just about every Ford DI sample from any model has raw fuel present. This isn't exactly the case with other manufacturers DI implementations.

Here's the results from my wife's 2.0 EB. Yep raw fuel, not bad, least I hope none of mine start trending toward bad.

Good stuff Joe, I'll look through my files for my Cobras and GT500 and see if I can find the rest. What your Mobil 1 data showed was very similar to what I found in one of my 03 Cobras which is really what made me start researching better oils in the first place. As you saw in the pictures I posted above, the bearing life was better than I expected to see, but the piston skirt wear was concerning. Of course that could have been slap caused by the ring failures (which is clearly not oil related), but that wear pattern was consistent with engines that had a lot more abuse and mileage than that one had. I used Mobil 1 for so long just on what I was told, that I never even considered looking for anything else or having the oil analyzed. Shear protection, viscosity durability, additive packages, etc... There's so much information there, most people have no idea. Once I did, I started trying all sorts of different oils and in the past with my strip car engines, was able to not only see the results on paper, but internally as well since I broke down and rebuilt a few of my own as well as friends, family and fellow racers. With the cost of the current engines in my cars these days, I hope to NOT do the visual inspections anymore... LOL None of my cars are "race cars" anymore and while my GT500 is a street/strip car, it sees far more street action than it does strip. I have no plans or wants to take that engine apart anytime soon so insuring the oil is the best it can be is extremely important to me. That being said, I didn't get to the point in my young life, where I could afford to have nice cars, but throwing away money for nothing. So getting the most of a $100 oil change (times 3 for all 3 cars) is also something I consider important. People just don't realize how much money they waste, changing synthetic oils every 3k miles regardless of analysis and data.

You really should check out bobistheoilguy.com. It's a great wealth of information when it comes to oil and filter data, technology and analysis databases. I think you'll enjoy it.

Just to add, I noticed in your original Motorcraft analysis, that the viscosity was low. This is the same trend that I found with all of the Motorcraft synthetics that I had analyzed as well. My 500 originally calls for 5w50 MC Synthetic (they say that MC and Castrol are the only two oils that pass Ford's requirements for the engine, but they kinda made their own rules). When I started doing some research I found a lot of knowledgeable 500 owners were starting to run 40 weight oil rather than 50 since the viscosity swing in almost every 5-50 was too much causing shear stability to seriously suffer. 10-40's actually maintained higher shear stability for longer periods of use than all of the 5-50's I tried including Red Line.

In common speak, the closer the two numbers, the better they are at resisting heat and base stock shearing.

I had originally assumed the low viscosity was associated with the raw fuel. I have nothing to substantiate that. I will ask Blackstone on the next sample to see if they can provide insight to why the viscosity might be low. Thanks for the tip on the Motorcraft possibly being short on the viscosity side.

Funny you mention BITOG. Observing some data there, results and commentary seemed to really indicate fondness for the additive package in Pennzoil Platinum and Ultra. Thus I'm giving it a shot on my EB on viewing multiple results.

I had used Mobile 1 pretty religiously in the past as well. Though after becoming more sensible, ie. Just because I haven't had a motor grenade doesn't mean diddly on if the oil is doing a good or poor job. Moreover I would change ever 3 to 4k miles. I have a job, kids and all kinds of responsibility, I don't have the free hours I used to spend in the garage. Thus I like only doing oil changes when necessary

BTW the oil change on the 3.5 EB sucks. Did I mention suck? I was out there messing with it for well over an hour. Just getting accustomed and oriented on location of everything.

The oil filter location sucks. This obviously is something that didn't get changed when they took the 3.5 Duratec, turned it parallel. They should have remotely located the oil filter or something. This front and rear drip funneling mechanism sucks. No matter how much wiped them down it still dripped afterwards. Grumble grumble. Just trying to get my arm into the area of the oil filter was the most fun and entertaining aspects. I did let loose a couple expletives.

I'm anxiously awaiting another oil change interval to see how this Pennzoil does. What do you plan to use on your first change?

Getting all sentimental again. I have to resist the temptation to dump more money into cars.

I had a '95 LT1 Camaro. Not nearly as powerful as your 500. Mine was only 556 RWHP. Though I started with a significant deficit at 240 RWHP. I was using Mobile 1 15w-50 for ages. Only "scientific" data I had was the oil pressure gauge seemed to sustain better pressure even in the hot Texas heat when driving it in the summer when compared to 10-30. Great scientific data there eh? After round 2 with the heads mine was observed really clean internally as well. Still saw the machined cross hatch pattern machined and honed into he cylinders, no build up on the valves.

I like you don't have much desire to tear anything down anymore unless necessary. Did mine once, blown 5 and 7 cylinders. Parts of the ring lands were cracked parts of the compression and oil rings missing. Hey now we know why it's puking oil out of every gasket and seal. Something with putting boost on cheap OEM hyperutetic pistons. :/ HEHE Fixed that don't want to go back. I won't even metion the oil pickup tube that fell off in the pan. :/

I need to find a new hobby. Chest?

EB oil? Heck I'm guessing at this point. I do have my wife's 2.0 EB to use as a test platform.

I'm going to be using Amsoil 5w-30 Signature for my first change (Amsoil filter as well as they didn't have the WIX filter in stock). I'm a premium member so I get dealer cost on everything through Amsoil direct. The prices are considerably cheaper than running off the shelf synthetics when you add it all up and consider the length between changes that the Amsoil Signature has been getting for me. I bought my truck with 12k miles on it and the oil life says 53% right now so I have no idea how long its been in there or what it is. The maintnance records indicate that the oil changes were all done by Ford so I can only assume it's Motorcraft oil. Regardless of what the life says, I'm changing it this week when the weather clears up, that way I can start with a clean baseline. I'll probably send a sample of the old oil out just to see what Blackstone has to say about the wear indicators. It'll be a new experience for me with a twin turbo engine as all of my cars in the past were supercharged. It's funny, a buddy of mine mentioned to me after I bought the truck that I have 3 cars and between them, 4 turbos and a supercharger... He think I have a problem but I look at it differently... LOL The first change for the Explorer was done by Ford on them, so I didn't get a sample for that either. The next change will be done by me and if the Amsoil gives me a good analysis out of my truck, I'll likely use the same in that.

My Shelby is currently running Amsoil Premium (High Zinc) 10w-40 and that's been treating me well. I'll be doing that change this week also (it gets changed once a year since I don't put many miles on the car). I'll hopefully have a report back on it soon.

You're Camaro was real nice, thats some serious power out of that car N/A. Love the pic of it hanging the wheels a little too. That thing was hookin like a champ for an F-Body which were notorious for being difficult on the small end of the track.
These cars now a days are insane, the power they are capible of making with such little influence. When I saw how easy it was to go 10's with my 03 Cobra coupe, I was astonished. I remember how hard it was to just get into the 12's with my Chevelle. 10's might as well of been a top fuel car as far as I was concerned back in the late 90's when I had that Chevelle; now adays it almost seems to be the price of admission.

Cars are certainly an expensive hobby, but I love every second of it. Nothing is as theroputic for me as working on one of my cars or (as I'm sure you can understand as a Texan) one of my guns. Two very expensive hobbies I have I suppose, but it could be worse...

Keep us abreast of your UOA results from your truck

With 53% left OLM I would guess there's 3 to 4k on the current oil. I would be interested in what if anything is reported on viscosity and raw fuel.

Being able to get Amsoil at your cost price point is a very nice thing to have. At $10 retail plus shipping makes it slightly cost prohibitive to many of us. It will be interesting to compare as we put miles on these things.

I scored on the PU from Autozone, 5 gallon jug for $27. Walmart has it usually for $35 a jug. If Autozone hadn't had the deal I would still probably be running the Ford recommended Motorcraft.

Today's cars are cheating Just too easy when the manufacturer gives you 550 HP off the showroom. I had to work hard to get to that power level. Cam, heads, valvetrain, the idle was less than refined, like cars of today off the lot. Had a 12 psi ProCharger on it with 3 core IC. Boost is too easy to make lots of power, and it's addictive. Had pretty good luck with the on the short part of the track with the Camaro. Worked a while getting the pinion angle correct under load on the adjustable torque arm, the Strange 12 bolt under the rear was a stout piece, could beat on it all day. A little air bag in the right rear usually keep the launches straight and true, no surprises or jumping 30 degrees sideways on the launch.

I like you enjoy a nice finely crafted piece of machinery, no matter if it uses gasoline or gun powder. At the current time waiting a 1/16th punch from set I bought from Amazon to put a new hand guard and other accessories on a rifle. I just need an outdoor range closer as well. Or win the lotto so I can purchase a few hundred acres.

If you were forced to buy off the shelf oils, which two oils would you choose?