Re: A few interesting, or boring, measurements / observations re: Oil change

I recently realized, to my concern, that i had not changed the oil in my 2004 base boxster since August of last year. Motsly becuase it sat being repaired from Sept --> Jan, was used for a few track events in April --> early June, and then mostly sat as my other (project) car was frequnetly driven, from June --> now. However, it still had 13+ months, ~ 5k and ~8 track days on the oil (10w40 synthetic)

I was motsly concerned with acid and water accumulation, but ll those track days certainyl boiled a lot off.

Anyway, i drove the car on a bunch of errands to get it hot befoe changing the oil, adn then within about 10 minutes backed it up on ramps. Fairly soon i shot the oil pan with my thermal gun - 171 degF. Juts a data point. I cant say ho much it cooled since i ran it, but it cools very slowly i observe. And, obviously, 171 < 212, which suggests not all that much evaporation goes on around town on moderate fall mornings in the Northeast. And i was having fun, driving it much harder than 99.99% of cars are driven around town.

While i was at it i shot my lawnmower, whcih i had just brought back to life (dis-assembled carb etc) and was running some gas/carb clearner thorough. It was 165 at the hottest point i could find. (just idling in the driveway).

The oil was ok looking. I may send it out for lab testing.

I also cut apart the filter. Absolutely nothing. And i often change filters every other oil change. This one was NOT changed at last oil change, so the completely clean filter with no paricles whatsoever had actually been in there for two cycles. Just sayin....

The motor did start up quieter with the fresh new oil - a dog's breakfast of partial-case or leftover from 5-L jugs of ACEA A3 5w40s i had including kendall full synthectic, Total Full Tech, and Topped up with Lubri-moly. Note i always pre-fill the filter housing to speed up lubircation.
Tightened the drain plug to 300 in-lbs, plus just a smidge (my small torque wrench only goes to 300 lbs-in whcih is 25 lb-ft. IIRC the spec is 27. And if i don't, mine is 27 :-)

Grant

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

Interesting; just had an oil change using Castrol Edge 5W-40 and have to say the engine runs very quiet relative to how it was with the factory fill.

Though I've never used the term, I used to feed my '66 VW Bug a, "Dog's Breakfast" of whatever oil was at hand.

Been using castrol 5w40 syntec for 3 years,change every 7000 miles approx,decided to change it to Motul 8100 extreme syn after reading some good reviews,got 60000 miles
now and no problems as off yet but honestly this IMS stuff has kinda got me concerned and don,t enjoy the car as much as i should as its always in the back off my mind!
Glad to here u have good results so far.

... do the DOF after inspection either at next clutch work, or as a stand-alone job (cost difference is remove/replace tranny, which is several hours total).

But also keep in mind what Pedro has written, and others have noted. Cars that are regularly driven with regular oil service have far lower incidences of IMS failure per mile driven. I took out two (for preventative replacement) and neither was in an danger of failing tomorrow - in fact both were fairly OK.

Also, don't get your shorts in a knot over oil brands. People i know formulating brand A are perfectly OK with brand B. Some differences? Sure, but Use a good, proper weight oil and change it regularly - which may be longer or shorter depending on how you use it.

For longer drain intervals there is a spec that few people pay any attention to. Its called 'total base number" and is a measure of the level of base/buffer additives and therefore how long it can counter-act acids. Bigger is better, within reason.

Grant

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

Thx Grant,will take that constructive info and hopefully sleep better.