Lab test on factory oil, 30,000 miles!

I just got a newsletter from Blackstone Labs, who I've used previously to test oil from my vehicles. I sent off synthetic oil with 11,000 miles on it from a Ford Focus, and they suggested going 15,000 miles next time because of the quality of the oil sample.

I've encountered someone here that changed their synthetic oil every 3,000 miles because of their admitted obsession with "clean" oil. Yikes.

This sample was from a Kia that had the factory oil for 30,000 miles. The results weren't great, but not nearly as bad as you'd think it would be.

https://gallery.mailchimp.com/f6413...-4893-946f-fab9740e2b01/Feb_19_Eng_REPORT.pdf

"You know, all in all it’s not a terrible report. An earlier oil change would have been good, of course, but mostly what you’re looking at is the normal factory wear-in plus 30,000 miles of metal accumulation. There’s probably also additional wear from the oil itself being abrasive from collecting so much metal. We suggested a few short oil changes to flush the system. The oil held up well over the long interval, though – the viscosity was still in the 5W/30 range and insolubles (oxidized solids caused by heat, use, and blow-by) read within limits."

I personally use Mobil 1, keep the air filter clean, and change the oil once a year regardless of mileage (we don't do much over 10,000 miles anyway).

 

I started with 25,000 miles between changes (12,500 mi for the filter). There after went to 36,000 mi between changes. Now at 270,000 miles on the odo it's still running as smooth as when new. The lab results always came back with "Good for continued service.". The old saying about "it sounds too good to be true" doesn't apply to synthetic oil. It is purely that petroleum oil is "too bad to be true". You just can't compare the two, but it is what novices do all the time.
And as far as "the factory Engineers determined the max time between changes is 10k". One has to remember the Engineers must take into account the lowest common denominator of users. Case in point, as a technical writer for a very large aerospace company (40,000 people), I was instructed to write to an 8th grade level! For the Aerospace industry no less!!
Fact is our petroleum oil is so bad that NO U.S. made dino oil qualifies (is acceptable enough) for use in Europe. Think about that and then go learn why. Syn oil doesn't have those shortcomings, so the short change intervals are not applicable.

 

Did you keep your filter change at 12,500 or did that go up later on as well?

 

My kind of thread! I do12,500 mile oci based on Blackstone laboratories recommendation. I use long life oil filters. I buy whatever synthetic oil I can find on sale. I dont care what the brand is.

 

I keep it t 12.5k. On the bottle, the oil specified a change to 36k change interval; the filter didn't say anything about changing to 18k on its packaging.