First Blackstone oil analysis done on my Tacoma

Good news I think, guess the truck will last as long as I want. Will be doing these more often now that I know about it, thanks for the recommendation!

 

Just curious how much did it cost you and do they send you the bottles?

 

$40 USD and yes I went on their website and ordered a sample kit. They sent it to me with all packaging needed to ship it. At next oil change I followed instructions and took oil sample mid stream (had been driving to shop) packaged it up, paid shipping and it took about 4-5 weeks to get the report. Worth it I think, I thought I had metal in my oil I could see. Turns out alls good.

 

I have a Blackstone baseline on my three vehicles (Gen 1, Gen 2, and Lexus RX). It’s reassuring data, although my 200kmi Gen 1 is showing a bit higher than we’d like for “yellow” metals.

I don’t test every oil change now. Once a year or 18 months to stay on top of the vehicles.

The sampling pump Blackstone offers is a nice bit of kit and permits easy-peasy sampling from up top through the dipstick tube. Works perfectly with their sample bottles.

 

If one changes their oil every 3k miles, how does this compare with the above report at 10,700 km?

 

~6600 miles was his report.

Plenty of headroom to use the 10k miles Toyota specifies.

3k is decades outdated. Even in the 90s Honda's spec was 7.5k regular duty, 5k heavy duty, with dino oil.

 

If one looks at the bottom part of @winnipegbeachtacoma90’s Blackstone report, it seems pretty clear that oil was nowhere near exhausted at 10 000 km. The viscosity was right on, there were no obvious contaminants, and the high TBN value shows there was plenty of life yet.

For that engine, changing oil at 3000 mile intervals seems like simply wasting oil.

But you’re far from alone in keeping with 3kmi intervals, @bgavin. There’s really nothing wrong with it but using more oil than is probably needed. I used that value for decades (decades ago). Now I’m mostly in the 5kmi window, sometimes pushing to 8kmi on my Lexus RX. That vehicle’s Blackstone reports look great, BTW.

 

I used to change oil and filter every 3K miles decades ago, but now stick to 5K intervals. 10K is probably fine for most folks under most conditions, but 5k is just my preference.