S54 oil analysis

philipw · Feb 7, 2019

Just got oil analysis results back for my car which has covered 100k miles.
I am planning on getting the shells replaced but I am curious if anyone else has had their engine oil analysed and how these results compare?

Also any ideas what the elevated Molybdenum levels could be due to? The lab who did the analysis stated Mo is sometimes present in oils as an additive, any ideas if this is correct.

It is worth saying that the engine runs fine with no issues

TomK · Feb 7, 2019

Imo these analysis results are useless without having another series of results from your engine to compare against. A snapshot tells you nothing really, you need to be looking over a period and see if anything is getting worse.

Mangozac · Feb 7, 2019

philipw said:
Also any ideas what the elevated Molybdenum levels could be due to? The lab who did the analysis stated Mo is sometimes present in oils as an additive, any ideas if this is correct.

They are correct. I believe the Liqui Moly 10W60 has a high level of Mo in it. Additionally, Liqui Moly do a friction reducing Mo additive that reportedly increases the lifespan of bearings. Some people I know swear by it in their S54.

mmm-five · Feb 7, 2019

The lead is the only one that looks very high, compared to other S54 Blackstone reports I've seen. 'Normal' levels are around 5-20ppm, and high is over 50ppm - so this doesn't look good.

Here's a couple of report from the same car aafter a rob bearing replacement...

5,000 miles after:

Another 4,000 miles later, after a change in oil brand:

Here's one from another car:

Gustavo7 · Feb 7, 2019

Your lead levels look very high, I would do the bearings if I were you.

As a comparison, this was my report with 115.000 miles on the clock and 7000-mile-old oil.

srhutch · Feb 8, 2019

I had mine done two years ago and about to have it done again.

Agree with the others though if the lead is high then getting the bearings changed. You don’t need two reports to tell you that.

mmm-five · Feb 8, 2019

srhutch said:
Agree with the others though if the lead is high then getting the bearings changed. You don’t need two reports to tell you that.

The only other cause I can think of, is if you've tried one of those 'miracle' oil additives - which often contain lead & copper as 'lubricants'...for example (identifying bits redacted for confidentiality):

Spaniarduk · Feb 8, 2019

Hello [ref]philipw[/ref],
In my opinion the first thing we need to know to be able to make any kid of judgement is how many miles old your oil is. If your values are for oil that was replaced 2000 miles ago those values will be horrid. If those same values are for an oil that was replaced 20,000 miles ago they are probably quite good.

Gustavo7 · Feb 8, 2019

Spaniarduk said:
Hello [ref]philipw[/ref],
In my opinion the first thing we need to know to be able to make any kid of judgement is how many miles old your oil is. If your values are for oil that was replaced 2000 miles ago those values will be horrid. If those same values are for an oil that was replaced 20,000 miles ago they are probably quite good.

I got 5ppm lead on oil with 7000 miles. 104ppm is quite alarming in my opinion regardless of miles.

I would drop the sump and check the bearings at the very least.

philipw · Feb 8, 2019

Thanks all for your input. The oil is 6 months old and has covered 3000 miles.

Car is now booked in with my local specialist to get new shells fitted.

Will update with photos of the shells once they are removed. Based on the Cu levels provided, not much of the copper should be exposed, will be interesting to see what they look like.

Spaniarduk · Feb 8, 2019

Hmmm.... Yup, new shells required :!:

Gustavo7 · Feb 8, 2019

philipw said:
Thanks all for your input. The oil is 6 months old and has covered 3000 miles.

Car is now booked in with my local specialist to get new shells fitted.

Will update with photos of the shells once they are removed. Based on the Cu levels provided, not much of the copper should be exposed, will be interesting to see what they look like.

You made the right decision and well done for sampling the oil, another decision that might have saved you thousands of pounds.

Will be interesting to see how good/bad the bearings are after those results so please update us.

I hope your crank journals are tip top and that we get hard evidence that oil sampling can save our engines, and also get a feel for lead ppm vs bearing condition.

Are you going to fit uprated bearings and con rod bolts, or OEM?

philipw · Feb 8, 2019

Gustavo7 said:
philipw said:

Thanks all for your input. The oil is 6 months old and has covered 3000 miles.

Car is now booked in with my local specialist to get new shells fitted.

Will update with photos of the shells once they are removed. Based on the Cu levels provided, not much of the copper should be exposed, will be interesting to see what they look like.

Click to expand...

You made the right decision and well done for sampling the oil, another decision that might have saved you thousands of pounds.

Will be interesting to see how good/bad the bearings are after those results so please update us.

I hope your crank journals are tip top and that we get hard evidence that oil sampling can save our engines, and also get a feel for lead ppm vs bearing condition.

Are you going to fit uprated bearings and con rod bolts, or OEM?

Planning on fitting OEM but will listen to what the specialist recommends. What aftermarket options are recommended?

XMetal · Feb 9, 2019

TomK said:
Imo these analysis results are useless without having another series of results from your engine to compare against. A snapshot tells you nothing really, you need to be looking over a period and see if anything is getting worse.

Agreed, but at 100k covered, I would swap out the shells regardless of what the analysis says.

Mangozac said:
They are correct. I believe the Liqui Moly 10W60 has a high level of Mo in it. Additionally, Liqui Moly do a friction reducing Mo additive that reportedly increases the lifespan of bearings. Some people I know swear by it in their S54.

Believe it or not, but Liqui Moly actually contains no Moly (Mo) in it at all! The reports that was posted by "mmm-five" was actually from my car. The high Mo level that you see in the latest sample with Liqui Moly was actually left over from previous oils. I've seen lots of reports from people running strict Liqui Moly and all the reports always come back with near zero Mo on them.

philipw said:
Thanks all for your input. The oil is 6 months old and has covered 3000 miles.

Car is now booked in with my local specialist to get new shells fitted.

Will update with photos of the shells once they are removed. Based on the Cu levels provided, not much of the copper should be exposed, will be interesting to see what they look like.

Good call on getting the shells replaced! FYI - my rod bearing shells had copper exposed and the analysis did NOT show any elevated levels! If you want to see more pictures and discussion that I had started on another forum, have a gander here => https://www.zpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1461006

Mangozac · Feb 9, 2019

XMetal said:
Mangozac said:

They are correct. I believe the Liqui Moly 10W60 has a high level of Mo in it. Additionally, Liqui Moly do a friction reducing Mo additive that reportedly increases the lifespan of bearings. Some people I know swear by it in their S54.

Click to expand...

Believe it or not, but Liqui Moly actually contains no Moly (Mo) in it at all! The reports that was posted by "mmm-five" was actually from my car. The high Mo level that you see in the latest sample with Liqui Moly was actually left over from previous oils. I've seen lots of reports from people running strict Liqui Moly and all the reports always come back with near zero Mo on them.

Ok, I stand corrected on the Liquid Moly oil. My comments on the MOS2 additive still stands and I had always just assumed that if MOS2 was such a good additive for bearing wear then the people mentioning that an amount was already in the oil made sense.

XMetal · Feb 10, 2019

Mangozac said:
Ok, I stand corrected on the Liquid Moly oil. My comments on the MOS2 additive still stands and I had always just assumed that if MOS2 was such a good additive for bearing wear then the people mentioning that an amount was already in the oil made sense.

I know most people like the MOS2 additive - but if you look at my report posted above, MOS2 additive didn't do anything for me. However, Liqui Moly's Ceratec did dramatically lowered my lead level and it appeared from my experiment that it's the only additive that's worthwhile to try, at least on my car. I don't like using oil additives in general. But after seeing some positive results from my own experiments, I will probably use a treatment of Ceratec every 30k miles or so in the future.

R60BBA · Feb 13, 2019

Regardless of your oil report, as the car has done 100,000 miles I would book it in for a rod bearing service.

philipw · Feb 16, 2019

So the shells are now replaced, bill came in at just over £2000, £1414 including inspection 2 and the rest on replacing other parts that showed wear. Vanos and differential were fine so that was a bonus. Pictures of the shells below, wear was mainly contained to the top shell with cylinders 4 and 6 being the worst.

Happy to have had this done as now I can chill and enjoy the car

XMetal · Feb 16, 2019

Good grief - those bearings looked horrible! I'm still stumped as why copper are not showing on these reports as expected.

Glad to see you had it done (just in time too) so you can really go enjoy it without worrying about bearings now :driving:

Truth · Feb 16, 2019

philipw said:
So the shells are now replaced, bill came in at just over £2000, £1414 including inspection 2 and the rest on replacing other parts that showed wear. Vanos and differential were fine so that was a bonus. Pictures of the shells below, wear was mainly contained to the top shell with cylinders 4 and 6 being the worst.

Happy to have had this done as now I can chill and enjoy the car

What’s the going rate for rod shell replacement??

S54 oil analysis

Member

Attachments

Senior member

Senior member

Lifer

Member

Lifer

Lifer

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Senior member

Member

Senior member

Member

Attachments

Member

Active member

Similar threads