I sent off an oil sample to Blackstone Labs to get an analysis. My car is a 1998 Formula with 60k miles. It only had 42k when I bought it in January. The previous owner only put Mobil1 and a Skip shift on it. Otherwise it was as it came from the factory. I have added an SLP lid, K&N, ported TB, Pro 5.0 and O2 sims (in prep for an ORY I have yet to install). Anyway, that's all that's done to it. Also, I only run 93 Octane. The car is a daily driver for now to the tune of 130+miles a day .

Anyway, I received the report from Blackstone and they noted that lead content was high (20ppm where their average is 7ppm). They said that this is abnormal but not catastrophic. Normally lead indicates bearings but supposedly it's not high enough for that. I told them that the car sees track duty and they said that the lead is probably from leaded gas or additives. I don't use either and I have changed my oil several times since I bought the car so I don't think it's carried over from the P.O. I got to looking at the report and there are a few catagories that are slightly higher than the average and it got me a little worried. As near stock as I am right now, it doesn't concern me, but I am worried about the future of this engine as I mod. However, they said my oil was consistent with what they have seen of samples with 4100 miles on them but mine was 6800. Then they suggested I go to 7500 next time. So they thought my sample looked good, but it had high enough lead content for them to say something. There was no fuel or water found and insolubles were low showing good oil filtration, they said. They also said they'd "keep an eye on the lead". Here's a few of the other slightly high materials:
Material Mine Average
----------------------
Iron 18 14
Molybdenum 94 54
Calcium 3091 2265
Phosphorous 814 751
Zinc 1079 894

*in parts per million (ppm)

Has anyone had any experience reading these analyses? Could stock plugs or high lead content in the gas I buy cause the slightly high count? Are these few ppm insignificant in the big picture and I'm just freaking over nothing?

Thanks

 

From what you have posted the only wear item is the lead/iron. All the other's are additives in the oil. Iron is a little high. Lead is up there. You might have a bearing starting to go. Are you still running mobil 1? john

 

Yes, nothing but Mobil1 full synthetic and an AC Delco filter PF44/46 (whichever the new one is).

 

i dont think you have a problem.

 

I copied this from another site where I post. You can see for yourself how the Mobil 1 really didnt offer the best protection. Unless the lead is from an outside source, I would say you have the start of a bearing issue. I would resample in 3 to 4 thousand miles and check the reading's and go from there. Later John


Here's my results. Some quick bits of info. Oil was in car for 11 days, covered 7,656 miles with aprox 150mile from road course's, 3 1/4mile passes. Car had 3 big misshifts on my part aleast 6500 rpms and had alot of sustained high rpm racing on the track's.
Car was Raced in the One Lap Of America.

The mobil 1 mileage is less, drivng and racing conditions about the same. I thought I would put these together.

The last Kendall uoa was in car for a Drivng school and trip only. race track mileage was 200 miles in 2 days. 5 20 min sessions on sat and 3 on sunday.

kendall 5/40/Mobil 1 5-30/kendall 5-40
Mileage 45868 35700 37465
Oil 7656 5000 1200
Iron 19 28 14
Chromium 1 1 0
Nickel 0 0 0
Alum 3 6 2
Copper 14 21 6
Lead 1 2 0
Tin 3 2 1
Cadmium 0 0 0
Silver 0 0 0
Titanium 0 0 0
Vanadium 0 0 0
Silicon 5 8 4
sodium 14 6 5
Potassium 17 1 2
Moly 4 89 13
Antimony 0 1 0
Manganese 0 0 3
Lithium 0 0 0
Boron 10 184 30
Magnesium 920 34 788
Calcium 1584 3334 1631
Barium 0 0 0
Phosphorus 909 778 724
Zinc 1069 1017 940
Fuel% 2.5 .5 .5
Soot% <.1 .1 .1
h20% <.1 .1 .1
Vis 100cs 13.8 10.1 13.0
TBN 5.17 5.74 7.07
Oxid 10 24 8
Nita 24 25 10

 

Big E,

The next time you have an oil analysis done by Blackstone Labs, I would suggest that you tell them you want the Dyson analysis. Terry Dyson will breakdown your report element by element and tell you what you need to do to reduce your wear numbers.

 

Mobil 1 5w30 (and 10w30) is too thin for the LS1. That is why you're seeing slightly elevated bearing wear. That is why I recommend people choose an oil that is slightly thicker. For comparison, my last oil analysis with Castrol 0w30 (which is almost a 0w40) showed only 2ppm of lead in 6000 miles. So the bearing wear in my engine is very very low.