Used oil analysis of my 97 4-cylinder with 185,000 miles

GCole

GCole

Member
Original poster
Supporting Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2020
Messages
85
Location
Richmond, VA
Pulled a sample at the last oil change because why not? We bought the TJ about 2 years ago with 172,000 on the odometer and no real idea of previous history or maintenance. Was losing a little bit of coolant, probably to worm clamps on the radiator hoses, but good to know it isn't ending up in the oil. Thought it might be interesting for others to see. It has a little bit of a lifter tick, but doesn't seem like anything too catastrophic at this point so I'm going to live with it.

jeep_oil.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: kincaid.0678, Head Lice, macleanflood and 2 others
Nice. I saw a similar report from Blackstone on a 4.0 that had nearly nothing but a diet of Mobil-1 since new and its iron (from the block) deposits were above normal. Love seeing your low levels with Castrol!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Christian.mers
Interesting. Your motor looks good. I'm going to do that at my next change. I'm particularly interested in Zinc content. API specs are around 800ppm and used to be 1200 but were decreased to protect catalytic converters in 2004 (I assume ppm are the units your results?). To protect the cam, I use Lucas TB Zinc plus in my 4.6 stroker in attempt to bring the zinc up to 1200 or so. Its hard to find the actual zinc content of a given oil (I also use Castrol GTX, in 10W40 variety). So I'm thinking I will ask one of these companies to analyze a sample of my used and fresh oil at my next change.
 
Jerry Bransford said:
Nice. I saw a similar report from Blackstone on a 4.0 that had nearly nothing but a diet of Mobil-1 since new and its iron (from the block) deposits were above normal. Love seeing your low levels with Castrol!
Click to expand...

I ran Mobil 1 a few times in my XJ 4.0L and had higher iron than normal. I switched to regular old Pennzoil 10w30 and had single digit iron wear numbers due to the high moly content in the oil. The 4.0 always seemed to run a tad bit quieter on that oil (quiet being relative), but Pennzoil never seems to be in stock locally so I just run the Valvoline MaxLife which has done well with the leaks.
 
Woodrow said:
Interesting. Your motor looks good. I'm going to do that at my next change. I'm particularly interested in Zinc content. API specs are around 800ppm and used to be 1200 but were decreased to protect catalytic converters in 2004 (I assume ppm are the units your results?). To protect the cam, I use Lucas TB Zinc plus in my 4.6 stroker in attempt to bring the zinc up to 1200 or so. Its hard to find the actual zinc content of a given oil (I also use Castrol GTX, in 10W40 variety). So I'm thinking I will ask one of these companies to analyze a sample of my used and fresh oil at my next change.
Click to expand...

Got to Bob is the OIl Guy, they have Virgin Oil Analyses (VOAs) for about any oil you want to look at, as well as used oil analyses.

Valvoline VR1, Mobil 1 0w-40 Euro, etc still have decent ZDDP levels. You'll find more in the 40 weights and up in most cases.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Woodrow
macleanflood said:
Fuel...spark concern...love the humor...great news and report...how much did it run and how fast?

-Mac
Click to expand...

$30 for the test, turn around was about 3 weeks. You can pay an extra $10 for them to do a TBN analysis to see how much of the important stuff is still in the oil if you want to run longer oil change intervals.
 
JKP said:
Got to Bob is the OIl Guy, they have Virgin Oil Analyses (VOAs) for about any oil you want to look at, as well as used oil analyses.

Valvoline VR1, Mobil 1 0w-40 Euro, etc still have decent ZDDP levels. You'll find more in the 40 weights and up in most cases.
Click to expand...
If there's one thing I'm not really concerned with where a stock 2.5 or 4.0 is concerned is the oil's SDDP (zinc) levels. If I was running a high performance engine with a high-lift camshaft with stiff valve springs then I absolutely would be concerned with having more zinc than the 2.5/4.0 engines get along with.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Woodrow
Jerry Bransford said:
If there's one thing I'm not really concerned with where a stock 2.5 or 4.0 is concerned is the oil's SDDP (zinc) levels. If I was running a high performance engine with a high-lift camshaft with stiff valve springs then I absolutely would be concerned with having more zinc than the 2.5/4.0 engines get along with.
Click to expand...

Completely agree with the stock 4.0 or 2.5. Honesty I don't know how much of an issue it is with my stroker. Golen recs are to use the additive in the first change after break-in and seem less adamant after that. After a bunch of reading, trying to get to the pre-2004 API level (1200ppm) without over shooting seems reasonable but 🤷‍♂️
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Jerry Bransford
Jerry Bransford said:
If there's one thing I'm not really concerned with where a stock 2.5 or 4.0 is concerned is the oil's SDDP (zinc) levels. If I was running a high performance engine with a high-lift camshaft with stiff valve springs then I absolutely would be concerned with having more zinc than the 2.5/4.0 engines get along with.
Click to expand...

Yes, but the levels keep dropping in the newer oils.

The sample above has about half the zinc and phosphorous of M1 0W-40 Euro.

Eventually the oils for the newer engines are going to drop it to the point it will affect the 4.0s.
 
I’m interested in doing this. Do you find a local place or send it off to a company like the one you used?
 
SSTJ said:
I’m interested in doing this. Do you find a local place or send it off to a company like the one you used?
Click to expand...

I've used Blackstone for a number of years now. I think they're great and totally worth the $30. If you register on their website, they'll send you a sample collection kit that you fill, seal, and drop in the US mail.

https://www.blackstone-labs.com/
 
  • Like
Reactions: JC123, Blondie70 and SSTJ
Top Bottom