Okay, here they are!

This is both years on one sheet. The boldface is this year.

Wear metals are up but way below anything abnormal. If you compare these
numbers to "acceptable" numbers for a 3.0 (and there are some posted here
and there for Taurus owners) you should keep in mind that these metals built
up over a WHOLE YEAR AND 20,000+ MILES OF DRIVING. They are low even
for a 5000 mile drain interval. Not too shabby.

The one abnormal flag is for viscosity. Amsoil Series 2000 gets decidedly
thicker as it ages. If not for that, it could go MORE than a year easily.
That's why they say "35,000 miles or 1 year drain interval".

I drove my truck harder this year than before. One nice thing is that silicon is
so low meaning my air filter is working (and my oil filter, lol).

 

looks pretty good... i sure am glad im useing this stuff now too... everything i have seen on amsoil is good but the viscosity does always go way up it seems

 

yes the viscocity does go up some, just change it when they reccommend and you should be fine. im glad to see some REAL results finally, so everyone can see that AMSOIL is seriously good stuff

 

It's pretty amazing when you think about it: a WHOLE YEAR on an oil change. My first year was an "act of faith" -- but now I'm a firm believer!!!

 

Did you change the filter after 6 months ?

 

after re-reading your post it looks like you went by time and not miles driven... if thats the case its really good since isnt amsoil only rated for 12,000 miles?

 

amsoil filters are 12,500(every six months)
and the oil he used is/was 25,000 miles or one year.(i think they uped it to 35,000 now)

 

Leave it to John for real world results. Hard FACTS, none of this "hear say" crap.

Awesome John, thanks for the FACTS. Working with Bob for my amsoil order!!

 

AMSOIL comes in 3 grades (that would apply to rangers)

XL7500 - lasts 7500 miles
Standard SAE - lasts 25000 miles
Series 2000 - lasts 35000

john and i use the series 2000, i use it because it has a better additive package, but the standard SAE syn works just fine as well, as does the XL

 

How would I find somebody to send oil to for analisys? I wouldnt mind knowing whats been going on with my Mobile 1...

 

There's a bunch of them. Oil Analyzers markets themselves via Amsoil, but they also are on the net at: http://www.oaitesting.com

Blackstone Labs: http://www.blackstone-labs.com

Both will send you a "test kit" consisting of a sample bottle, and outer bottle to pack it in. The cost for testing is about $20 at both. I like Oil Analyzers because theirs comes with pre-paid postage, but it's no big deal.

There are other labs also. You can find a list of some useful ones at http://neptune.spacebears.com where they did extended drain testing of Mobil 1 and Amsoil. Draw your own conclusions from the test, but I'm using Amsoil. They were not happy with the drop in TBN over time and stopped the Amsoil test before it got as far as the Mobil 1 testing. On the other hand, wear metals were much worse during the entire Mobil 1 test. Rather confusing results, but useful to review anyway.

 

I'm just not comfortable running a filter that long. I tried it, but it seemed to me my lifters were getting noisier about 10K miles or so -- very subjective but that's how it seemed. Changing the filter cleared it up.

I suspect you can use the filters that long, but at the expense of oil pressure in some applications. I think the Ranger 3.0 filter is TINY, and I don't think it has enough surface area to last with hard driving and dirty conditions.

 

No, after 6000 miles (about 4 months, more or less, for me).

 

John, I compared your results with the results I got on my 89 Ranger with the 2.9L engine. I ran 25,000 mile oil change intervals with Valvoline 20W-50 synthetic oil and also used a micron bypass oil filter (also changed at 25,000 miles). My metals were considerably lower except for copper and it was significantly higher. My silicone was also lower. Using the micron bypass filter probably had some effect on making the analysis look better.

I also had a problem with the viscosity getting too high. I learned to add a lower weight oil when I added oil to keep the viscosity within the range that it should be.

I changed the standard oil filter at 7,500 miles intervals.

 

Good data. Well, the "baseline" silicon for the Amsoil is higher because of silicon compounds in the additive package. According to my analysis references, you are allowed (for a gas engine) about 50 ppm OVER whatever the oil's "baseline" is.

Copper is mainly a cam wear metal, but could be from other stuff as well. I know nothing of those 2.9's or what to expect.

3.0's generally have higher iron because of the all cast-iron construction. The heads are cast-iron on the 3.0. Aluminum heads generally show a different balance -- but it depends on the engine.

I'm thinking about a bypass filter. Are you using one now? What did you think of it when you ran it?

How many miles were on it when you ran it? Must have been pretty high if you were running 20W50?

 

Here's an interesting and informative synthetic oil life study of the Mobil 1 and Amsoil synthetic oils. Its a long read, but well worth the time.

http://neptune.spacebears.com/cars/s.../oil-life.html

 

Yes, I already mentioned that several posts above. However, yours is the direct link to the oil life study, thanks.

The most confusing thing is the wear metals levels they had. Seems like it's attributable to the vehicle, and just stopped being a problem by the time the Amsoil was put in. They didn't use the series 2000 oil I'm using, though. It's got a better additive package.

Still, my TBN was down to 1.8 when I took it out. That's really the bare minimum and most references say when you drop below 2.0 it's time to change the oil. That's the problem they had with the standard Amsoil -- for some reason TBN dropped too much.

In my first year on the Series 2000, I had a 2.56 terminal TBN -- much better than this years 1.82. Did the extra 2000 miles and month make a big difference? Did I just run it harder this year? Was the oil different?

It's hard to say. I'm thinking about doing 6 month tests this year to see what the situation looks like 1/2 way into the cycle.

 

That's because there is still crap in your oil. Changing oil on a regular basis helps that. :)

 

Actually, that does not appear to be the biggest problem, but it does contribute. Obviously though, the crap is not causing wear. All oil has crap in it after it's been used for even 1000 miles. No way around it.

Frequent oil changes, especially with standard oils, are a waste of money and provide less protection.

By extension, 500 mile oil changes would be even better, lol. 3000 miles is shrouded in antiquity and the marketing of oil. The more often you change, the more money the big boys in the oil industy make. Even with evidence that modern NON synthetics can go longer, there is resistance to changing.

However, the documented extra protection provided by synthetics is worth the money. And if you do extended drain, you actually save money. Works for me!

 

well i have decided to get mine analyzed when i do my 6 month oil filter change so look for the results sometime in september

 

Good! Mo' data, mo' data...

 

The silicone content on my analysis was 3,31,4 and 41 ppm on the four times I had the oil analyzed. It seems Valvoline sythetic does not use silicone in the additive package.

The copper content was not high but I would expect it would be from bearing wear. The Cu content was 18,21,20 and 11 ppm.

The 2.9L engine is all cast iron construction also which showed in the analysis as being the highest content of all the metals at 36,91,37 and 69 ppm. There is not much aluminum in the 2.9L engine and was always low in the anaysis. The last one the aluminum jumped up to 28 ppm possibly wear on the pistons at almost 190,000 miles.

Yes, I am using a by-pass oil filter on my 2002 Ranger also. I ran it on my 89 Ranger for almost its entire life with me, and I got almost 200,000 miles out of the engine without signs of any wear on the internals. The oil stayed clean longer and I am convinced it is worth the effort of installing it. Insalling a by-pass oil filter is the first mod I did to my 2002 Ranger.

As to the 20W-50 oil, I started using it in my 89 Ranger the first oil change when the truck had about 3,500 miles on it. I drive in hot deserts while towing quite often and I felt the higher viscosity would protect the engine better. That 2.9L engine had to work pretty hard to tow my race car. I do not use that grade of oil in my 2002 Ranger but I have started blending in a couple quarts of 10w-40 when I change oil. As the miles add on I will increase the ratio of 10W40 at oil change time.

 

Okay, that makes sense. I know guys in very hot conditions often up the viscosity accordingly.

Thanks for the numbers and the information on the bypass filter. It's now on my short list.

I'm thinking the bypass filter would have a salutory effect on the drain interval of almost any oil.