Oil Analysis on my Mazdaspeed3

N

nhluhr

Member
:
2008.5 Mazdaspeed3
I did my first oil change on my MS3 at exactly 3750 miles. I went to Pennzoil Platinum 5w30 with a MazdaGenuine oil filter and o-rings.

Anyway, during the oil drain, I took a sample in a Blackstone Labs kit and sent it off. Got it back today:

OilAnalysis_003750.gif


Some people had said DI and the MS3 in particular was susceptible to fuel contamination in the oil. I'm getting none of that. Aside from high Copper and Silicon, everything looks good. I Will update this thread once I do the next oilchange and get the results back on that.
 
Thanks for the post. I have a Blackstone kit here on my desk waiting for the next oil change. I will be changing from Mobil 1 5W-30 to PP 10W-30.
-enganear
 
enganear said:
Thanks for the post. I have a Blackstone kit here on my desk waiting for the next oil change. I will be changing from Mobil 1 5W-30 to PP 10W-30.
-enganear
Click to expand...

Do they ask what the original viscosity is? Seems noteworthy that the viscosity is down to 20 from the original 30. In the past I thought they'd attributed this to fuel dilution, but then my memory gets worse all the time. Maybe it just from normal shearing.
 
There is no proof that it WAS 30 to begin with. I wasn't at the factory when they filled it with whatever was in it. In fact, I was under the impression that it is typical for new cars to be filled with a lighter weight oil for break-in.
 
nhluhr said:
There is no proof that it WAS 30 to begin with. I wasn't at the factory when they filled it with whatever was in it. In fact, I was under the impression that it is typical for new cars to be filled with a lighter weight oil for break-in.
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Wow, how existential of you. I don't think they'd want to go any lighter on the viscosity with a turbo motor. In fact, I am under the impression that they use 30 weight since with the heat of the turbo or fuel dilution or whatever it ends up being 20 weight after awhile, which just happens to be what the N/A 2.3 uses.
 
I just did my first oil change too at 2170miles to Pennzoil Platinum 5w30.
Why do the comments say "..common finds in new engines such as your 4.2L."?
 
nhluhr said:
Do you have any extreme-low-mileage UOA to support that it is supposed to be 30W?
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If I did, would I rely on reason the way that you rely on existentialism? In any case, look at some more UOA's and you'll see that they almost always end up at around 20 weight even when the owners know from direct perception that the bottles of oil they put in claimed to have 30 weight oil in them.
 
I saw the 4.2L as well. Hopefully you got the right UOA and it wasn't a mixup.

Anyway, it seems the oil loses some viscosity in these engines from all the UOAs I've seen. Several theories exist as to why but many believe it's fuel dilution. Just don't go nuts on the intervals - keep them relatively short (3500-4000 miles or less)and the motor should stay healthy (just my opinion).
 
CWPspeed3 said:
I just did my first oil change too at 2170miles to Pennzoil Platinum 5w30.
Why do the comments say "..common finds in new engines such as your 4.2L."?
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I don't know why he wrote that. Probably a transient ischemic attack or something. I emailed them back asking to revisit the comments section and make sure there wasn't a mixup.

desperado-c said:
If I did, would I rely on reason the way that you rely on existentialism? In any case, look at some more UOA's and you'll see that they almost always end up at around 20 weight even when the owners know from direct perception that the bottles of oil they put in claimed to have 30 weight oil in them.
Click to expand...
I looked at several of the most recent threads on BITOG regarding the 2.3L DISI where the oil grade was known to be 0/5/10W30 and they ALL had higher cSt@100 than mine, which indicates either the factory fill breaks down too easily or it is a 20wt oil.

Betelgeuse said:
I saw the 4.2L as well. Hopefully you got the right UOA and it wasn't a mixup.

Anyway, it seems the oil loses some viscosity in these engines from all the UOAs I've seen. Several theories exist as to why but many believe it's fuel dilution. Just don't go nuts on the intervals - keep them relatively short (3500-4000 miles or less)and the motor should stay healthy (just my opinion).
Click to expand...
When have you seen UOA's for high performance engines that don't show viscosity reduction? Seems like every one of the UOAs I have seen from the WRX and STI world showed the same.
 
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nhluhr said:
When have you seen UOA's for high performance engines that don't show viscosity reduction? Seems like every one of the UOAs I have seen from the WRX and STI world showed the same.
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At what interval? I had one done at 3k miles (5w 30) and viscosity was still slightly below average. My last car made 220 hp n/a (not sure if you'd class it as high performance)and never had viscosity issues even at 5k + intervals (5w 20).

I'm not saying it is fuel dilution for sure but these cars do run very rich. Maybe it's a thing with turboed cars.
 
Betelgeuse said:
At what interval? I had one done at 3k miles (5w 30) and viscosity was still slightly below average. My last car made 220 hp n/a (not sure if you'd class it as high performance)and never had viscosity issues even at 5k + intervals (5w 20).

I'm not saying it is fuel dilution for sure but these cars do run very rich. Maybe it's a thing with turboed cars.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's not "high performance" it's the heat shear from running through the turbo. Nothing comparable in an N/A engine. Or maybe it fuel dilution from running under high PSI? Again, a turbo issue.
 
Betelgeuse said:
I'm not saying it is fuel dilution for sure but these cars do run very rich. Maybe it's a thing with turboed cars.
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It seems the 2008.5 does not run very rich at all. This dyno run shows the AFR for a stock vehicle and then the same vehicle with the AP. Note the AFR lines. The lower/richer line is the AP run. It seems Mazda has recalibrated the 2008.5 to utilize a lean-burn strategy. Christian said this one is running way leaner than the 2007 and 2008 MS3's he had previously tested but that once flashed with AP, it ran exactly where his mapping specified just like with those prior models.

2008-5_dyno_afr.jpg
 
If that's the case, that car is running dangerously lean for a turbocharged car. That looks like a decent N/A fuel curve, but not for FI. Since my gas mileage in the past few weeks of ownership has been less than stellar (about 25mpg with 80% highway driving), I'm not sure how much leaner the 08.5 is actually running. Maybe this was a factory freak.
 
Well thanks for posting that info on the 8.5. I have to agree with frequent though, that seems kinda lean for stock. Hopefully we'll see some other dynos to compare.
 
Direct injection allows a car to run significantly leaner than port injection... but that seems a little overboard. I too look forward to more dyno results.
 
Not that this is conclusive, but:

nick said:
I believe there may have been an error when compiling my report. The comments refer to the engine as being 4.2L when I have a 2.3L, as noted on the test-sheet header.

Can you have another look at my sample analysis and revisit the comments section just to make sure there was no mixup?

Also, regarding the comment that it is down to SAE20W in viscosity, I am not sure what the factory-fill for this engine is supposed to be. Do you have any data from samples taken extremely early in the 2.3L DISI-Turbo Mazda engine's life to shed light on this? Vehicles that would utilize this engine are: CX-7, Mazdaspeed3, Mazdaspeed6

Thanks,
Nick
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Nick: Thanks for the e-mail. I'm sorry about the engine error in the comments. Whoever did the report must have been looking at a different oil informaiotn slip when they typed the engine size in the comments. This does not change the data or the averages (they are correct for the 2.3L Turbo), but I will correct the comments and send you a new report. As far as the oil type is concerned, we have seen a lot of sample from this type of engine when it's new, and for the most past, the viscosity has been in the 20W range, so I suspect they are using 5W/20 at the factory.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

Sincerely,
Blackstone Labs
Click to expand...
 
I wonder why the factory would put in a 5w-20 but spec 5w-30. Without a response back from the lab I just would have thought after the oil gets used it starts to thin out and resemble a 20 weight, especially with the direct injected history of fuel dilution however minor it may be.
 
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