mileage

Hi all,

Wanted to get everyone's thoughts on this report for my 07CS. I've exclusively used Motul 300V Competition 5W-40 for all the oil changes and change at a fairly frequent interval (<2k mi). Most recent values are after spirited street usage and a couple auto-x events.
Aluminum increased but no other wear metals. Any thoughts on this or cause for concern? The only difference between the last oil change in April vs September was the install of a Softronics ECU tune. I'm a little concerned it is contributing to excess wear somehow?

Thanks

The Duke

Aluminum is typically the result of piston and bore wear.

I have been using SPEEDiagnostix for my UOA and the results between the two labs may not be directly comparable. What I don't see in your results is anything like an acceptable range of wear. I will hazard a guess that the difference between 5 and 2 PPM is within an acceptable range and not something to get too upset about.

In your above, you seem to be saying that the most recent values are after you did a couple of auto-x events? Have you auto-x'ed with this car before? More aggressive use will result in an elevated level of engine wear.

I would recommend that you don't worry too much and continue to test with each oil change to see how greatly the results vary, if at all.

mileage

Thanks for the feedback. The car has been auto-x before, in fact all the previous samples apart from the very first all have auto-x or track day use. However admittedly I have been higher in the rev range more frequently after the tune/headers.
Blackstone did mention something along the lines of what you are saying regarding piston wear.

I was under the impression that piston wear usually shows up as elevated iron first due to the fact that the piston skirts are iron coated. And bore wear would show as increased aluminum and silicone due to the alusil lining of the bores. At least that is what LN Engineering said on one of the threads here. Silicone levels have been stable for the past few changes (anti foaming additive) I suppose I have no choice but to continue to trend future samples!

Schwinn

I agree with @The Duke - nothing to worry about here. I have always seen variance in the data, and yours isn't unusual. I would be more concerned if it jumped into the double-digits, but you're fine IMO as well.

You do have an S, so bore-scoring is always a concern... but this doesn't indicate that yet. Certainly keep up with the UOAs and if anything starts creeping up, you'll see it. Note also that these are PPM values... parts per million. In other words, VERY sensitive readings, so things like scoring would generate MUCH larger values. When my friend's head gasket started to leak, we saw numbers in the hundreds. I'm not saying ignore it until then, but changes of 10 or so would start to concern me, but could just be early indications of issues, so nothing catastrophic YET.