BlackStone Lab Oil analisys // 240 ppm of Pb

[fminicooper]

Hi everybody,
I took an oil sample and sent to BlackStone. Surprised with the result on the lead component in the oil (240 ppm), where should be zero.

From what a research it could be three things:
1) Bearing Wear (I use the car on track day, bellow more about car mods)
2) Usage on leaded fuel or Octane Booster (discarded, I run Shell unleaded and/or E85, no octane booster at all)
3) I run a Setrab Oil Cooler, maybe there is PB or tin component in the welds of the radiator. I try to contact Setrab with no luck yet.

I will appreciated your more knowledge comments about this finding.

My car is a NA 2016 FRS, with 23000 miles, several track day (25 weekend, more or less).
Normally I change Oil every 3000 miles, using Pennzoil Ultra Platinum.
Running E85 only on track weekends.
Non Catted header.
200 TW tires and BBK, some typical mods on suspension.
I drive very aggressive on the track, as DD drive I am super mild with the car, no burn out, drifting, street racing, etc.

Not that I am expecting the engine last 200K, but I am surprised with the result, I will re do the lab analysis in 2000 miles.

Fernando

[gg1978]

I would be guessing it's your oil cooler, as that's a lot of lead!! Just for a quick reference, my 2016 NA BRZ at it's 35K and 41K OCI's gave a 0 ppm for Lead from Blackstone. Even my 2009 Cobalt 2.2 Ecotec at 189K has 0 ppm for Lead as well. Granted neither car has been to the track, and i am gentle on them until the coolant temp has reached its nominal value before going over 4K RPM...

[fminicooper]

Thanks for the replay. Hoping is the oil cooler. I am doing more digging on this and for sure I need to redo the lab analysis.

[DarkSunrise]

Unfortunately I don't think it's the oil cooler.

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/s2000-ra...1113203/page4/

On this thread, there's a guy with a 19-row Setrab who says his UOAs looked good.

Keep us updated - hope this is just an abnormality!

[gg1978]

I had forgotten that Blackstone had picked up 40 ppm of Manganese in my last 41K mile sample, which was from a bottle of octane booster that i had tried with some ethanol free 91 octane gasoline to see if it decricketed the FA20 (it did, just FYI), but not something i'm going to do on every tankful as the MMT in the octane booster might not be good for the catalytic converter..

Just goes to show that even on the small amount of blowby on that tankful of gas it accumulated enough ppm of manganese to show up on oil analysis.. 240 ppm of lead is a lot more, could you have used leaded racegas by accident at some point??

[NoHaveMSG]

I cut apart my Setrab 613 core after blowing up an engine. It is all aluminum.

[ls1ac]

Has any work been done on the engine? Many of the main bearings are made of babbitt that contains lead.

[fminicooper]

After discussing with the laboratory technician from Black Stone, she told me three things:
1 - They do not have cases that the oil cooler brings lead in car (seems they are some issues in maritime oil cooler). This is align with NoHaveMSG comment
2 - if wearing is the problem, it should be others metals.
3 - In engines running leaded gas (like airplanes) you will see PB reading in the thousands, not few hundreds.

Doing more investigation I concluded that I added leaded 110 race gas at track gas pump, back in feb 2020. Maybe less than 5 gallon.

So it is plausible that the 240 ppm comes form that only refilling.

I will redo the analysis in 2000 miles, with at least two track weekend. Pb should go down if my first conclusion are rights.

[86league]

Originally Posted by fminicooper

After discussing with the laboratory technician from Black Stone, she told me three things:
1 - They do not have cases that the oil cooler brings lead in car (seems they are some issues in maritime oil cooler). This is align with NoHaveMSG comment

Just another data point. I got my sample back after adding a setrab cooler and the lead reading was 0.