🔴💊 Engine Oil Red Pill Thread: Only Post If You Have UOA - Official Honda Civic Type R K20C1 Engine Oil Analysis

[Xmetal]

The only improvement I would recommend is changing it after 2-3 track days 2000-3000 miles to reduce Iron and Aluminum ppm. Your Iron is about 3x higher than some of our data with shorter change intervals. With also factoring change intervals. I believe Iron is the main bearing wear indicator. Correct me if I’m wrong. Even though sheer stability is excellent, viscosity is excellent, it seems still contamination is the bigger problem as we saw with even the one other gentleman running Motul 0w-20 with longer changer intervals. Still over all excellent data and results for the 5-6 track days!

@J_D's change interval is fine as per Blackstone's suggestion. J_D's change interval is 3x of yours, of course iron would also be 3x. Let's say if J_D does an oil change ever 2000 miles and have 3ppm of iron and each oil change would show the same 3ppm of iron. If he/she does 3 oil changes, it's still comes out to 9ppm total. Contamination is not an issue with this analysis.

Bearings are either made of lead/copper (with steel backing) or tin/aluminum (with steel backing). The wear materials are either lead/copper or tin/aluminum, so no iron should be coming from the bearings.

 

[johnloov]

Thanks for the correction. Where does the Iron come from?

 

[Xmetal]

Thanks for the correction. Where does the Iron come from?

Iron is likely from the cast iron cylinder sleeves? I don't know. A lot of items in the valvetrain and camshafts contain iron and steel alloys, so it's hard to say.

 

[johnloov]

 

[johnloov]

Quick update, I'm very surprised, but it seems this New Formula Pennzoil Ultra Platinum 0W-20 is absolute trash since they changed the base stock away from gas.

With only 1,700 miles on the oil and two track days, some things I noticed, was the oil was much more brown on the dipstick than all my other oil changes, and somehow my car burned about 1/4 of a quart of it. This has never happened before. I could have also been 2 100-110F days on track, but I did use a water mister, which kept my water temps lower than before. This is just my first observations, and sending it to the lab. These are just observations, and not precise - Also reading my stock honda Dipstick is so difficult. Anyone have a solution on this? I heard we should scruff up the orange dipstick with sand paper a bit to allow it to be easier to read.

I'm changing it early, and trying now the Castrol Edge 5w/30 Extended performance.

Curious has anyone else after 2-3 track days and 2k miles seen their car burn oil?

 

[cryptolime]

I've been using Valvoline Restore and Protect the past five oil change intervals and it's been consistent. I'd try that instead of the Pennzoil. I heard Valvoline EP is very good too, but haven't used yet. Same with Castrol Edge.

 

[absolude]

Quick update, I'm very surprised, but it seems this New Formula Pennzoil Ultra Platinum 0W-20 is absolute trash since they changed the base stock away from gas.

With only 1,700 miles on the oil and two track days, some things I noticed, was the oil was much more brown on the dipstick than all my other oil changes, and somehow my car burned about 1/4 of a quart of it. This has never happened before. I could have also been 2 100-110F days on track, but I did use a water mister, which kept my water temps lower than before. This is just my first observations, and sending it to the lab. These are just observations, and not precise - Also reading my stock honda Dipstick is so difficult. Anyone have a solution on this? I heard we should scruff up the orange dipstick with sand paper a bit to allow it to be easier to read.

I'm changing it early, and trying now the Castrol Edge 5w/30 Extended performance.

Curious has anyone else after 2-3 track days and 2k miles seen their car burn oil?

Quick update, I'm very surprised, but it seems this New Formula Pennzoil Ultra Platinum 0W-20 is absolute trash since they changed the base stock away from gas.

With only 1,700 miles on the oil and two track days, some things I noticed, was the oil was much more brown on the dipstick than all my other oil changes, and somehow my car burned about 1/4 of a quart of it. This has never happened before. I could have also been 2 100-110F days on track, but I did use a water mister, which kept my water temps lower than before. This is just my first observations, and sending it to the lab. These are just observations, and not precise - Also reading my stock honda Dipstick is so difficult. Anyone have a solution on this? I heard we should scruff up the orange dipstick with sand paper a bit to allow it to be easier to read.

I'm changing it early, and trying now the Castrol Edge 5w/30 Extended performance.

Curious has anyone else after 2-3 track days and 2k miles seen their car burn oil?

Thank you for the update! Hope the UOA won't be bad. I wonder if the new formula retains all certifications???

I feel your pain regarding the dipstick. I'm at 2000 miles on the factory fill and can only see that it's over filed. By how much it's anyone's guess.

At least my Si used to darken the oil pretty fast but the refined K20 takes a lot longer.

I modified the dipstick on the Si by cutting the recessed part between the dots on one side. It was hard to do and hardly more visible.

For this car I'm just going to etch some horizontal lines between the dots.

 

[absolude]

I've been using Valvoline Restore and Protect the past five oil change intervals and it's been consistent. I'd try that instead of the Pennzoil. I heard Valvoline EP is very good too, but haven't used yet. Same with Castrol Edge.

No love for Mobil?

 

[johnloov]

Mobile 1 EP had amazing results. Check the Data in this thread of a user running 0W-20.

 

[absolude]

Mobile 1 EP had amazing results. Check the Data in this thread of a user running 0W-20.

I feel better now. Bought Mobil 1 EP for first oil change a few days ago.

 

[cryptolime]

No love for Mobil?

I used Mobil 1 EP for four oil changes. No issues but Valvoline runs quieter and wanted to use VRP for it's ring cleaning effect. I also really liked HPL's oil but it's very expensive.

 

[J_D]

I feel better now. Bought Mobil 1 EP for first oil change a few days ago.

Buddy I SENT that oil on 29x track sessions.

I used Mobil 1 EP for four oil changes. No issues but Valvoline runs quieter and wanted to use VRP for it's ring cleaning effect. I also really liked HPL's oil but it's very expensive.

Assuming you've been doing consistent oil change since new with a good oil (any synthetic 0W20), there should be nothing for the VRP to clean. Its more useful for used cars with unknown history.

 

[absolude]

I used Mobil 1 EP for four oil changes. No issues but Valvoline runs quieter and wanted to use VRP for it's ring cleaning effect. I also really liked HPL's oil but it's very expensive.

I'll try it next oil change. Thank you for the valuable input.

 

[johnloov]

Quick update on Castrol Edge 5w30 extended during 20 min session racing at COTA.

Castrol edge extended is a thinner 5w30 energy conservation spec. I did notice, ticking in engine was reduced.

Today was a much cooler day on COTA, and will need to compare engine temps, and tomorrow should be more apples to apples comparison with other days I have raced cota. So far, engine temps were maybe a few degrees higher, but it did recover very fast after a 20 min session. I sent off a virgin sample of the oil and will look into the data more. But it seems bumping to a thinner 5w30 vs upper thicker side of the spectrum 5w30 or 5w40 maybe the way to go. Don’t have anything conclusive yet. Just observations.

 

[pellper]

Posting for additional data. 1st oil change at 4,200 miles on my bone stock 2025 FL5. Switched over to 5W-30 Formula R and added a PRL HVI w/ AWE Dryflow filter. Plan to do another fluid change/analysis around 8,000 miles or so.

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