[E92William]

I think the numbers are pretty good being 6k miles I don't rag on my car too much though I'm always speeding and revving over 3k.

Valvoline maxlife 5w30 high mileage synthetic.

Maybe some silicon or bs got in with the 3IM swap.

Thoughts? Good numbers compared to other N52s?

[Biginboca]

That’s a solid report looks to me like your engine is doing great! Silicon in my experience is from a poor(or no) air filter or intake leaks, in other words... dirt getting into the engine. If you are using an aftermarket air filter maybe go back to oem or change brands. If you are not getting lean codes I doubt you have an intake leak. It is possible like you said just some dirt snuck in when you did the intake swap in which case I would think another test on your next change would show back to normal silicon.

[Biginboca]

FYI here’s an example from a motor that lives a hard life, mine lol. This engine is brought to 7500 rpms daily. It’s on the freeway cruising at 4K rpms less than a mile after startup minimum 5 days a week. It typically isn’t to temp until I’m exiting about 5 miles later. These engines are very strong and can take abuse! I’m not saying you should abuse it but my feeling is take out replacements are cheap (<$1k) and readily available, so I’m going to enjoy my driving every day and so far this engine has been dead reliable for the 50k miles of this usage I’ve had it.

The first test I had constant lean codes and thus the high silicon was from leaks around the n54 manifold. That was fixed and you can see the 2 tests since have shown normal silicon.

[scanspeak]

Any idea where the titanium is coming from?

[Biginboca]

Originally Posted by scanspeak

Any idea where the titanium is coming from?

Some oils (like Castrol) use it as an additive...

[E92William]

I'm slowly getting over the fact that these cars aren't some clunker that can't be abused lol but it's hard to get rid of "mechanical sympathy" built over the years. I just tell myself I'm keeping the carbon away these days. Your report looks great for how you drive it, I think most of the wear is probably from getting on the highway with a relatively cold engine, which I have to do aswell though it gets up to temp on the way to work.

Titanium as far as I'm concerned is an anti wear addictive that's on par with moly and zddp so not a bad thing to see. Unless there's some odd part inside the engine which is titanium which I highly doubt.

My kn filter was very dirty which I cleaned already a few hundred miles into this oil change so maybe I'll see a drop in silicon

[hassmaschine]

Silicone can also be from the cylinder walls, that's how the N52 block is formulated and is how the rings seal.

I'd consider a 0W40. As far as engine wear, there's no reason to go thinner unless you live in a really cold climate

[E92William]

I didn't know silicone could be from that, i suppose it's from the silicone that's mixed with the aluminum for casting which now that I remember is also done for some pistons.

I used 0w40 Castrol before but seems it would drain out of the lifters after extended sitting and would tick a bit, only did it once nearing the end of the oil change interval but still, I changed it out for this Valvoline 5w30 which had nice specs and testing data and hasn't done it once. I might go thicker next oil change now knowing it did well with this thinner viscosity on an actual oil analysis.