Blackstone Oil Analysis - thoughts?

[Happy]

Originally Posted by Bdc101

So how long do I have? That's what I mean. So what if there is lead, copper, and iron in the sample, do I need to park the car and rebuild my motor right now? In 50 miles? In 50,000 miles? In a year? In ten years? There's no actionable information here because there's no way to determine how much service life the engine has left.



This sample was taken 15 months ago, so clearly it had more than 15 months of life left.

It’s one of those.. Dang, “should have done it” things. If you spin a bearing it’s done. If you already have readings, and their showing levels, it’s time to service.

And, unfortunately the news doesn’t get better. If there is crank damage, it’s just more you’ll have to contend with.

I hope for all of my fellow M54 owner’s that have this issue, that it is a simple bearing replacement service. It wasn’t all that bad for me once it was addressed. And I highly suggest anyone that has a oil pan gasket repair on the horizon, to look into this matter.

[Bdc101]

But it's not time to service. I've put over 5k miles on the car in 15 months since that analysis, and much of that was towing my trailer up mountains in summer heat, spending 5-10 minutes straight at WOT in 3rd gear at 5,000 rpm trying to go up hills. I don't know how much harder you can stress a motor than that. You wouldn't even see that hard of use on a racetrack.



So that's why saying "it's time to rebuild the engine" based on these test results is, at best, unreasonably over-conservative, based on this empirical data. If you disagree, my question still stands, how many more years do I have before I need to rebuild?



At worst, it might be flat out wrong, and a red herring. I have had blackstone analyses give similar results in the past that never ended in disaster as well. I only run the tests to see how long I can run oil, to be honest.



But if the car spins a bearing I'll be the first to admit I was wrong.

[Happy]

Originally Posted by Bdc101

But it's not time to service. I've put over 5k miles on the car in 15 months since that analysis, and much of that was towing my trailer up mountains in summer heat, spending 5-10 minutes straight at WOT in 3rd gear at 5,000 rpm trying to go up hills. I don't know how much harder you can stress a motor than that. You wouldn't even see that hard of use on a racetrack.



So that's why saying "it's time to rebuild the engine" based on these test results is, at best, unreasonably over-conservative, based on this empirical data. If you disagree, my question still stands, how many more years do I have before I need to rebuild?



At worst, it might be flat out wrong, and a red herring. I have had blackstone analyses give similar results in the past that never ended in disaster as well. I only run the tests to see how long I can run oil, to be honest.



But if the car spins a bearing I'll be the first to admit I was wrong.

I did not have to rebuild my engine. I only had to replace the rod bearings.

How much life left on the bearings is an impossible question to answer without visually inspecting them.

As you can see by my analysis, the readings indicated lead, and copper. In my case I was already into the copper. When I was presented with a visual inspection, sure enough they were worn.

I was was not into the iron yet, thank God! And, I wasn’t worn to the point the crank needed polishing.

At the end of the day, I hope you do not spin a bearing. The M54 is an amazing engine, and when serviced properly can maintain a long life.

[crystalworks]

Originally Posted by Bdc101

So how long do I have? That's what I mean. So what if there is lead, copper, and iron in the sample, do I need to park the car and rebuild my motor right now? In 50 miles? In 50,000 miles? In a year? In ten years? There's no actionable information here because there's no way to determine how much service life the engine has left.

This sample was taken 15 months ago, so clearly it had more than 15 months of life left.

No one is going to be able to answer that without inspection.

Were it me, I'd add Lucas Stabilizer, switch oil brands, switch to 4 or 5k changes (especially since you tow) and I'd drive it until I heard knocking. Then replace engine as M54's are pretty cheap. But I do my own labor as well... so that's a factor. Your case is a little different also in that you are having the oil pan done soon. Might have the shop visually inspect a couple of the main bearings (one front, one back maybe?).

^But again, huge grain of salt there. I am no engine builder. Just someone with experience on BMW's and the M54. Shop I was at, not once did bearings on an M54. That's... 1000's of M54's in the 2 years I was there.

[E53Envyy]

A couple years back my bro sent in an oil analysis for an 04 S54 with 150k kms. Blackstone said the oil was brand new and everything was great and he could double his OCI. Later that year he spun a rod bearing at the track. Lots of factors in play here but the moral of the story is unless you've dropped the bottom end is a mystery.

Oh, some guy at uni told me about spinning a bearing on his 330 but I just assumed it was clapped out and neglected. He didn't say much else then he blew up his motor...

and 50sKid on youtube had some crispy (ok, not too bad) looking bearings when he did his rebuild.

Anyway, sorry op didn't help clear thins up. Hope you figure things out, Cheers