DrNeo's 2007 R1200RT Blackstone Laboratories Oil Analysis Reports

Another oil debate? Nah – just for inquisitive minds.

Below is a the latest reports from Blackstone Labs on how my 2007 R1200RT is doing with it's engine oil. The bike now has about 93,000 miles on it. As with most BMW's, it's overly maintained...

The first oil analysis I ran was at the end of the season last year, it was comprised of just riding around MN.

The second oil report included a couple long days (800+ miles) in the summer heat of Texas. I'm glad to see that my oil of choice (Mobil 1, 15w-50) seems to be holding up. I currently use the Mahle oil filters from BeemerBoneyard.

After these results, I probably won't do an oil analysis every oil change, but maybe every other. Even though I'm getting good results pushing the oil beyond the recommend 6k interval, I probably won't push it all the way to 10k, but I won't sweat it if I'm beyond 6k either.

As I do more, I'll keep posting them here.

I've only ever done one Blackstone lab test on my current Beemer at 12k (my first full interval since buying it at 6k). I just sent in another sample at 18k and that'll probably be the last one for a good long time assuming it doesn't have any findings. I'm going to start doing my cars to establish a baseline.

When I did the oil testing for the March 2013 ON, there were two things that I thought were useful for the health of oil. One was where the measured viscosity of the oil was relative the range of that viscosity scale. For example, the range for a 50W oil is 21.89 to 16.3 cSt @ 100C. In my mind, if the weight of the oil being tested is higher within that range, then that is a good oil. Viscosity is lost over time and if the oil is just barely within the range at say, 17 cSt, then it wouldn't take much loss of viscosity for it not to be a 50W oil anymore.

The other thing was the Total Base Number vs the Total Acid Number. Fresh out of the container, the base number is going to be as high as it will ever be. As time goes by, the acids begin to build up in the oil and the acid number increases. I believe that some large fleet operators target changing oil when the base number passes the acid the number, meaning that there's more acids in the oil than helpful base product.

Clearly, though, have all the good chemistry in the oil is great as well. The primary goal of my testing was targeted to older engines that require higher levels of ZDDP. But these other factors really can help to determine how the oil is breaking down and reaching a point that is not good for the engine.