How does this UOA (used oil analysis) look for 2011 5.3L Sierra?

[Zane]

So, we recently had a UOA done on the site's 2011 GMC Sierra project truck. We have the 5.3L and aside from the factory oil fill, we used Pennzoil Platinum synthetic on the first oil change. We've taken the truck out to 0% on the oil life monitor for each of the first two changes. The truck currently has under 20k miles.

 

A few weeks ago we finally got around to performing the 2nd oil change. This time around, we filled up with Pennzoil Ultra Platinum synthetic. When draining the oil we grabbed a sample to send off for analysis.

 

Here it is:

 

Can anyone help me shed some light on how this UOA looks? Is it normal? I understand copper levels can be higher on these engines due to the oil cooler.

 

Thanks for the help

[grimmysnr]

I have had oil analysis done on multiple motors from my 2007 Chevy Impala, 2010 Sierra 2500HD 6.0l, and now my 2011 Yukon XL Denali 6.2l. Those copper and iron levels, despite the fact that the lab says they are moderate, are actually exceptionally high. My Yukon has about 78,000mi on the clock with about 34 copper and 140 iron. The iron can come from heavy towing or extremely long oil changes. Both of these elements were the case with my 6.2l so I changed out the oil and put in Amsoil. I will test again here in about 5k miles to see if my Iron levels return to normal. The 6.2l has DoD, oil cooler, and a metric eff ton of highway miles. My analysis says that because my copper is lower than the universal average of 44ppm then the Iron came from steel on steel parts. You analysis says the same in this regard about where the Iron comes from. If your project truck has seen very little towing, but slightly longer change intervals then this could be the issue. Then again I am no expert I just have been taking samples of the vehicles above for a while. I read the analysis and they tell me things are looking good. Being under 20k miles I am sure you are just seeing elevated wear metals from extended change interval. I will say that after looking at my other samples that while those are break in metals my levels werent nearly as high. I could send you some reports privately if you would like to see some different results. Just shoot me a PM with you email and I will forward a few reports your way.

[Cowpie]

Yeah, I have to say the copper level is pretty high. Source could be from oil cooler. This can be a common thing early on in a GM small block engine. I would follow their advice and track it. You need to do a sample each time you change now until you get a consistent pattern. The time on the oil has something to do with it also. You are going to have some elevated levels with 11,000 miles on oil. That is longer than what normal intervals usually are, so it is to be expected that iron would be a little higher than "normal".

 

Oil sampling is as much an art as it is a science. And you need multiple oil samples to track and see how things are doing. It is when one of the oil samples goes goofy, then you can be concerned. A one shot at an oil sample doesn't give a clear enough picture of what is going on inside. Things should settle down with another couple of oil changes. If they don't, then time to maybe take a look mechanically.

[Snow White]

check out bobistheoilguy... awesome forum with intense info about oil analysis'.... no offense to the people here... i mean one good website deserves another no?

[RyanbabZ71]

Copper level was high on my camaro had the oil tested just under 3k. They said it's normal for gm engines around brake in time

 

 

Ryan

[Cowpie]

Yeah, the BITOG site is a good one. I also read a couple of articles a while back that high copper is common in new GM engines till they break in. I would just watch it on the UOA's to make sure it does indeed settle down over time.

[Black02Silverado]

It is helpful to provide as much information to the lab as possible as in the full make, model, engine, oil brand and weight. That way they can compare it to other similar samples to use as a guide. Considering you left the oil in on the factory fill for so long and then the second fill, it doesn't surprise me to see the iron and copper that high. Although it is higher than it should be even for a fresh engine. A few more UOA's will help trend if there are any issues.

[Cowpie]

Having seen several oil samples from GM small blocks since I started taking a closer look at them, and high copper seems to be characteristic of GM engines. But unless there are elevated levels of other metals, it is really not an issue. GM uses a lot of copper in the internals of the engines and it will leach into the oil under high temps. True, copper is also associated with bearings, but that would only be a concern if higher levels of lead and tin were present. With the lube time of 11,000 miles per what was written on the report, the iron level is about right. In fact, it is pretty decent and the other wear metals are great. I didn't look at the miles on lube when I first looked at the report.