I duno wor.. Just want to test this engine oil out.

Out of curiosity, I weigh and compared the engine oil bottle with it's content.

Nissan 5W30 Fully Synthetic bought @ RM125; vs
Petronas Syntium 3000 SE 5W30 Fully Syntetic bought @ RM145.

The difference in weight is quite obvious with the Petronas oil weighs about 800gram - 1kg more. Could it be more additives are added into the Petronas oil?

800 - 1000 grams difference ? That's very surprising for a 4 Litre pack IMO .
SN/SM additive package in itself is very basic compared to ACEA A5B5 or A3B4 specs .
However this Petronas 5W30 carry no ACEA specs, though all its EU counterparts carries ACEA .

0.8-1.0 kg difference is very significant.
Even after taking into consideration the difference of oil density and actual volume, the biggest difference I could calculate is 0.3-0.4 kg. Another factor is bottle weight, but still can't make up the gap.

Hi.. Im just wondering anyone of you used mobil 1 5w50 before? Will it be too heavy for a 9years altis 2.0L?

Yes, I bought some online at promotion price for like RM79 for this fully synthetic .
My relative used it in a 20 yo(?) Corona and 7/8 yo Kancil .
For the same price, I would opt for a fully synthetic 0W30 or 5W40 instead .
If I had it at hand, I won't hesitate to use it in Altis .

What! You bought less than rm100 for a bottle for this brand? Where did you buy it? The cheapest I get after voucher discount also need 100++

hi guys, when is the most suitable time to take the EO sample for blotter test? during engine cold in morning? or after driving few hours?

After driving for hours while the engine oil is still hot or warm .But for most of us who don't travel outstation often , that's challenging and quite tough to sustain this practice .
I started off with 1.5 hour outstation travel habit but now settle at 25 - 30 minutes driving after work arriving home . Pick your 'sweet spot' , but generally do sampling after the longer hour traveling the better .
Yes, not first thing in the morning , or cold engine oil for more 'realistic' results .

Edit: Whatever time interval is selected , try to be consistent afterwards for realistic comparison of blotters .
Btw, I took blotter spot samples 10 - 20 minutes after engine shut down before it gets cold .

This post has been edited by zeng: May 13 2020, 11:03 AM

Thanks and appreciate for your explanation

Just wondering how to test results differ if we were to test after a short drive. Would the result shows better than the actual circumstances, or worse? If you get what i mean.

Blotter test engine oil condition after a short drive, of say 10 minutes and less, could likely demonstrates false positive in fuel dilution phenomenon in a perfectly normal and properly tuned engine giving rise to misinterpretation .

Besides, I'm not aware of occassions of engine gets destroyed (and require overhaul) typically after such short drive .

Having said that ,after each and every engine start, if one never drive and shut down engine beyond 10 minutes , then blotter test after short drive makes perfect sense ...... if that is the typical driving condition IMO .

This post has been edited by zeng: May 14 2020, 11:17 AM

"false positive in fuel dilution".

positive as in bad thing?
like positive in HIV testing, or demam denggi?

sorry have to be sure i understand.

Oops ............
By 'false positive in fuel dilution' I meant to say arriving at false and misleading conclusion/assessment/trouble shooting/solutions or whatever eventually not tackling or solving an issue or problem , if any exists .

Yeah, agree with your assessment on the 800 - 1000 gm difference in weight as given by Thrust .
Petronas data sheet shows an oil density of 0.8542 kg/Litre .
Nissan oil data not available . However I would speculate it as being lighter at around 0.840 kg/Litre .

This post has been edited by zeng: May 15 2020, 11:34 AM

Latest update from Mercedes as of today :
Shell Helix HX8 5W30 has still no MB 229.5 approval yet .

This post has been edited by zeng: May 15 2020, 02:15 PM

Hi bro Zeng, here is the sample taken after 12 hours.
Car 1: sample taken after 30 mins rested for 1.5 hour driving
Car 2: sample taken after 30 mins rested for 20 mins driving




This post has been edited by dopamine: May 16 2020, 08:48 AM

Hi dopamine ,

If you don't mind sharing here what are the two engine types and oil brand/grade types in question ?
Thanks for the 12 hour blotter spots , btw .

IME these blotter spot images would keep 'changing' and probably 'mature' after 48 hours or more . After 48 hours the changes in the images would likely not be obvious and drastic up to and beyond 96 or 120 hours .

It would be interesting if you could personally 'read' and 'study' the changing 'faces' of the images over 24/48/72/96 hour intervals (and share with readers here for educational purposes) .

My preliminary readings of these two 2400 and 3200 km usage oil blotter spots are that they are good with plenty of life to go on and it appears there is no signs of 'fuel dilution' in both samples as of now .

Oil sample for Car 2 is taken after 20 mins driving , would the 48 hour blotters shows fuel dilution (through observing transparent halo at the outermost zone) ? IDK .

Edit: Car 2 has only 2388 km after 11 months usage (June 2019) . Its 12 hour blotter as presented does not clearly shows fuel dilution problem yet , and I would speculate its 48 hour blotter spot image is likely to show transparent halo at its outermost zone should this Car 2 engine actually encounters fuel dilution phenomenon .

This post has been edited by zeng: May 16 2020, 10:55 AM

Thanks bro Zeng.
I will share again by tomorrow.
Car 1: CRV 2014 2.4l, using Mobil 1 5w30 ESP Fully Synthetic (green)
Car 2: Swift 2007 1.5l, using Petronas 5w30 Syntium 3000 FR Fully Synthetic

Both your cars calls for basic SN/SM specs .

However both your oils are fully synthetic and are of much more stringent specifications than basic SN/SM spec required by car OEMs .

1) Petronas 5W30 Syntium 3000 FR has stronger specifications in Ford 913 D approval :



Ford OEM typical recommended oil change interval for this oil is about 10,000 miles (or 16,000 km) in U.S.

2) From Post #1 here , Mobil 1 ESP 5W30 MB 229.52 VW 504 507 has even much stronger VW and MB approvals/specification than Ford .

In Europe , VW and MB OEMs recomended oil change intervals for this oil in appropriate modern VW/MB vehicles is 30,000 km (or 18,000 miles) .

Go figure .

This post has been edited by zeng: May 17 2020, 01:40 PM