Metal content in my oil, what does it mean?

[Hoffbrohaus]

I sent my oil out to Blackstone labs and they said my Iron, Aluminum and Copper content in the oil might be an issue since they are higher than average.
Aluminum was 10ppm vs 4ppm Avg
Iron: 29ppm vs 13ppm avg
Copper: 21ppm vs 7ppm avg.

They say in their summary this can be due to "excess wear". But what does this mean? My valves aren't set right? rings and bearing problems?

[Zambuzan]

Ask them.

[roguetoaster]

Ask them or spend hours reading BitOG forums.

Remember, Blackstone compares your numbers to universal averages, and they are really set up to do multiple oil analysis over time to compare changes, so these numbers might not be "bad."

[Hoffbrohaus]

Well I could spend hours reading, got some time now. And you are right about Blackstone, they mentioned in the analysis to get a few more samples to them before diagnosing anything. So I'll run another 3k miles and send that in. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

[Andre3127]

How many miles on the m20? I've torn apart many m20's where the copper of the bearings was shown, and that's really the only part of the engine where copper would come from.

Doen't mean your bottom end is trash, but it's something to look for. Maybe if you decide to do oil pan gaskets eventually, pop off a main bearing cap (if you have the capability to do so) and check the bearing conditions. If not, I wouldn't worry about it.

[dnguyen1963]

What type of oil do you use? Remember that these values are in ppm.