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Same oil, 5,324 miles on the oil, 36,000 miles on the truck. Only significant differences:Quote:
If anyone wants to compare their brand........
Using Rotella 5-40 syn. sample at 24,603
5,566 miles on oil, AC filter.
Comments:
"TBN = 10.8 indicating plenty of active additive remaining in oil"
"Insolubles low at 0.1% showing good filtration and complete combustion"
All elements (20) in normal range except for these 2.
Copper was 18 ppm vs. 9 ppm avg
Lead 9 ppm vs. 4 ppm avg
Copper 7
Lead 3
Sneaks
Hopefully I'll be there next time.
Plan to run 5k-6k again, resample, get good results.
Then maybe push changes out a little further and see how additives are holding up.
Truck had 84,583 km (52,557 mi) when sample was taken during oil change.
The oil was Wal-Mart Tech 2000 (5$/gal) 15w40 with 13,360 km (8,301 mi) on it mostly highway loaded.
The analysis is divided in 3 sections.
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Contamination:
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Silicon: 6.6
Potassium: 8.6
Sodium: 0.0
Fuel: less than 2.0%
Glycol: 0.0%
Water: less than 0.1%
Soot: 0.1
Sulfuration: 56
Nitration: 55
Comments: There is no indication of any contamination in the component.
Wear:
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Iron: 20
Nickel: 0.0
Chromium: 0.7
Titanium: 0.1
Copper: 4.2
Aluminium: 4.2
Tin: 1.3
Lead: 3.5
Silver: 0.2
Comments: All component wear rates are normal.
Oil Condition:
==============
Boron: 2.5
Barium: 0.2
Calcium: 2635
Magnesium: 10
Molybdebum: 0.2
Sodium: 0.0
Phosphorus: 963
Sulfur: 3569
Zinc: 1269
Visc@100C(212F): 13.4
Oxidation: 55
Comments: The condition of the oil is acceptable for the time in service.
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Anything unusual? This was my longest interval, I normaly do the oil change @ 10,000 km (6213 mi). GM recomends between 8,500km and 12,000km depending on use.
Test come back very good.Mobil Delvac 1 oil at 6500 miles.TBN at 9.78 which someone will have to explain to me.Would like to go further on oil change as most of my miles are extended highway miles and the oil is rather spendy.
Saywhat,
TBN is short for “Total Base Number” and is an overall measure of how the additive pack is holding up - the higher the TBN the better. IIRC, a TBN of 12 is what most diesel oils start out with new. One purpose of the additive pack is to neutralize acid in the oil from the combustion process. As the additive pack is depleted the TBN goes down (a “base” neutralizes “acid”). The other parameters to watch are silicon and wear metals – lower is better. It’s also not uncommon for Si and Cu to be high during break-in.
There is a good primer on UOA (used oil analysis) at Bobistheoilguy.com
What is Oil Analysis
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Little off the path of the current forum questions but here goes. All my oil analysis show the viscosity @ 100 degreesC to be slightly low, yielding an abnormal status. Readings betweeen 11.55 to 11.94 for a 15w40 dino oil, the cut point being 12.50. All other specs are always in line w/ parameters. Question, is this a problem?? Would someone, perhaps Mr. George Morrison care to educate me and perhaps others of the ins and outs of minimum oil viscosity. thanks, bob......
We produced an article on engine oil analysis a few years ago. In this piece, myself, George Morrison and Dr. Lee Swanger contributed input. The following are excerpts from that article.
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[b]A leaking injector or a bad seal in the injection pump could result in raw fuel finding its way into the oil. An engine oil analysis will detect this problem. Any fuel dilution above 1 (as reported on the oil analysis sheet) with a corresponding decrease in oil viscosity below that of 15W (for a 15W-40 oil) is cause for concern.
Another reason for decreasing oil viscosity is "shear-down", according to George Morrison, which indicates the oil is ready for a change. You might consider sending in a sample of NEW OIL for a baseline analysis. Then if viscosity at 100
Thanks More Power, fuel dilution is very low, as well as all other readings are well within normal ranges. The only consistent abnormal reading is viscosity which runs slightly low each test. Maybe your suggestion to sample an unused potion of oil to establish a base line would help. However, I believe the brand and weight of oil is taken into account when testing a used sample, brand and weight is part of the requested info sent w/ each sample. My thought is that the oil is OK to go for longer service despite a slightly low viscosity. bob........
Bob,
For more info and comparisons you could try BobIsTheOilGuy... They have three forums dedicated to Oil Analysis.
Oil Analysis Reports
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Thanks jbplock. Viewed the oil site interesting. thanks again bob.....
At 25000 miles I had my oil (Amsoil 15W 30 Heavy Duty Diesel and Marine)analized to check how things were working inside the motor. I was suprised to see elevated levels of Silicon at 23 ppm, copper at 33ppm and lead at 23 ppm. In the notes on the report it said the silicon was from contamination causing abrasive wear. It said the copper and lead were from bearing / bushing wear. To my relief there was no water or fuel (injectors) in the oil and everything else was fine. I guess my question is should I be alarmed by these numbers or is this just normal wear and tear. This was my first engine oil analysis so I have no frame of reference to let me know if these numbers are a potential problem or normal. I am coming up on 35000 miles (next oil change) and I am going to have another oil analysis done before my 3 year / 36000 mile warranty is up. Anyone have similar results? I would appreciate any advice from the gear heads who frequent the Diesel Page.subject. :rolleyes:
jmcgmc03,
How many many miles were on the oil sample that was taken at 25K?
i ran the amsoil in a 350 vortex before my diesel, folled the directions to a tee, and sent oil samples every oilchange(40000 km) but they always came back high silicon, after 3 oil changes i went back to stock oil changes and my high silicon problem was gone, i was on gravel lots and did run their air filter as well, but by that time i was using a liter every two weeks, motor was shot :mad:
I had about 10000 miles on the oil when I sent it in to have it looked at. I am also using the Amsoil oiled air breather. Could this be where I am getting the silicon infilyration from?? :rolleyes:
Don't know why, but I had higher silicon readings using amsoil as well. I changed to rotella syn. 5w40 and the readings dropped to lower than anything I had using amsoil.
I know there are variables in miles on oil etc., but below are the readings I have had on Si
factory oil--first change 1500 miles 66ppm
amsoil 15w40 27,14,18,13 ppm
amsoil 5w30 15, 27,34 ppm
rotella syn 5w40 2,3,10 ppm.
same lab, same air filter. most readings taken around 7500-10000 miles. The 66 was the first sample on the truck
Copper and lead are also lower with the rotella. Last two readings were 12 and 13 on lead and 21 and 21 on the copper. I did have two readings with the amsoil at 10 and 7ppm on lead and 13,11 on cu. But all the other readings were much higher on cu and 30-40's on lead.
I'm not knocking amsoil, as I have been a dealer and used it for over 25 years. But the rotella seems to better in my truck and is cheaper.
KenZ:
Thanks for the info on the Rotella synthetic. As I previously stated I am going to have the oil tested again in about a month and if the readings for the metals and silicon go up, I am going to switch to a different synthetic. I also was wondering if I could have got the high silicon reading by contaminating the sample while I getting it, that skid plate is a poor design and makes it difficult to get a clean sample. I noticed at the end of your email you had a Fumoto valve for a drain. Does it work good and when can I buy one? Thanks again for the heads up on the oil.
JMC ;)
Fumoto works great, especially for getting a sample. I believe several diesel page advertisers sell them.
DO any of these numbers look out of line? I've used delvac 15-40, switched to Delvac 1 at my last oil change. 2001 D/A now has 54000 miles, 5500 miles on oil when I sent it in.I was wondering how the synthetic was holding up. I've read from George M. about silicon etc. wow,, there is a lot to know about this but I find it very interesting. Thanks for any replies.. results..
iron 15
chromium 1
lead 3
copper 4
tin 0
aluminum 3
nickel 0
silver 0
silicon 11
boron 60
sodium 0
magnesium 448
calcium 2079
barium 0
phosphorus 1260
zinc 1560
molybdenum 7
titanium 0
vanadium 0
potasium 0
fuel <1
vis@ 100c 13.69
water 0
glycol NEG
F-SOOT <.1
Your oil analysis looks very good. You can read more about engine oil analysis in a member area article we produced a few years ago.
Generally, single digit silicon levels are most desirable, but realistically, low teens are OK for a 5K oil drain interval. The effectiveness of the air filter in trapping dirt is the primary determining factor in the silicon level.
Jim
Thanks for the reply, very good information,, I've never used synthetics in my D/A and I don't want to run it too far but I don't want to throw away good oil either.. I would keep using regular Delvac, but I like the way the synthetic works in the cold winters here.. Thanks again...