Oil analysis info seems to be scattered, so lets try to concentrate it here. I'll start; here's the Blackstone report (attached) for my 2017 diesel after the first 5142 miles on the factory fill oil. Mixed city/highway with a couple hours of light towing. I'm in S. FL.
Diesel oil analysis thread
MattFL
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Just FYI.....those high wear metals whcih they flagged was a result of dust getting around (not through) a AFE Dry air filter. It just did not seal around the edges. Put the factory back in and that greatly dropped those. But yes.....the T6 is good stuff, cheap and very easy to find.
jjw
ND
jjw
ND
Just got my Blackstone report back for the 100k UOA that included the road trip towing our travel trailer from IL to OR and back. I didn't tell them that this OCI included a lot of towing but they did take note of some elevated iron and wondered if I had been towing so good on them.
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Nice to see an unsolicited comment from them like this. I sent mine in from my sept. run however I did tell them it was 98% towing.
Question, how long did it take them to get the results back from the time you sent out the sample?
The sample was delivered to them on 11/9 and I just got the results today, 18 days later. I'd been tracking its progress via their website and there wasn't really much movement on it until last Friday or so.
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Thanks
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Well at least they sent me an email last night saying they have my sample. They said they're backed up and will get to it within the next 10 days. I was hoping the sample wasn't lost because that was the 4500+ mile towing sample which I'm real curious to see the results.
Huh, that is weird. Did you just recently switch to 5w40/Rotella T6? I ask because the viscosities of your past tests were lower than what 5w40 should be at temp and lower than your latest test. Really strange that your last test had such high iron. Any oil or other changes from what you'd been using or doing before?
The last 4 oil changes were T6. The Titanium indicated prior to that was from the Castrol. The only other change in the past year that passes through the engine is a switch from Stanadyne to Hotshot Extreme as a fuel additive. I have also noticed a decrease in mileage between Regens over the last year, but I don't keep good track of that. It does show up as a slight decrease in MPG but that could also be partly due to a change in tires.
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Your oil viscosities are low. A 5w40 should be > 12.5 cSt.
Solvent based fuel additives like Stanadyne performance formula and hotshot extreme can lower your oil viscosity and also increase cylinder wear.
Try switching to a non solvent based formula and your iron wear should decrease.
High silicon from poor air filtration can also cause elevated iron. Get an analysis that measures silicon and check your air filter.
Solvent based fuel additives like Stanadyne performance formula and hotshot extreme can lower your oil viscosity and also increase cylinder wear.
Try switching to a non solvent based formula and your iron wear should decrease.
High silicon from poor air filtration can also cause elevated iron. Get an analysis that measures silicon and check your air filter.
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Sorry I missed that. Silicon looks good, not an air filtration issue with the high iron.
Solvent based additives are harsh and can contribute to higher engine wear and oil thinning. SLUG’s wear rate is consistently 13+ ppm iron/thousand miles.
Naptha, toluene, or other trade secret solvents in some diesel fuel additives should be avoided UNLESS you absolutely need to use a winter formula to lower fuel gel point (solvents do this) and only during the 3-4 months it’s necessary. After it warms up, switch to a non-solvent based summer formula additive for best protection.
Read the product SDS to determine what solvents are in it and the % concentration. Do your research.
The non-solvent formulas will still contain some specialty solvents like xylene for cleaning, however the overall concentration will be low. They will not thin your engine oil or increase iron wear rate.
I’ve been using a summer formula non-solvent based additive for the entire life of my 2.8, at every fill up. My oil stays in grade and my wear rate is consistently ~3.5ppm iron/thousand miles. My engine and tuning is stock. I also change my oil every 8-10k miles.
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Double post
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They don't winterize diesel where I live, but my truck is garaged and it rarely gets near freezing in there. I started with XPD, but have used Optilube's "Summer+" year round for the last 60K miles or so. I like that product it is just lube, cleaning and cetane and nothing else. Oil reports look great, it runs really well, no complaints!
Only the last two tests where on T6 5W40. Prior to that it was all 5W30 which had lower viscosity and lower iron.
It would be interesting to see if eliminating the additive will make a change but I'm skeptical to drawing such a conclusion when there are so many other variables. However, I am running out of the Hot Shot Extreme and will make a change to something cheaper after the next oil change as I just passed 95K miles. I don't think I have ever used Stanadyne Performance Formula if that is what you are implying but I haven't used Amalgamated products before either. To throw a monkey wrench into the discussion, I had the previous oil sample (6/9/23) also tested by Oil Analyzers. Notice the high iron but the oil viscosity above 12.5 cSt doesn't suggest dilution. For some reason they did not update the oil as being T6 5W40 hence the comments on mixing. Nowadays I tend to look more at trends than any single test result but the iron has risen.
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Nice to see another oil analysis from a different lab for comparison. Do you use a pump to pull your samples? In addition to viscosity, there are significant differences in your iron readings from both labs which is outside the range of normal calibration differences.
Does the elevated iron align with your switch to hotshot extreme?
What Stanadyne additive were you using before?
Does the elevated iron align with your switch to hotshot extreme?
What Stanadyne additive were you using before?
I sample hot from first 1/3 of pan drain splitting the flow over the sample bottles held together. A bit messy but the best I will do. The elevated iron aligns with the change in engine oil but I don't test every oil change. The switch to Hotshots Extreme occurred around that time but I don't keep accurate records on that. I was using Stanadyne Lubricity formula prior. It would be interesting if anyone else tested while using Hot Shots Diesel Extreme or any other solvent based additive that would support the theory?
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I read about the negative effects of solvent based additives on the Bobistheoilguy.com forum. It was a comment from a consultant regarding high wear metals on a report.
Each time you try a new product or oil it’s an experiment. The result may be positive, negative or inconclusive. If you want to see if the solvents are a contributor, stop using it run the fuel level down and change the oil. Try a different non-solvent formula or none at all then retest.
Not many members on here do oil analysis.
oil sample pump: Amazon.com
A long read but helpful to understand how to interpret the numbers and, more specifically, what can and cannot be inferred from the results.
Used Oil Analysis: How to decide what is normal - Bob is the Oil Guy
tl;dr - UOA is about engine wear and not oil performance. The assumption that UOA can be used to determine one oil is better than another is false when the results for both are within 1 standard deviation. The only thing that can be determined is that the results for both are normal and small differences between samples isn't enough to call one "better" or "worse." Additionally, this also references an SAE paper on the effects of OCI vs wear rates. I've said multiple times that short/early oil changes increase wear rates because of how the additives and detergents work and some folks have had a hard time believing this. Well...
Used Oil Analysis: How to decide what is normal - Bob is the Oil Guy
tl;dr - UOA is about engine wear and not oil performance. The assumption that UOA can be used to determine one oil is better than another is false when the results for both are within 1 standard deviation. The only thing that can be determined is that the results for both are normal and small differences between samples isn't enough to call one "better" or "worse." Additionally, this also references an SAE paper on the effects of OCI vs wear rates. I've said multiple times that short/early oil changes increase wear rates because of how the additives and detergents work and some folks have had a hard time believing this. Well...
ref #1 - The Effect of Oil Drain Interval on Valvetrain Friction and Wear (sae.org)
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Don't believe I have the results around anymore but pulled UOA on dealer supplied GM dexos1 (prepackaged quarts) oil at 5k miles, additive pack was essentially used up and blackstone didn't recommend running it to the 7,500+ mile factory drain interval. Next oil change was at 7,700 miles, Amsoil and additive and wear metal #s improved. 3rd OCI was ~7,700 miles running Penzoil Platinum, comparable #s to AO. All three were same weight, same filter PN.
Oil isn't oil, all additive packages aren't created equally.
I tell everyone if you're going to run extended drain intervals you should pull some UOAs.
Years back a coworker ran 10k intervals on his old 12V cummins. Pulled UOA at 7500, always good, and went to 10K for even #s.
Just my anecdotal "evidence".
Oil isn't oil, all additive packages aren't created equally.
I tell everyone if you're going to run extended drain intervals you should pull some UOAs.
Years back a coworker ran 10k intervals on his old 12V cummins. Pulled UOA at 7500, always good, and went to 10K for even #s.
Just my anecdotal "evidence".
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