Oil analysis on my Ford after 9,000 miles

[newbury]

Numerous other discussions here but:
Ford F350 7.3L 141K + miles.

Main reason I'm pulling UOA is to establish a baseline. My Haynes manual says to change oil every 3,000 miles. My factory manual says every 5,000 miles. I changed over to Rotella T6 for better cold weather starts. With oil running about $25/gallon and my truck taking 4 gallons I'm tired of throwing away good oil, time and money.

Since I THOUGHT I was going to be changing it more often I installed a Fumota valve Fumoto Valve | Qwik Valve兌/url] which makes taking a sample real easy.

Anyways - here's what Blackstone had to say:

GEORGE: You still haven't changed the oil and that's just fine with us because wear metals are nice and low once again. Iron did creep up a little, but that's expected with added miles since that metal tracks with miles on the oil. 17 ppm is still very good though, especially after 9,140 miles. The viscosity was on the mark for 5W/40 and there's no fuel or coolant to mention. Low insolubles and silicon show good oil and air filtration. We're not sure if you have the best 7.3L we've seen all month, but it's a contender. Keep this oil in use another 2,000-3,000 miles.

That oil has been in for a year and primarily gets 900 mile interstate trips.

 

[Peacock]

That's fantastic!

Won't see that with any of the newer diesels that are choked up. The oil in them is black and full of soot in no time flat.

 

[newbury]

That's fantastic!

Won't see that with any of the newer diesels that are choked up. The oil in them is black and full of soot in no time flat.

IF I pour in clean oil and run the engine for a FEW minutes the oil turns black. There's a few quarts on the Ford which doesn't get drained easily.

 

[Peacock]

The HPOP and around the injector sleeves both tend to hold oil.

 

[crazyal]

I use to work for a guy doing non destructive testing. He got into it because he was stationed at the Plattsburgh Air Force base and was trained by Uncle Sam. They also trained him to do oil analysis. I watched him burn samples a few times, looks pretty easy. For what ever reason he never really pushed it as part of his business. Most people just don't know the valve that a proper analysis and few try to educate them. I thought about seeing if he would train me and then sell me that portion of the business but he just stopped doing it. I always thought that with a little leg work you could have a nice source of extra income. Simply going to the local auto mechanics and highway departments would give you plenty of work.

 

[CJONE]

In my 7.3 it was anywhere between 6k and 9k depending on what time of the year and how I am using it. I could go longer but I like nice clean oil in my diesels! CJ

 

[Loadstar]

7.3 will tell you when they need an oil change. You can hear it in the way it runs.

 

[RobertBrown]

Wow!
That's very interesting. Thanks for taking the time to post that.
Although it was 2 years ago,......
Please verify that the test results were from RotellaT6 5w-40 FULL SYNTHETIC, that was in service for over 1 year and 9000 miles?
Your truck had 141,000 miles, does it or did it use any oil? did you have to add any over the 9000 mile/1 year period?
Are you at all particular on the fuel you use? Or do you just get what's available? do you or did you use any additives?

 

[newbury]

Wow!
That's very interesting. Thanks for taking the time to post that.
Although it was 2 years ago,......
Please verify that the test results were from RotellaT6 5w-40 FULL SYNTHETIC, that was in service for over 1 year and 9000 miles?

Yup.

Your truck had 141,000 miles, does it or did it use any oil? did you have to add any over the 9000 mile/1 year period?

It started using oil after I put the Fumota valve in, it drips a bit and I put a pan under it, I added maybe 2 quarts before I had the oil changed.
I dropped a small tree on my back and it was too painful to be changing my oil versus having the Fulton dealer do it. when I asked how much it cost. So last summer at about 12 or 13,000 miles on that oil I had the dealer change in and they SAY they put in Mobil 1.

Are you at all particular on the fuel you use? Or do you just get what's available? do you or did you use any additives?

Not too picky on fuel. I do use Optilube.

 

[Copperhead]

Did Blackstone run the TBN, Oxidation and Nitration analysis on that test? You didn't mention it nor did they that you quoted. If they didn't, wear metals are only part of the story. That just says how the engine is doing in general. What of the oil itself? TBN handles acid buildup in the oil. You don't want TBN to go lower than roughly half of what it started out with. As TBN depletes, TAN (total acid number) rises. High Oxidation can lead to oil sludge building up. You really need to know that information as well to make a clear determination if the oil can be used on extended drains. You are probably ok, but there is no clear way to know without all the data. Blackstone tends to run only a very basic test. They charge for the additional testing. The better labs will include TBN and other tests as part of the package when doing diesel oils.