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Blackstone Report After Oil By-Pass Filter Install
When I did my oil by-pass filter install, I have kept an eye on the oil health by visual indications and also through analysis. I have been running my oil (Motorcraft 15W-40) for a little over 7,000 miles. I decided to pull a sample and see what the lab techs had to say.
As you will see, I pulled a sample at 3,000 miles and sent it in. I also swapped out the by-pass filter at this time. I figured it was premature, but I would rather be safe at this point.
I recently just sampled it again with 7,062 miles on the oil. I have added about 3 quarts (LPOP & HPOP swap lost a bit of oil). Overall I am pretty happy with the results and I know the By-Pass Filter Installation I did is helping keep the oil cleaner and just better for the engine.
Spingerpop has similar reports on his website for his install. It just goes to show that an ounce of preventative maintenance is worth a pound happy driving!
Crud.... More money and more work to do. This will preven bigger money and work, so it's worth it.
Well with the cost of oil, extended intervals make up for the cost incurred. I did mine fairly cheap by building up a kit. I used to change my oil every 3k, now I am basically tripling the life of the oil and saving money.
Well with the cost of oil, extended intervals make up for the cost incurred. I did mine fairly cheap by building up a kit. I used to change my oil every 3k, now I am basically tripling the life of the oil and saving money.
Yup, Ken, that report could have just as easily been one from mine.
And, you have a LOT more information about the health of the engine than someone who simply dumps the oil every 3000!
Your oil looks good, Ken. You can;t take Blackstone's comment about a 2ppm increase in iron very seriously, though. Regardless of the "Universal Average" they report of 17, Navistar themselves have reported that anything under 100 ppm is "good". This only means that in all practical terms, your 2 ppm "increase" is more than likely a result of slight sampling variation or testing variation because of the smallness of the "increase".
Even if you see this trend continue up into the 25 ppm range over the life of your oil, you are still well within the wide margin of acceptable iron values by the OEM. Just as important, if not more-so, is whether or not your additives are still in play and if your viscosity is holding up. In your case, your additives seem to be doing well, but your viscosity is already in the upper range of a 30w oil which is a sign of some oil shearing having already taken place. Without having an analysis to see where the brand new oil is starting from, you can't say just how much shearing has taken place. Regardless, it seems to be holding fairly steady where it is, so the shear you're seeing is probably a result of some initial "break down" in the viscosity modifier and the base oil is still holding up.
Just for the record, a brand new 40w oil should run in the 14.3-17.2 range for cSt @ 100°C.
__________________ Pete (F250_) -- PAA#19 '02 F250 PSD, CC, SB, XLT, 2WD: 231K miles
Basic, low cost, not really performance enhancing mods. '03 Excursion PSD, 2WD, 165K miles - Stock. http://guzzle.rbmicro.com/7pt3/Mods.html
Your oil looks good, Ken. You can;t take Blackstone's comment about a 2ppm increase in iron very seriously, though. Regardless of the "Universal Average" they report of 17, Navistar themselves have reported that anything under 100 ppm is "good". This only means that in all practical terms, your 2 ppm "increase" is more than likely a result of slight sampling variation or testing variation because of the smallness of the "increase".
Even if you see this trend continue up into the 25 ppm range over the life of your oil, you are still well within the wide margin of acceptable iron values by the OEM. Just as important, if not more-so, is whether or not your additives are still in play and if your viscosity is holding up. In your case, your additives seem to be doing well, but your viscosity is already in the upper range of a 30w oil which is a sign of some oil shearing having already taken place. Without having an analysis to see where the brand new oil is starting from, you can't say just how much shearing has taken place. Regardless, it seems to be holding fairly steady where it is, so the shear you're seeing is probably a result of some initial "break down" in the viscosity modifier and the base oil is still holding up.
Just for the record, a brand new 40w oil should run in the 14.3-17.2 range for cSt @ 100°C.
Excellent information Pete! Tried to rep you for it, I was denied by the rep police! This should turn out to be a great thread for information from what I have seen so far!
Rufushusky... your table contains data consistently reported on multiple locations throughout the web. My data was read from an oil viscosity comparison chart, but I have dug further, and find that the charts are somewhat variable in where they place the viscosity blocks for the SAE engine oils. In other words, according to the charts, the upper end of a 40w oil ranges from about 16.3-17.2.
What I honestly do not yet have an answer for is "why the differences"? Are multi-weight syn's running at different places on the vis charts due to individual company oil blends? Are the company's just careless in how they develop their charts for showing oil comparisons? I honestly don't know, but will try to get a better understanding.
What I do know, though, is that SAE requirements for multi-grade oils are primarily based upon minimum viscosity ratings, but the rules also include both "pass" and "failure" requirements. That simply means that a 30w oil must "fail" the acceptable range for viscosity on a 20w oil while simultaneously passing the minimum viscosity for a 30w oil. That scenario by itself leaves room for the actual upper viscosity limit somewhat variable, depending upon the characteristics of the base oil(s), which viscosity improvers are used, and how much viscosity improver is used. What I gather from this information is that the upper ends of the viscosity ranges are most likely due to individual company oil formulations. Again, I can only suppose that to be the case right now, and will try to gather more factual information.
[NOTE inserted on 04/25/2012 - please refer to Post #18]
__________________ Pete (F250_) -- PAA#19 '02 F250 PSD, CC, SB, XLT, 2WD: 231K miles
Basic, low cost, not really performance enhancing mods. '03 Excursion PSD, 2WD, 165K miles - Stock. http://guzzle.rbmicro.com/7pt3/Mods.html
Rufushusky... your table contains data consistently reported on multiple locations throughout the web. My data was read from an oil viscosity comparison chart, but I have dug further, and find that the charts are somewhat variable in where they place the viscosity blocks for the SAE engine oils. In other words, according to the charts, the upper end of a 40w oil ranges from about 16.3-17.2.
What I honestly do not yet have an answer for is "why the differences"? Are multi-weight syn's running at different places on the vis charts due to individual company oil blends? Are the company's just careless in how they develop their charts for showing oil comparisons? I honestly don't know, but will try to get a better understanding.
There is so much voodoo around motor oil it can drive someone bonkers.
Regardless, even if the oil did dip into the high 30 wt range, as you pointed out the wear numbers are in great shape so nothing to worry about for the time being. And now I am sold on the econo-bypass filter.
There is so much voodoo around motor oil it can drive someone bonkers.
Regardless, even if the oil did dip into the high 30 wt range, as you pointed out the wear numbers are in great shape so nothing to worry about for the time being. And now I am sold on the econo-bypass filter.
There are all forms of mis-information on the web... no doubt. [NOTE inserted on 04/25/2012 - please refer to Post #18]
Bypass filtration is a good thing... I've been running Racor systems for about 4 years now, myself.
__________________ Pete (F250_) -- PAA#19 '02 F250 PSD, CC, SB, XLT, 2WD: 231K miles
Basic, low cost, not really performance enhancing mods. '03 Excursion PSD, 2WD, 165K miles - Stock. http://guzzle.rbmicro.com/7pt3/Mods.html
I don't mean to rain on your parade Ken, but with as few miles as you put on your truck, is the bypass and extended drain interval really needed? I'm not seeing any significant drop in anything with the bypass set up compared to your older samples. perhaps someone can educate me on what I'm seeing in the results that would convince me it's a good thing.
As for me, I like to drive it like it's a diesel, rack the miles up, and just change it every 5k. I haven't seen my latest UOA from Blackstone at the 400k mark yet, but here's a link to my 375k change running just the FL-1995 filter. http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/10...5-000-uoa.html
I don't mean to rain on your parade Ken, but with as few miles as you put on your truck, is the bypass and extended drain interval really needed? I'm not seeing any significant drop in anything with the bypass set up compared to your older samples. perhaps someone can educate me on what I'm seeing in the results that would convince me it's a good thing.
As for me, I like to drive it like it's a diesel, rack the miles up, and just change it every 5k. I haven't seen my latest UOA from Blackstone at the 400k mark yet, but here's a link to my 375k change running just the FL-1995 filter. http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/10...5-000-uoa.html
Chris,
You are not raining on my parade. My miles are low and I realize that the numbers are not changing much. The good part is running it 7,000 miles provides similar results to 3,000. When I check it again it will be at 10k. I know changing it at 3k was not needed, but I was only doing it about once a year at the time. I recently bought 4 of the 5 quart Motorcraft 15W-40 containers and a couple FL-1995 filters. It was right at $95.
One thing I have noticed that the analysis does not show is the color/clarity of the oil. When hot the oil is still transparent, even with 7k on it. Before it would be quite dark and that tells me the additional filtration is doing something. Like most of the mods out there, this is something that was more fun to do than required. The biggest thing we can all do to preserve our trucks is perform the routine maintenance and that will keep them on the road for many more years to come.
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-Marv- one of 
