Background:

I have done UOA on all oil changes since new.
All OCI's were pretty much between 4k and 5k miles

Ran Motorcraft 15W40 for apprx 15k miles.
The iron started out at 42 ppm and dropped down to 21 ppm at 15k miles.
The copper started out at 10 ppm and dropped down to 2 ppm at 15k miles.
All other numbers looked good.

Then switched to Schaeffer 9000 5W40 until 40k miles.
The iron stabilized bewteen 21 and 30 ppm.
The copper stayed low at 2-3 ppm.
The lead numbers slowly crept up from 3 to 7 between 25k and 30k miles.
The lead stayed at that level until 40k miles when I switched to Valvoline PBE (Premium Blue Extreme) 5W40.

Switched to Valvoline PBE until 58k miles.
In two oil changes, the lead numbers dropped back to the 2 - 3 ppm levels.
The copper numbers stayed low.
In two oil changes, the iron number went up to 56 ppm and then to 78 ppm.

Switched back to Schaeffer 9000 (because I had a little extra left of that oil) at 58k miles and ran it until 72k miles (3 oil changes).
At 68k miles the lead had gone back up - this time to to 22 ppm. This caught my attention, but it was only 1 data point.
The iron levels stayed between 76 and 80 ppm.

At 72k miles changed to Rotella T6 5W40 and have had it in for 3 oil changes.

At 82k miles, I added one bottle of ZDDP concentrate w/ the Rotella T6.

My lead numbers dropped back down to 3ppm immediately (at 77k miles).
My iron numbers stayed flat at 82-86 ppm until the most recent analysis (the one w/ the ZDDP in it).
At apprx 87k miles, my iron number has dropped to 68 ppm - I am pleased!
The copper is still good and so are the other metals.

One other thing I did at 82k miles (as an experiment) I quit adding the Bio and the Stanadyne to the fuel.
The reason for this is that you will always have some fuel dilution of the oil and I had one oil tribologist tell me one time that the Bio and the can cause some premature wear on the engine.

Conclusions:
The lead numbers definitely went up with the Schaeffer and dropped back down when I ran other oils.
Although the lead numbers were increasing, they were not that bad.
There is essentially no lead in virgin Schaeffer 9000 (I had that analysis done).
The virgin Schaffer APPEARED to have more zinc and phosphorous than the other oils - about 1400 ppm Zinc and 1200 to 1300 Phosphorous. I am told that the Mobil 1 TTD also has higher values of these additives.
The iron definitely went up when I changed to Valvoline PBE.
Either the Rotella T6 does better than the Valvoline PBE w/ the iron wear metal OR the fuel additives played a part OR the ZDDP helped.
I definitely saw an increase in Zinc and in Phosphorous w/ the ZDDP - about 300 ppm of each. Zinc was at 1450 ppm and phosphorous was at 1350 ppm. I personally think these levels are optimum.

Plans:
I am currenty running the Rotella T6 w/ a bottle of ZDDP and will run for 5k miles. This will be my second test w/ the Rotella, the ZDDP, and no fuel additives.
My next change will be w/ the Rotella T6, the ZDDP and adding the fuel additives back in.
After that, I will try the Mobil 1 TTD 5W40 - without the ZDDP, but with the fuel additives.

 

dang! today i just switched from rotella 15w 40 to schaeffer 15w 40. i might just change back next oil change now.

 

Am interested in the ZDDP results with the T6.

Thanks Bismic.

 

Mark, did you track your VI through all of this? (does your lab even have that capability?)

FYI: the addition of phosphates (like dithiophosphate) tends to be hard on your copper numbers.

 

I have viscosity numbers but not the Viscosity Index.

It was recommended to me to add two bottles of the ZDDP, but I only added one for the reason you mentioned.

 

Glad you found it somewhat interesting anyway Sean.

No real conclusions yet, so I considered just waiting for several more oil changes, but that will be 6 months or so. I got impatient and figured I can always just add on to this thread as time goes by.

 

Could you post up the V numbers you do have, I'd really like to see what they are.

I think that's really the only problem with ZDDP (the EPA has a lot of problems with it though) good call on the one bottle vs. two but if your coppers number stay low then you're prob OK going to two. How much are you paying for ZDDP?

 

One other thing I found was related to the companies analyzing the oil - I ran a few duplicate analyses just for fun.

In general, the numbers were not much different, but one parameter seemed to be a fair amount off between two labs - Blackstone and Polaris. Polaris consistently showed higher fuel dilution numbers. I was told on BITOG that Polaris should have more accurate numbers based on their lab method and equipment. I will say though that my wife dropped off one sample personally at Polaris. She said the bathroom there was FILTHY (lol). You would think that a commercial lab would have good houskeeping practices!

 

LOL yeah that's not a good impression. Makes you wonder about their lab and employees.

I've never used a public oil analysis place but I'm glad you sent samples to both, do either of them test for Calcium?

Fuel dilution is a big deal so I would tend to stick with the higher number just to be safe.

 

The 15W40 viscosities (after 3500 miles or so) had dropped to 65-68 SUS at 210F. A 40 weight oil SUS viscosity range is 68-82.5, so it had sheared pretty quickly. BUT - this was the initial break-in period, which may have made a difference.

From that point on, I got viscosity in cSt at 100C. A 40 weight range in cSt is 12.5 to 16.29 I believe.

The Schaeffer stayed between 12.5 and 13.5 with OCIs at 4500-5000 miles.

The Valvoline dropped to around 11 cSt. at OCI's of 5000 - 5500 miles.

The Rotella T6 drops to about 12 at about 5k miles.

One thing that makes this hard is that so much oil stays in the system between oil changes. It pretty much makes the first oil change w/ a new oil "a useless data point".

 

Calcium was low w/ Rotella T6 - 800 to 100 ppm.

Schaeffer was around 3000 ppm calcium.

The Valvoline PBE was 1500 to 2000 ppm.

I am not sure how accurate these numbers were though, they bounced arond a bit.

 

Are we thinking 1-2 Qts in the HPOP valley and little in the rails?

 

The residual oil is about 4 quarts. My oil changes were all 14 quarts and the total volume of our engines is close to 18 quarts.

 

Hmm, interesting. The reason I asked is that Calcium is a good quick 'off the cuff' measure of what/how much 'additive' each brand is using. I'm kind of surprised at the significantly lower Rotella #s

 

Oh - one more thing ...........

I installed a Fumoto valve early on (can't recall EXACTLY when). Some folks told me that since I no longer had a magnet (part of the OEM pan plug), then that could be why my iron numbers were climbing.

I have some rare earth magnets, so before submitting one of my oil samples (Valvoline PBE oil) I stirred the sample w/ one of these powerful magnets. It made no difference.

That being said, I still bought and installed an oil pan magnet (also a rare earth magnet) that is a flat plate that attaches to the bottom of the oil pan.