I have always used trip b to track the intervals between regens.

 

You certainly were right about the Valvoline Premium Blue. I was due for an oil change Thursday, so I decided to use Premium Blue. As you stated, I found it at a NAPA dealer. I used 5W40 since they had it on sale for $21.99/gal.

Yesterday I drove my usual Friday route consisting of a mix of suburban, 2 lane blacktop and 40 minutes of freeway driving. A total distance of 186 miles. For me it's a known "entity"; always 110 to 140 miles between regens, unless I use PM22A, which takes it down to 60 to 90 miles.

I had just come off a regen prior to the oil change. Yesterday morning my Edge CTS showed the soot count at 1.40 at the start of the trip. Early on through the trip, I thought this oil isn't helping at all, since the count was already up to 2.20 after just 80 miles with the freeway driving now behind me. Not unlike what I normally see.

But after that, things got different.

The soot count literally stalled. It would go up to 2.30, then drop back down to 2.21. This continued until the end of the trip. 106 miles from a soot count of 2.20 to 2.63! The slowest climb I've ever seen after 2.40. Usually once I hit 2.57 I'm just a few miles from 2.67 and a regen. Not this time. I hit the 2.50's 50 miles before the end of the trip.

186 miles total and no regen. A big improvement over my usual 110 to 140 miles.

Of course I expect to see a regen cycle next time I head out since I shut down with a soot count of 2.63. But this oil made a very noticeable improvement. I suspect that if I had kept driving I could have went another 20 miles or so.

Not sure what makes the difference, but I have to mention that I have seen this before, only not for the same reason. When I first put in the Rotella T6 oil I thought great, regen cycles are way down. During the first trip with this oil though I kept smelling diesel exhaust. I just figured it was due to the trucks in front of me. I was at 150 miles without a regen when I stopped for fuel. I could still smell the exhaust, so I popped the hood and to my horror had discovered that I had left the oil filler cap off. Luckily it was still sitting on the battery where I left it during the oil change. I put it back on and the miles between regens went back to the normal 110-140 miles.

Strange. There must be some difference in the content of the smoke that each oil generates in the crankcase.

Needless to say I'll be using Valvoline Premium Blue oil from here on out.

 

all this regen crap is making me regret my purchase! If I have problems with regen on short commutes will ford eliminate my DPF ? Will they at least turn their head regarding warranty if I eliminate it myself?

 

nobody is really having problems with regens seem were just looking for ways to extended the miles between them

 

I have never heard of anyone having trouble with the 6.7 DPF. It works as it was designed too. I just like experimenting to see what I can do to extend the period between regens.

 

im due for an oil change soon, so Ill give Valvoline Premium Blue a try, I also have T6 in my engine and did notice the increased regens at that time but i also started optilube the same day.

 

No, they won't. It's here to stay until someone develops more efficient technology for the government requirements.
You purchased a truck designed for working hard over long distances.
Short trips are going to cause regenerations to be cut short which in turn will start again more quickly when the soot count returns to 2.66 or above.
If you have a lot of short trips, get some sort of monitoring device and just enjoy driving your truck.
The regeneration process on these trucks have done quite well.

 

Romeo scorpion has the regen frequency still seem to be decreased since the oil change?

 

Yes. The Valvoline Premium Blue has made a major difference, and I've gone through 9 tanks of fuel since changing the oil.

I was planning on doing a little more experimenting with additives. Most importantly I wanted to give the Motorcraft PM22 another shot. I had stated that it caused frequent regens. That may only be true if the recommended additive to fuel ratio is exceeded. That's what I found with Optilube XPD. I went the 1/2 oz per gallon route with XPD, which at first worked fine with literally no impact on regens. But like many here, I was adding a fixed amount of additive each time I filled up, regardless of how many gallons I put in. After a couple of tanks, the regens were becoming more frequent. So I ran the tank down, filled up again using no additive and all was normal again. I'm now beginning to wonder if I hit the same condition with the PM22.

Regardless, I think my testing is done until late spring. I filled up yesterday and my soot count literally froze. When the count did go up in traffic, it went right back down to where it was when I started once I got moving again. I thought that's strange. Then today on the freeway I noticed that my MPG was down by about 2. Oh oh! I know what that means! The winter fuel blend has arrived here in my part of Michigan!

Regens are so infrequent for me with winter fuel that it is almost impossible to gage any improvements with it. Maybe next year....

 

Well I stop using PM22. It seems to have reduce the number of regens. I only have a couple of tanks without the PM22.

This thread has been useful to me.

 

I bought valvoline 5w40 yesterday and I'll do an oil change today. I will post back to see if improves regen frequency.

 

I am just under 1,000 so far, so I have avoided cruise control for break in. Because of that, I scan my gauges very frequently to avoid unwanted attention by the city's finest. I have gone through 2 3/4 regen cycles during those miles and have had no trouble catching them. I have seen each time the message has flashed on my LCD, but even if I hadn't, my instant MPG drops significantly - even when letting off of the accelerator which would normally make it read max scale.

I wonder if the difference between mine and some of the others with more miles is simply the amount of ash gradually building in the DPF as time goes on causing more rapid pluggage. My commute is 27 miles each way daily and is mostly highway with a few miles of traffic lights, etc. I use no additives. I am still on factory oil and original filters. I use Exxon Diesel. Sometimes I put the hammer down between lights and sometimes I just relax and enjoy the ride. I have purchased the delete stuff, but am keeping it on the shelf in the garage until/if needed for sensor/DPF issues. I have been quite pleased so far.

 

Where are you located? Cold climate states have winter blend fuel now which reduces the number of regens greatly. 300+ miles between regens during city type driving would not be unusual.

 

I think I am doing well in the regen department, but I am not commuting every day as I am no longer in the w$%k force . I have a ScanGaugeII and mileage and EGT are two of the parameters I have displayed. As with others, I also see my instantaneous mileage drop significantly during a regen. A quirk with ScanGaugeII is that during a regen cycle the ScanGaugeII mileage display shows absurdly high mileage as compared to the instantaneous mileage .... like 40-50 mpg. So this is what I use to confirm the regen cycle. I just wish Ford would have put audible alarm with the 3 second "Cleaning ..." screen to help keep us informed ..... better would be to hold the display longer and press 'OK' to clear it. The 'OK' button is there .... but redundant. An additional ScanGaugeII display I use is 'Distance Since Last Regen' that seems to be somewhat reliable .... based on experience if it gets up to 400ish miles, a regen is immanent. I am not sure if 400 miles is accurate though. More testing = more driving ... oh shucks!

 

I am seeing similar results. The "Distance Since Last Regen" seems to vary slightly as I use the Trip B monitor between regens. Its not much and it may be just the difference between when I actually start the trip b. I also watch EGT's to see Regens. The Scangauge is a piece of mind without dropping some pretty good coin. EOT and ECT are almost always monitored and I switch over to TFT every so often.