When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I have been religiously taking oil samples on my vehicles now for years. The past several samples from my truck have shown that Copper (yellow) and Molybdenum (dark blue) are on the rise (see the plot below). Those elevated levels started after a cold winter of short runs up and down the mountain to ski (~160k mi. on the engine). Up until that point, the truck was happy pulling a travel trailer for long miles. Anyway, I've been doing shorter (in miles) and shorter runs on the oil to try to keep an eye on things, but it seems like the problem is here to stay. The engine now has almost 200k mi.
The question is, what to do about it (if anything)? In the most recent report (Blackstone labs), they suggested that the contaminants might be coming from a bushing, turbo bearing, or some other brass/bronze part.
Any suggestions on easy culprits to check without ripping everything apart hunting down trace contaminants?
The Moly is an additive in some oils, MoS2 and the copper may be copper disulfide a byproduct of Reduced ZDDP which causes a chemical reaction. Looking at your previous trends it looks like you went from CI-4+ oil to CK4 and with levels of both surging at the same time I believe this is a chemical reaction. Such as when SN oil came out and people were seeing elevated levels of potassium and everyone thought it was coolant and it was just a new additive and a new reaction. To baseline your oil and get rid of fear I would send a sample to CAT labs for a baseline comparison.
I'm impressed with the chemistry ford390gashog! Actually, looking at my records, I did switch from Rotella-T (15w-40) (CJ-4?) to Rotella T6 (5w-40) (CK-4?) on the oil change where Cu and Mo originally rose. So your suggestion is to just send in a clean sample for testing to see what the additive profile looks like?
The Moly is an additive in some oils, MoS2 and the copper may be copper disulfide a byproduct of Reduced ZDDP which causes a chemical reaction. Looking at your previous trends it looks like you went from CI-4+ oil to CK4 and with levels of both surging at the same time I believe this is a chemical reaction. Such as when SN oil came out and people were seeing elevated levels of potassium and everyone thought it was coolant and it was just a new additive and a new reaction. To baseline your oil and get rid of fear I would send a sample to CAT labs for a baseline comparison.
EXACTLY! Spot on!
I would add here that the trended increase of Cu would be consistent with Blackstone's suggestion for bushing wear. The Mo took a jump and has not had significant change since, but the Cu took a tiny jump and has been steadily increasing. Still, I would not be excessively worried about the Cu.
Originally Posted by sunogbahay
I'm impressed with the chemistry ford390gashog! Actually, looking at my records, I did switch from Rotella-T (15w-40) (CJ-4?) to Rotella T6 (5w-40) (CK-4?) on the oil change where Cu and Mo originally rose. So your suggestion is to just send in a clean sample for testing to see what the additive profile looks like?
Yes, you can if you want, but the formulation difference between the "T" and the "T-6" is already understood, so I don;t see the real value in another $20 or so on a sample of new oil. The new oil sample might be interesting if you had a Blackstone report from the old "T" oil when it was new as a comparison point. Otherwise, you're getting information on only one of two oils while trying to understand the difference between the two.
Just move on with peace of mind.
Also... without knowing the units on the X axis, we really have no idea just how much of a jump really took place on those values for Cu and Mo.
Also... without knowing the units on the X axis, we really have no idea just how much of a jump really took place on those values for Cu and Mo.
The x-axis is just time. The points that I've plotted though are contaminants divided by the miles on the oil. So we are looking at contaminants per mile. Your comments helped me find a mistake in the way that I was plotting things; I used the wrong per-mile normalization! I've fixed it now. The measured copper in the last three samples were: 9ppm (10,000mi on oil), 12ppm (9,500mi on oil), and 23ppm (7,600mi on oil).
I did my first Blackstone test about 4 months ago. I bought mine 3 1/2 yrs ago with 138K on the clock. I now have 180,500 on her. My Labs came back saying I can go to 9,000 between changes.Happy guy with that. I switched to Triax full synthetic 15-40 for the first time prior to the test. I ran it for 5,000 miles before the test. Like I said, Blackstone said I could extend my oil change intervals to 9 K based on current test. Based on that, and input from the tech guy at Triax, I changed this last time to 5-40 full synthetic for better shear value.
Last edited by bigreentruck; Aug 31, 2018 at 10:22 PM.
Reason: adding information
Rezvani's Latest Post-Apocalytic Monster Is a Ford F-150 Raptor Underneath
Slideshow: Called the Fortress, the 850-horsepower pickup combines Raptor underpinnings with military-inspired features, survival equipment, and a starting price of $285,000.
