Not a big fan of oil analysis, my thinking has always been use the money to buy new oil.

but, I broke down and did one just to see what I could learn…learned nothing…oil is fine…no metals (engine damage type), some silicon (thanks ford air filter), but nothing to get e cited about.

Comments welcome.

 

Assuming you don't have hundreds of idle hours on the oil, an oil analysis on a oil sample with only 500 miles will tell you essentially nothing and is a waste of money. There's my $0.02

 

Couple of things...

I agree with Troy... UOA reports are generally done with the oil sampled when an oil change is done to see how not only the engine is wearing but what kind of shape the oil is in at time of the change.

Number 2, that elevated silicon level can be from dirt introduced when you took the sample. How did you sample the oil and did you clean off where you sampled it from? When I take a sample at time of change, I spray the area and inside of the EZDrain on the oil pan prior to opening it up so no dirt gets introduced to skew the silicon level in the used sample.


Number 3, what oil brand, type and viscosity? It's interesting that the viscosities and flashpoint are not where they should be at only 500 miles of use.

 

In 500 miles your flashpoint is 400, the oil is out of 40 top weight, your 1.5% fuel dilution (explaining some of the drop in weight) and TBN is down to 6.5? What oil are you running and any additives cause potassium is also really high. 21ppm of silicone is concerning as well for such a short run IMHO.

 

He's in the NYC area which would possibly explain the 1.5% fuel dilution, but yeah, I didn't note that and that sure is high at only 500 miles on the oil.

 

NYC driving.

seems like every other block there’s a stop light and we idle for 2 or three minutes. Then there’s the ridiculously low speed limit.

oil is 15w40 t6 rotella

i try to change the oil at a point in time that (knowing it will thin out) by the time winter arrives…it’s not 15w40 anymore.

i used to run 5w40, but found that it quickly sounded like a bucket of bolts…suspecting the oil thins out to quickly.


why does the oil thin out…maybe the stop and go city driving…maybe the bio fuel…maybe the ccv fumes condensation into the oil …don’t know but it’s happening and I do not think it’s uncommon for city drivers

i bought a high idle kit..but after installing it and understanding how it works…won’t help with raising the idle at stop lights unless I throw it in park and set the brake.

Future plans are to change the ccv piping …my preference is to vent it into the last section of the exhuast pipe, reduce my dependency on bio fuel and rely more on fuel additives for lube value…which may reduce wash down…and continue to use heavier weight oil knowing that it thins down quickly due to the above.

i have 1500 miles on this oil now and my lie-o-meter OLM says I’m 50% oil life..I switched my OLM to severe duty to increase the oil replacement interval..no way extended drains for me.

also..I have the dual guard oil by pass so I can’t rely on soot build up as an oil weight recharge .

ill sample it again at the “OLM” change now..which would put about 3000 miles on this oil.

 

my comments from them were similar. Silicon was a touch higher most likely from dust somewhere. I was at 5000 miles on the oil, truck was at 110,000 miles.

i started oil additives at around 80k and a fuel additive at the same time.

 

The city operating conditions, especially NYC, is brutal on the oil. How much biodiesel are you running? I think 5% bio drops the HFRR under 460 mu, any more than that honestly isn't worth it just for the risk of water being emulsified in it.

Most concerning to me would be the high levels of potassium, that isn't present in Rotella T6 (or any other flavors) additive packages. Usually it is from coolant but if that is the case sodium is usually elevated as well, which it isn't here. I think Rev-X back in the day had a slug of it in it. Any other additives, rotella typically doesn't have that big of a chunk of moly or boron in it, at least in my experience.

 

As I recall, this isn't the first Rotella oil sample that has shown issues with viscosity and flashpoint.

For me, when I was doing oil samples, the point of doing it was twofold. First was to know how many miles were left on the oil. I was doing longer oil change intervals at the time (different truck). Second was to know if there was anything starting to fail within the engine. For that engine, high levels of aluminum would have been a red flag I believe. But any significant change in metal content from one sample to the next would also have been a red flag.

 

I've been getting my oil analyzed for quite some time now, but wished I would have started when she was brand new... I just contacted Blackstone as it's been a month now since I sent in the last UO sample and I'm probably 2k miles in on the new oil, so they said mine is scheduled for Tuesday to be analyzed there.

 

mine took 45 days from when I sent it.

 

Yeah she said they are backed up a little when I mentioned that...

 

I plan to have my first oil analysis done in about a month from now. It will be 1 year from last oil change and a good portion (majority) of the miles being from in town use...so stops every couple blocks and speeds under 40. Curious to see what the results will be.

 

That's a bummer they are so backed up. My last one took them about 4 weeks to complete, which was the longest I have had to wait. I am changing my oil tomorrow and will be sending in another one and it sounds like the wait may be even longer. My previous report stated low viscosity, but otherwise it was a "very, very good" report. I am curious to see what it shows on my next one considering the low viscosity. I am running T6 5W40 and chaining every 5k miles.

As well, I am at about 4700 miles on this oil and my "IOLM" states the lowest it ever has... typically, at every 5k mile oil changes my "IOLM" is around 30% or so... this time I am at 14% ... it may hit 13% by the time I change it tomorrow... (for clarification though, I don't go by the "IOLM" but instead every 5k miles... this is just an interesting observation).

As for my driving habits, I thought it would be better now that I am driving 15 miles one way to work every day so my oil temps actually get up to operating temps every time I run the truck, as opposed to before I moved and was only driving 4 minutes one way to work. However, especially now that it's cooler, it takes most of the drive to get up to temp, but in the summer it gets up to temp in no time and most of my drives are at operating temp.

 

How much time (months) on this oil change vs the last oil change?