Bad new from Blackstone Laboratories...

[motoshop]

I sent out my first oil sample on the truck I purchased in Feb. I did an oil change when I first got it, so this oil is all "my driving" and nothing from the PO. Blackstone called and said there's coolant in the oil and lots of wear happening. The truck has been running great with the exception of rough idling at first startup in the morning, but thats mostly due to my WMO mix. Other than that she runs great. I changed out the coolant and radiator in late feb right after I bought the truck. I have not added any coolant since and as of yesterday, she's still topped off. No overheating or coolant consumption, even pulling my trailer.

So my question is, what could be the problem? I can only think of three possibilities: head gasket, oil cooler or cavitation. A head gasket I figured would have some other symptons such as overheating and coolant consumption, so I'm kinda ruling that one out (although that would be my favorite of the three so I'd have a good excuse for some ARP studs). I dont really want to think about cavitation, so I'm leaning (hoping) more towards the oil cooler needing rebuilt. What do you guys think?

Also, how can I diagnose these symptoms myself? I'd like to rule out cavitation as soon as possible since the other two I can handle in my garage.

 

[icanfixall]

First off don't fel like this "just started" when you bought the truck. Plus the po may or may not have known this was a issue either. So now here you are. Whats next... I'm not thinking its an oil cooler gasket issue. Usually that problem loads up the cooling system with oil. Actually an easy fix once the oil cooler is removed. Now you have to make a decision as to what you will try to fix hopeing that will repair the coolant in the oil issue. Find a radiator shop that can test the coolant for combustion gas or buy the kits and do it yourself. That will only tell you the leak is in the cylinder or headgaskets. Now if you remove the engine for head gaskets that may not fix the problem either. So removing the engine and testing the block for cylinder cavitation is the best way to fix the engine. You have some choices in front of you. Hopefully the fix will be the easy repair Sorry for the not so rosey outlook...

 

[Clayton]

Can you post the actual numbers from your report?

 

[motoshop]

Here's the report...

 

[GenLightening]

I wonder if running WMO can mess with the results depending on how much filtering is or isn't being done?

 

[Clayton]

Ouch, That is some significant wear. Although the leak looks very small from the report, I wouldn't be driving it until I figured it out.

 

[Clayton]

Is it possible that your WMO is contaminated with AF?

 

[motoshop]

Is it possible that your WMO is contaminated with AF?

This is definitely not possible. I get all my WMO from a friend at a BMW dealership. He has a completely separate barrel that he uses just for my oil. So unless a car comes in with a blown head gasket or a crankcase full of AF, I'm positive I dont have any AF in the WMO. I also filter down to 3 microns and allow to settle for about one to two weeks.

 

[motoshop]

I just pulled the radiator cap again and did notice some very small chunks of what looks like rubber. Could these be the seals in the oil cooler breaking down? Could there be a small leak in the oil cooler and maybe not enough oil in the coolant to notice? My coolant looks brand new with no signs of oil...

I'm half tempted to pull the motor anyways since the wear is so bad. I'd hate to do a bunch of work in anticipation that the motor does not need to be pulled, and then have a bearing go out.

 

[icanfixall]

About running contaminated wmo.... Send a sample to blackstone... Just so you can rule out that possibility.... That would be the cheapest and easiest thing to do at this time. Also I would change the oil and start running nothing but diesel till you know for sure where the contaminants are coming from. Run about 1/4 tank of clean fresh diesel. That will clean out the fuel filter and system... Then change oil and continue to run diesel. I think someone is on to something here..... At least rule out the wmo and the source of coolant. Hopefully you only ran that stuff in one tank and not both tanks...

 

[motoshop]

About running contaminated wmo.... Send a sample to blackstone... Just so you can rule out that possibility.... That would be the cheapest and easiest thing to do at this time. Also I would change the oil and start running nothing but diesel till you know for sure where the contaminants are coming from. Run about 1/4 tank of clean fresh diesel. That will clean out the fuel filter and system... Then change oil and continue to run diesel. I think someone is on to something here..... At least rule out the wmo and the source of coolant. Hopefully you only ran that stuff in one tank and not both tanks...

I will send off the sample today, but I dont think this is the cause. I have only been running the WMO for about 3 weeks now and its really only been one batch (about 47gals). I'm on my second batch right now and I've only ran about half a tank. Either way, I'll send out the sample today and see what Blackstone says.

 

[Diesel JD]

Personally, I'd probably just let it develop as an old member used to say. I sure wouldn't pull an engine based on an oil report. Worst case scenario is that it is cavitation and you're either going to have to dump the vehicle or spend big bucks to buy another engine or restore that one to where it needs to be. I have had similar oil reports with high lead and traces of coolant contamination without actual coolant consumption for years and tens of thousands of miles in my engine. I'd at least want to see a trend of ever higher oil contamination before I tried to fix it. I doubt very seriously if it is a blown head gasket. IDI's tend to blow head gaskets externally so that the coolant runs down the block and doesn't contaminate the crankcase oil except in the worst cases where hydrolock is imminent. If you do continue to drive it you could cause more wear particularly to the bearings and if it gets bad enough you could seie it and ruin the block. However, I wonder if it isn't the WMO too. I know I see high potassium and sodium in my oil and have not been ingesting coolant. It never used hardly a drop of coolant until my radiator started leaking. I assume it is from the base catalyst in my biodiesel being burned and blowing by the rings. No matter how caeful your friend is with the WMO that stuff does not burn as clean as diesel or biodiesel and you may get some of those products of combustion in your oil. These could cause excessive wear. Personally I think the Iron and Lead and Copper numbers are what you need to worry about not the trace of coolant. I'd almost suspect it was from coking from the WMO sneaking by the rings. You had to add three qts of makeup oil in only 4300 miles which isn't bad but tells me you have some blowby therefore what is in your fuel (WMO) is in your crankcase. But hey that's my take on it. Continuing to run it does present some risks but then so does the time and money to pull and R&R an engine. To do it right and insure no cavitation remains would not be cheap. At least 12 hrs of yours or a shop's labor, a new set of pistons, rings and bearings, and probably $400-800 in machine work. You see all 8 should be sleeved but to keep costs under control you could sleeve only actually cavitated cylinder plus the ones most likely to also get it. I can't remember which ones, but there were definite patterns due to the coolant flow. I wish you the best of luck whatever you try.

 

[motoshop]

Personally, I'd probably just let it develop as an old member used to say. I sure wouldn't pull an engine based on an oil report. Worst case scenario is that it is cavitation and you're either going to have to dump the vehicle or spend big bucks to buy another engine or restore that one to where it needs to be. I have had similar oil reports with high lead and traces of coolant contamination without actual coolant consumption for years and tens of thousands of miles in my engine. I'd at least want to see a trend of ever higher oil contamination before I tried to fix it. I doubt very seriously if it is a blown head gasket. IDI's tend to blow head gaskets externally so that the coolant runs down the block and doesn't contaminate the crankcase oil except in the worst cases where hydrolock is imminent. If you do continue to drive it you could cause more wear particularly to the bearings and if it gets bad enough you could seie it and ruin the block. However, I wonder if it isn't the WMO too. I know I see high potassium and sodium in my oil and have not been ingesting coolant. It never used hardly a drop of coolant until my radiator started leaking. I assume it is from the base catalyst in my biodiesel being burned and blowing by the rings. No matter how caeful your friend is with the WMO that stuff does not burn as clean as diesel or biodiesel and you may get some of those products of combustion in your oil. These could cause excessive wear. Personally I think the Iron and Lead and Copper numbers are what you need to worry about not the trace of coolant. I'd almost suspect it was from coking from the WMO sneaking by the rings. You had to add three qts of makeup oil in only 4300 miles which isn't bad but tells me you have some blowby therefore what is in your fuel (WMO) is in your crankcase. But hey that's my take on it. Continuing to run it does present some risks but then so does the time and money to pull and R&R an engine. To do it right and insure no cavitation remains would not be cheap. At least 12 hrs of yours or a shop's labor, a new set of pistons, rings and bearings, and probably $400-800 in machine work. You see all 8 should be sleeved but to keep costs under control you could sleeve only actually cavitated cylinder plus the ones most likely to also get it. I can't remember which ones, but there were definite patterns due to the coolant flow. I wish you the best of luck whatever you try.

Could the WMO be contaminating my engine oil and showing up in the report as wear? When in reality, the motor is not actually wearing excessively, but I'm showing a higher level of metals because of the fuel I'm using? You may have said that in your post, but I'm just thinking out loud here. I'd still like to know where the coolant is coming from though, right?

 

[motoshop]

I also dont think I have much blow by. When I changed the oil, I had the oil cap removed while it was running after I had added the new stuff. There was nearly no air coming from the oil filler neck, but there was a ticking noise. I dont know about the ticking noise, but there definitely wasnt any signs of blow by.

 

[motoshop]

One more thought. I replaced the return line kit and copper injector seals a while back. When I did this, I noticed that 5-6 the injectors were wet and one had a really bad rust spot on the body. At the time I didn't know this could be an issue, but I now know that this may be the symptoms of leaking injectors, correct?

So if I assume there's 5-6 injectors leaking, then that could be a cause of possibly two problems. One being that the rings are being washed out and cylinders are wearing excessively. The second is I could be contaminating the oil with my WMO blend at a higher rate because of the amount of fuel being dumped. Do either of these sound likely?