"Cautionary" BlackStone Report

hesutton

The Anti-Anderson
Supporting Member
Joined
Aug 19, 2005
Posts
8,200
Reaction score
738
Location
Bowling Green, KY
I got my BlackStone report back and again, there were high levels of iron and a significant increase lead! This is worrisome for bearing wear.:puke:

I use Shell Rotella with Lucas oil stabilizer and change the oil and filter every 3000 miles. I used Clevite (Malhe) bearings during the rebuild and they are of good quality as far as I know.

I'm at a bit of a loss. Any ideas?

Heath
 

Attachments

  • BlackStone #2.pdf
    18 KB · Views: 31

icanfixall

Official GMM hand model
Joined
Apr 10, 2005
Posts
25,858
Reaction score
673
Location
West coast
I got a simalar report Heath but... I felt mine was from running too much advance causing more wear pressure on the bearings. My iron was up also. They thought maybe the rings were wearing on the cylinders way too much. Now running an advnce of around 10 degrees and drivingover 2000 miles freeway miles t the rally may have something to do with that. Plus I changed the injection pump so the iron wear may havesomething to do with the three bolts that got removed and reinstalled on the injection pump gear. I will be doing another test soon cause I have almost 3000 miles on this oil. Best I can say is watch this and don't be too concerned. You have changed several things that may have caused these reading. You would be surprised what metal is create when you loosen or tighten a threaded fitng of any kind in an oil bath system.
 

PwrSmoke

Full Access Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2007
Posts
807
Reaction score
22
Location
Northwest Ohio
Heath: I wouldn't worry too much about the iron. All the reports on my 6.9L with 140K on it are at a similar level and the universal averages are more than what yours showed.

The lead is another matter, but even that isn't horrible (remember we are reading in Parts Per MILLION here and the universal averages are 45 ppm). Still, my lead reading at a 5300 mile OCI was 4 ppm, and at 6100 miles only 5 ppm (both on the same 15W40 Rotella-T CJ-4 oil). At the time I was only running a PSD type filter (which filters a little better than the standard 6.9/7.3L filter), but I now also run a 1 um bypass filter).

Icanfixitall brings up a good point with the timing. I have seen speculation that there is strong correlation between high lead reading and timing on diesels, so if yours has been bumped a lot, you might back off the timing a little to see. Quick and easy to do, huh?

I would also ditch the Lucas. Cripes, man, 18.66 cSt is well into SAE 50 grade territory! I can't see how that would cause your lead problem, but in general, you don't need oil that thick unless your oil temp exceeds 212F (the viscosity rating temp for oil- when your oil is cooler than that, it's even thicker!!!) for long periods. If you lived in South Texas, maybe. Kentucky doesn't get that hot. Oil too thick for the temperature only increases fluid friction and costs fuel economy. Plus, on a cold start, it increases the chance that your oil filter will go into bypass and pump unfiltered oil until it warms enough to thin some. Until I got some free Royal Purple 15W40 to try, I had reverted to 10W30 Rotella-T and got one great report from it.

Overall, don't lose sleep over this. I'd back the timing off a coupla degrees and sample again at the next change.
 

Diesel JD

Full Access Member
Joined
Feb 7, 2006
Posts
6,148
Reaction score
7
Location
Gainesville, FL
That sucks...but to drive yourself crazy over a bad oil report is a waste of time. My truck was making 103ppm in lead on Rotella 15w40 back in January 2005...over 4.5 years ago. The lead came back down and she still runs well, and to think I almost had myself talked into replacing the bearings. I don't know what I think about running an oil stabilizer...is it really needed? Best to buy a good synthetic and the best filtration you can afford or any dino oil rayed for diesel and change it very often, I have found.
 

h2odrx

Anti-O
Joined
Dec 11, 2005
Posts
4,835
Reaction score
3
Location
Coastal Neckville, NC
I'd just go another 3k and see what happens; What do you all pay for the Rotella 15w40? I found it at Advanced for $9.99 till 9/30/09!:sly
 

Agnem

Using the Force!
Supporting Member
Joined
Jan 10, 2005
Posts
17,067
Reaction score
374
Location
Delta, PA
Heath, maybe a couple treatments of Auto-RX and switching back to CI oil might be wise.
 

hesutton

The Anti-Anderson
Supporting Member
Joined
Aug 19, 2005
Posts
8,200
Reaction score
738
Location
Bowling Green, KY
Well, the only bolt I've turned in any oil compartment in over a year is the drain plug. I installed the Moose injectors at the rally, but that's shouldn't influence the oil analysis as they are not in contact with the oil. The timing is 9.5 BTDC, at least it was at the Rally in July.

Anyway, I'll keep running it and see what happens down the road.

Heath
 

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
91,287
Posts
1,129,812
Members
24,106
Latest member
lewisstevey7
Top