jrollf
Full Access Member
I'm an engineer... so I like numbers 
. I have had my truck since 2004 and have put about 114,000 miles on it. With a few rare exceptions I have always had an oil analysis done at every oil change by Blackstone Labs. Since they give me all kinds of fun numbers I have tracked and plotted the data over the years. Below are the plots showing the history of my truck. I used Delo 400 (dino oil) for most the life of the truck, except for a while where I "experimented" by using full synthetic Rotella T6 (200,124 through 213,790). In the end for the 3K oil changes I do, I felt the extra cost of the Rotella was not worth it. My go to oil filter has been the Mobil 1 M1-601 (the larger 7.3 Powerstroke filter).
Note: the Wear and Contaminants graphs have been "normalized" to 3,000 miles. e.g. even though the mileage listed is when the oil was changed, to try and keep the graphs somewhat "comparative" the wear and contaminants were "normalized" to the equivalent of 3,000 miles.
Some events to correlate with the charts.
*Note: Oil Additives are not "normalized" to 3K oil changes, this was how much of the additives were left in the oil at the time of the oil changes. That probably accounts for some of the more acute spikes / dips.
So what ya'll think... any other number crunchers out there?
. I have had my truck since 2004 and have put about 114,000 miles on it. With a few rare exceptions I have always had an oil analysis done at every oil change by Blackstone Labs. Since they give me all kinds of fun numbers I have tracked and plotted the data over the years. Below are the plots showing the history of my truck. I used Delo 400 (dino oil) for most the life of the truck, except for a while where I "experimented" by using full synthetic Rotella T6 (200,124 through 213,790). In the end for the 3K oil changes I do, I felt the extra cost of the Rotella was not worth it. My go to oil filter has been the Mobil 1 M1-601 (the larger 7.3 Powerstroke filter).Note: the Wear and Contaminants graphs have been "normalized" to 3,000 miles. e.g. even though the mileage listed is when the oil was changed, to try and keep the graphs somewhat "comparative" the wear and contaminants were "normalized" to the equivalent of 3,000 miles.
Some events to correlate with the charts.
- When I first got the truck, turned out there was a slow leak in the oil cooler, I was getting trace amounts of coolant in the oil, but not enough to see! I only found out because I did the oil test and Blackstone alerted me to it. Sure enough, rebuilt the oil cooler and wear materials droped drastically. This event made me a believer in oil tests!
- Between 127,435 and 161,462 oil changes I tried extended oil change intervals (5k to 6k). The big spike in Lead made me nervous so I went back to ~3k mile oil changes. Honestly I put so few miles on the truck every year, it's probably for the best.
- The Spike in Iron and Copper @ 168,280 miles corresponded with getting my heads rebuilt.
- 200,124 through 213,790, used Rotella T6 synthetic instead of Delo Dyno Oil. You can see a modest drop in Aluminum wear, and slight drop Nickel, strangely there doesn't seem to be a appreciable difference for any of the others.
- From purchase through roughly the 163,027 I lived in the desert southwest, notice the higher levels of silicon (eg sand!) in the oil, which dropped off after I moved to the Gulf Coast. A better air filter probably would of been a good idea (have the Banks air filter, which is really a K&N)
- Lead: As you can see it has spiked on me a few times over the years, makes me a little nervous that there is main or rod bearing that isn't quite happy... so far no noticeable issues. Blackstone says other than the spikes, the lead levels are "within family" for the engine.
- Iron: If you start a "trend line" (draw a straight line) at the point for 124,165 through 220,333, you can see as she is getting older the amount of iron wear is slowly increases.
- Spikes, you will get spikes. Towed a really heavy trailer up a mountain... you'll probably see that. Sat for 6 months... you might see that. Pulled the heads, you'll see that too. Some spikes... who knows
, trends... that's what you want to really watch.
- After a spike in wear materials, it doesn't go down immediately, it takes an oil change or two to "wash out" of the system.
- Any single oil test is usually not useful, need to have them over the years to watch trends. (With the exception of a major event, such as coolant getting into oil, you find that out quick!)
*Note: Oil Additives are not "normalized" to 3K oil changes, this was how much of the additives were left in the oil at the time of the oil changes. That probably accounts for some of the more acute spikes / dips.
- Interesting to note that Rotella T6 has a lot more Magnesium in it, but less Calcium and Boron than Delo 400. (Rotella - 200,124 thru 213,790)
- Also note on the far left of Oil Additives, is the "Old" version of Delo 400 which is getting real hard to find, and in the center before the Rotella and the far right after the Rotella is the "newer" Delo 400 SDE. The newer 400 SDE has a little less Molybdenum and a lot less Calcium, however it has more Boron and Magnesium.
So what ya'll think... any other number crunchers out there?
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