Post Overhaul Oil Analysis

[PwrSmoke]

Wanted to see how the oil was faring in my 6.9L diesel 2K after an overhaul. It was mostly upper end work, but I replace the rings, pistons (still std. bore) and bearings because I got them for free ( : < ). I am running a bypass system with a 10 um element (I have previously stated 5 um but forgot that I followed the advice of running a 10um if you expect a high level of junk... either cleaning up a dirty engine or after engine work).

I guess you could call this a test of the "factory fill," in this case Rotella 10W30 Triple Protection. The "factory" was me!

I am satisfied with how things are going and will leave this oil in to at least 4K, likely 5-6K, after which it will get Rotella T5, a full synthetic primary filter and a 3um bypass. OCI... TBD. Likely 10K minimum but I will sample at 5K intervals to be sure. I put 2K on this this truck in a year so I am cogitating on how I will factor that into my oil and filter OCI. I have run OCIs out to 3 years with no issues and good UOAs. This is one reason I am switching over to full syn media filters because I trust the media more that cellulose on an extended time OCI.

Left figure is this 2K test/ middle figure unit averages from this truck at 5K OCI with 135K miles/right figure is Blackstone's universal averages for 5K. Zero figures not listed.

Aluminum- 4/4/6
Chromium- 2/3/4
Iron- 33/40/61
Copper- 16/9/6
Lead- 9/7/9
Nickel- 2/1/1
Manganese- 2/1/1
Potassium- 2/3/1
Boron- 20/11/148
Silicon- 21/13/9
Sodium- 5/5/18
Calcium- 2915/3487/2100
Magnesium- 11/11/398
Phosphorus- 1200/1161/1138
Zinc- 1350/1364/1246
cSt @ 100C- 12.73
Flashpoint- 440
Insols- 0.3
TBN- 7.2

 

[icanfixall]

Thats nothing to be concerned about. Things need to wear in. The rings are cutting in the cylinders and the bearings are bearing down the high spots too. Any machine work will leave behind some cut off metal. It takes time to wash that out plus.. your seating plenty of new parts. Al that metal rubbing will take off small amounts of metal til they seat in...

 

[RLDSL]

It's normal for first oil to pickup tons of garbage from loose shavings from honing to gasket sealants, to HEAVY dilution from break in lubes deposited on cams and cranks and cutting oils . I don't care how clean you work, I'ts all stuff that you can't see. After all the time I spend in a machine shop, I get so **** about this that I wont even drive on first oil and filter. It goes in runs for about 15 minutes and ****, out it goes. THEN the break in oil goes in.

Once you get a bypass filter on there, if you can't run that oil at minimum 12-15k miles, there is something bad wrong with it

 

[PwrSmoke]

Bypass filter is on there and has been since before the overhaul. Nothing wrong with this oil so it's staying in for at least 2K longer... unless the PC (particle count) shows something alarming the UOA didn't. I was amazed at how clean this oil was under the circumstances... but that's bypass filtration for you.

I agree, 15K should be no real problem at all, but I'll sample at 10K to make sure everything is OK. 10K is about three years for me.