Wild and Free

Don't forget about Polaris labs either. http://www.polarislabs.com/why-polaris.php

Good catch I had to rethink what I typed here, You are correct that the samples test the level of Phosphorus and zinc as individual oil wear additives "Or ZDDP". But zinc phosphate is a different thing that is not an oil additive but a wear material. We are getting into scientific stuff and I may not be even close to correct here, need to talk to a lab guy again to be totally positive here but I will give it a try from what I have learned. Where I was wrong was in saying theses didn't show up on samples when what I should have said was that Zinc Phosphate was a wear material that can't be detected and this wear metal is used in the plating and coating process of many internal engine parts like rings, pistons and bearings. when the zinc and phosphorus levels deplete the internal parts start to wear and Zinc phosphate would be one of the first to show up when wear occurs before you see other metals. It gets confusing because phosphorus is always a wear additive but when it comes to zinc it is both a wear additive and is also a wear item in the oil as it is used as an alloy in brass not usually found in engines though but pretty much every other component on equipment and galvanized metal like filter canisters. Next week I will make some calls to try and get a better answer, like I said we are getting pretty scientific now as we are talking combined component chains and chemical reactions and stuff that goes over my head..

We take the samples, I fill out hundreds of them every month and I review the sample results to determine actions for manitenance on the info we get back from the analysis reports.I am involved with every step except for the actual testing but on occasion have communications with the lab folks.

From my failure analysis class and talking to the oil lab tech one of the most important additives is zinc Phosphate and there is no test available that measures the amount left in oil. filtering with the best media doesn't help when your additives there is no test for determining what is left are depleted from excessive filtration and normal use depletion.You post up a ton of filter info but you leave out the most important info, it is not your fault it is because a lot of the filter manufactures do not like to share this and that is "Sediment Index" which is how much a filter will hold before it is plugged. This is far more important than UOM micron rating. What good does a good filter media do when it is plugged after 100 miles of use and you are bypassing everything and do not know it.

They did a blind test of nothing but additives in new oil from what I read into it and no wear testing which is what an oil is truely judged by. also I was referring to the Shell Rotella oil that was rated #1 and was dissed by the big diesel engine manufactures, Valvoline was #4 on their list. Look at companies that do testing based on what oils are scored on as far as ball bearing test and a few other tests, When I get time I will try to find results of a wear test of oil, Amsoil does this. Spend some time digging into their site and you will find these test results. Here is a very simple write up but it gives a better picture of the kind of tests I am talking about. There are better write ups with actual pictures of the components and more scientific info for those inquiring minds if you have time to look it up, I have to head to work now. http://www.synthetic-oil-tech.com/d.cgi/1506490/api_comparative_motor_oil_testing.htm Also talk to oil analysis labs and if they are willing to talk candidly you will find out what they see as far as oil quality over time based on what they see for wear metals and oxidation, acid levels ect ect ect.

The thing to remeber is that you can't just run the oil and filters forever without any new oil being added to replenish the depleted and lost additives which are what make a typical base oil a good oil.You can run forever without ever pulling the drain plug but the filters have to be changed and then oil added to make up for what is lost during the filter change, When I did this on my 02 I ran 30K miles by just replacing the full flow filter every 5k and both the full flow and bypass together every 10k miles so together that was already about 5 quarts of oil changed and new added every 10k and that was plenty to keep things going strong.You get a lot of bad things in the oil over time the oil gets acidic from moisture and high soot levels ect that basically cause the damage to the engine more than bad lube.What is not talked about is how synthetic oils are less prone to break down and are more resistant to the chemical reactions of all the bad contaminants that build up versus dyno oils which is why they last longer and protect better over the long haul.

You still have lube at the end of the day but look at it this way, say you are on the lake one day and you leave your SPF 40 at home but you just bought groceries and you have vegetable oil with you, they are both slippery and will make your skin feel oily and soft at application time over the course of time in the sun the vegetable oil will have not protected you even though you are still oily you are left with a bad burn as the additives and make up is not the same as you would have had with an SPF 40 lotion.:think:Clear as mud?

Catch some field mice in a live trap and let them loose in the cab and wait for a week or so, by then they will have been in there and chewed it up into smaller pieces and when you turn the fan on high it should blow out the vents, just make sure you are going down the road at a high rate of speed and have the windows down before turning on the fan, this will help vacuum out the debris as it flies out.:lmao::lol:Sorry couldn't resist.

You answered your own statements, soot is suspended in the oil and is too small to filter out, but as I learned at my failure analysis class the reason for most engine failures now days is due to people using and depending on bypass filters and running extended oil changes too far and not refreshing the oil with newer oil to replenish needed additives that get filtered out. One thing people do not realize is that a dirty oil filter filters way better than a new filter as the larger micron openings are plugged, when that happens it starts filtering out the finer material which is where the oil additives start getting filtered out as well and this is where things go bad not to mention oil additives get used up and break down over time as well.

This info is all worth less and a waste of time in my book as it is nothing but new oil specs, I work with oil labs info every day and there is no real info from oil that has been used and wear specs, the list would go on for as long as that worthless article just listing testing that should be done for true tests.This should not be a sticky as it is useless info that will misguide people.You can look at specs of anything new on this world all you want and speculate but until it has been tested in the real world and sent to a lab for analysis then why waste your time on an article like this.Funny how what they list as #1 in both tests is the oil that Cat and Cummins and other major manufacturers came out publicaly several years back and told customers not to use because it did not meet the specifications of their oil needs and it was a poor quality oil, they have since improved their quality but from oil lab techs input at a class I had a few weeks ago it is still not a highly thought of oil from what they see in the sample results.

I am a very lucky one when it comes to dealerships, Mine treat me well but then again I am friends with the 2 of the 3 pickup master techs there, they know I am very anal and only go there when I have an issue I don't want to mess with, I have had no problems at all with them since my parents started buying vehicles from them in the 80's. The ones I have issues with at times are the service writers but after I line up the job I go talk directly to the techs and bypass the only problem every dealership has.

Just a safety feature programmed into them, it will not allow for converter lockup until it sees a set oil temperature but I can't remeber what the parameter is right off.A lot of newer Cat equipment is the same way, we have 789c 200 ton end dumps that will not upshift past second gear until it ses a certain temp of the diff oil and won't go past 4th gear until the diff oil is 110 degrees or higher.

So every fitting along the way of your 1/2 inch line is the same inside diameter of the line itself.................NOT!!!!You are only flowing as much as the fittings you use along the way will allow which I would bet are 3/8 at best if that. So unless you have #10 fittings at every connection you are wasting time on 1/2 inch line.There is a common sense factor here that people throw to the wind in a lot of cases.

TBN is a part of every companies sample tests that I have seen and IIRC Cat is around $10-15 last time I checked.

I think by pinning you are referring to the blocks between the frame and axle where the bump stops are, most will allow blocks in the stock class as long as there is an inch of travel before they contact. Dodge rigs don't have a problem with suspension hop like some do but where hop originates is through tire wrap from under inflated tires, need to keep the rears aired up to about max pressure to keep from getting tire induced hop started, also ladder or traction bars help keep spring wrap under control that causes wheel hop if you have enogh power and torque to get it started as well.

Beat to death :banghead: and 3/8 is more than enough on our rigs unless you are making well over 600 hp and drag racing on a regular basis where inertia plays factor on things in the equation.The only place I ever used 1/2 inch was between the filter and VP and that was just the ease of adding other things like 2 gauge ports ect.Research some of my past posts on this subject and what I see run on 1/2 inch hose daily, a 69 L 4210 Cubic inch 3516 V16 2000 hp Cat engines in 200 ton cat 789c end dump haul trucks that drive just like any other automatic tranny vehicle.And our little 5.9 l 359 cubic inch engine HAS TO HAVE 1/2 inch lines????

You need to get some blocks under the rear end, Some pulling rules say they can't be blocked solid but if you have solid blocks with about an inch if gap that works.:smart:Your front tires look like they are almost ready to come off the ground, not good at all when pulling. Just by putting blocks in place of your rear bump stops would have got you another 50 feet probably.The crowd looks to be a bit thin there.

Quickest way is to go to your local Caterpillar dealer "If you have one locally that does oil sample analysys" and get an SOS kit from them. Don't know why everyone always goes to Blackstone. http://www.blackstone-labs.com/ There are many companies that do it. I would do some research and go with a local or a close one. Amsoil uses a company named Oil Analyzers http://www.oaitesting.com/ MVTL which I have used through some of the companies I have worked at we ahave a lab right in Bismarck http://mvtl.com/ Most big Caterpillar dealers do it on site as well which we also have a lab right in Bismarck. I just filleed out and sent in about 30 samples last night alone to our local Cat dealer, part of my job is monitoring our mine equipment fleets oil sample info which includes filling out all the sample bottle info cards., gets very repetitive and some weeks can be overwhelming depending on how many and how big the PM's are. - - - Updated - - - You can send them to many places but again I would look for a local Bosch certified fuel systems rebuild and test shop locally if possible.

This thread is almost 2 years old and the OP never returned to let us know what was up.After reading through his posts the pyro was one of two thoughts, the other was he hinted that he didn't know if a previous owner had swapped injectors which is what I think he was seeing results of since it had a non stock turbo on it as well.I guess we will never know since he never came back to let us know.

I would park it and drop the tranny pan and look for signs of failure in the form of lots of metal, clutch fiber or chunks before driving it any more.Have you checked for codes in the pcm?

To be able to give better troubleshooting advice I need to see what the pistons and the main and rod bearings look like. Namely on the pistons I need to see what it looks like between the ring glands and coloring of the bottom of the piston to see if it was run hot.

Your trailers air conditioning unit is AC and will not run off your pickups DC system. Yes you will need at least a 3000w generator to run your campers "AC/ Alternating current" powered "AC/Air conditioning" unit.

Try to keep it under 250 at max. 250 is already very hot but other than breaking down the oil faster you are not doing tranny damage yet anything over that for any lenth of time starts to make things go bad.

What ever OEM 3rd gen trac bar you can get the cheapest, I would suggest going to rockauto for that and getting the adapter bracket from what ever company sells them the cheapest as well.

Yep gotta go thrugh the laundry pile for the least smelly shirt!