Oil Analysis Readings

[Andyba20]

Have any of you ever had an oil analysis performed? Curious what others have gotten back. Can’t say I fully understand the report or what the thresholds should be, but the guy who did it seemed surprised at how good everything looked at nearly 300K and 3,400 miles on the oil. Rotella 15w40 and Mopar filter.

[Mopar1973Man]

300k miles is low miles on a Cummins. These engine will go over a million miles.

[Great work!]

Oil analysis tells you about the oil more than engine wear in my opinion. Look for high silicon or copper that's usually from wear. Any fuel residue over 4 % indicates needs looked into especially on electronic injectors. I send in lots of Rotella for tests it's good stuff. The Cat red coolant is good stuff too. 

[Dieselfuture]

I've done a few and never understood the whole things look normal thing. Normal to what? Then these always some trace of whatever they find, how do you determine what's what. I gave up on the whole oil analysis, figured lots of people put lots of miles with regular maintenance no point to keep testing.

[Mopar1973Man]

When you see hotshot guys putting over a million miles on a Cummins with standard Chevron Delo 15w-40. Like the last time I pull my head to replace the gasket my cylinder walls still have cross hatch yet at 438k miles. Looking good.

 

[Doubletrouble]

8 hours ago, Mopar1973Man said:

Like the last time I pull my head to replace the gasket my cylinder walls still have cross hatch yet at 438k miles. Looking good

 That's awesome! I'm hoping to have my truck for a long long time. Only have 162k on the clock now. Lots of life left in her.

[wil440]

I use Cat oil analysis on ever service I do, I am a Mobile Plant Mechanic, work for myself and look after 12 or 13 sites for one customer, Cat, Volvo, JCB, Bobcat and others

 

Everything is sampled at 500hr intervals and In my opinion formed over 40 years Cat is the benchmark for oil lab analysis

 

Your result is good

Tiny bit of iron so no crank or cam or valve train  wear

No aluminium

No copper, chrome, lead or tin to speak of so no crank or cam wear and no crank or cam bearing wear 

No sodium or dirt to speak of so nothing is getting in and your air cleaners are doing what they were supposed to do

No soot to speak of so valve guides/rings are good (if this was high on a modern engine a EGR cooler would be in the firing line)

No fuel, water or glycol found in the engine oil so HG good

 

I recently had a coolant sample back for a Volvo L110E with the Duetz engine in it, Nitrates were a little high and the colour for Cat ELC coolant not quite right, just a little dull when I sampled it, I noted that on the sample ticket, when it came back to me I went to take a look, did a Snap On combustion gas test and yep headgasket gone, caught it before it boiled up so just a headgasket no more damage, on further checking the water pump had been cavitating and had almost spark eroded a neat line alongside each vane both sides

 

fluid sampling saves money, in my job oils were changed at set hrs yes engine oil every service but trans, hydraulic and axles at 2000hrs now the oil lab says when trans, hyd and axles oils are changed, saves a fortune as 45 gallon barrels in each compartment is easy 

[Andyba20]

@wil440 thanks for the explanation, very cool. The shop I used is local, called Utility Laboratories in Knoxville. Kind of a neat story, the founder was a nuclear scientist at the Oak Ridge Nuclear Lab and invented the machine they use like 35 years ago. His nephew runs it now and the way he explained it the sample is blasted through a flame and measured by the color of the flame? Nice guy, though he’s worried his market is dwindling quickly with all the non petroleum based vehicles that are taking over, especially fleets. 

[wil440]

12 minutes ago, Andyba20 said:

@wil440 thanks for the explanation, very cool. The shop I used is local, called Utility Laboratories in Knoxville. Kind of a neat story, the founder was a nuclear scientist at the Oak Ridge Nuclear Lab and invented the machine they use like 35 years ago. His nephew runs it now and the way he explained it the sample is blasted through a flame and measured by the color of the flame? Nice guy, though he’s worried his market is dwindling quickly with all the non petroleum based vehicles that are taking over, especially fleets. 

It will be awhile before a Cat777 dumptruck is all electric yes the heavy dumptrucks are electric drive but have a monster diesel to generate the power, this is only because electric drive gets rid of a transmission changing gear which means for a split second on a climb there is a very small period of time where the trans is in neutral which breaks drivelines when hauling heavy 150 ton and up, electric is linear so much less breakages

[AH64ID]

I’ve ran lots of reports over the years and agree it looks good, but I don’t see a label for the contaminates.
 

Most wear metals are ppm, so those numbers are good. 
 

Soot is usually percent, and 2% is high for that generation of engine and such low miles on the oil. 
 

Speaking of which, 3400 miles is nothing for oil and too soon to sample and get any real idea of what’s happening. That’s less than 1/2 of the miles of the shortest interval I ever sampled at. 
 

TBN is missing, the #1 indicator of oil life remaining. Oxidation is also missing. 
 

Viscosity is an odd reading at 150. It should be between 12.5 and 16.3 for 40wt oils. 
 

Don’t let @Mopar1973Mandisuade you. Very few of these engines go over a million miles without a major overhaul, very few. Use and oil don’t matter, that just a lot of miles for a relatively small displacement motor. 
 

I no longer do regular UOA’s since I didn’t find it financially viable. I did like seeing the data and how the engine ran and different results based on different use, but none of that will save me a penny in maintenance. I change my oil once a year or every 15K miles, whichever comes first. I run great oil filters and I call it good. I could probably extend the OCI out, but at the cost of the UOI I may as well just change the oil. 
 

There is absolutely a time and place for UOA, but my personal use doesn’t fit that mold. 

[wil440]

5 hours ago, AH64ID said:

Soot is usually percent, and 2% is high for that generation of engine and such low miles on the oil. 
 

Speaking of which, 3400 miles is nothing for oil and too soon to sample and get any real idea of what’s happening. That’s less than 1/2 of the miles of the shortest interval I ever sampled at. 

You're right, I totally missed the miles on the oil ... my fault for not seeing that, if you take average MPH say at 30 then it's at a little over 110

As for viscosity it depends what standard it's measured with see sample below also see soot levels

Here is a engine oil sample of a Cat 950H loading shovel, lab is Finning which is the Cat dealer for the UK, Cat set the sample standards and the dealers have to follow

couldn't convert it from a PDF though

 

oil sample.pdf

Edited November 29, 2021 by wil440

[AH64ID]

Yes it does depend on where the viscosity is measured. The two normal temps are 40°C and 100°C. The OP’s test doesn’t appear to have been taken at either temp, or it’s REALLY thick. T4 Rotella 15w-40 has a viscosity of 118 at 40°C. 150 @ 40°C is what a straight 40 weight oil is, not a multi grade. 
 

I’d like to see their scale for soot. 

 

[Sycostang67]

I'll send in a sample to Blackstone once in a while, last one was good, silicone was bit high but otherwise clean.  

[AH64ID]

Silicone is likely from a bad air filter. 
 

Do you do Blackstone with TBN? 

[YeaImDylan]

On 11/28/2021 at 10:06 PM, AH64ID said:

I’ve ran lots of reports over the years and agree it looks good, but I don’t see a label for the contaminates.
 

Most wear metals are ppm, so those numbers are good. 
 

Soot is usually percent, and 2% is high for that generation of engine and such low miles on the oil. 
 

Speaking of which, 3400 miles is nothing for oil and too soon to sample and get any real idea of what’s happening. That’s less than 1/2 of the miles of the shortest interval I ever sampled at. 
 

TBN is missing, the #1 indicator of oil life remaining. Oxidation is also missing. 
 

Viscosity is an odd reading at 150. It should be between 12.5 and 16.3 for 40wt oils. 
 

Don’t let @Mopar1973Mandisuade you. Very few of these engines go over a million miles without a major overhaul, very few. Use and oil don’t matter, that just a lot of miles for a relatively small displacement motor. 
 

I no longer do regular UOA’s since I didn’t find it financially viable. I did like seeing the data and how the engine ran and different results based on different use, but none of that will save me a penny in maintenance. I change my oil once a year or every 15K miles, whichever comes first. I run great oil filters and I call it good. I could probably extend the OCI out, but at the cost of the UOI I may as well just change the oil. 
 

There is absolutely a time and place for UOA, but my personal use doesn’t fit that mold. 

15k!? Do you run one of those bypass oil filters as well? I notice my truck start to run kinda different in a negative way I'd say at about 6/7k Whatever I ran it to last oil change a few weeks ago, I felt a difference in the truck after changing it out. I may just be delusional though.

[AH64ID]

1 hour ago, YeaImDylan said:

15k!? Do you run one of those bypass oil filters as well? I notice my truck start to run kinda different in a negative way I'd say at about 6/7k Whatever I ran it to last oil change a few weeks ago, I felt a difference in the truck after changing it out. I may just be delusional though.

I ran one in the past but don’t anymore. 
 

I’ve never felt a difference changing oil, if you do there is something wrong with your OCI or oil. Most likely it was placebo thou. 

[Dieselfuture]

I found out that if I don't throw parts at my truck for no reason once in awhile it gets angry

[Sycostang67]

23 hours ago, AH64ID said:

Silicone is likely from a bad air filter. 
 

Do you do Blackstone with TBN? 

 

I did not do the TBN, I may try it next time.  Their comment on the silicone was air filter as well.