miles on truck: 5537
miles on oil: 1708
oil type: Mobil1 10W30 SM/CF
Cu 7
Fe 28
Cr 1
Al 3
Pb 0
Sn 0
Si 3
Na 5
K 4
Mo 88
Ni 1
Ca 2631
Mg 14
Zn 965
P 820
Soot 0
Oxidation 14
Nitration 7
Sulfation 18
Water neg
Antifreeze neg
Fuel 2.98%
V100 9.9
This is not a normal UOA. Here's the story behind it:
This truck is a member of Ford's press fleet to show off the new 6.7L diesel. Ford puts extra fuel in cylinder
during DPF regen, and claims to be able to do so without oil dilution problems with B20. However, they do
recommend using only 5W40 or 15W40 when running B20, but allow as light as 0W30 when running petro diesel. We did
a little experiment to see for ourselves.
The oil was changed at the start of the trip but the wrong oil was mistakenly used for fill (wasn't CJ-4). The
truck was driven by a journalist/hypermiler I know from the press launch in Phoenix to Chicago with the goal of
getting maximum fuel economy. That means very low speeds, loads, and temperatures. I think it went through a
regen ~ 4-6 times, with total regen time of ~ 1 hour. It was also run on B20, so we might have been pretty close
to the worst-case scenario for getting fuel in oil. He stopped by my house along the way and I pulled a sample
and sent it in to a CAT dealer for analysis.
More details of this trip can be found here: If you're curious, he got 28mpg on the trip.
Questions for the experts:
1) Would you expect the wrong oil to have any effect on fuel in oil?
2) How much fuel in oil would make you nervous? Is 3% @ 1700 miles scary?
3) Would you expect results on the same truck 20k miles later to be any different? Perhaps the rings aren't
"broke in" enough yet to seal properly.
4) If you were running B20 in this truck and doing UOA to set OCI's to avoid dilution problems, what values would
you be watching? Just % fuel, or something else like viscosity?
5) Would you expect fuel in oil to keep going up ~ linearly under the same conditions, or would you expect it to
slow down and approach an equilibrium?
6) I'm sure that the way this truck was operated is far from typical, but I have no idea how much less fuel in oil
we'd see for more commong operating conditions (lots of idle time in the cold, for example). Have any guesses?
miles on oil: 1708
oil type: Mobil1 10W30 SM/CF
Cu 7
Fe 28
Cr 1
Al 3
Pb 0
Sn 0
Si 3
Na 5
K 4
Mo 88
Ni 1
Ca 2631
Mg 14
Zn 965
P 820
Soot 0
Oxidation 14
Nitration 7
Sulfation 18
Water neg
Antifreeze neg
Fuel 2.98%
V100 9.9
This is not a normal UOA. Here's the story behind it:
This truck is a member of Ford's press fleet to show off the new 6.7L diesel. Ford puts extra fuel in cylinder
during DPF regen, and claims to be able to do so without oil dilution problems with B20. However, they do
recommend using only 5W40 or 15W40 when running B20, but allow as light as 0W30 when running petro diesel. We did
a little experiment to see for ourselves.
The oil was changed at the start of the trip but the wrong oil was mistakenly used for fill (wasn't CJ-4). The
truck was driven by a journalist/hypermiler I know from the press launch in Phoenix to Chicago with the goal of
getting maximum fuel economy. That means very low speeds, loads, and temperatures. I think it went through a
regen ~ 4-6 times, with total regen time of ~ 1 hour. It was also run on B20, so we might have been pretty close
to the worst-case scenario for getting fuel in oil. He stopped by my house along the way and I pulled a sample
and sent it in to a CAT dealer for analysis.
More details of this trip can be found here: If you're curious, he got 28mpg on the trip.
Questions for the experts:
1) Would you expect the wrong oil to have any effect on fuel in oil?
2) How much fuel in oil would make you nervous? Is 3% @ 1700 miles scary?
3) Would you expect results on the same truck 20k miles later to be any different? Perhaps the rings aren't
"broke in" enough yet to seal properly.
4) If you were running B20 in this truck and doing UOA to set OCI's to avoid dilution problems, what values would
you be watching? Just % fuel, or something else like viscosity?
5) Would you expect fuel in oil to keep going up ~ linearly under the same conditions, or would you expect it to
slow down and approach an equilibrium?
6) I'm sure that the way this truck was operated is far from typical, but I have no idea how much less fuel in oil
we'd see for more commong operating conditions (lots of idle time in the cold, for example). Have any guesses?