5000 miles on 7.3L Powerstroke, Schaefers 9000

[sdan27]

I had about 450,000 miles on the original 7.3L in my F250 so I bought a used one with only about 230,000 off ebay and swapped it in. I changed mains & rods, front and rear main seals and a few other items. When I had the pan off, everything seemed to be in pretty good shape even though I suspect it may have been sitting awhile as a lot of the external components were starting to get a little rusted up. I used Schaeffer's 5w-40 because I like how much easier the engine starts in the cold ( even though this past winter was pretty mild ). I'm hoping I can go at least 20-30k miles. I'm using a Fleetguard LF9691 which uses full flow and bypass filtration. I did not change the oil here, only drew a sample.

Iron 25
Alum 2
Copp 6
Lead 13
Tin 4
Sili 42
Sod 11
Moly 327
Anti 275
Bor 4
Mag 762
Calc 1204
Bar 1
Phos 1028
Zinc 1199

Fuel Soot H2O TBN 5.59
Oxi 11
Nit 7

Vis 100c 13.1

They mentioned my Silicon being high but I think that is from all the RTV I used on the gaskets and seals I replaced. Lead and Iron are both a little higher than I'd like but do you think its something I should worry about or just continue on and do another UOA at 10,000 and see how things look?

 

[chubbs1]

Stout additive pack! The only thing I would be slightly concerned about is lead, did they give you universal avg's for wear on that engine? The rest is fine for that engine...that baby has some miles!

With a TBN of 5.x, I would monitor at 10-15k to see if you have enough base left to extend the drain so long. Right now it isn't looking like it will make 20-30k. Just a thought.

 

[salesrep]

I'd roll on and see what it looks like down the road.

 

[JR]

i second salesrep.
i run delvac 7+k in my 97 f250hd

kc

 

[Colt45ws]

I would keep going.

 

[Boczech]

x 2

 

[dnewton3]

To be honest, 25ppm of Fe is a bit high for 5k miles, but it's not at a danger point yet, so I'd say go ahead and run it. The Fe might be from some interal rust that will be flushed upon the next OCI. The 13ppm of Pb is also high for 5k miles. It's not like this is "break in" wear, after all ...

I would concur that the Si is probably from the sealants.

If it were me, I would not have used this oil for the first load. Instead, I would have run a couple of 5k mile OCIs with inexpensive dino HDEO to "flush" out the unknown stuff, and then start to see where the engine is at wear wise.

I'd say it's OK to keep going, but the real question is:
For how long? You should be concerned with both wear rates, and total wear, as well as other parameters. You should track TBN, soot/insolubles, etc. More often than not, people will completely ignore setting upper limits for the wear metals, and focus on the "lowest is best" mentality. But that does NOT establish true limits for oil use; rather, it is a pie-in-the-sky wish list. The goal is NOT to get the lowest number in a UOA; the goal should be to get the most miles from a sump load. To do that, you have to establish the point(s) at which you would condemn the lube.

In no way do I think it's time to change oil, but I also see no ability to make it to 30k miles, mostly because you probably have a "tainted" load of residual stuff, and you have yet to establish what your condemnation limits are.

 

[Vstrom]

So what was wrong with the original with 450,000 on it? I'm hoping to make 500,000 on my 7.3L Powerstroke. Almost at 200,000 now.
There would be some break in wear since you changed rod and main bearings, correct?

BTW the oil pan is originally stuck on with some Wacker stuff, not sure regular ole RTV will suffice there.

I agree with another poster, I probably would have run some cheap oil through to "flush" the internals well.
Of course the 7.3L is tough to flush as several quarts remain behind during an oil change.

 

[bullwinkle]

Get it good and HOT when you change the oil-you'll get a lot more of the old oil out when you change it. Give it a good workout and retest again after a couple more 6-7K OCIs-bet it looks a lot better then!

 

[sdan27]

The original motor still ran great and everything, just had a lot of blow by and used a lot of oil. I did a compression test about a year earlier and all cylinders were right around 300 psi, about 100 psi low. I think a lot of that might have come from when I'd have issues with my glow plug relay or glow plugs themselves so I'd have to use starting fluid to get it going when it was cold out. I think that just kind of took its toll. I kind of thought about using a different oil and going shorter changes at first but other than taking the heads off, I had the engine all apart and most all the old oil cleaned out so I didn't think it would be much of an issue. I used the special grey rtv/silicone that they recommend for the oil pan which seems to be holding up so far.