Case 9030B excavator, 5.9L Cummins

[sdan27]

This is the first oil sample I've taken from a Case 9030B excavator we bought for the farm a couple years ago. We use it for clearing ditches and putting in drainage tile. The oil is a couple years old and was the first oil change we did on this unit using Service Pro 15w-40 and a Fleetguard LF3553 microglass filter. I did not drain the oil but I took the sample from a sample valve I installed on a port on top of the filter housing.

Hours 8220
Oil H 548

Iron 60
Chrm 11
Alum 4
Copp 42
Lead 10
Sili 12
Sodi 6
Pot 2
Moly 15
Mang 1
Boro 8
Magn 913
Calc 1513
Phos 1016
Zinc 1307

Fuel Soot .3%
H2O Visc 14.5
TBN 5.27
Oxid 15
Nitr 11

I don't know any of the history on the unit. Being a piece of construction equipment, I can guess it may not have been serviced real great. The analysts were thinking that the copper is probably leaching from the oil cooler. We don't put very many hours on this unit a year so I'm kinda thinking I'll drain it and have to wait another couple years till there are enough hours to take another sample.

 

[Doug Hillary]

Hi,
sdan27 - By the hours on the lubricant and on average it seems to be about say 22k miles?

It is 548 Hours on the lubricant?

If so it's a good report IMO

 

[sdan27]

Yep, 548 hours. Machine had just over 7600 hours total when we got it and I changed the oil.

 

[RiceCake]

I disagree; most construction equipment is immaculately maintained, because it tens to be very expensive.

Now, if you bought the thing used after its been sold through three different companies and you bought it off a farm, well, then I'd be more concerned.

Looks alright all things considered.

 

[dnewton3]

The Cu is the only thing to watch here.

Will not know it's origin until you run another UOA or two, and see if it escalates or settles. Only then will you know what's up.


Overall, nice report; all other metals look good for 550 hours. Even the Fe could be run out a bit further.

Low fuel; low soot; good TBN.

Every reason to extend if the Cu issue can be determined.

 

[MaxPF]

The oil cooler is not the only place you find copper in a Cummins b series. There are three other locations: cam bearing, rod bearings, and main bearings.

There is only one cam bearing: it supports journal #1. All other cam journals ride in bores bored into the block, with no bearing inserts. When I removed the cam from mine, I found the cam bearing was plain copper, with no other overlay that I saw. I do not know if it ever had an overlay, but the fit was nice and tight and there were no signs of any overlay so I don't think it ever did. Unless there is an oiling issue there should never be any wear on this bearing.

The main and rod bearings are both steel-copper-babbit layered bearings (tri-metal). As a rule, the mains will never wear out. Here are what the main bearings looked like in my Cummins (mileage unknown at this point):

As you can see, there is no real wear on these main bearings. The rod bearings were another matter. The rod bearings are susceptible to having the babbit on the upper shell worn away due to lugging, while the lower shell gets a peculiar looking mark in it caused by cavitation erosion. From what I have read, all the lowers will eventually get the cavitation erosion mark, but it causes no harm to the engine. Here are a pair of rod bearing shells from my engine. Upper shell is on the right, while the lower shell is on the left:

You can see the triangular shaped cavitation erosion mark on the lower shell (left). Like I mentioned, all Cummins rod bearings will eventually get this mark, and it is harmless. The upper shell is another matter. This engine was obviously routinely lugged, although it is possible any high miler will show this wear.

Since the underlying copper is exposed, it stands to reason that some of it will slowly wear away and increase the copper levels in the oil. Now, IF this happens to all Cummins B series engines with high enough miles/hours, then it is possible this could be the culprit.

FWIW, the crank surfaces were still perfectly fine so I replaced the rod bearings and have been running this engine ever since.