Originally Posted By: Solarent
Originally Posted By: clintonhutson
Originally Posted By: demarpaint
At this stage of the game a UOA is going to show high wear metals from the engine breaking in. That is normal and no mystery. Aside from telling if there is coolant in the oil, which you can tell by watching the coolant level where's the value? If the coolant level is full and remains full you'll have no problems with coolant in the oil. If the coolant level goes down you have a leak, take it back to the dealer it's under warranty. Sorry the way I see it a UOA in this instance is a complete waste of $$.
I'd save the money from the UOA and use it toward an oil change, we already know the wear metals will be high.
Now after the engine is broken and you've logged 15,000 miles or so, you want to do a UOA or two, then go for it. Follow the owners manual for your OCI you'll be fine for now.
Nice truck drive it in good health!
Thank you sir! And I am starting to think I will hold off for a few OCI's and let the engine really break in before I do my first UOA.
The real value in UOA is following the trend over time, if you have a strong trend - represented by numerous samples then you can get a real feel for how the oil is performing in your engine. If you skip samples, then you might miss out on some statistical points which could be helpful when viewed in context of the entire group. Since you aren't worried about the money, I would just start doing UOA right away. You will hopefully see a progressive decrease in wear metals as the engine breaks in (its probably not worth it to test the factory fill)and then settle into your routine - which will get you into the starting point for working your way up to your 10K mile OCI.
This entire exercise will prove to be useful in learning about your truck and about how to follow the UOA trend. It will also give you points of comparison if you get a spike in something in future UOA result, and give you an opportunity to compare your UOA vs the OLM which can also be very instructive on things like your driving habits and engine stresses.
If you have a good trend and know how to read it there is tons of things you can pick out about your engine, operating conditions and the way these affects your engine oil performance. But one UOA isn't going to give you that, you need multiple samples over an extended period of time. So if you start right away you will only be adding to the accuracy of your overall program.
Ok I can agree with that outlook whole-heartedly! Thank you...that actually sounds like the best course of action.