2014 Ram 1500 - Sound Like a Decent Plan?

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Originally Posted By: sopususer
Congrats on the new truck. QSUD and the Fram Ultra sound like an excellent choice to me.

Did you get the 8-speed tranny? Anxious to hear how the 8-speed and the Hemi are on fuel. Sounds like a very nice truck.



Friend of mine has one of the 8speed trucks, and believe it or not, they are not really getting any better mpg than what my '11 5speed is getting.....
 
I am on the second run of QSUD 0w20 in my '11 Hemi Ram, with Fram Ultra. I'm seeing ~7-8k on the oil change monitor. Seems to work fine. I may try the M1 AFE 0w20 next time around though.
 
QSUD and Fram Ultra is an excellent combo. Wonder if you can get 15k out of them. Not while under warranty of course. But later on.
 
Originally Posted By: dave1251
This.

Also Chrysler did the work for you determining a conservative OCI. The only reason other than making sure there is no coolant in your oil to do a UOA is to help determinate a OCI.


Understandable. The reason I would like to do the UOA is to stretch my OCI's on out to that 10,000 mile mark or so if I can. I don't see any need dropping perfectly good oil.
 
Originally Posted By: 901Memphis
If you can afford a brand new pickup I'm guessing the UOA is affordable too. No harm in doing a uoa when new if you understand metals will be elevated. Hopefully you will use it to guide you towards the 10k mark if it's capable.


That is exactly my thoughts. Hit the nail on the head.
 
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 $$.
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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.
 
Originally Posted By: rraiderr
I ran Amsoil XL in my 5.7 Hemi and it did a great job even when towing cross country in the heat.

Also did well in the below 0 weather in winter.



Amsoil makes some good products that's for sure. But from the price standpoint and the shorter OCI's for warranty requirements, I can't justify the price. Now after my warranty is up...that's a different story. I might go with something along the lines of the Signature Series so I can really feel confident about stretching those drain intervals.
 
Originally Posted By: Clevy
Originally Posted By: clintonhutson
Originally Posted By: dave1251
Sounds sound. But forget the UOA's until your engine is broken in or forget them at all since you are going to use the factory recommendation as your determining factory for OCI's.


I understand that the UOA's will be skewed to an extent until the engine is broken in, so I can agree with that comment. But may I ask why forget the UOA's all together? If the oil is still good at 7,000-8,000 miles...I won't be changing it until then. And I also like the doing the UOA's just because it gives me a little insight at how everything is doing inside my engine. Again, just kind of gives me that warm and fuzzy feeling.


Huh?
A used oil analysis tells you the condition of your oil,that's it. The 25 dollar used oil analysis we get aren't able to tell you the condition of your engine,just what kind of shape the oil is in.
Don't try to read something that isn't there,nor can it be.


I've used UOA's to help diagnose a cracked cylinder head in my old Jeep based on coolant in the oil. So a UOA can definitely tell you about the condition of your engine.
 
Originally Posted By: dave1251
Dealers do not deny anything. Manufactures honor or deny warranty. Using a part that meets or exceeds warranty requirements does not equal excuse.

I doubt you have had any warranty work done on your vehicles. Am I correct?


Why would you even risk giving a dealer or a company any wiggle room while under factory warranty on a new expensive vehicle? I don't understand that line of thinking? By the way Fram Oil Filters are complete Junk! I don't care if its not a base model. I would never use one period!
 
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Originally Posted By: RISUPERCREWMAN
Originally Posted By: dave1251
Dealers do not deny anything. Manufactures honor or deny warranty. Using a part that meets or exceeds warranty requirements does not equal excuse.

I doubt you have had any warranty work done on your vehicles. Am I correct?


Why would you even risk giving a dealer or a company any wiggle room while under factory warranty on a new expensive vehicle? I don't understand that line of thinking? By the way Fram Oil Filters are complete Junk! I don't care if its not a base model. I would never use one period!


I understand your thought process to an extent. And I have heard of the old Fram horror stories...but can I ask you this? How many engines have you personally seen fail JUST because they were running a Fram filter.

Personally, my father has ran a Fram EXTRAGUARD filter for the last 10-15 years. He's had multiple vehicles with over 200,000 as well as over 300,000 miles. Never had an issue. All of this with Castrol GTX which he swears by.

Who makes the Mopar filter for these trucks if anyone knows? I know for my Cummins the Mopar filter is made by Fleetgaurd.

And as far as I've heard, the Fram Ultra is one of the best filters for the money you can buy.
 
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 $$.
27.gif
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.
 
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 $$.
27.gif
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.
 
As long as QSUD meets Chrysler's spec, sounds like a good plan. I wouldn't waste money on UOAs. I'd step up a notch to PP, but that's just my opinion. Change by OLM, time, or mileage -- whichever comes first.
 
Originally Posted By: kkreit01
As long as QSUD meets Chrysler's spec, sounds like a good plan. I wouldn't waste money on UOAs. I'd step up a notch to PP, but that's just my opinion. Change by OLM, time, or mileage -- whichever comes first.


It does meet Chrysler's spec. And honestly, anything to do with the inner-workings of a vehicle, is very intriguing to me. So the UOA's just add to that for me.

And aren't the QSUD and the PP both incredibly close as far as additive packs, base stocks, etc goes? I know they are both SOPUS products. I have also seen some VOA's of the two and they seem very comparable.
 
Originally Posted By: D189379
I've used UOA's to help diagnose a cracked cylinder head in my old Jeep based on coolant in the oil. So a UOA can definitely tell you about the condition of your engine.

Absolutely, but that's not even remotely similar to the ideas trotted out here regularly to compare how an engine wears on Brand X to Brand Y by comparing UOAs. UOAs test for water content and intrusion of sodium and potassium. That's the whole point.
 
Originally Posted By: Garak
Originally Posted By: D189379
I've used UOA's to help diagnose a cracked cylinder head in my old Jeep based on coolant in the oil. So a UOA can definitely tell you about the condition of your engine.

Absolutely, but that's not even remotely similar to the ideas trotted out here regularly to compare how an engine wears on Brand X to Brand Y by comparing UOAs. UOAs test for water content and intrusion of sodium and potassium. That's the whole point.


Agreed. I really don't plan on changing to another oil brand based on the UOA...just wanted to adjust my OCI's to get full use of the oil. The only reason I would change is if I really don't like how the oil shows to be performing in my particular application. And I will also change a ways down the road when my warranty is up to take advantage of extended OCI's.
 
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