This was the original UOA I did on our Sprinter when I was considering adding a bypass filter and doing extended oil change intervals. It was done prior to adding the bypass filter.

Up to this point, I had always pretty followed the ASSYST maintenance computer's oil quality sensor and had changed out at the recommended interval (generally every 12K to 14K.)

I did change out just the full-flow filter early fairly often however (anywhere from every 5K to 8K miles) since it was cheap ($7), so easy to do, and because virtually no oil was lost.

Those are some fantastic numbers... Good Stuff!

Thanks Stevie !

As you see in a moment, it doesn't do anything but get better.

This next UOA was done with almost 2K more on the OC - but at around 14K in (IIRC) I added the bypass filter - one of Ralph Wood's Motor Guard units.

This is the most recent UOA. It is a similar amount into the OC as my last analysis - but the difference is that this OC was run on the bypass filter the entire time it has been in the vehicle.

The oil currently has about 19K miles on it, and I'll be pulling a sample at 25K to see what it looks like then.

To those that say that Mobil 1 delivers high wear numbers, I say .....

I don't know much about UOA's but I do know that they are looking good. I do how ever have one thing to ask, why dose the TBN get higher the longer of a OCI he runs?

No, lower.

TBN is Total Base Number. It's the life left in the oil.

J,

If you look at the two most recent oil changes you will notice that I added 2 and 3 quarts, respectively, of "make up" oil - in order to compensate for the oil I lose from changing the bypass filter elements (and a little bit that the engine uses or burns)

On the 1st oil analysis, there was no bypass filter installed and so no "make up" oil was added at all (and the TBN shows lower)

On the second analysis, the bypass filter was installed for the first time - late in the oil change interval. Between the initial installation (which required 1 quart of additional oil ) and changing the filter once or twice, 2 quarts total were added - each time I change the filter element I have to add roughly 1/2 quart of oil - this occurred late in game - which elevated the TBN.

On the current oil change, the bypass filter media was changed 6 times in 15K miles - or 3 quarts of make up oil.

Make sense ?

Do you need to change it that often ? The filter media that is. I have read you can just use a toilet paper roll ? Is this true ?

Looking at those calcium #'s, this may be a better oil to use in Nissan light diesels than Delvac 1.
Nissan generally void warranty if anything higher specced than CF-4 oil is used, and most all Japanese manufacturers specify 3000ppm+ of calcium.

I dunno .... it is a late model EGR diesel (very dirty - lotsa soot) ..... I'm kind of experimenting with the intervals at the moment ..... have to see at what point the filter loads up to the point of significantly reducing the flow through the filter. At any rate, it no big deal to change it really - it's easy, takes 5 minutes or less, and there is little to no mess involved.


Yes, it is ..... I've been using single-ply Scott 1000 (about $0.71 per roll from the local Walmart) ..... I'm gonna try out the high priced spread though - I just picked up an 80 roll case of Kimberly Clarke 004460 from Fastenal (about $1 per roll)

On the last run, a TBN of 8 is close to the virgin oil TBN - I'd bet you could get 30k mile OCI's on this set-up. Well done.

Hey addguy !


Well, relatively close I guess - Mobil lists the TBN as 11.3 here:

Mobil 1 0w40


Actually, it's looking more like at least 35K .... :possibly much more .... grin: ..... (see attached report)


Thanks - I'm very happy thus far.

I've managed to rack up another 10K miles since my last analysis in early December and the engine oil has not been changed for 25K miles .... that made me sorta nervous, never having done this before .... so last night after I delivered my load in San Antonio, I pulled a sample and Fedex'ed it overnight to Blackstone.

This afternoon I got the analysis back and I'm breathing a little easier. The report was a good one, with nothing out of the ordinary ..... Blackstone says run it another 10K miles and check it again. My guess is they might be prone to err on the conservative side, so I might able to run it even further.

At any rate, while the tests cost something (and possibly make it closer to a wash economically) they are helping me to develop a statistical history as to how quick the oil degrades with my setup. At some point, I will decrease the frequency of the testing - perhaps the next time I completely change out the oil I won't initially test until 35K miles or so into the oil change.

Another thing I am contemplating is adding an Amsoil EaBP spin-on as a prefilter to the Motor Guard bypass. This would do several things.

1. Increase the sump size by at least a quart (up to four quarts for the big EaBP)

2. Reduce the frequency of the toilet paper element changes, thereby

3. Lessening the amount of make-up oil needed over the life of an oil change.

(Note: the 5 1/4 quarts of make up added since the last full oil change on the current analysis includes the 3 quarts previously mentioned in the prior analysis)

Nice to know that Blackstone doesn't really know much about TAN's problem levels...I guess I won't be using them if I request one!

Hi,
rlent - The TAN at 1.5 is quite acceptable. I have run many engines with the OC TAN at around 7 - wear and corrosion has been most acceptable

When TAN reaches around 6 and TBN is around 2 (D4739) a change is almost mandatory in your case

Yeah Roc ..... I found that comment interesting ..... kinda odd. I dunno if would read all that much into it ... could be a trainee that did the commentary or something ... point would be informing oneself about TAN levels so that one could evaluate it - plenty of resources here for that I would think.

FWIW, they did a TAN on a VOA of my transmission fluid (I had asked for a TBN I believe and perhaps that was not appropiraand it came back at 2.3 and the commentary was "kind of acidic, keep than in mind when comparing UOA's for this fluid." They had also done a UOA on the fluid just prior and it read 2.4 .... so I gotta think (from what little I know - which is about nothing) that 1.5 on a UOA from the engine oil ain't really much of problem.

What I'm curious about is why they don't do many TAN's on engine oil ..... could be most folks aren't extending all that much (if at all) and don't wanna shell out the extra coin ..... dunno ....