Missed this earlier and and thanks for posting it! ( : < ) It's great to finally see SOMETHING but I'm gonna tear at it a little because there are still a lot of unanswered questions.
It looks as if this was a pore blockage contamination analysis not an actual optical particle count. There is a BIG difference between the two types of tests! It looks exactly like the printout I get from Blackstone pore blockage tests, and I have had many done there. Since he also presents a Blackstone analysis with it, I am going to make a pretty certain assumption that's it's pore blockage.
I have found that pore blockage is "optimistic" compared to optical counts to the tune of about 30%. This is because the bore blockage tests are extrapolated by computer based on the flow restriction sensed when dirty oil is fed thru a filter screen (Blackstone commonly uses 10 or 15 um screens... 15 more often.) Optical counts are just that... each particle is actually, physically counted and the rig I have access to actually produces pictures of a representative sample of the particles. Here is example of the difference between the two methods:
Recently, 2010FX4 and I collaborated with some oil samples whereby we divvied up the oil from a particular bottle of virgin Mobile 5000. He sent samples to Blackstone for Pore Blockage and I sent samples to Parker Filtration for Optical testing Here are the results:
Code:
Mobil 5000 Super 5W20 SN (virgin)
Pore Blockage Optical
ISO 14/13/12 ISO 20/18/14
> 2um- 232 > 4um- 6076
> 5um- 86 > 6um- 1983
> 10um- 24 > 14um- 138
> 15um- 9
> 25um- 2
> 50um- 0
> 100um- 0
Big difference, huh? And this is only one of several samples that showed similar results. If we take the above TP bypass sample and add 30 percent to bring it roughly in line with an optical count, it becomes, something pretty close to the example I posted above.
So if the TP bypass sample is around20/18/14, that's at the clean end of the virgin oil particle counts I have, so we can say that at 6K miles the TP filter is keeping the oil to a level as clean as the virgin oil (though we don't know exactly what his oil is and where it started). 6K miles is really not a severe test but it's a snapshot and more info than I had before.
Going back to the differences between the tests, when comparing "particle counts," one need to know the test method or you simply can't compare them. Any particle count is most useful if you have before and after tests... all done on the same equipment.
That's what I have been doing with my truck. I took a sample of the virgin oil. Then I took a sample of the used oil at 5K with no bypass, then a sample at 10K after 5K with bypass and soon I will be taking a sample at 15K to see the end result. All sample will be tested on the same particle counter.