Best oil for pre-emissions mechanical diesels? CK4 showing high wear.

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Hey guys...

Trying to figure out the best diesel oil out there for our older mechanical pre-emissions diesels. We switched to Delo 5w40 (CK-4) and our iron wear metals went through the roof on our last two OAs (225+ on 4k changes). This was on a 7.3 IDI with just under 300k on the clock.

No known issues other than wear metals showing higher than they should be. Previous analysis was showing high but not extreme. Iron wear went from 95 to 225 (now up to 257) since switching to the 5w40 CK4/SN oil using a Motorcraft FL1995 filter.

All wear metals are showing a fairly substantial increase (Iron being the highest).

The engine seems to run fine... no excess blow by and no noises or oil pressure issues which leads me to think its the change in oil that lead to the increase in wear metals.

Could I be way off track?

We are hunting for an engine for the truck just to have on hand just in case of failure.

Thanks for any input.
 
I would (AND DO) run garden variety 15W40, or even straight SAE 30, in a 7.3 IDI (like the '89 F-450 in my sig), I don't think I would use full syn 5W40 of any type in it, it would leak it badly & likely burn it too. I have to ask-have you been adding & monitoring your coolant SCA levels? That will kill an IDI 7.3 faster than anything! If mine ever blows, I'm putting a 12 valve Cummins 5.9 in it without looking back.
 
Switched from Rotella 15w40 to Delo 15w40 due to oil consumption issues. For some reason, the IDI liked to drink Rotella but doesn't with Delo. After oil leaks were fixed, switched to Delo 5w40. I'll try to post it up in a bit.
 
Originally Posted by bullwinkle
I would (AND DO) run garden variety 15W40, or even straight SAE 30, in a 7.3 IDI (like the '89 F-450 in my sig), I don't think I would use full syn 5W40 of any type in it, it would leak it badly & likely burn it too. I have to ask-have you been adding & monitoring your coolant SCA levels? That will kill an IDI 7.3 faster than anything! If mine ever blows, I'm putting a 12 valve Cummins 5.9 in it without looking back.


In this truck, coolant gets changed yearly with precharged fleet charge and we monitor the SCAs. We like the IDI for its fondness of alternative fuels.

This last oil analysis was with straight pump diesel just to rule out fuel issues.
 
I found that Mystik JT-8 is CI-4+ rated.

Amsoil 15w40 Marine Diesel oil is CI-4 spec as well. Seeing good things on it. I'll likely switch some of the healthier engines in my fleet over to that in the future.
 
Looking at your UOA, there's no "best oil" that's going to stop the wear.

Two choices here:

1) continue to run it until it stops running; might as well buy the cheapest lube you can find (any house brand 15w-40 or straight 30 HDEO)
2) stop running it now and fix the issues (coolant leak; probably bad bearings; etc)
 
Originally Posted by dnewton3
Looking at your UOA, there's no "best oil" that's going to stop the wear.

Two choices here:

1) continue to run it until it stops running; might as well buy the cheapest lube you can find (any house brand 15w-40 or straight 30 HDEO)
2) stop running it now and fix the issues (coolant leak; probably bad bearings; etc)


As far as stopping the wear.... I know that. I just find it very coincidental that (although wear metals were high).. that the iron wear spiked to nearly 3x what it was on a CJ spec oil all else being the same.

I know it is on it's last legs.. it's had a hard 26 years. What I was asking about is if there was an oil that was more comparable to what is spec'd for the engine that would bring those wear numbers back down to a reasonable level all things considered.

It now has 15w40 back in it. We'll run it for a bit and send it off to see what's what.

Before I came on here asking questions.. I did quite a bit of digging and was finding others with older engines having similar issues (although not as bad) with wear metals increasing after switching to the CK-4 spec oil. Again.. not as high as this unit.. but doubling and tripling previous numbers.

I don't think that's coincidental.

Again.. not looking to stop wear all together as at this point in the game, it's not going to happen... but if we can slow it down a bit by running the oil that it was designed to have in it... then by all means, that's what we'll do.
 
Originally Posted by Mr4btTahoe

I don't think that's coincidental.


The anecdotal evidence you've seen lined up with what Ford saw when they decided to ditch CK-4 in favor of their own F1 spec. Interestingly, DELO is an oil that failed to make the cut. It has lower zinc/phosphorus than almost every other HDEO.

I think you've got a lot of choices to consider. First, you can switch to any oil on the F1 list. Another option might be to use a break-in additive for extra ZDDP. Another is the Amsoil option but that sounds very expensive. I think I'd personally just try an oil off the F1 list and see how it goes.
 
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I believe Chevron still makes their CJ-4 Delo 400 LE 15w40. If you have a Chevron distributor near you I would check with them.

Another possible temporary solution might be WM SuperTech 15w40 individual quarts. While the bigger containers are all CK-4 at my local store, the individual quarts are (at least the last time I checked) still CJ-4.
 
Chevron has really reduced the zinc on the Delo CK-4 oils.

Maybe other oils with higher zinc levels will help in your situation.

Rural King sells Delvac 1 ESP 5W-40 and the TDT 5W-40 for around 22 dollars a gallon. They still have the zinc levels above 1200 ppm for now. Mobil may change that in future, but, as of right now, the CK-4 versions are still above 1200 zinc. This is what we are using in older diesel equipment.
 
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