ISB305 First report- school me

[porkchop]

Truck is a 2003 dodge used light duty, for personel use. I was curious as to if the motor had reached breakin, since it has become noticeably lounder. This the first analysis on engine, always using Valvoline premium blue 15w40,sample run for 4214 miles/124 hrs over a three month period Jan.-April. Since I have no experience with oil test results asking forum for translation to laymans terms.......Thanks

Wear Metals
Fe 9
Cr 0
Si 2
Al 5
Pb 2
Sn 0
Cu 1
Na 2
K 9
B 127
Ag 1
Mo 92
Mg 10
Zn 1439
Ca 3433
Ba 0
P 1319

Oil Conditon particle Count
ST 9
OXI 7
NIT 29
Sul 9
Water Neg.
Antifreeze Neg.
Fuel Neg.
V100 13.9
V40 97.4

 

[nicrfe1370]

Okay porkchop, since no one else is helping out here, I will. Short answer: this report is awesome and this oil could easily go 3 or 4 times as long. Long answer, keep reading.
The first nine elements listed in your post are items you want to see the number as low as possible. Some are wear numbers (Fe, Al, PB, etc) and some are contaminants (Na and K). Na and K are ingredients in coolant, so if these numbers ever go above say 10 or 20 at the same time, worry about coolant getting in the oil. Not likely to happen to this beauty of a motor though. All your wear numbers are impressively low. Si is silicon which is mostly used to measure dirt that gets past your air filter. A reading of 2 is basically as good as it gets, very nice. B, Mo, Zn, Ca, and P are anti-wear ingredients the oil maker puts in the oil. The closer these stay to the levels you would find in unused oil (check the VOA section of the forums) the better. The oil you are using here appears to have a really strong additive package. Some oil analysis reports measure TBN (total base number) which is a measure of how much life the oil has left. Yours did not, but Ca, Zn, and P can give a person clues, and your oil here appears to have lots of life left. ST, OXI, and NIT we want to keep below 100 for sure, other than that they usually are mostly ignored.

 

[snoboy]

WOW porkchop that's an outstanding UOA for sure. The Cummins sure is gentle on oil. My goal is to get my PSD looking close to that.
Very well stated explanation of an oil analysis nicrfe1370.

snoboy

 

[porkchop]

Thank you for that great reply nicrfe1370. I'm thinking of submitting a virgin sample of Valvoline PB 15w40 so I can compare and learn. Didn't find a virgin sample test on this site. The test was done by SOS at a finning/case outlet. Once again thanks for the reply.

 

[wyandot]

Try this, porkchop. Virgin Valvoline PB 15w-40

 

[Joseph Fihn]

porkchop,
You mentioned that your '03 has "become noticably louder" & the truck is used lightly.
Many of these trucks develope an injector knock caused from carbon build-up on & in the injector tips. The carbon build-up is from not running the engine hard enough to burn off the carbon.
The other option is to run a fuel additive that includes an injector cleaner. Sea Foam, added directly to the fuel filter bowl seems to have worked well, also.
My experience was that the injector knock occured in the idle to 1400 RPM range. After that, it ran smoothly. the engine sounded like one, or more injectors came out of an older Cummins engine. Sounded like one injector lost its "pilot injection" & was shooting one, large shot of fuel per combustion cycle.
Daimler/Chrysler would not do anything about it because everything was OK according to their testing. Took the truck in multiple times with the same results.
Finally, I started running Primrose Power Master 405 fuel additive & after awhile, the problem cleared up & has not re-occured.
Hopefully, this will help you out., a bit.

Joe Fihn

 

[1sttruck]

I use Stanadyne, don't have any problems, but almost all using other fuel additives or nothing don't have any problems either. You do need to work these engines, where the best observation that I've heard is 'hey guys, the most common problem with these engines is carbon, WORK these things to keep it burned off'. The most commonly advertised million mile Dodge diesel is a guy who towed trailers all over the place.

When I ran straight 15w40 I'd notice more noise towards the end of the change interval, less with fresh oil, and even less with an Exxon synthetic blend. My best combo so far for lower noise is 50/50 Mobil 1 T&S and Delvac 1300.

 

[TomJones76]

This nice little web page has condemnation limits for various diesel engine manufacturers, including CAT, Cummins and Detroit Diesel:

http://www.natrib.com/publications/appnotes/app24.php

 

[porkchop]

Follow up report guys. Notice the difference in the CJ versus the CI+. Always used Valvoline premium blue since new. Based on the reports is it advisable to go back to Ci+ oil if I can find it?

Dates 4/01/06- 3/31/07- 4/12/08- 3/21/09
Ci+- Ci+- Ci+- -CJ
Grade 15w40 -15w40 -5w40 -15w40
Km/engine 53479 -78647 -114981 -140391
Km/oil 6782 -6114 -10139 -10342
Fe 9 6 11 16
Cr 0 0 1 1
Ni 0 0 0 0
Si 2 2 2 2
Al 5 5 4 3
Pb 2 0 4 4
Sn 0 0 0 0
Cu 1 2 1 3
Na 2 2 2 5
K 9 12 6 6
B 127 150 121 7
Ag 1 1 1 2
Mo 92 103 104 51
Mg 10 11 113 921
Zn 1439 1595 1468 1356
Ca 3433 3699 3542 1399
Ba 0 0 0 0
P 1319 1413 1308 1170
Soot 9 0 0 0
OXI 7 14 13 12
NIT 29 5 6 6
SUL 9 17 17 17
Water Neg Neg Neg Neg
Antifreeze Neg Neg Neg Neg
Fuel Neg Neg Neg Neg
V100 13.9 13.4 12.7 13.7
V40 97.4 102.3 84.1 100.7

 

[Rob_Roy]

All of your reports look great in my opinion. I would run the CJ4 without hesitation, the difference you observed could simply be from "noise" in the data or a difference in driving style/conditions.

 

[White_Buffalo]

Your numbers look good to me also. 16 ppm iron is nothing to be concerned about if that is the increase you are focusing on.

Intersting to see that the Moly level seemed to drop in the CJ-4 spec oil.

 

[porkchop]

My concern is the drop in additives of the CJ versus the Ci+. Example Moly is half, B has all but disappeared, Ca is down by a third and Mg has increased nine fold! This motor is a 2003 cummins with no egr, cat or particulate filter. It doesn't require CJ oil