mjbarr99

Just received my oil report from my last oil change. As you can see, my copper averages over the last two oil changes have increased. They comment that a brass/bronze part could be a problem. Do any of you have any idea what may be going bad?

nickg

if only copper is usually leaching from the oil cooler, at least thats what shows up on my reports.

nickg

here is the exact quote from my reports" copper alone usually indicates cooler core leaching and is not normally wear of bronze/brass parts, wear metal analysis indicates acceptable wear rate"

madhat

What brand/viscosity oil do you use? It may be time to change your blood with something else...

mjbarr99

I'm using Amsoil 15W-40 Heavy Duty Diesel & Marine Oil

Lost Lake

WOW!!

My copper is always at 2. I use dino oil and change at 10,000, pull a lot.

madhat

You cooler may just be going bad, but I can't really comment on that intelligently. I would ask your oil sampling company if they think your oil is causing the oil to cause the cooler to break down. IDK, man, that's a tough one.

amslube

I had copper spike to about 675 ppm on my truck when it was new but returned to much lower levels after my first oil change and never went up since. Now have 262,000 on the odometer using Amsoil HDD 5W-30. Oil Analyzers commented, and I confirmed with a phone call, that it is common for Cummins and Cats to do this when new due to copper oil coolers. In fact OA said they had TSBs from both of these manufacturers on this issue. Being that your truck is well beyond "new" I might consider resampling at about 1000 miles or so. There is not anything in the oil no matter what brand to cause excessive leaching from the oil cooler.

DBLR

I would re-sample in 3-4K to see how its doing.

AH64ID

Amsoil seems to have higher copper count for some reason.

Have you been towing alot, or just start towing? The first few really good heat cycles my oil cooler got made the copper jump, but after that nothing.

mjbarr99

No, towing has been the same since I bought the truck. The copper didn't increase until my 75K oil change when it jumped to 73ppm. My last oil change at 88,706 the copper increased to 247ppm. I switched to Amsoil 15W-40 at 22K miles and have been using it since. I'm thinking of replacing my oil cooler to see if the copper goes down.

AH64ID

What about your thermostat? Has it been replaced recently? If not you could be running higher coolant temps and thus more leeching.

But it's possible the oil cooler is having issues?

NavyDood

I also have gone through the same higher copper reading reports. I've been running Amsoil 15w-40 the past four oil changes and have no plan on changing brands. The only time I analyze my oil is when I change it.

First time I ever analyzed my oil was at 77,000 miles. 23,000 miles on the oil. Copper was 26.
Second time I analyzed my oil was at 102,000 miles. 25,000 miles on the oil. Copper went from 26 to 590.
Third time I analyzed my oil was the 130,000 miles. 28,000 miles on the oil. Copper went from 590 to 199.
Fourth time I analyzed my oil was at 157,600 miles. 27,600 mile on the oil. Copper went from 199 to 44.

I read a few other forums also. The high copper reports seem to be more prevalent with Amsoil users. Coincidence? Who knows. It's not a new phenomenom though as there are posts on forums that go back to 05 in regards to copper spiking.