I'm trying to reason why the copper took such a huge jump - I suspect the sudden increase in soot may have been a wear factor but what is only copper without tin? Could it be a chemical reaction to leech so much copper?
I was having trouble with one of the connectors on the PowerPuck - the pins weren't lining up right and pushing the grommet & pins out the back and I was getting intermittent IAT codes, noticeable smoke and less fuel mileage. This happened while I was on a 3,300 mile vacation pulling a 7k trailer over a few 6%-grade passes so I may have got the turbo warm on occasion - no EGT since my mods seemed so minor.
I have since removed the PowerPuck (with boost fooler) and swapped out the oil with some generic 15w-40 for a few miles and then another OCI but I haven't decided whether to stick with the 5w-30 or go back to the 15w-40 'cause I'm spending too much $$$ on oil.
I've also searched BITOG too and nothing conclusive (aka 'smoking gun') pops up so your questions & comments would be appreciated - I love this truck and I wanna keep it.

 

My truck has done the same thing. I run Amsoil on the 1yr/25,000 change interval without a bypass.

I started running Amsoil AME 15w-40 at 54,000 miles.
First time I analyzed my oil was at 77,000 miles. Copper was 26.
Second time I analyzed my oil was at 102,000 miles. Copper went from 26 to 590.
Third time I analyzed my oil was the 130,000 miles. Copper went from 590 to 199.

Everything oil analyzers says is it is the oil cooler. I visually don't have oil in the coolant and visually don't have coolant in the oil. I have not changed a thing since this has happened. That's approx 52,600 miles ago.

 

there is many guru for UOA on

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php

 

Louie, If its turbo bearings, there are radial and axial specs available for checking bearing clearances on the little turbos.. Basically all you need is the specs, a magnetic base, dial indicator, and some various contact points.
Make sure you arent contaminating the oil sample when you pull it. Oil cooler tubes can start deteriorating due to contaminants in the oil.
One other thing, if all else fails, pull two oil samples at the same time, send one to the same lab you are currently using, and send the other to another lab... I have personally witnessed this before. One lab came back high/critical iron over the period of about 6000 hours, when the engine had been repeatedly borescoped and beta analysis ran with no results, we checked the lab against another lab... low and behold, the original lab came back hich/critical iron, change and re-sample immediately, the other came back everything normal, continue scheduled sampling.
We pulled three more sets of samples at 1000 hour intervals and sent to both labs and consistently got bad results from one and good results from another.

 

I'll have to find a long-neck flashlight to check the coolant but I'll give it a try. Two different oil samples is peace of mind at this point so I'll do that too. When I set the valves, I pulled the intake system just to spin the turbo and I couldn't feel any slop in the shaft and it would spin easy enough. Other posts & articles I've come across mention how the late '06-'07 stock tuning can still push EGT's to 1400* so maybe I need to put one in regardless I what I do. Thanx for your ideas!

 

Keep in mind a lot of the bearings and some other items in the engine may be brass alloys, Brass I believe to be an alloy of mainly copper, plus tin, lead and maybe some other components...