Well, I think I may be loosing faith is my truck and synthetic fluids....
My engine is showing signs of a pending coolant leak and has excess wear on metal parts.
My diff has the same and the vescosity of the AMSOIL was low.
The only thing normal seems to be my trans....

I can't figur out how to post the results for any help.

AMSOIL 75-140
Iron was the most out of line in this sample, and it's cautionary. Iron, along with nickel, show excess
wear at a steel part. We aren't sure where silver and titanium come from in this type of system but neither
should read at this level, if you compare to our averages The viscosity of the oil was low. No moisture or
excess insolubles were found. We see that you had this oil changed and we hope that helps bring wear
down to more acceptable levels next time.

Valvoline Syn Trans:
For the most part, wear looks good in this sample. Copper, lead, and tin were higher than expected,
which shows wear at the clutch plates. If this is still factory oil, then we could also be seeing lingering
wear-in. No harmful contaminants were found and the viscosity of the oil read normally for an ATF. Our
universal averages show typical wear from a Dodge automatic transmission after and oil run of ~35,000
miles. We suggest having this oil changed, as the excess wear metals are making the oil abrasive, and
resampling to monitor


Rotella Syn 5w-40:
Wear was well above average in the first sample from your 3500. Iron shows excess wear at a steel
part, while copper and lead come from the bearings. Chrome shows a little excess wear at the rings. We
found enough potassium in the sample to show the possibility of a coolant leak developing but we aren't
ready to make that call just yet, since sodium is still low. Universal averages are based on an oil run of
~7,000 miles. We suggest running your next oil just 5,000 miles and resampling to monitor. We should be
able to tell you more then.


I have 50k on it and I pretty well baby it and have only started towing my RV this past year.

 

Don't sweat it just yet. I just got back my first OA at 70k and got high wear readings too. Had me pretty worried to say the least. I had been running 15w-40, then decided to take the plunge and go full synthetic (grade 3? edit: group 3) with the Rotella 5w-40. Ran it for 10k, which I usually ran the 15w-40 for 7-10k, so thought I'd be well in the safe range with a full synthetic. Wrong! Had high metal wear and major soot and the lab told me "some diesels just don't like synthetic" which surprised the heck outta me. Figured I was doing a great service to my rig by getting the high $ oil.

So, per another post, I went to the John Deere dealer and got the CI+4 in 15w-40. Sent in a sample at 3k and wear was well back in range (copper still a tad high); and all else looked good. They told me to go at least 5k or up to 7k before next change. I'll probably go 5K then re-test.

Hopefully running the 15w-40 (even though it was CJ4) all the miles prior to the one-time 10k run of full syn. kept my motor clean; although I never sampled before, so I really wouldn't have a clue as to pre-existing wear. Then I read an article just a few days after that and it said "how many motors do you know that have failed due to just mechanical wear"? So, I guess not worrying about if your motor will last 500k or just 250k is best. Easier said than done I know, I was ready to sell and get into another truck based and what my 3k OA said. But, I'm planning on hangin on to this one til it's rust. Best of luck.

 

Just run CI-4 oil like Gold Gus and stay away from the CJ oils. You'll be better off.
Billy

 

Thanks for the advice guys.
I was in Wally world the other day and could find no CI oil at all.
Did see some Premeum Blue at an auto parts store, and I think it was CJ..
I will definatly move to shorter oil chg intervals.

 

Quite a few oil compaines are bringing out CI-4 oils. Pennzoil, Castroil and I look for more. Folks found out the CJ oils don't protect the older engines made before 07.
Billy

 

Group 3 oil is a semi synthetic.The REAL synthetics are Group 4.The diffs call for 75w90 not 140.Wonder what differance that would make in the differential.Thicker is not always better. Did Blackstone do the analysis? I questioned another oil analysis facility about some trans fliud I had Blackstone check and got"We see this a LOT from Blackstone labs"and they seem to frown on synthetics.Said the numbers Blackstone told me my trans fliud had were NOT abnormal as Blackstone had stated.I'm not sure WHO to believe.Also I got a 'you know they are not a certified lab" just food for thought.

 

20K oil changes using true synthetic (group 4) no problems at all with Oilguard bypass and using Blackstone labs for OA every 6K.
I was running 15k+ with Valv 5W40 (group 3) but the TBN retention was not as good as the Group 4 I am using now. Filtering makes all the difference in the world IMHO.

 

What labs are you all using for you tests? I used one in the past, cant remember the company, but they took 6-8 weeks to return the results. I was not happy, at that time i was easily putting a few k miles on it in a month. I was hoping not all of them are that slow.

 

Here ya go, you can also contact them and they will send you the bottles & everything you need. They are very quick and you get the results via email.
http://www.blackstone-labs.com/

 

I used Blackstone this time.
My tracking numbers showed them recieving the samples yeterday AM and my results were in my E ast nite. Pretty good turnaround time there.

I do use an Oil Guard system. when I had my F%^D POS, PSD 6.0, my regular Rotella lasted much better than this Retella Syn seems to.

 

I used Blackstone as well. Fast turn around. Wasn't sure about the "some diesels not liking synthetic" remark, but I called and talked to a nice enough gal there that said that was "just a potential cause"; but there's no way to blame just the oil itself as most everything you read says all oil is pretty close to equal, it's just the change intervals that are different.

How about the CJ oils are doing such a good job of pulling out or attracting soot from the oil (which is why mine was extra sooty black at the 10k drain) that they are causing earlier breakdown? And, maybe the non EGR/DPF motors don't need an oil that pulls soot out so much or so fast? Just a thought.

 

I agree with your train of thought Gus.
I sucks really. Fuel no good any more, fuel going doen here......what's next.
I'm switching to good old fashion Delo in the engine and Valvoline dino in the dif to see how it works.
I'll pull the RP from the rear diff and put it into the front.

 

If you would like feedback on the numbers, just type it out:

EG:

Fe 16
Al 2
Pb 1
Si 5


ANd so on.
You get the idea....

 

Hey D-Roc,
I was going to do that, hopefully tomorrow. To busy and not looking fwd to all the typing.

 

Blackstone is a good place to get all your testing at. Fast turn around. They email you then send your paper work in the mail. But tell then if you are running any kind of diesel treatment in your fuel.That way know what to look at when they run the test.