Well I sent off a sample of my oil to Blackstone. 15,200 on the truck at the time and 6000 on the oil. (I am really doing changes every 5k, but I had done the previous change a little early so this one went to almost 6k on this samplel)

This sample oil taken was the Mopar 15W40 oil when the dealer changed it.......but I changed to Rotella this time when I did it myself and added the Fumotovalve. Fleetguard Stratopore Filter, of course. I will most likely be changing it from now on myself.

Anyway sample said everything was good, but potassium number (possible antifreeze contamination) was 24 PPM. They said that may be because it is a new engine and could be from pre-lube grease. They said don't worry about it and it should go down next sample........but something to keep an eye on.

TBN was 8.0, plenty high they say. They suggested running the truck 6500 miles for the next sample.

Anyway I never thought about Oil sampling before....but this could be a good thing to use to tell if any problems are creaping up before something damages the engine.


Anybody got any comments, thoughts, suggestions? Blackstone will send out a free sample kit and although they haven't billed me yet.....I think it is $18.00 to sample and $10 more for the TBN (Total Base Number).

WWW.blackstone-labs.com

 

The only thing I don't like about Blackstone is that they don't break soot out seperately from the other particulates. Soot % and TBN are the 2 most important things to look at on a diesel when you are deciding how long the oil change interval should be.

They are fine if you are just looking to see if you have coolant contamination or dirt coming through the air filter.

 

There seems to be a consistent theme with high potassium numbers with these engines - I've read other threads indicating the same thing.

Nature of the beast?

 

Thing I don't like about Blackstone is their prices. I pay $6 for a test that includes TBN from Cummins NW. My local John Deere dealer charges the same. Only reason I can figure people use Blackstone is that they come up first alphabetically in a search.

 

What exactly is the reason for doing an oil analysis? Is it just to extend the time between oil changes to save some money?

 

You get what you pay for. $18 is steep, but where else can you get a detailed report like the one from Blackstone. There is nowhere. Sure the factory service facilities give you TBN and soot %, but there are a whole lot of other things that are just as important. I've tested almost every fluid that's been in the truck at one time or another as well as fluids from other equipment. If you want to really know the details about what is going on inside any lubricated piece of equipment there is only one place to go.

 

I didn't do mine to extend the interval on the oil change. I just wanted to see if they could tell me if everything is wearing as it should. The potassium thing is good to know. If that number doesn't go down (or worse, goes up)....then I may be taking it back to the dealer for a check up. I plan to still change the oil every 5K regardless if they say the oil can go longer. I make a lot of short trips where the engine doesn't fully warm up, so I just feel like going over 5K is not a good idea with a 40,000 dollar truck that I plan to keep for a LONG LONG time.

 

Infidel I didn't know that Cummins did the oil tests too. I have a Cummins place pretty close to me, so I may let them sample it too and see what they say. I never thought about using Cummins. Thanks.

 

I can only assume you have never tried any place but Blackstone.
Every source I've used is at least as detailed and includes the all important TBN at no extra charge.

My local Cummins dealer even has a 24 hour drop box for samples where you can also pick up a new test bottle. Cat dealers also provide the service.

 

As posted above, there are plenty of places that provide all of the numbers that Blackstone does, and offer free tech support/explanations of the results. Blackstone doesn't have any advantage over any lab IMO aside from Caterpillar, who often doesn't include TBN and expresses soot in a percentage of the maximum, not actual numbers, which can be confusing, as every other lab in the industry will give an exact number. Before I figured that out the first time, you can bet that my buddy and I were flipping out over the 16% soot number on his CAT report I've used CTC, OAITESTING, and AVLUBE. All have done great jobs IMO. I like CTC because they have an online database that you can login and view any of your results.

TBN is an important factor in oil analysis results, but for our trucks, soot is not an important factor. In fact it's pretty much a non-factor on mildly modded or stock 3rd gens. The ceiling for allowable soot is typically agreed to be about 3% soot. In 10,000 on the same oil miles my truck had 0.2% soot... basically not an issue and will bear no significance when determining proper drain intervals. By the time you got that much soot in the oil, the other factors would be thru the roof. In our trucks TBN and wear metals are going to be your determining factors. You typically want to only go down to about 50% of your original TBN. Most HD diesel oils are around 11-12 new, so when that tbn hits 5-6 you know the oil is getting close to being shot.

The potassium levels in the oil do concern me, and this issue has been popping up a lot recently. It's disturbing because most 3rd gens have 0 potassium in their reports, but an increasing number of them have come up with high potassium numbers. Most of them have been using valvoline prem blue, and for a while people thought it must have been part of the additive package. I suggest doing a search on 3rd gen oil analyses and potassium. I know several guys were really concerned and looking deeply into it, but I never saw anyone post any conclusions. One guy had his dealer taking doing various pressure tests etc to try to find a coolant leak, but never found anything. Another 2nd gen owner had the problem and finally found some sort of coolant leak near the oil filter housing - maybe in the heat exchanger.

Hope this helps TexasCTD

Edit - I just found one in the other section in case you missed it - https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...threadid=60536

 

Thanks Lightman. I read the other thread and it was mentioned about the Valvoline Premium Blue possibly containing higher levels of Potassium. Since I was running Mopar Oil.....(who is using valvoline maybe?) that may help explain my potassium number. Ive got Rotella in it now, so maybe that will reduce the potassium number by next test.

Thanks also to you Infidel. I will check with Cummins Southern plains and see if they do the oil analysis too.