Just picked up a new F350 PS today. It's the solution to my F150 door crack and radiator misbuild(and 4 horse trailer that appeared in the driveway). I want to run oil analysis samples. Any one know of places that do oil analysis via the mail? I live in a small town in Utah.

Any other preventive maintenance ideas for the PowerStroke, that aren't in the owner's manual would be apreciated.

 

I too am a firm believer in oil analysis and have one pulled about every 3-4k. I'm running synthetic oil and doing extended drains so knowing how that oil is holding up is a very good idea. I use CATerpillar labs. Try your yellow pages to find a CAT dealer or CAT rental dealer near you. Call them and ask!! I pick my kits up at the dealer (I actually will pick up several to keep at the house). Then I'll just drop the sample back at the dealer and the results come back to me in the mail. I believe you can also drop the sample in the mail.
Another lab that I've heard about is, I believe, called Blackstone. I've not done any business with them but a lot of the diesel folks on www.ford-diesel.com use them.
Other preventive things you need to do:
always check your coolent for the right amount of additive.
check your tires for the right pressure
keep a spare fuel filter handy, I buy mine at a local big truck maintence dealer, they deal in International trucks
buy your diesel from a station that has a lot of trucks also buying the diesel
some people use additives in their fuel, I tried them but they made no difference to how my truck ran. I now just keep them in the truck incase of traveling and getting some crappy fuel.
I also keep 1-2 gals of oil in the truck when traveling.
Check your oil on occasion to make sure you've got enough. I have to add some every now and then, but that's normal.
And if you really want to keep a check on how the engine's running, add some gauges. (they also look way cool) check out www.westerndiesel.com Check the diesel board too. There are tons of info on how to maintain a new diesel but really, I've just had a lot of fun with mine. Congradulations on your new one!!!

 

Tina, thanks for the oil analysis info.


"always check your coolent for the right amount of additive."

I say the mention of coolant additive in the owners manual. Do I need a special tester? or can I use a regular Prestone style coolant tester?

 

What I've seen my husband do is just add the additive to mine, I've not seen him actually test it. (and the only reason I don't worry about that is because he is a diesel mechanic, he better know what he's doing!!!) I've read over on the diesel board about test strips you can buy and you can find them over there too. But I think they are time sensitive so you don't want to buy to many or they will end up going bad on you. I didn't have to add anything until I had about 20k on the engine. The only real problem you could have at this stage is if the dealer didn't actually put in the additive when you bought the truck. What you're testing for is the amount of "additive" thats in the coolent. Not the coolent. So I'm not sure if that prestone tester will do or not???? Check with the diesel board www.ford-diesel.com

 

Hi Tina,

Just out of curiosity, sine I have a chance to ask a PSD owner who is consistently doing oil analysis, would you mind sharing with us how long are you going in between oil changes & what oil you're using in your Powerstroke diesel?

Thanks!

 

Hey Mike T
You remember my husband works for CAT, so guess what oil I use
CAT full synthetic diesel oil, of course. If CAT makes it for my engine, then you know I'll be using it. He just switched the oil from reg CAT diesel to CAT synthetic about 8k miles ago. I'm planning on changing it at 10k. The oil filter gets changed about every 3k and with it being such a huge filter, I have to add about a quart + of oil too. (using CAT filters too) I've just sent in another oil sample but haven't received the analysis back yet. So far though, they have been fine. Husband says he sure likes just changing out a filter vs doing a complete 15+ quarts of oil change. We've also changed out the transmission oil and rear oil to synthetic. (Amsol synthetic oil) Shifting gears is a whole lot smoother now, especially the shift from 2-3 gear.

 

Hi Tina,

Thanks for your response.

Believe it or not, if I ever knew that your husband worked for CAT, I completely forgot about it.

So it sounds like you aren't extending your oil change intervals by any huge or gross amount at 10K, with filter changes at 3K, that should probably work fine with that filtration setup, as your oil analysis is telling you of course. I wish our gas engined vehicles had better filtration setups from the factory!

Thanks for the info Tina! Oh, by the way, I haven't gone over all the names that have RSVP's yet for this year's Rally, will you be there with us again this year?

 

Hey Mike, we had been looking forward to the Norfolk trip but as we get further into July, things are looking more and more like we wont be able to make it. Our main concern is my daughter who's starting high school this year. She's in the band and the school has schuelded a mandatory band camp right before school starts. If things here change and we're able to come, I'll let you know.

 

Hi Tina,

We're sorry to hear that, we enjoyed meeting her as well as you & hubby last year!

Well, I do hope things work out so you can make it, and you don't need to let anyone know if it changes, I've got you "pre-rigestered" anyway, so if you can make it, just bring the family & come on!