Thanks! Knowing the metals is good, but specifics on what metals are in a Triton is a big plus. here are those numbers at 14k and 21k.

Iron 56 / 63
Copper 25 / 29
Oxid 24 / 26
Nitration 19 / 23

Iron anc Copper though high are increased at a good rate this last interval. My TBN is strong high because I topped off shortly before I took this sample.

What is nitration?

 

I must bow down to labnerd. You are 100% correct. In the 3 years that I had this oil in, I only ran about 25,000 miles total. I did change out this oil last august and decided to try the 10w30 product which I haven't done an analysis on.

I was averaging about 7500 miles per year prior to moving to Tennesse. Since August I have a little over 10,000 miles. So this oil is getting more use. I just changed out the filter for the first time ( a little longer than 6 months.) I will stick with the yearly analysis around August with either a FF filter change or both the by-pass or FF depending on the returned sample.

Thanks for all the info Labnerd, you went really in depth.

 

Labnerd,
I'm not worthy...I'm not worthy...

Thanks for the source of metals and explanation. Great review!

Regards,
Curt

 

Greencrew, nitration products are formed during the fuel combustion process in internal combustion engines. Most nitration products are formed when excess oxygen is present. These products are highly acidic, form deposits in combustion areas and rapidly accelerate oxidation.

Oxidation occurs when oxygen attacks petroleum fluids. This process is accelerated by heat, light, metal catalyst and the presence of water, acids, or solid contaminants. It also leads to increased viscosity and deposit formations.

So, we can see that when nitration products are present, oxidation will increase in relationship to the nitration levels. In Mikes analysis, the engine is not run for long periods at temp therefore the lack of heat factor has caused the oxidation level to be lower than it would be under normal engine use.

Hope this had been useful in your trying to understand your analysis.

 

Clear enough to start with. I get the impression that my report does not look as good as msparks does. I converted mine from dino to syn, and wonder if there was some cleaning going on, or some residual left behind. I know I had to drain the oil cold because I put the by-pass on before I drained the old oil, and the truck sat over night in the garage. Then I had to drain it quickly because we were leaving in the morning for a party.

I say that because most of the numbers did not change much from 14k to 21k.

 

did you use the crank case cleaner first to get all the deposits out first? I used that first and the oil coming out was really black then i put the synthetic in.


one thing that bugs me still is there is a knock when i start it up if its been sitting for a while. sometimes there will be like 3 or 4 days when i dont start it at all in the winter. Is that normal?

 

I don't like crank case cleaners, because they only remove the loose stuff. I had Auto RX in there cleaning right before I put in synthetic.

I would not call knocking normal, but it is common. There are many possibilities depending on the sound. Mine was more of a soft clicking, similar to the old sloppy valves. It turned out to be noisey fuel injectors. I got rid of it with a good fuel injector cleaner.

There is a good current thread on that subject that I read today. Can you hear it from inside the truck?

 

whats the name of that thread? I would say yes you can hear it in the cab. Kinda a dull but small clunk i guess you could say. It only happens when the truck hasnt been started for an extended period of time.

and it must not be too serious... I would imagine if i had some wear problems it would have showed up in my analysis.... or am I wrong?

 

Labnerd, have you any comments on what you see with analyisis of synthetic lubes and/or blends in comparison to dino oils?

Secondly, as I understand it, the factory engine life testing does oil analysis to determine what metals are wearing, what parts may need to be re-engineered, what lube spec formulation to use and what lube change intervals to specify for the public, for each engine type.

 

marbles in the engine

 

Yes if you had a wear problem. Most of what I have seen are not wear problems, unless you consider a loose spark plug a wear problem.

Yours is more of a start up noise though. More like piston slap. When does it happen, what does it sound like?

 

well its kinda hard to explain on here...... its just noticeable to me but im pretty nit-picky...... and like i said..... only if it hasnt been started for 3 or 4 days. If i went out and started it now it would be fine. I would just think all the oil is dripping out eventually and making it start hard like that.

 

1) Check you plugs to make sure you don't have a lose one.

2) It's possible your PCV valve ball is ratteling. You can remove it and plug the hose to test.

3) You may have a small case of piston slap. It is similar to mild lifter noise, but can be as loud as a diesel engine.
Piston Slap
Piston Slap is caused by piston to bore clearances, and made worse by carbon buildup. Something like Auto RX should quiet it down some, but I have not seen anyone who has it and tried that. Mobil 1 oil will quiet it down.

4) Are you using an S designated filter with an anti-drainback filter like Motorcraft 820S? If not, you could have some lifter noise at startup.

5) Noisey injectors are common. Noisey injectors are caused by varnish buildup which can be disolved with Schaeffer's neutra.

6) Cleaing the EGR is something that I've seen a lot on, but never did myself. There is a lot of good info here on it.
Rough Idle Problem

 

well for starters its a 2002 5.4 so not the one in the post you mentioned there.... and second I have the remote filter set up and the filters are mounted straight up and down so drain back isnt an issue with the filter. The lines on the remote filter dont leak at all..... could it be the extra distance the oil has to travel with the remote filter? and the oil still ends of draining back anyway? Like i said.... it only happens if it sits for a long time.......so i dont think spark plugs or pvc would be just at that condition. and at any rate...... woudnt the pistion slap or something similar show excessive wear?

 

No wear from piston slap, just a nuisance. I think your year 02 is not involved with that anyhow. I don't think it would be the distance of the lines.

Your best bet is fuel injectors. If you don't keep them clean they will give you trouble sooner or later anyhow.