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Oil analysis report.

djevox

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Thank you for getting your oil analysis and posting the results. This is what I think, I does not sound good if when they say listen for engine knock or to check for low oil pressure, it is probably a good thing that you change oil at 5,000 miles, I am not impressed with that Pennzoil. I would be worried if I were you, did you ever show the results to your dealer?
Since new, I have been getting oil changes done at the dealer and they always use Shell Rotella T6, my truck is at 45,000 miles and the oil changes are done when the truck displays “change oil soon” which has been at every 10,000 miles. I plan on keeping this truck for at least another 4 years and I am really hoping that this little diesel will last a long time.
I’m not an oil expert, but I feel the same.
 

2021EcoDiesel

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I’m not an oil expert, but I feel the same.
@djevox @Rebelguy2020 I agree with both of you. I may transition to a different oil after this next cycle. I haven’t considered showing the analysis to my dealer, but that’s not a bad idea if something happens in the future. I may run T6 or QS next change and see the results then. I will say the motor is quiet and I’m not noticing any loss in power or knock. I’ve also never had the “Oil” light come on. The fake “pressure” gauge reads 19-20 warm at idle when in gear. Usually hovers around 30-40 during normal driving.
 

tom318

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Just got my most recent analysis in. 40,000 miles in for the sample. Still running a 5k interval. Mixed driving. 42k currently on the truck. Lemme know what y’all think.
Seems like the norm. Very similar to mine but I've been running 7500mi intervals. We all seem to see high aluminum, though no one has yet to report a failure. I have another 4k miles to go before my next one, good to know to keep any eye on potassium and sodium for coolant...…I checked my reservoir the other day and I was low. No leaks so.........wonder where it went. I did hit a deer a few weeks back so maybe there is a small leak I'm not aware of.
 

2021EcoDiesel

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Seems like the norm. Very similar to mine but I've been running 7500mi intervals. We all seem to see high aluminum, though no one has yet to report a failure. I have another 4k miles to go before my next one, good to know to keep any eye on potassium and sodium for coolant...…I checked my reservoir the other day and I was low. No leaks so.........wonder where it went. I did hit a deer a few weeks back so maybe there is a small leak I'm not aware of.
Hopefully neither of us have an EGR Cooler leak!
 

LX Sport

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blackstone.JPG


Got my second oil report. This was my third change, I forgot to grab a sample when draining the oil for my second change.

Interesting that they now attribute the aluminum to the intercooler, I know that's been a running theory but now they seem to be confident that is coming from that. Still running the Penzoil.
 

GrizEagle

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Here is my oil analyses over the last 5 changes. The first sample was Pennzoil and the subsequent 4 have been Amsoil EFM. All have been at 9k miles, mild to moderately heavy towing infrequently. Most of the driving is 85% highway. I have been GDE tuned for the last 2 samples. Let me know what you guys think.

I know that aluminum runs high on these engines and I'm not really worried about it. I am thinking of switching to the other Amsoil formula after my next change (I still have EFM for one more). No oil consumption at all.

Screenshot_20230320-172034.png
 

tom318

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75K Mile report. Seems to be getting worse. Next change ill do after 5k miles and see if that helps. My oil pressure typically sits around 30psi which is right in the middle of the gauge. I have coolant disappearing as well.......so something is up.

Any guess on what could be going on? Potassium is up and my coolant is disappearing. Seems to be making its way into the oil based on the potassium #.
What component is aluminum that could be failing and putting aluminum debris into the engine along with letting coolant in?
21 RAM 1500-230424.jpg
 
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WXman

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Well as I recall, bearings were a problem in the Gen 2 engines as well. There are a lot of guys in the Gen 3 EcoDiesel Owners page on FB that swear the new engine is better but I'm not so sure. I had two, a 20 and a 21, and both showed high aluminum with each report. MOST of the reports I've seen from other owners have also showed high aluminum. Obviously the cylinder walls and/or other parts of the bottom end are wearing at a faster rate than we typically see with engines of other types. Without a teardown it'll be impossible to know.

These EcoDiesel engines are just typical of European engineering. They are simply not good engines. Are there guys who are happy with theirs? Sure there are, but 99% of those guys have relatively low miles. Beyond 100k the percentage of happy EcoDiesel owners drops off significantly. And that's just not how a diesel engine should be, especially when a guy pays $4k UPCHARGE to get it.

If I were in your shoes I would think to myself that it's time to make a decision. Do I put money aside to keep this truck on the road long term, or do I ditch it now before powertrain warranty ends? (Now that I have experience with the Hemi the latter would be the obvious choice for me, saves me money each month, more overall power, lower maintenance costs, just a much better engine. But before I got this Hemi truck the choice would have admittedly been harder to make.) Good luck with it.
 

tom318

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I guess only time will tell. I think I'm on board with taking some risk as I do really like the truck I don't have much interest with any other offerings on the market at this point.
I think it might be a little early to claim that it is just a bad engine, though on a paper with these reports it seems like it could be heading a certain direction. Its delivered 75k miles without any issue. I do think RAM could have made the maintenance less costly, that's for sure a pain but still cheap compared to my other German cars hahah.
Someone at some point will get to the bottom of where this aluminum is coming from. I've yet to see anyone complain about rod bearings or a failed engine yet, at least on this forum.

I wouldn't mind a cummins but the ride in those is just garbage compared to the 1500. I also don't really tow to much so its a bit of a waste. Doesn't help that the cost on a new v8 f150 XLT is what I paid for this ED Laramie (55k + 0%). At this point I don’t think I could get myself to trade it in.
 

J-Cooz

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Well as I recall, bearings were a problem in the Gen 2 engines as well. There are a lot of guys in the Gen 3 EcoDiesel Owners page on FB that swear the new engine is better but I'm not so sure. I had two, a 20 and a 21, and both showed high aluminum with each report. MOST of the reports I've seen from other owners have also showed high aluminum. Obviously the cylinder walls and/or other parts of the bottom end are wearing at a faster rate than we typically see with engines of other types. Without a teardown it'll be impossible to know.

These EcoDiesel engines are just typical of European engineering. They are simply not good engines. Are there guys who are happy with theirs? Sure there are, but 99% of those guys have relatively low miles. Beyond 100k the percentage of happy EcoDiesel owners drops off significantly. And that's just not how a diesel engine should be, especially when a guy pays $4k UPCHARGE to get it.

If I were in your shoes I would think to myself that it's time to make a decision. Do I put money aside to keep this truck on the road long term, or do I ditch it now before powertrain warranty ends? (Now that I have experience with the Hemi the latter would be the obvious choice for me, saves me money each month, more overall power, lower maintenance costs, just a much better engine. But before I got this Hemi truck the choice would have admittedly been harder to make.) Good luck with it.
Would you stop with the ecodiesel bashing? We get it, you don't like it. Maybe if you didn't switch vehicles every 6 months you would have time to actually put some real miles on one.

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Rebelguy2020

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75K Mile report. Seems to be getting worse. Next change ill do after 5k miles and see if that helps. My oil pressure typically sits around 30psi which is right in the middle of the gauge. I have coolant disappearing as well.......so something is up.

Any guess on what could be going on? Potassium is up and my coolant is disappearing. Seems to be making its way into the oil based on the potassium #.
What component is aluminum that could be failing and putting aluminum debris into the engine along with letting coolant in?
View attachment 158589


I find that it doesn’t make much sense to change oil at 4K miles like it suggested in the oil analysis report, of course the metal contents will be lower if you change oil sooner, if you changed oil every day the numbers would be excellent, something is causing the metal contents to go up, the engine is designed to keep the same oil for 10k or a year whichever comes first, in normal duty.

Might be a good idea to switch oil company, would you want to go back to OEM Pennzoil? the aluminum content was also high with Pennzoil, or go to diesel specific engine oil Shell Rotella T6.

The oil samples will be contaminated, specifically if it is taken from the drain plug, even if the engine was just stopped or the sample is taken mid stream. If you were to remove the oil pan from a used engine, gearbox or whatever piece machinery with moving metal parts, you will see deposits stuck to the bottom after draining all the oil, some of those deposits gets sucked out of the drain plug when the sample is taken from there, making the sample contaminated.
 

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tom318

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I find that it doesn’t make much sense to change oil at 4K miles like it suggested in the oil analysis report, of course the metal contents will be lower if you change oil sooner, if you changed oil every day the numbers would be excellent, something is causing the metal contents to go up, the engine is designed to keep the same oil for 10k or a year whichever comes first, in normal duty.

Might be a good idea to switch oil company, would you want to go back to OEM Pennzoil? the aluminum content was also high with Pennzoil, or go to diesel specific engine oil Shell Rotella T6.

The oil samples will be contaminated, specifically if it is taken from the drain plug, even if the engine was just stopped or the sample is taken mid stream. If you were to remove the oil pan from a used engine, gearbox or whatever piece machinery with moving metal parts, you will see deposits stuck to the bottom after draining all the oil, some of those deposits gets sucked out of the drain plug when the sample is taken from there, making the sample contaminated.
Ya the 4k interval doesn't sound like a solution to me. Now even if do that and at 4k its the same or even more then its pointing to some kind of growing issue. I do take the sample from the drain and i know there has been discussion on this. The samples are just for me and It provides a nice record for me to have on hand, I'm not necessarily being a rigorous scientist when it comes to gathering and evaluating the samples. I do let a few quarts drain before I take the sample after a short drive with the oil at ~100-120deg.
The potassium grabbed more of my attention as i was low on coolant without any visible leaks. I'm also not sure of the material make up of some of the components, specifically the internals of the EGR cooler. I doubt its aluminum as that see lots of heat but surely some of it is. If it developed a coolant leak, maybe a tiny piece broke away and went right by the EGR valve and into the motor? No idea, just trying to make sense of the situation.
I still have 2 oil changes worth of Quaker state on hand which id like to use. After that, Id consider moving to Pennzoil or T6. Pennzoil was pricey so id prefer to reduce cost if possible. I'm not thinking the oil is the root of the issue, something is wearing somewhere and getting to the oil. No one seems to know what that something is. I have no CEL, trucks drives fine, no MPG issues, just noticed low coolant once or twice.
 

2021EcoDiesel

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Well guys, got another Blackstone analysis back yesterday. Changed oil brands and noticed some improvement to wear materials, though it’s too early to attribute it to the oil in my opinion. I’ll let y’all read it and see what you think. This interval was from 45k-50k miles. Mixed driving in the summer heat, some very light hauling here and there. Nothing more than 1500 pounds in the bed.
 

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spyder

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You think maybe it could be exactly what they suggested, and not the changed oil brands? They did kind of call it on the last one up above, which this most recent one showed out as likely.

I use Blackstone Labs also and their product is fantastic. I lean heavily towards trusting their opinions on what is causing various oddities in the analysis. More than a half million miles worth of changes and analysis for me alone and they haven't gotten it wrong yet, and they do a LOT of fleet service that saves a lot of fleet budgets a lot of money.

That oil report looks like a good one to me.
 

2021EcoDiesel

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You think maybe it could be exactly what they suggested, and not the changed oil brands? They did kind of call it on the last one up above, which this most recent one showed out as likely.

I use Blackstone Labs also and their product is fantastic. I lean heavily towards trusting their opinions on what is causing various oddities in the analysis. More than a half million miles worth of changes and analysis for me alone and they haven't gotten it wrong yet, and they do a LOT of fleet service that saves a lot of fleet budgets a lot of money.

That oil report looks like a good one to me.
I agree Spyder, I believe that even with 50k miles this engine is still getting settled and flushing excess materials from manufacturing and just plain normal wear/running in. Don't mean to spark controversy about oil brands.
I'm happy with this report though and I'm glad that my viscosity, iron, and aluminum numbers are more in check!
 

WXman

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Looks like wear metals are better but still not great. Aluminum still 3 times the universal average. Additive also was being used up faster shown by the lower TBN. But, viscosity held up better with that oil which is good.
 

tom318

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My 80k oil report. Seems pretty consistent over time with aluminum. Still haven’t found anything on where the coolant went but it has seemed to slow down and maybe even stopped. Other than that, truck has been pretty good so far. IMG_6416.jpeg
 

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