2008 Dodge Ram 3500, 11k miles, Motorcraft Super Duty 15w40

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Oct 1, 2010
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Michigan
Rolling up the miles delivering trailers.

Polaris Comments.
Suggest checking compression and for engine breather passing oil (blow-by) or similar diagnostics and monitoring engine fault codes. Chrome is at a SIGNIFICANT LEVEL and is possibly coming from piston ring plating; Tin is at a MODERATE LEVEL; Tin may be coming from Piston Flashing, Bearing Overlay, Bronze Alloy (usually in combination with Copper), or from a Babbitt material along with Copper and Lead. Lubricant and filter change acknowledged.

Dodge-UOA.PNG


Polaris is having a cow about 7 ppm of Chromium. I haven't noticed high blowby or increased oil consumption. The only chromium would be on the oil control ring rails. The top ring is moly-faced, and the 2nd is ductile iron. I will see if the high reading keeps trending in the next analysis.

Continuing to run with the EGR valve unplugged, and the soot and oxidation numbers have stayed in the safe range of the previous analysis.
 
The soot loading seems particularly high per kmile, which begs the question, why is there so much soot and is the soot causing the wear? Have the injectors ever been serviced? Do you use any fuel additives?
 
The soot loading seems particularly high per kmile, which begs the question, why is there so much soot and is the soot causing the wear? Have the injectors ever been serviced? Do you use any fuel additives?
With the EGR valve unplugged, the soot level has dropped from earlier samples. The sample back in May had 2.2% soot, and Polaris only flagged it as minor.

But as you say, the soot per kmile is about the same. The injectors have never been serviced, and at 250k miles, that might be a good thing to do. I used Better Diesel's Fuel Borne Catalyst for conditioning of the DPF earlier this year, but not for the last 3 months. And I use Power Service fuel treatment about once a month.

Looking at the UOA data for my 2001 Dodge, it always shed a little bit of Chrome, and even gave a spike of 9 ppm once, then went back down to 2.
On the other hand, the old Dodge never had a soot reading higher than 0.7, and that was on a 36,000 mile sample. The non-emissions controlled engine spoiled me. I put aftermarket +40 hp injectors in it at 235k miles, and now at 577k, they still work fine. If I was going to do injector servicing on the 2008, I would try to get injectors that would add 50 lb*ft.
 
Thanks.

I use Blackstone and for Tin I have had one "4 ppm" pop up out of the blue, and two "3 ppm" values pop up - over 225k miles of UOA's every 5k to 7.5k miles. They immediately went back back down to 1 or 0 on the following UOA.

Once I had a high-ish Chromium at 5 ppm - right after doing head studs. After that it has always been at 1 ppm.

IMO they are just anomalies - nothing to be concerned with unless a trend develops.

Once, years ago, I visited the Polaris Lab in Houston - the bathroom was filthy. I have managed an analytical lab in the past and (for me anyway) bathroom cleanliness was an indicator of laboratory cleanliness (and adherence to strict analytical procedures). I was disappointed in them.
 
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