AMSOIL 15w-40 AME, 91 VW Jetta Turbo 1.6 6,230 mi

[Rat407]

1991 VW Jetta Turbo Total miles 19,477 (since rebuild) Miles on oil 6,230 AMSOIL 15w-40 Oil filter Mahle OC51 Air filter Mahle Paper Sample date 11/01/06 Oil was in vehicle for 5 months. 2Qt makeup First run with AMSOIL, before this was Rotella Mix of highway and city miles put on vehicle Aluminum..........6 Chromium..........4 Iron.................99 Copper..............6 Lead.................3 Tin....................1 Molybdenum.......5 Nickel................1 Manganese.........1 Silver................0 Potassium..........0 Boron...............18 Silicon..............4 Sodium.............3 Calcium.........3717 Magnesium.......29 Phosphorus......1028 Zinc................1166 Barium.............0 Viscosity………….81.3 Flashpoint F…….440 Fuel%..............0.5 Coolant%………..0.0 Water%……………..0.0 Insolubles%......0.4 TBN/TAN…………..9.9 I had the engine completely rebuilt three years ago this coming spring. I have an oil pressure problem, that being I have no oil pressure at operating temp. I get 20psi at cold start up but when the oil warms up it drops to zero and stays there. The gage is good as everything in the engine is new. That oil pressure reading is at the head. I have oil volume just no pressure. If you take my cam cover off you will get soaked by the oil that flows up there around the cam and lifters. Engine smokes on startup. The shop that did the head messed up on it obviously for the smoke I'm getting. I go through a qt of oil every 3k miles. Running a stock Mahle OC51 oil filter and a stock Mahle paper air. The injection pump has been rebuilt and tweeked so I'm getting plenty of fuel. If I run up the RPM's with about 15PSI of boost I can get a nice black cloud of smoke. Needless to say nobody tail gates me. I get lifter tap, some days bad and some days not at all. I figure it is from the oil pressure issue. I just turned 20k total miles on the engine since I had it rebuilt. It was broke in on Rotella SAE 30 for the first 500 miles and then 3k after that and then 15w-40 rotella at 3k miles up until I put the AME in. I always run a Mahle OC51 oil filter. I had the K14 turbo rebuilt when I did the engine and I installed a 2.5" down pipe off the turbo and it runs 2.5" all the way back to a flowmaster muffler. My best fuel mileage has been 52.7mpg. On average I get 46-49. This sample I have ran about 14 gallons of waste veggy oil mixed in with the diesel at a 50/50 mix. It sure seemed to like that, ran smoother than on regular diesel and smoked less. That is about all I can think of for now. Again, comments welcome.

 

[mdv]

Wow, I'd be ________ if someone screwed up a rebuild like that. Any possible warranty work on it? I guess all things considered , the UOA looks good. Do these older motors throw lots of iron?

 

[Sparkman]

Nice to see a UOA from a Modded ECO with a Giles pump!! I wonder if that Fe wear is mostly valve train due to the low oil pressure? Pressure is a function of flow and restriction, and I'd say you have a "leak" that is letting all of the pressure out somewhere in the head. Hopefully I'll have time to tear down my '92 ECO this winter for similar treatment. I have an LDA pump and most of the parts, just need a downpipe and intercooler. Got to get that wood stove installed in the garage first though.

 

[Rat407]

Yep is is a Giles pump. It really runs sweet. He added the LDA to my ECO's pump for me. The biggest improvement was the 2.5" downpipe. That really woke the engine up along with boost. Before the downpipe I could only get 9psi max, now I can get 20 but I keep it adjusted to 15 max. That K14 is to small to go much higher. I have another head, just to lazy to put it on and see if it makes a difference. I want to say it is the head as well because from the previous owners records the oil light started to flash on them shortly after they had a new head installed at 90k and the jetta had 157k on it when I bought it. I threw some cash into this jetta but to me it was and still is well worth it. I'm saving on average $120 a month in fuel cost over my Silverado. As for the iron, the cam saddles are just aluminum with the steel cam. The lobes running on the lifter cap would be my guess, but like I said it is soaking wet with oil up there. When I primed the pump with a drill on first crank the oil flowed to all the lifters really fast and tons of it. I wasn't sure if I could go far on this oil, but from this it looks like I can.

 

[Rat407]

I wanted to edit my previous post, anyone know why that option is no longer available?

 

[Sparkman]

Well I couldn't find another UOA for this engine, so I don't know if the Fe is abnormal. I'll have to do one once my mods are done so we can compare. Right now I have a leaking head gasket, though it runs good, maybe I'll do a UOA on the current fill of Rotella 15w-40 when I drain it for the tear down. If you're smoking like that you could definitely benefit from some intercooling or water injection, though smoking the tailgaters is nice. Do you have EGT and boost gauges? I'm curious what your EGTs run with all of that extra fuel. Giles pumps are certainly known for their aggressive fuel delivery. I'll be doing my own mods as he is too pricey.

 

[Rat407]

I messed up and didn't install an EGT gage. I had the chance when I had the exhaust manifold. I can still add it but it is more of a pain. I might just add an after turbo EGT to the downpipe. I'm not the greatest at fabrication. Wish there was more room to put an intercooler on here. It will be interesting to compair our UOA's.

 

[Sparkman]

Here's a new UOA over on the GTD forum. http://www.vwdiesel.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5919 His wear numbers seem good but the oil thickened a bit.

 

[TeeDub]

It takes about 20,000 miles for the wear pattern in the TDI to stabilize. The OCI you are running is just fine, in fact you can increase it to 10k miles, based on this data. The relative amounts of Cr and Fe would indicate this iron is mainly from the valvetrain, but with some increased ring/cylinder wear as well. Given your very low silicon readings, I'd expect the Cr to drop to about 1-2 ppm/10k miles over time. Iron levels for this motor should end up in the range of 30-50 ppm/10k miles and all the other wear metals should be in the 1-12 ppm range. I'd recommend sampling again once you have accumulated at least 10,000 more miles on this engine. TD