Amsoil AME 15W40, 22K, 04 Duramax 230K

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Aug 29, 2011
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Location
Texas
Make/Model: Isuzu 6.6 Duramax LLY
Vehicle: 2004 Chevy 2500HD

Oil was changed at the time of this sample.

Code


OIL AME 15W40 AME 15W40 AME 15W40 AME 15W40 AME 15W40 AME 15W40

MILES IN USE 22,236 19,187 13,556 19,740 12,406 20,617

MILES ON UNIT 229,762 207,526 201,895 188,339 181,364 168,598

SAMPLE TAKEN 11/5/18 6/4/17 1/2/17 1/2/16 8/9/15 8/9/14

MAKE UP OIL 2 0 .75 1.25 .75 2



ALUMINUM 3 2 2 3 2 2

CHROMIUM 1 1 0 1 0 0

IRON 23 23 15 24 15 16

COPPER 4 5 3 7 4 4

LEAD 4 4 2 5 3 2

TIN 1 1 1 0 3 0

MOLYBDENUM 0 0 0 1 1 1

NICKEL 1 1 0 1 0 1

MANGANESE 0 0 0 0 0 0

SILVER 0 0 0 0 0 0

TITANIUM 0 0 0 0 0 0

POTASSIUM 2 3 2 4 3 7

BORON 2 1 1 7 2 7

SILICON 7 8 6 8 6 7

SODIUM 9 7 6 8 5 5

CALCIUM 3662 3537 3416 4075 3744 3729

MAGNESIUM 16 12 12 13 12 19

PHOSPHORUS 1210 1143 1113 1193 1137 1145

ZINC 1388 1315 1240 1535 1338 1384

BARIUM 0 0 0 0 0 1



SUS @ 210F 76.2 72.7 74.5 78.6 79.9 72.6

Visc @ 100C 14.57 13.66 14.12 15.17 15.5 13.63

Flashpoint 460 440 460 430 445 450

Fuel %
Antifreeze % 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

Water % 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

Insolubles % 0.2 0.3 0.2 0.3 0.3 0.3

TBN 6.0 6.2 7.3 7.6 6.9


Blackstone Comments:
This oil was in place longer than any other sample on the page, yet wear metals are at similar levels as before. In fact, they're almost identical to what showed up last time, so there's no reason to think your Duramax is having any mechanical issues. Instead, it's wearing well and it didn't mind the longer interval at all, so feel free to use this interval again. Or, if you want to go even longer, the TBN shows plenty of active additive left in the oil at 6.0, so feel free to try 24K miles or so next. The oil was fine (physically) and no contamination was found. Very nice!
 
Man every time I see a Duramax UOA I'm always super impressed, cheap oil, high end oil, towing or not these engines always seem to deliver KILLER UOAs. The AMSOIL performed very well here, I really don't see any reason why 25k isn't doable in your application. Nice report, nice engine. Would love to see this engine on the opposite end of the spectrum with Super Tech or Traveler 15w40 to see how the numbers and cost compared to this high end oil.

Cheers.
 
Amsoil AME 15W40, and the 10W=30/30 should be the flag ship of the Amsoil offerings. they have been around for ever and are excellent oils. TBN of 6 !
 
Originally Posted by FlyNavyP3
. Would love to see this engine on the opposite end of the spectrum with Super Tech or Traveler 15w40 to see how the numbers and cost compared to this high end oil.


I would bet the numbers don't change
 
You're averaging a bit over 1ppm/1k mi of Fe! The rest of the metals are so low they are just noise. Zero contamination to speak of. What's not to like?
Would expect nothing less from a Dmax!
Continue to extend the OCIs; clearly every reason to do so.

Filtration? What FF used? Any BP?

IIRC the early LLY engines used EGR, but very little of it, contrasted to later model LMMs and LMLs. That could be one reason the insolubles are low and the TBN is staying high. The oldest generation, the LB7, didn't have any EGR and had an open PCV system; talk about clean running!
 
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dnewton - This one is the 2004.5 early Duramax, so it does have the EGR still. I thought about removing that when I installed an AFE mouthpiece (turbo inlet, installed @124k odometer) years ago but couldn't find a local tuner I trusted who would be able to turn off the check engine light/codes. I'm just using a basic hypertech handheld for now. At this point the UOA's look pretty good so I'm wondering if I should just leave things alone at this point.

Diesel12 - Noack on the AME says 4.8%. I lose about a quart every 11-12K. I may have been closer to 1.75 ish and just rounded up.

Using the Amsoil EA filter. I've used both the AME with Amsoil EA filters in this one since 2011. Before that I ran Valvoline PBE for the first 3yrs of owning the truck. While dnewton has convinced me on conventional for some of the tractors and ag equipment, I'm getting such good results on this engine I'm hesitant to make any changes. Even at 230K miles, this is still my daily driver plus travel to the deer lease pulling anything from small trailer with ATV to car hauler with the wife's 4dr Jeep Rubicon.
 
Who would have thought you go this long on Amsoil with them having shady marketing practices and fake testing according to some members here.
lol.gif


Excellent report, thanks for posting.
thumbsup2.gif
 
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Don't confuse the issue. I don't recall anyone questioning whether Amsoil is a quality product. In general, their marketing and testing do leave a lot to be desired.

Originally Posted by StevieC
Who would have thought you go this long on Amsoil with them having shady marketing practices and fake testing according to some members here.
lol.gif


Excellent report, thanks for posting.
thumbsup2.gif
 
Originally Posted by Uregina09
Don't confuse the issue. I don't recall anyone questioning whether Amsoil is a quality product. In general, their marketing and testing do leave a lot to be desired.

Originally Posted by StevieC
Who would have thought you go this long on Amsoil with them having shady marketing practices and fake testing according to some members here.
lol.gif


Excellent report, thanks for posting.
thumbsup2.gif



Oh there are folks here claiming it's not a product to be trusted and that there isn't supposed UOA's here claiming it can last as long as the OP's run.
wink.gif
 
Originally Posted by dhellman12
dnewton - This one is the 2004.5 early Duramax, so it does have the EGR still. I thought about removing that when I installed an AFE mouthpiece (turbo inlet, installed @124k odometer) years ago but couldn't find a local tuner I trusted who would be able to turn off the check engine light/codes. I'm just using a basic hypertech handheld for now. At this point the UOA's look pretty good so I'm wondering if I should just leave things alone at this point.

Diesel12 - Noack on the AME says 4.8%. I lose about a quart every 11-12K. I may have been closer to 1.75 ish and just rounded up.

Using the Amsoil EA filter. I've used both the AME with Amsoil EA filters in this one since 2011. Before that I ran Valvoline PBE for the first 3yrs of owning the truck. While dnewton has convinced me on conventional for some of the tractors and ag equipment, I'm getting such good results on this engine I'm hesitant to make any changes. Even at 230K miles, this is still my daily driver plus travel to the deer lease pulling anything from small trailer with ATV to car hauler with the wife's 4dr Jeep Rubicon.


The UOA results certainly show excellent wear rates. But again, that's typical of any Dmax. What your experiencing is that syn lubes (especially high quality PAOs like this example) are capable of OCIs much longer than conventional lubes. However, you really don't know how much "longer" because you're only viewing one end of the spectrum. Unless you were to run tests a dino lube, you'll not know what the baseline could be.

The only thing that is certain here is that you're not anywhere near the OCI limit for this combination. The ONLY thing I would change would be the OCI; extend it out a bit at a time with each successive UOA. I'd leave the tuning, EGR and intake alone; they all are inputs to the output. Since we agree the current output is very desirable, don't change those. Just extend the OCI out until wear indicates a negative uptick in trending. At this point, you have not come close to reaching that point.
 
Hate to bump this thread, But im curious if you have done any more samples... Thats very impressive 22k miles at 23ppm iron. Is cost of amsoil worth it...thats debatable. But Highend oil shows well here. But like Dnewton said we really dont know how this engine would run on delvac at 20k miles it may be just really good wearing engine.

I think we can all Agree here maybe this engine is a unicorn in wear rates but 1ppm iron per 1k miles is most likely due to this oil and not just good engine, I personally have not seen dmax run numbers like that on dino.
 
Originally Posted by Shata
Hate to bump this thread, But im curious if you have done any more samples... Thats very impressive 22k miles at 23ppm iron. Is cost of amsoil worth it...thats debatable. But Highend oil shows well here. But like Dnewton said we really dont know how this engine would run on delvac at 20k miles it may be just really good wearing engine.

I think we can all Agree here maybe this engine is a unicorn in wear rates but 1ppm iron per 1k miles is most likely due to this oil and not just good engine, I personally have not seen dmax run numbers like that on dino.


In my Dmax on 10w-30 dino: https://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/3519069/1
Routinely at/under 2ppm/1k miles, even when flogged hard pulling the RV in the Rockies (EGTs maxed out for minutes on end running uphill).

while admittedly a bit off course, I can show you where 10k miles on dino PCMO related to 1ppm/1k miles. And I mean really inexpensive, Rural King brand dino PCMO:
https://www.bobistheoilguy.com/foru...22/5/5w-20-ford-4-6l-engines-uoa-testing
In fact, every single 10k mile OCi was at or below 1ppm/1k miles; it wasn't a fluke. It was ALL of them.


Generally the wear rate is innate in the engine and the lube chosen really does not greatly affect the wear rates.
the Dmax is one of the best wearing light-duty diesel engines, as the 4.6L mod motor is for gas applications.
 
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No additional engine UOA's on this one yet. I'm planning to push the next one out to 24K, but it's likely to take me a couple years to get there. Will keep everyone posted.
 
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