Sharing for those interested in stats, especially for the Hot Shot's Secret Blue Diamond Full Synthetic PAO 10W30 Diesel Oil CK-41 product, which has no used oil analysis reports that I could find. See attached to this review my 3 used oil analysis samples (UOA) over 16,283 miles my new 2024 RAM 3500 Cummins 6.7 Standard Output (SO) - a mix of city and highway, with about 30-40% of the miles involving towing an 8,000lb travel trailer. My truck burns mostly R99 renewable diesel and weighs 9,500lb under normal use (it's fully optioned with some overland gear and a 55-gallon S&B tank, so it's quite a bit heavier than most 3500s, and therefore requires more work from the engine).
Anyway, Hot Shots Secret promises a TBN (Total Base Number) of 10, but a clean oil analysis by Horizon Labs (aka Amsoil oil test kits) shows an actual TBN of only 7.31. The fact that this oil ships from the Hot Shots factory not even meeting *their own* TBN specs is surprising and should be a red flag to anyone wanting to use this oil, because it suggests poor product quality control for the TBN to be low by a factor of 27%.
I used this oil in my new 2024 RAM 3500 Cummins 6.7 Standard Output (SO) for about 16,500 miles. Because my engine is new, there is higher-than-usual wear metals.
Overall, this product seemed like a good oil. However, due to high wear metals and high copper (likely leaching from the copper oil cooler coils while a protective film forms within it on my new truck), I ended up dumping this oil after 16,500 miles and switching over to Valvoline Premium Blue Extreme 5W-40 (this is the oil Cummins themselves uses and officially endorses). Whether or not my high-ish wear metals are caused by my truck being new, or the Hot Shot's Secret Blue Diamond Full Synthetic PAO 10W30 shearing down and causing a little bit of excessive wear, is unclear. However, because the TBN of clean analyzed oil (indicated as the BL baseline reference sample) is 27% lower than promised, I probably won't be using this product again.
Anyway, Hot Shots Secret promises a TBN (Total Base Number) of 10, but a clean oil analysis by Horizon Labs (aka Amsoil oil test kits) shows an actual TBN of only 7.31. The fact that this oil ships from the Hot Shots factory not even meeting *their own* TBN specs is surprising and should be a red flag to anyone wanting to use this oil, because it suggests poor product quality control for the TBN to be low by a factor of 27%.
I used this oil in my new 2024 RAM 3500 Cummins 6.7 Standard Output (SO) for about 16,500 miles. Because my engine is new, there is higher-than-usual wear metals.
Overall, this product seemed like a good oil. However, due to high wear metals and high copper (likely leaching from the copper oil cooler coils while a protective film forms within it on my new truck), I ended up dumping this oil after 16,500 miles and switching over to Valvoline Premium Blue Extreme 5W-40 (this is the oil Cummins themselves uses and officially endorses). Whether or not my high-ish wear metals are caused by my truck being new, or the Hot Shot's Secret Blue Diamond Full Synthetic PAO 10W30 shearing down and causing a little bit of excessive wear, is unclear. However, because the TBN of clean analyzed oil (indicated as the BL baseline reference sample) is 27% lower than promised, I probably won't be using this product again.