UOA's 2006 Dodge Sprinter, Mobil 1 0w40

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This was the original UOA I did on our Sprinter when I was considering adding a bypass filter and doing extended oil change intervals. It was done prior to adding the bypass filter.

Up to this point, I had always pretty followed the ASSYST maintenance computer's oil quality sensor and had changed out at the recommended interval (generally every 12K to 14K.)

I did change out just the full-flow filter early fairly often however (anywhere from every 5K to 8K miles) since it was cheap ($7), so easy to do, and because virtually no oil was lost.

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Thanks Stevie !

As you see in a moment, it doesn't do anything but get better.
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This next UOA was done with almost 2K more on the OC - but at around 14K in (IIRC) I added the bypass filter - one of Ralph Wood's Motor Guard units.

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This is the most recent UOA. It is a similar amount into the OC as my last analysis - but the difference is that this OC was run on the bypass filter the entire time it has been in the vehicle.

The oil currently has about 19K miles on it, and I'll be pulling a sample at 25K to see what it looks like then.

To those that say that Mobil 1 delivers high wear numbers, I say .....
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Originally Posted By: J_Myler
I don't know much about UOA's but I do know that they are looking good. I do how ever have one thing to ask, why dose the TBN get higher the longer of a OCI he runs?


No, lower.

TBN is Total Base Number. It's the life left in the oil.
 
J,

If you look at the two most recent oil changes you will notice that I added 2 and 3 quarts, respectively, of "make up" oil - in order to compensate for the oil I lose from changing the bypass filter elements (and a little bit that the engine uses or burns)

On the 1st oil analysis, there was no bypass filter installed and so no "make up" oil was added at all (and the TBN shows lower)

On the second analysis, the bypass filter was installed for the first time - late in the oil change interval. Between the initial installation (which required 1 quart of additional oil ) and changing the filter once or twice, 2 quarts total were added - each time I change the filter element I have to add roughly 1/2 quart of oil - this occurred late in game - which elevated the TBN.

On the current oil change, the bypass filter media was changed 6 times in 15K miles - or 3 quarts of make up oil.

Make sense ?
 
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Do you need to change it that often ? The filter media that is. I have read you can just use a toilet paper roll ? Is this true ?
 
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Looking at those calcium #'s, this may be a better oil to use in Nissan light diesels than Delvac 1.
Nissan generally void warranty if anything higher specced than CF-4 oil is used, and most all Japanese manufacturers specify 3000ppm+ of calcium.
 
Originally Posted By: vxcalais
Do you need to change it that often ? The filter media that is.

I dunno .... it is a late model EGR diesel (very dirty - lotsa soot) ..... I'm kind of experimenting with the intervals at the moment ..... have to see at what point the filter loads up to the point of significantly reducing the flow through the filter. At any rate, it no big deal to change it really - it's easy, takes 5 minutes or less, and there is little to no mess involved.

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I have read you can just use a toilet paper roll ? Is this true ?

Yes, it is ..... I've been using single-ply Scott 1000 (about $0.71 per roll from the local Walmart) ..... I'm gonna try out the high priced spread though
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- I just picked up an 80 roll case of Kimberly Clarke 004460 from Fastenal (about $1 per roll)
 
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On the last run, a TBN of 8 is close to the virgin oil TBN - I'd bet you could get 30k mile OCI's on this set-up. Well done.
 
Hey addguy !

Originally Posted By: addyguy
On the last run, a TBN of 8 is close to the virgin oil TBN

Well, relatively close I guess - Mobil lists the TBN as 11.3 here:

Mobil 1 0w40

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I'd bet you could get 30k mile OCI's on this set-up.

Actually, it's looking more like at least 35K .... :possibly much more .... grin: ..... (see attached report)

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Well done.

Thanks - I'm very happy thus far.

I've managed to rack up another 10K miles since my last analysis in early December and the engine oil has not been changed for 25K miles .... that made me sorta nervous, never having done this before .... so last night after I delivered my load in San Antonio, I pulled a sample and Fedex'ed it overnight to Blackstone.

This afternoon I got the analysis back and I'm breathing a little easier. The report was a good one, with nothing out of the ordinary ..... Blackstone says run it another 10K miles and check it again. My guess is they might be prone to err on the conservative side, so I might able to run it even further.

At any rate, while the tests cost something (and possibly make it closer to a wash economically) they are helping me to develop a statistical history as to how quick the oil degrades with my setup. At some point, I will decrease the frequency of the testing - perhaps the next time I completely change out the oil I won't initially test until 35K miles or so into the oil change.

Another thing I am contemplating is adding an Amsoil EaBP spin-on as a prefilter to the Motor Guard bypass. This would do several things.

1. Increase the sump size by at least a quart (up to four quarts for the big EaBP)

2. Reduce the frequency of the toilet paper element changes, thereby

3. Lessening the amount of make-up oil needed over the life of an oil change.

(Note: the 5 1/4 quarts of make up added since the last full oil change on the current analysis includes the 3 quarts previously mentioned in the prior analysis)

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Nice to know that Blackstone doesn't really know much about TAN's problem levels...I guess I won't be using them if I request one!
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Hi,
rlent - The TAN at 1.5 is quite acceptable. I have run many engines with the OC TAN at around 7 - wear and corrosion has been most acceptable

When TAN reaches around 6 and TBN is around 2 (D4739) a change is almost mandatory in your case
 
Yeah Roc ..... I found that comment interesting ..... kinda odd. I dunno if would read all that much into it ... could be a trainee that did the commentary or something ... point would be informing oneself about TAN levels so that one could evaluate it - plenty of resources here for that I would think.

FWIW, they did a TAN on a VOA of my transmission fluid (I had asked for a TBN I believe and perhaps that was not appropiraand it came back at 2.3 and the commentary was "kind of acidic, keep than in mind when comparing UOA's for this fluid." They had also done a UOA on the fluid just prior and it read 2.4 .... so I gotta think (from what little I know - which is about nothing) that 1.5 on a UOA from the engine oil ain't really much of problem.

What I'm curious about is why they don't do many TAN's on engine oil ..... could be most folks aren't extending all that much (if at all) and don't wanna shell out the extra coin ..... dunno ....
 
Doug,

Thanks for the insight - that was kinda what I was thinking - caught your comments in another thread ...... but I was hoping you would chime in to confirm. I just got dispatched on a 1800 mile run this afternoon that I have to pick up tomorrow morning ..... so it may not be too long before I have that additional 10K on the oil ....
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What is your regime as far as how often (miles or time) you sample and test on your OTR rigs ?
 
Hi,
rlent - With new prototype lubricants the UOA regime was preset (Castrol, Shell & Mobil) and very regular in order to watch the lubricant's development with use according to the engine family involved

In my own case (own OTR rigs) I tended to go with the first UOA at the normal recommended OCI point (say 15kkms). Then the use was extended from there based on Iron, Soot, viscosity, TBN and TAN and other condition factors. This was usually a doubling to say 30kkms and then a shortening to weekly 5kkms periods. Once an OCI was established this was moved across the engine family with the results being trended via my database.

Note: When converting from a prototype 15W-40 semi-synthetic HDEO to a fully synthetic 5W-40 fully synthetic HDEO I went straight to the maximum OCI point (45kkms) arrived at with the 15W-40 lubricant. I "flushed" the engine with a short OCI of the new lubricant first so that a reasonable picture could be used to trend from. From 45kkms I used 15kkms UOa intervals to go to around 110kkms - I then pulled it back to 90kkms to stay around halfway between the maximum soot level allowed by the engine's maker (3) and the Oil Co's maximum of 3.5-5 depending on specification

This then made the OCIs quite predictable. So, with a programmed 90kkms OCI a UOA would be taken at about midpoint (45k), again at 80kkms and at the OC point. I always undertook a UOA at the OCI point as a reference point for all engines of the same family. In the end it becomes quite predictable when the lubricant's in-use performance and the engine family's soot/iron uptake rates and TBN/TAN ratios are known

Of course any oil condition factor that was outside of limits was investigated and actioned forthwith

As a matter of interest Mobil's Lab preset "action limits" were

Chro - 15
Iron - 100 (150)
Lead - 50
Soot - 3 (4)
TBN - 3 (1)
amongst others

My limits are in brackets

I hope that this is of interest
 
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This is amazing - although I'm no expert by far, with the TBN, Insols., and flash where they are, I can't see any reason why this oil couldn't go 45-50k miles. With regular top-off's it may just be possible to NEVER have to change the oil on this rig.

Remember, Amsoil does have test/tear down data on an engine that went 409,000 miles on one oil change. It can be done!
 
addguy,

I'm currently at 38K miles into this OCI as of tonight - just pulled a sample back on Tuesday, about 1K miles ago, and sent it into Blackstone .... I am anxiously awaiting the results.
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Should have something by this coming Tuesday or Wednesday and I will post it.
 
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