High Silicone, any suggestions?

[Alfons]

Hello!
I drive a Mitsubishi Delica l300 with a 2.5l Turbo Diesel engine as well as a Trabold bypass oil filter.
The engine oil is AMSOIL Synthetic Diesel & Marine Motor Oil SAE 15W-40 which I haven't changed for the last 16.000km. It was time to get a oil test done and here are the results:





It looks like there is some dirt coming in somehow as the silicone is high. The question is now, where does it come from? There was no work on any gaskets since I used this oil, so I don't think there is any contamination there.
Why does a bypass filter which should filter down to .1 Micron not filter out the dirt?
After checking out the engine my only suspicion is the snorkel with a ram-head in combination with the K&N airfilter let too much dirt in.
What are your guys opinion on this test result? How long can I still use the oil till it really starts to hurt the engine?

Thanks a lot for your help
Alfons

 

[HTSS_TR]

K&N air filter is the culprit.

 

[AandPDan]

Agreed. Change the air filter, or at least service it.

 

[oggb]

Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
K&N air filter is the culprit.


+0.5 (because that is most likely, but not necessarily, the culprit)

 

[Donald]

You need to use an OEM filter. Why anyone uses a K&N air filter is
beyond me.

 

[hounddog]

Sorry I'm laughing! Post after post will say and argue how great K&N is YET post like this with K&N pop up a lot. Also a DIRTY filter filters better then a clean one until it hits a certain point. Put that K&N in the trash and use quality filters like came with the car. Then do a oil analysis and let us know.

 

[crw]

Silicone? Or Silicon? I believe you mean silicon. Silicone is what fills out the bikini in that hot babe at the beach. Actually, it's in a lot of automotive products as well..... but hopefully not in your engine.

I've used K&N and seen my oil become noticeably, visibly darker. Then I ditched the K&N and after a few OCI the oil stays clean again. I did this on two different cars! Get rid of the K&N.

 

[Alfons]

Sorry, yeah I meant Silicon.

Thanks for your answers. Unfortunately I'm travelling in countries right now where it is not possible to buy a stock airfilter so I need to stick with the K&N for a while.
I serviced it about 3000km ago and it looks still clean, so I'm going to check it more often.
I also turned the snorkel head backwards, which should help as well.

Is the silicon number already dangerously high? What is normal after 16000km?

The questions remains, should a bypass filter not filter out dirt? Or is the silicon that shows up smaller than 0.1 Micron?

How are the other number of the test in your opinion?

 

[JAG]

It all looks good to me and bet the air filter's oil contains silicone oil which in turn contains silicon atoms. But I'd still use paper filters because I believe they filter better.

 

[dnewton3]

Silicone is indeed present in many engines; gasket sealer. Silicon is most often dirt injestion. UOAs cannot tell the difference between silicon and silicone.

K&N is the likely root cause, but you'll never know for sure until you experiment with a "normal" filter and see the results. K&N gets a bad rap (often rightfully so) because they are probably not serviced properly. I've seen some good UOAs come from K&N filter'd vehicles, but I've also seen a lot with poor Si results that went away after the K&N was replaced with OEM. I almost alwasy suspect incorrect maintenance on the K&N is the root cause. Unfortunately, what that really points out is that the service procedure of K&N (and others like it) is VERY particular and any mistakes can manifest in problems. Too little oil let's dirt through; too much can affect MAF and other sensors. IMO it's too hard to get it right; it's too easy to get it wrong. The proficiency band to properly service a K&N is very narrow.

Try the OEM filter and see if you can drop the Si.