What happened to the oil in this sample?

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I figured out what happened with the oil in this motor already. For the heck of it maybe some of you can take a guess.

The motor is a Cat C-15. The motor has 23000 hours. The sump holds 16 gallons of chevron delo 400 LE. It has new oil now but it had nearly 2000 hours of service on the old oil. Bypass filtration is used.


Any guesses as to what has happened to this oil.

4_lab_report_unit_2_1.jpg
 
The wear metals are all normal. I'm looking at the additive depletion.
 
Originally Posted By: Pablo
It's almost like someone added the incorrect oil.

Yep that was easy. About 1 gallon of 90wt was added as make-up fluid.
 
Was this a trick question....? LOL or did you go back to your place of business with the report and ask the other personnel that work on/with the vehicle?
smile.gif
 
Originally Posted By: ahoier
Was this a trick question....? LOL or did you go back to your place of business with the report and ask the other personnel that work on/with the vehicle?
smile.gif



Really just an example of what happens when a different oil is added into a system. I was able to track the problem back to a green motor-man who told me he added make up 90wt into the system because that is what he thought it took.
 
Hopefully the same individual didn't put HDEO in the tranny, or ATF in the diff ... Sounds silly, but then who would have expected gear oil in the engine? Seriously, there's a difference between "green" and ignorant (not being derogatory, just purely descriptive of the total lack of knowledge).

But, do you blame the employee, or managment who hired him? Where are the "standard work" documents that should have prevented this? What training did he recieve? If he was so "green", he should not have been turned loose alone until qualified and validated by a veteran "motor man". What else did he work on that hasn't been discovered yet?


Nice to see that the UOA picked up on this. To dilute the additives that much, there must have been a pretty heavy dose(s) of the wrong make-up oil added? As mentioned, we can't see all the metals although it looks like the Fe may have been pushed. Some of the Fe is likely just accumlated mileage, and some might be from the additives dropping; can't be sure. Perhaps, caught early enough, there is no real harm is done.

Lesson learned I hope; don't turn a rookie loose in the maintenance shop.
 
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Originally Posted By: dnewton3
Hopefully the same individual didn't put HDEO in the tranny, or ATF in the diff ... Sounds silly, but then who would have expected gear oil in the engine? Seriously, there's a difference between "green" and ignorant (not being derogatory, just purely descriptive of the total lack of knowledge).

But, do you blame the employee, or managment who hired him? Where are the "standard work" documents that should have prevented this? What training did he recieve? If he was so "green", he should not have been turned loose alone until qualified and validated by a veteran "motor man". What else did he work on that hasn't been discovered yet

Lesson learned I hope; don't turn a rookie loose in the maintenance shop.


It's a whole different world on a drilling rig. The turnover for roughnecks can be tremendous. It is NOTHING at all like working in a maintenace shop.
 
This would be proof that thicker isn't always better, (could apply to the lube and the man ......)
 
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I figure he is lucky they added 90 weight instead of letting it simply run out.

Based on the numbers I think he added a lot more than a gallon.
 
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