Cummins ISB Elevated Iron and Aluminum Levels

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My 2000 ISB 260 HP engine has had two oil analyses from Blackstone, this year and last, with elevated iron and aluminum levels.
This year I had:
Aluminum 32
Iron 65

I have 1,000 miles and one year on this oil change. The analysis during the previous year showed the aluminum and iron levels starting to rise. Previous to that all was normal. I show no trace of coolant in the oil and silicon is normal indicating the air filter is performing well, I think.
I am looking for recommendations of where to look for the problem and what to do. I prefer to take some action instead of waiting for it to get worse. I have had opinions that the problem is piston and cylinder wear, bad injector, or main bearing wear. One key is to explain the aluminum levels. Would a main crankshaft bearing contribute to the aluminum level? Any help would be appreciated.

Jim Walker
 
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The engine oil, if that is HDEO means, is Rotella T 15W 40 for diesel engines. The mileage in a year is not that low since it is a motor home. If I take short trips only I get 1000 miles and if I add a long trip to that I get about 6,000 miles. Actually the important point is how much residue there is in the oil with so few miles.
 
Yes, hdeo= heavy duty engine oil. Rotella us a good stout oil, perhaps your wear is coming from inadequate filtration? Is your engine filthy inside? Yes diesels engines are full of soot by nature, but if not filtered out before it reaches higher levels it can become abrasive and cause wear.

You may want to really flush the engine out with multiple short change intervals as well as look into an advanced filtering system like a bypass and run high end filters. Can you post your UOA here so we can examin it? With such "short tripping" it may also be beneficial to use a syn like rotella 5w-40?
 
Here is the most recent report form Blackstone.


Aluminum 32
Chromium 2
Iron 65
Copper 1
Lead 1
Tin 1
Molybdenum 14
Nickel 1
Manganese 0
Silver 0
Titanium 0
Potassium 2
Boron 31
Silicon 4
Sodium 8
Calcium 2171
Magnesium 213
Phosphorus 1164
Zinc 1438
Barium 0
Fuel % Antifreeze % 0
Water % 0
 
I agree on switching to T6. When picking an oil for an engine that spends as much time parked as it sounds like this one does, you want to improve cold flow viscosity as much as possible to reduce wear while still providing adequate protection at temp.

Or most any other 5w-40 diesel rated synthetic for that matter. DELO or M1 would probably be as good for your application, just get whatever you can locally for the best price and try that for a couple normal intervals with quality filters to see if your numbers come down before spending a bunch of money on bypass filters and the like IMO.

Edit: you can probably go two or maybe even three years on a quality synthetic HDEO with the usage that engine sees, get the TBN test to stretch it out and it makes the extra cost of synthetic worth it.
 
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Aluminum could be from aluminum oxides from dirt, pistons, bearings, crossheads, and retainers. Iron could be from liners, pistons, crossheads, packing glands, gears, housing casings, valves, cam shaft, main shaft. My guess is that it would be piston/liner issue. Usually with bearing issues you'll see higher copper, lead, and or tin. Possible you could see the liner scoring by pulling the pan or head.
 
I honestly don't see how switching to a synthetic is going to help your situation. You have something going on internally, your numbers are elevated over what they should be at the miles you are reporting.

Is your motorhome equipped with an hour meter? Excesssive idling wasn't mentioned, just curious if it should be entered into the equation.

Unfortunately I don't have a solution, other than having it checked out by your mechanic. I have a friend with the same engine in his motorhome with several around the country trips, without issue.
 
Sorry to take a while to get back to the forum. To answer questions, there is 64,000 miles on the engine. I don't have an hour meter but I don't idle much. I have changed the oil using Rotella T 15W 40 and I am preparing to change the air filter because it is something to try. It is early for the normal filter change. I bought an IR thermometer and will check for a cylinder that is too hot which could indicate a bad injector. I will start driving the motor home again in April and plan to run another oil sample in July. If the iron and aluminum levels are still high I will take it in and have a boroscope check on the cylinders. My Cummins dealer looked at the oil analysis and came up with the same probable cause that Blackstone did, piston scuffing on the cylinder. I will look for excessive blow by and oil escaping from the blow by. I appreciate all of the replies. I do think that something has happened, especially since this is the second year for the elevated levels of iron and aluminum.
 
This is one odd report because if the engine was in real bad shape it should show high Lead from the main bearings and high Crome from the rings, but it does not. I will take a wild guess and say that if you just did only 1K miles in a year, the problem is corrosion. If you don't do a decent run at least once a month then you will start to get both Iron and Alloy in the oil.
 
Originally Posted By: skyship
This is one odd report because if the engine was in real bad shape it should show high Lead from the main bearings and high Crome from the rings, but it does not. I will take a wild guess and say that if you just did only 1K miles in a year, the problem is corrosion. If you don't do a decent run at least once a month then you will start to get both Iron and Alloy in the oil.
I bet skyship has the answer here-if you had injector trouble your oil level would increase due to excess fuel in the oil (and Blackstone would have flagged it). The fact that it is ONLY Al & Fe increasing makes a lot of sense-start the (slightly) rusted engine, it's going to wear off the rust & take a little aluminum off the piston skirts in the process.
 
You say you do bunch of short trips. Does the engine ever get up to temperature?
 
Do you let the engine sit for long periods of time in between startups? If so the engine may be rusting and then all that gets worn off once it gets restarted contributing to high al and fe wear.
 
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