uoa delo 400 19,694 miles, 679 hrs in Volvo d11

[dustyroads]

This is second sample posted for my Volvo vnm630 with 10.8 liter d11 engine used for trucking all over the u.s. The only constant is the weight of 73,000-80,000 lbs gross weight.

Unfortunately don't yet have auxiliary air conditioning so sleep in hot humid summer means idling. This oil has 301 hrs just idling. 679 hrs total.
Truck had 216,431 miles, oil 19,694 at sample time. It was sampled with pump and now that I have results will change it tomorrow (6/21) with about 22,000 on oil.

Blackstone tested 6/19/13


Alum 5

Chrom 0

Iron 9

Copper 5

Lead 3

Tin 5

Moly 88

Nick 0
Mang 0
Silv 0
Titanium 0

Potassium 5

Boron 92

Silcon 8

Sodium 5

Calcium 1503

Mag 375

Phos 1058

Zinc 1250

Visc @ 210f =54.9

Visc @100c =11.58

Flash pt =410

Fuel @ 0.5%

Water and coolant both 0.0%

Insols 0.1%

Tbn 0.7

Tan 4.4

Happy to see fuel and copper/lead back to good levels. This truck isn't babied...it pulls lots of mountains and pushes thru high winds. Does good for such a tiny engine (405 hp/1450 lb-ft). Note how little boron is left compared to voa's of delo. Use fleetguard filters in all positions. Very happy...got a lot for my money here

 

[Donald]

So your mileage does not really reflect the usage of the engine.

I feel people should always get oxidation and nitration. Oxidation tells you the condition of the base oil, while TBN tells you the condition of the additives. Both need to be known when evaluating oil.

 

[dustyroads]

Actually mileage does reflect the usage...it has a lot of idle hours added but still 20,000 miles of hard work. I only add the hours for extra info which I put a lot of weight in. the idle time doesn't take away from the miles accumulated.

 

[Donald]

Originally Posted By: dustyroads
Actually mileage does reflect the usage...it has a lot of idle hours added but still 20,000 miles of hard work. I only add the hours for extra info which I put a lot of weight in. the idle time doesn't take away from the miles accumulated.


In addition to the mileage it has a lot of stationary hours like a generator.

 

[Clevy]

Wow. 9ppm iron with that kind of mileage. Impressive.

 

[Mr Nice]

I thought Delo had more calcium ?

 

[dustyroads]

Boron seems to disappear with use in a big way. I'm still unsure but I believe calcium also decreases with use (??) Feel free to correct me, but in both of my samples the calcium was much lower than the voa's I've seen.

 

[dnewton3]

Wear is utterly non-existent; it's hard to imagine numbers so low with that kind of heavy use exposure. This isn't a light-duty Dmax driving back and forth commuting; this is heavy on-road service use. And yet wear is practically zilch on a per-mile basis.

The TBN/TAN is not grossly out of whack, but it's getting to a point where due caution is going to be an issue. I suspect you're nearly a point where the increased in needed UOAs to track a wear shift is not prudent, simply because the increased costs and time will seam unpalatable. While the oil is not totally worthless, the value of a simple OCI here might be the common sense thing to do. If you were to continue to use this oil, you'd have to sample more and more often to track wear shifts, and at some point it's just cheaper to OCI. I cannot tell you where that point it at, as I'm not familiar with the sump size or costs you incur for lube pricing. Plus, the Blackstone UOAs with TAN/TBN are not cheap ...

I will note, for folks that argue the whole TBN/TAN thing, that this is a perfect example of why I say low TBN does NOT automatically assure high wear. And you'll also note that TAN likely crossed TBN long ago, and still nothing bad happened. Like I've said many times before, the TBN/TAN relationship is a guide to watch for shifts in wear; it is not a reason to condemn a fluid on sole magnitude alone.

Overall, you got decent value out of the fluid and you're probably at a point where an OCI, while not needed, is probably prudent just to save you time/money on the road. The oil could likely be used longer, but the cost to monitor it will soon become prohibitive. And if you follow my posts, ROI is what lube maintenance is all about!

Good job, overall.

 

[dustyroads]

I bought a six pack of samples (discounted) with tbn/tan prepaid so I'll be testing some more

 

[dustyroads]

Fwiw the sump holds 38 qts and no makeup oil was needed.

 

[dnewton3]

Because you have some prepaid kits, and because the sump is so large, it might be worth pushing out the OCI and testing further. It somewhat changes my perspective of your situation in regard to the OCI.

The TBN/TAN is not out of control, as I already mentioned. It simply is at point where continued, closer scrutiny is warranted.

Addtionally, because your insolubels are so low (.1), the oil is likey very clean overall. While I agree that knowing oxidation and nitration would be good, those things are inputs (of sorts) into the insolubles count. If you have a low insoluble reading, then it's inferred that the varnish/ox/sludge factor is low. Blackstone does this by diluting the sample, spinning in a centrifuge, and then doing an optical comparison to known standard references. Being at .1 is very low on the scale; they consider .6 as "high".

So, your wear is fine, your base/acid needs to be tracked, and your basestock oil seems in decent shape. And to boot, you have a costly large sump and prepaid UOA kits.

To me, that screams "stay the course" and continue to test.

 

[dustyroads]

Dnewton3: if you should read this, I "chickened out". As I type this my oil is being drained at 21,574 miles and 734 hrs on it. So I did get a little more out of it, but not sampling. My last oci was over 25,000 and that report is currently on page 2 of this forum but it wasn't a Blackstone. I'm at a shop I trust (in Wisconsin) that won't cost much more than me doing it at home.

I think in my circumstance 25,000 is allowed to maintain my warranty but with so many hours accumulated I decided to drain.

Fwiw Blackstone said the same as you...that I could run oil a bit longer if I was comfortable with a little acidity. I did get a little more anyway... Thanks for your analysis . Will have another report in late August.