does anyone have some input on these numbers. oil is delvac 1 5w40 with 5000 miles on it. engine has 31,000 on it.





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Metal Tests
Some of the metals tested for and usually included in analysis of an oil sample and their potential sources are:


* Aluminum (Al): Thrust washers, bearings and pistons are made of this metal. High readings can be from piston skirt scuffing, excessive ring groove wear, broken thrust washers, etc.
* Boron, Magnesium, Calcium, Barium, Phosphorous, and Zinc: These metals are normally from the lubricating oil additive package. They involve detergents, dispersants, extreme-pressure additives, etc.
* Chromium (CR): Normally associated with piston rings. High levels can be caused by dirt coming through the air intake or broken rings.
* Copper (CU), Tin: These metals are normally from bearings or bushings and valve guides. Oil coolers also can contribute to copper readings along with some oil additives. In a new engine these results will normally be high during break-in, but will decline in a few hundred hours.
* Iron (Fe): This can come from many places in the engine such as liners, camshafts, crankshaft, valve train, timing gears, etc.
* Lead (Pb): Use of regular gasoline will cause very high test results. Also associated with bearing wear, but fuel source (leaded gasoline) and sampling contamination (use of galvanized containers for sampling) are critical in interpreting this metal.
* Silicon (Si): High readings generally indicate dirt or fine sand contamination from a leaking air intake system. This would act as an abrasive, causing excessive wear. Silicon is also used as a anti-foam agent in some oils. more on silicon
* Sodium (Na): High readings of this metal normally are associated with a coolant leak, but can be from an oil additive package.

Dirt, Silica and Silicon
Emission Spectroscopy Oil Analysis has proven to be a popular method of inspecting your engine oil for abnormal levels of contaminates. A proper interpretation of the results is needed to make the analysis useful. What this type of oil analysis does well is report the amount of wear metals in the oil. Two occurrences where wear metals may be excessive: 1. Component or lubricant failure is causing metal-to-metal contact wear or 2. Wear is being created by dirt (abrasive) in the engine .

Dirt is by far the most typical cause of high wear metals in the engine oil. If you find the wear metal quanti**** are high, and the amount of dirt is high, its pretty evident the dirt is creating excessive amounts of wear metals. The silica (also known as quartz) component of dirt causes abrasive wear. Silica, combined with metallic oxides known as silicates, are the basis of sand and nearly all rocks. When silica combines with carbon, it forms an abrasive called "Carborundum" which has a hardness near that of diamond. Silica is an oxide of silicon called silicon dioxide (Si02). Oil analysis labs do not directly analyze for dirt. Most of the silicon the lab reports is from silicon dioxide. The lab readings therefore tell you the amount of silica in the oil. To make it easy, just replace the word dirt for silicon.

*Dirt is not the only source of silicon in the oil. The additive package in ashless dispersant oils tends to cause the oil to foam. Silicone is used in the oil as an anti-foam agent. Silicone is a polymeric silicon compound based on the elements silicon and oxygen. Approximately 6 to 10 ppm of the silicon reading is from the silicone that was added to the oil. Different brands of oil differ on the amount of added silicone. Consequently, the amount of silicon the lab detects is somewhat dependent upon the brand of oil. If you switch from brand of oil to another oil, you may see an increase in silicon in the oil. Some labs subtract part of the silicon reading from the report so the reported reading is based more on the amount of dirt present in the oil. If you had an identical analysis sent to a lab which did not subtract out some of the silicon or which subtracted out a different amount, then the readings may vary widely.

We know how much dirt is in the engine from oil analysis. We know that too much dirt is bad; but we need to know how bad the dirt is! For this we need to consider particle size, shape and hardness. Dirt or any other particle do not cause wear unless the particle is larger than the oil film separating the parts. A rather low-tech method of determining whether the particles are of sufficient size, shape, and hardness to do damage, is to place a drop of contaminated oil between two glass microscope slides and rub the slides together. Then examine the slides with a microscope for scratches; if the glass scratches then so will your crankshaft journal. Super fine dirt causes damage if there's a sufficient quantity for the dirt to agglomerate. There should not be high levels of silicon in the oil. If there are high levels of silicon and wear metals, it indicates the oil should be changed and the induction system and intake filter inspected for leaks.

An easy check of the induction system is to remove the air filter and reach back into the air box or filter housing and feel for grit. If it feels gritty, your engine is ingesting dirt. Inspect the condition of the air intake system.. Possibly cracks, broken air filter housing, or loose air intake hoses are allowing dirt to suck in during engine operation.

*After finding the faulted area, another follow-up oil analysis after a short period should be made to see if silicon contaminate and wear metal levels have lowered to a normal level.

If wear metals are high but silicon is normal, then abnormal metal on metal wear and part failure are occurring. In this case, an inspection of the engine is warranted. The proper method of using oil analysis is to base readings

that is interesting on the dirt level verus copper wear metals on my chart. my intake has no leak, it is however an afe stage two with there original filter, not the proguard 7. huummm!!!!!!!!!!


john


02 3500 cc lb 4x4 lt

I can't recall seeing copper levels that high ..... I too am running a AFE with Nylon Sock ....


I may have to run a follow up oil analysis ....


Who did the analysis ....?





Mac http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Ermm.gif

We see this elevated copper and silicon (never THIS high) numbers when a Dmax is fresh (which is why I advise 2-3 oil changes in the first few thousand miles) but they usually grow out of it.





In this case, I would think it would be a good idea to try a different air filter and see if the trend continues.





Soot is up a bit compared to most, but that could be EGR/catalyst...

It would appear from the elevated dirt level that you either have a signifcant induction leak or the air filter is not adequate. The high dirt level is causing accelerated bearing wear as indicated by the high wear rates shown.
Find the source for your dirt asap and then re-sample...
George Morrison

the test was done by herguth laboratories in northern california. and i am removing my afe intake this morning and putting the stock one back on. incase anyone asks there is no intake leak i have looked, both the air sensor and gauge are there. so that leaves only the afe to blame i guess. i have the nylon bag on it to. i'm taking if off in about an hour and i am going to look at the tube to see what i can find. i am a little upset about the numbers myself and the intake. maybe this is one reason they came out with the proguard 7. just to confirm the test, i am changing the oil today too. and i'm going to send another sample in for testing. but for now the stock box is going back on.


john


02 3500 cc lb 4x4 lt

Did you employ strict sampling technique? SPICER

i took my intake off you are not going to believe this, i am calling afe and we are going to have a talk. every body take off your intakes and look NOW at yours. this is after the filter 4"s before the turbo this is why my dirt and copper wear is so high.unbelievablehttp://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Angry.gifhttp://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Angry.gifhttp://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Angry.gifhttp://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Angry.gif


john 02 3500 cc lb 4x4 lthttp://www.dieselplace.com/forum/uploads/johns_intake.JPG

holy bad powder coating job............





i dont think that would affect your dirt or copper levels very much, most of it went right out the tailpipe i bet. I would be more worried about any potential damage to turbine blades from hitting that crap at full speed. I have seen ones eroded from dirt, cant imagine that stuff did it any good....

Have you had your oil sampled prior to this?





How many changes have you done to date.





Just curious if we can see a trend here...