Been wanting to do an oil analysis on my 84 300SD for 7 years now. Finally got around to doing it after 7,100 miles on the oil.

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
1977 Red 240D ( Squished by a 18 Wheeler )
1976 Black 240D ( Sold )
1991 White 420SEL ( Sold )
1987 Black 560SEL ( Sold )
1983 White 300SD ( Sold )
1984 Blue 300SD ( Sold )
2014 Red Chevy Cruze Diesel ( New Hotness )

How much do they charge for this analysis?

I just googled it - $28.

$28 You can go online and they will send you the collection kit for free - take a sample and throw a check or CC into the package.
One thing they haven't changed over the year is to take the time and write a little narrative. See little of that personal interaction these days....sigh.
Blackstone Labs is a good investment.

Attached one of my recent analysis.

Attached Files

hed33.pdf (55.7 KB, 116 views)

__________________
BENZ THERE DONE THAThttp://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...c/progress.gif
15 VW Passat TDI
00 E420
98 E300 DT
97 E420 Donor Car - NEED PARTS? PM ME!
97 S500
97 E300D
86 Holden Jackaroo Turbo D
86 300SDL
(o\|/o)

Nice.

I'm quite pleased that the $750 car I bought 7 years ago is still running well. I'm tickled pink that I should be just ducky running 9,000 miles on my current oil. That Rotella T6 makes for an expensive oil change.

__________________
1977 Red 240D ( Squished by a 18 Wheeler )
1976 Black 240D ( Sold )
1991 White 420SEL ( Sold )
1987 Black 560SEL ( Sold )
1983 White 300SD ( Sold )
1984 Blue 300SD ( Sold )
2014 Red Chevy Cruze Diesel ( New Hotness )

I've been sticking with ~5k intervals on my 617 due to concerns about soot loading. Looks like your insolubles number is fine even at 7100, I should invest in a test myself. Save myself some $$ with extended OCI.

Thanks for posting, great info.

__________________
617 swapped Toyota Pickup, 22-24 MPG, 50k miles on swap

the measurement of insolubles is important. Modern diesel oil like Mobil 1 TDT
have formulations that keep soot in suspension at higher levels. This makes insolubles not as big an issue as with standard dino oil. Thus one of several reasons allowing longer OCI. I believe the older diesels 240 and nonturbo 300D have higher soot production. When you combine Low sulfur fuel and
full synthetic diesel oil soot is really no longer much of a concern.

I will relate a recent disaster of a close friend. He drives an older Freight Liner
with a Cummins. It had 1.2 million on the original bottom end. He drove up to
the Canadian border in January. He had 20,000 miles on the oil. It dropped to -30 F that night. He idled his truck all night to keep from freezing. Apparently the oil hit a certain threshold of soot and he woke up with the bottom end knocking. He finished off one of main crank bearings. So the moral is beware of high mile diesel with extended OCI in arctic weather. Idle apparently creates more soot during combustion.

__________________
1990 350 SDL
Currently: 180,000 miles
Factory rebuilt bottom end rods, bearings and head gasket @ 75,000 in 1997

I would bet because it was so cold outside, the engine suffered through incomplete combustion and diesel fuel diluted the oil. Diesel engines need to be at operating temperatures for complete combustion. Idling does not burn enough fuel to get an engine to proper temperatures, it's when you put a load on the engine that it happens.
So when you do an extended idle, especially at that extreme cold temperature like that, there is a good chance the engine cool off substantially and cause inefficiencies in the combustion process.
Combined this with the fact the bottom end has this high mileage and the most likely the piston rings are not sealing as well. The fuel just washed down cylinders and diluted the oil to the point it could not lubricate very well. I really don't think soot loading was an issue here.


.

__________________
1983 123.133 California
- GreaseCar Veg System

Blackstone sampled my 24V Cummins running Rotella T6 & said I could increase mileage. I think they said to try 13,000 mi up from 11,000.

Synthetic makes the difference between 1 glow and easy starts or multiple glows and hard starts when it gets cold out on the SD. The Cummins starts easy but the IP is electronic and more of a pita.

__________________
85SD 240K & stopped counting painted, putting bac together. 84SD 180,000. sold to a neighbor and member here but I forget his handle. The 84 is much improved from when I had it. 85TD beginning to repair to DD status. Lots of stuff to do.

This is called " Wet Stacking " or " Slobbering ". Diesels pump a lot of air through the cylinders at idle, this cools the combustion chamber.

Soot is so fine so it causes more of a long term wear issue than rapid failure. I don't think that diesel fuel diluted oil ( reduced lubrication quality ) would cause a bearing to fail on it's own at idle. I do see idle oil pressures being reduced and coupled with increased bearing clearances due to wear contributing to the failure.