High Iron in oil Reports

[JCockerill]

With 52000 miles on 06 cummins 5. 9 I keep getting high iron levels in my blackstone oil reports. the last sample was valvoline premuim blue 15-40 oil with 5800 miles on it. iron level was 50ppm, and the only "flagged" level. I have run amsoil, rotella, and now valvoline. valvoline having the best report so far. I had high iron, copper, and potasium with the other oils, but those levels are now exceptable with the premium blue. Now i only have the high iron. . any ideas?



i was thinking of installing a bypass filter, suggestions?

 

[rbattelle]

If you've tried all those oils and still have high iron, it seems to me you've got something ferrous that's wearing away. Rings would be one possibility, although there are numerous other possibilities (most of the engine is iron!).

In other oils you had high copper and potassium as well. Could the elevated levels of iron, copper, and potassium all be related?

An interesting opinion on copper.

High potassium is usually a cooling system issue, with coolant leaching in somewhere.

So you ask yourself, where would both potassium and iron come from? The water jacket would be one source; I'm thinking of the head in particular.

I wonder if you've got a head problem developing here?

Here's an intersting article on oil analysis. Notice it suggests levels much higher than 50ppm iron content would be problematic.

I'm afraid I don't know enough about "normal" for this truck to judge what the readings should be. And the fact that you've changed oils so frequently may preclude any chance of developing a useful trend at this point. Maybe someone more experienced with oil analysis will chime in here.

-Ryan

 

[InfernoB]

Try pulling a sample between 700 and 1000 miles. See what you get then.

Do you cut open your filter after each change to inspect?

 

[ewcmr2]

Had any engine work done recently?

I installed a PDR cam/lifters and my iron went up to 76ppm. Second oil change it dropped to 38ppm, next one should be "normal" 23ppm.



Porterfields on the truck! Whats up with that?

 

[RonD]

I did a Blackstone on my 2005 once at about 67000 miles, mainly to see what the fuel dilution was, the Iron level was 62, and it runs good. That was with an 8500 mile change interval I am not concerned about it, and Blackstone wasn't also, I would shorten your oil change intervals to something like 5000 miles and see how that works out, the brands of oil your using has no bearing on it at all.

 

[CKelley1]

the truck is not yet broken in. your truck also has in cylinder egr. the huge amount of carbon produced causes a lot of extra wear. a bypass filter is needed on all 04. 5 up trucks. ewcmr2 has removed a lot of the egr with the pdr cam. adding a smarty jr and ddp 50 hp nozzles will get red of the rest. and this will gain enough mpg to pay for its self in a short time.

 

[rbattelle]

the truck is not yet broken in.

That's an interesting point. How many miles are on the truck?



Ryan

 

[ewcmr2]

Ryan, OP says 52k on truck



Ckelley, I'm an interloper to the 3G forum from the 2G forum. My 12valve has zero EGR : )

 

[Regcabguy]

My '07 5. 9 has just 26,000 miles on it. My Blackstone analysis just returned a 26 on the iron. Oil sample had 5,000 miles on it with no bypass. Delo 15-40 CI +4 oil. Next oil is Valvoline Super Blue CJ oil. We'll see.

 

[rbattelle]

Ryan, OP says 52k on truck

Oh yeah, duh! I think 52k can safely be called "broken in", although I suppose anything's possible.



Perhaps the thing to do at this point is monitor iron for awhile and see whether the slope is positive.



Ryan

 

[amsoilman]

Last oil sample on mine taken with 79,000 miles on oil, showed 115 ppm Iron and was not hilighted. Viscosity was still in the middle of the specs. for a 15W-40 oil read 14. 5CsT@100 C. Soot was 0. 4% Vol.

My truck currently has 92,000 Plus miles.

 

[rbattelle]

Last oil sample on mine taken with 79,000 miles on oil, showed 115 ppm Iron and was not hilighted.

Do they highlight based on previous trends for each particular engine?



Anyway, I'd say Wayne just cleared things up nicely.



Ryan

 

[amsoilman]

Do they highlight based on previous trends for each particular engine?



Anyway, I'd say Wayne just cleared things up nicely.



Ryan

The analysis lab I use, highlights each of the wear metals/elements on a scale of 0 to 4. (0-1) NORMAL. (2-3) ABNORMAL. (4)CRITICAL.



Using this system of colors/numbers,along with comments will give the user some idea of how critical the analysis is. For example, if the Iron was found to be critical, that wear metal would show up "Highlighted" in red, and there would be a comment as to what this may have been caused by, and what where to look in the engine for this element. In this example, there would most likely be ABNORMAL numbers in other elements as well, such as Chromium, Alluminum, Lead, and Copper. Viscosity would most likely be effected as well, as these higher numbers of wear elements would thicken the oil.

 

[JCockerill]

Had any engine work done recently?

I installed a PDR cam/lifters and my iron went up to 76ppm. Second oil change it dropped to 38ppm, next one should be "normal" 23ppm.



Porterfields on the truck! Whats up with that?

no engine work done...



yes porterfields rs-4 pads work well on the truck! better than stock junk!



thanks for the replys guys. i will keep an eye on it. . I was thinking of installing a bypass filter anyway, was just wondering if that will help my iron levels from circulation though-out engine. i'm going to back down to 5000 miles on the premium blue oil and see. anyone using the synthetic valvoline blue oil 5w-40?