Dropping the oil pan

[Signature620]

Do you have access to a shop or the tooling to check the blowby?

And do you have any photos of the sludge?

[hookliftpete]

Signature, I don't have the tooling, but there is a shop close by that might be willing to do it. Putting my hand over the oil fill tube feels like light blowby, ecm shows something around 3300 hours at this point.

No photos of sludge from last change. In fact, someone should nominate me for the 'dumb rookie of the year' award. Was taking a sample of oil for the lab and ended up losing the whole lot of it on the driveway...I had planned to change oil saturday, I've taken samples before from the drain plug without losing the whole pan full, but somehow I slipped with the plug and ran it all out....at least I had the filters and oil on hand. I'm sure there is a better way to pull a sample, not sure what that'd be though.

What bypass system is suggested? I'd be happy to put it on, but not sure what I'd be connecting the bypass filter hoses to.

[Nilao]

Most on here go with a cheap basic amsoil sytem.

[Lonestar10]

find an AMSOIL rep or order from their site is what ive seen most people using there are cheaper ones but idk the quality.

as far as sampling i guess any time ive taken one its been during an oil change wait for about 1/2 the oil to drain out then stick in my cup an grab one. other than that you could risk your entire engine and put on a fumotomo or whatever valve. makes oil changes a breeze but can get hit by road debri and possibly open the valve and dump the whole lot while your driving.


i would think at 10k changes it shouldnt have time to make sludge. unless its putting alot of soot into the oil.


you could watch rawze's video where they made a backyard enginerding manometer for testing blowby and try that or goto shop that has a real manometer.

as far as looking at internals it depends are you going to pull caps off mains and put back on and retorqe and pull rod caps put back on and retorque? if so when you pull a cap check the bearings in the caps to see if theyve made it through the silver metal and into copper. then look at the surfaces on crank journals and check for any scarring. you should be able to run your fingernail across the crank journals and feel as smooth as glass atleast when new maybe a few very very slight snags with use. and a scored one...well youll be able to tell if you cant go find an eye doctor quick! ;p

[Waterloo]

(06-12-2019 )hookliftpete Wrote:  Was taking a sample of oil for the lab and ended up losing the whole lot of it on the driveway...I had planned to change oil saturday, I've taken samples before from the drain plug without losing the whole pan full, but somehow I slipped with the plug and ran it all out....at least I had the filters and oil on hand. I'm sure there is a better way to pull a sample, not sure what that'd be though.

You need one of these...



They come with a sample nipple too if you really need one.

Here is the chart to see which one fits your motor, with part numbers.
http://fumotousa.com/size-chart.php

Amazon sells them, as do most FleetPrides.

[hookliftpete]

Thanks for all the info folks! I'll look into the fumoto valve doodad. There are several plugs on this oil pan on the side, perhaps I can insert a valve into one of those and keep it from getting broken off. Drain most of the oil out through it and then pull the bottom plug when that's all that's left.

I'm going to hold on dropping the pan for now, oil sample came back with some improvement over the last sample in January, soot levels are now in 'acceptable' range, other items have stayed the same.

How does one read an oil analysis? They give the abbreviations for the different components, but I don't know if 10 or 1000 ppm of an item is good or bad. Lab tech says things look good, no coolant in sample, etc, and I trust him, I just want to know for my own understanding.

Readout of lab results attached.

Thanks!

[Rawze]

soot is way too high. change oil every 3000 miles until it starts to seriously come down (usually at least 3 oil changes at shortened intervals).

[hookliftpete]

Sounds good on the oil change at 3k miles. Will this help with residual soot/gunk residing in the engine? Afterward, resuming 10k changes, assuming no engine problems, I should see a lower soot level in general?

Also, in the 10k miles before this oil change, I had added about 2 quarts to the coolant to bring it up in the middle of the eyeball. By the time I took the sample, it was back below the eyeball. Oil sample did not contain any coolant, as per the lab tech.

Is there somewhere that I can be losing it that it's not going into the engine?

I replaced the coolant cap about 5 or 6k ago, as the old one had a bad seal.

[Lonestar10]

could be EGR cooler leaking. or hoses leaking. easiest way to test is to pressurize cooling system 20 psi and go through all the hoses, and disconnect EGR piping by cooler and set a bowl of some sort under it to catch any coolant that might drip out.