Engine oil analysis

Dave, Why not install a by-pass filter on the engine oil and change the bypass filter every 5000ks and change the engine oil and standard spin on filter every 10,000ks or 20,000ks Most bypass filters clean oil to about 1 micron, thats much cleaner than engine oil is from new. The bypass filter picks up very small particles and keeps you spin on filter cleaner so it can be left on the vehicle longer. You can save money and the bypass filter will pay for its self fairly quickly. Worth a thought.. Michael

Your motor is a 12H-T. Not really old technology - many will say it was ahead of its time.....others will simply say its the best motor ever put into a LandCruiser. Its very hard to wear one out.

It is direct injection which means your oil doesn't get contaminated with soot as soon as the indirect injection diesels. For normal running, I'd go to 10,000k oil and filter changes with this motor. If you want to test the oil for peace of mind, do it at 10,000k.

I think it is a waste of time and money to fit a bypass filter on this motor.
I would also be using cheaper oil - any 15W40 diesel engine oil, CF or greater is good for this motor - I buy mine for about $80 for 20 litres.

Cheers
Phil

Dave,
Not only is the oil technology more advanced so is the fuel you're burning,in a lot of cases you're burning diesel with 10 or less ppm sulphur in it depends which brnd you buy over East. The sulphur used to be 500 ppm + + in some cases, this is one of the elements that does the damage especially when you mix this with water doing short trips. Metals technology for piston rings and liners if you have them has also moved on. It's all good stuff that prolongs the life of your oil. I change the filter at 5000 klms and the oil at 10,000 klms, filters are cheap and the most critical component in the lubrication system,as others have pointed out.
My opinion others may vary.

Thanks for the replies guys.

I usually only drive the vehicle on longer runs. Most times it would be at least an hours drive or more.
100,000 K in 15 years.
It isn't a town runabout, you don't need a 4WD for that IMHO.

5000K is up since I last changed the oil, and I was a bit surprised about the price of the oil. (Dello 400)
It had been quite a while since I bought the last drum.

I just thought that I might get an analysis on the oil for peace of mind, just to see how good/bad it is after my typical 5000K.

Dave

Dave,

I did a bit of used oil testing on 3 diesel vehicles in our family a couple years back when i converted 2 of them to diesel gas injection.

I did put a sub micron filter on one of the converted deisels.

What found out is that theres MORE than one way to skin a cat and not all used oil analysis are the same.

The cheap oil anaysis ($35) often DON'T measure the amount of soot so - you can't tell if your sub micron filter is mking any difference or not.

Here in WA - Westrac the CATERPILLAR place do 2 types of used oil analysis - one WITHOUT soot reporting and a more expensive one WITH the soot levels reporting.

ALSO - something else I found out!

Not ALL testing places do the same type of testing - some have one way of doing it and others have another way.

I decided to "test them out" bye send 2 samples of the SAME used oil to 2 different labs (one here n Oz and one in the USA).

I got results back that were no where near the same - on exactly the same used oil go figure!

Next - as others have said you need to keep testing the oil to watch for changing trends.

Lastly?

You need to get hold of a VIRGIN oil analysis t0o know what was IN the new oil you put in the sump in the forst place!

How can you tell from ONE used oil analysis what the results mean, IF you don't know what the clean virgin oil had in it when you first put it in!

I had one sample used oil analysis come back with a certain level of something in it and the analysis "expert" claimed - that was a bit high and could mean this or that or the other, yet wheni checked the virgin analysis it had EXACTLY that level of the particular element in it when it was new oil, i.e NONE had entered the sample from my engine - it was ALL in there from the new oil - so obviusly the "expert" hadn't bothered to look at what levels of that elem,ent the NEW oil had in it in making his "expert recommendation".

The different companys use different testing techniques for certain things and report on the results in different units as a result of the tests they use.

Soot levels for example require "interferometer spectography" for reliable measurements - whle the glass and mirror method might give a good visual estimation clue, and a bush mechanic might wipe the dipstick on white tissue and guess at the soot content.

There IS a place to learn all about used oil analysis - it is the web forums at BITOG (Bob IS The Oil Guy). Anything you want to know about oil and ol testing is at that forum, I learned a LOT there.

Cheers