oil analysis
Thread Starter
Seņor Member
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 1,509
Likes: 7
From: Springfield, OH
oil analysis
I ordered up an oil analysis from Blackstone Labs on the truck, thought maybe folks might be interested in seeing how that turned out 
I'm a bit worried about the sodium, coupled with the yellow foam in the valve covers it seems like a clear indication of a head gasket issue
the excessive iron doesn't surprise me too terribly much, I expected the engine would be wearing a little more heavily than usual given its condition although the cold starts from the winter probably have something to do with it. I'm not concerned with the low viscosity, since my topoff oil was 5w-30 and I also added half a can of seafoam prior to the oil change, so the oil will be a bit thinner than 10w-40. If I remember rightly, I think I added stop-leak to this batch of oil as well, anyone know offhand if that'll show up on this report?
I'm a bit worried about the sodium, coupled with the yellow foam in the valve covers it seems like a clear indication of a head gasket issue
the excessive iron doesn't surprise me too terribly much, I expected the engine would be wearing a little more heavily than usual given its condition although the cold starts from the winter probably have something to do with it. I'm not concerned with the low viscosity, since my topoff oil was 5w-30 and I also added half a can of seafoam prior to the oil change, so the oil will be a bit thinner than 10w-40. If I remember rightly, I think I added stop-leak to this batch of oil as well, anyone know offhand if that'll show up on this report?
Springer Spaniels Rule
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 3,445
Likes: 17
From: Milltown, NJ
Did you pull a main or a rod cap to see where the metals could be coming from? Iron is the crank, cam, lifters and block, copper\tin\lead are the bearings. Sodium might be one of the cleaning chemicals.
Thread Starter
Seņor Member
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 1,509
Likes: 7
From: Springfield, OH
I don't think the screenshot captures it very well, but on these reports the outstanding values are bold... the only elements in bold are iron and sodium. I'm not worried about copper or others. According to the guide blackstone sent with the report I had done on my honda, iron is: cylinders, rotating shafts, valve train, and any steel part that touches the oil.
I didn't pull down any bearing caps because I didn't want to have to mess with retorquing the lot of them, messing with the engine internals is a bit outside what I'm comfortable with as an amateur mechanic right now lol.
I didn't pull down any bearing caps because I didn't want to have to mess with retorquing the lot of them, messing with the engine internals is a bit outside what I'm comfortable with as an amateur mechanic right now lol.