I have a 1997 F250 extended cab with about 155k miles. I bought it from the original owner who took good care of it. Since I've had it I have been upgrading and getting things the way I like. I checked the SCA in the coolant and it was good but I went ahead and flushed the system and added a coolant filter and I have monitored SCA level since I did that, it has never overheated with me or the previous owner. I added the FS2500 bypass filter and started running Amsoil 15W40. After about 9k miles on the oil I took a sample and sent it in the Blackstone, I used a pump type oil sampler I bought off of Amazon and Blackstones container (I sampled from the dipstick).
I got my first sample back and it shows positive for glycol in the oil, it has 33ppm potassium (3 is normal), 16ppm sodium (4 is normal), 12 ppm copper (4 is normal) and 14 ppm lead (4 is normal). Viscosity was barely out of range. I dug through every thread I can find on this and yanked the oil cooler. The orings did not look bad but I did have some of the tubes plugged with solids. I went ahead and ordered a new cooler from Dieselorings as well as new gaskets and orings.
Now looking at it all it looks like I have a small leak since the levels are so low right now. I have not ruled out the possibility that the sample pump could have been contaminated (I should have flushed it but I did not), the sample jar was contaminated, I had coolant in the oil dipstick from a previous coolant change and/or leak I had when installing the A/C mod or Blackstone contaminated the sample. Those are not likely but with such low ppm levels I thought maybe it could be contamination (although the copper and lead levels show the coolant is attacking the bearings) so the cooler seems the most likely. Before pulling the cooler I removed the oil filter and pressured up the system to 16 psi and did not see leaks anywhere but the pressure would bleed off. The coolant tester did not mate up well with the cap on the overflow so I assume that was where it was bleeding down.
I plan on putting the new cooler in and adding new oil, running for a thousand miles then changing the oil and filters again. After the third oil change I will sample again but this time from the bypass filter. Any ideas?
I got my first sample back and it shows positive for glycol in the oil, it has 33ppm potassium (3 is normal), 16ppm sodium (4 is normal), 12 ppm copper (4 is normal) and 14 ppm lead (4 is normal). Viscosity was barely out of range. I dug through every thread I can find on this and yanked the oil cooler. The orings did not look bad but I did have some of the tubes plugged with solids. I went ahead and ordered a new cooler from Dieselorings as well as new gaskets and orings.
Now looking at it all it looks like I have a small leak since the levels are so low right now. I have not ruled out the possibility that the sample pump could have been contaminated (I should have flushed it but I did not), the sample jar was contaminated, I had coolant in the oil dipstick from a previous coolant change and/or leak I had when installing the A/C mod or Blackstone contaminated the sample. Those are not likely but with such low ppm levels I thought maybe it could be contamination (although the copper and lead levels show the coolant is attacking the bearings) so the cooler seems the most likely. Before pulling the cooler I removed the oil filter and pressured up the system to 16 psi and did not see leaks anywhere but the pressure would bleed off. The coolant tester did not mate up well with the cap on the overflow so I assume that was where it was bleeding down.
I plan on putting the new cooler in and adding new oil, running for a thousand miles then changing the oil and filters again. After the third oil change I will sample again but this time from the bypass filter. Any ideas?
