salad

Fascinating thread - I'm adding the rocker fulcrum pics to the collection!

Quite well - According to Shell there's a 36% improvement in soot control based on the Mack T-11 test.

CCKen

When you drain that witches brew out of your crankcase and replenish it with Rotella, install a WIX 51515 oil filter. Napa Gold is part number 1515...I wonder who makes Cruiser54's Napa filters.

cruiser54

Wix!!!

cruiser54

Years ago when I had a fleet of medium and heavy duty trucks, I worked with teh local fire department on oil analysis.

They ran dino oil in teh trucks with a "spinner" supplmental oil filter. What it did, was use air pressure to spin a blade kinda like a blender in the bypassing oil and throw it through a coffee filter looking thing. this removed the soot. Worked great. Just change the coffee filter periodically and soot gone.

The they switched to Amsoil synthetic. No more soot in the "spinner". The Amsoil guy said synthetic does not react to the chemicals in unburned diesel fuel to produce soot.

CCKen

When I worked on Douglas DC-6 aircraft many years ago, some where fitted with what they called 'Swirlers'. It was engine driven and was designed about the same as the spinner you describe. They were troublesome so the company had them removed and trashed.

JohnEP

OK; planning the next oil change today. Got my Napa Gold filter, but the part # is FIL 1085. I plan on 3 quarts Rotella T 15w-40 and 3 quarts 5w-30. Does that average out to 10w-35?? Thinking about 2 tablespoons of MMO, and a twist of lemon for good measure...

HAH HAH: my oil filler cap is ratcheting in both directions: wont come off!

EDIT: engine cooled down a bit, then the oil cap came right off.

cruiser54

1085 is the standard sized Gold filter. You're good to go. Well, except for the oil cap......

CCKen

JohnEP 12 months from now...



I should have listened to CCKen and used Rotella T6 5W-40 and a WIX 51515 filter.

JohnEP

OK, Ok. Jeep's still draining in the driveway. Tomorrow, I will indeed rig up the harness for my chicken, strap her onto my neighbor's rusty freight train, and have her haul me down to Napa and Walmart for these exact specs. Should I return the MMO while I'm there, or just dump it into my gas tank?

CCKen

Wouldn't hurt to put some of that MMO in your crankcase as well.

bigbadon

JohnEP. How about posting some oil spot tests for us. For consistency use a business card, one drop of warm oil from dipstick and an overnight soak. State mileage use, brand and oil type. It would be interesting if others could do this too for comparison.

JohnEP

Seems like business cards have tons of variability. What about a white coffee filter instead? Took a photo after 1 hour soak on the coffee filter: nothing to see at all (not worth posting the pic) with my fresh oil. I'll save it to compare to future tests.

When I exchanged the 1085 oil filter for the 1515 at NAPA, I asked the guy why 1515 is not listed as an option for this engine on the NAPA website. He said, "because 1515 is the wrong filter for that engine." Then, eyeing my chicken and freight train parked outside, he said, "Looks like CCKen sent you here... The 1515 is just a larger version of the 1085; in fact, if the filter material is the same, then the larger filter surface area = less resistance to flow across the filter = less pressure drop across the filter = more oil flow through the engine."

I've now got 60 miles on my Rotella T6 5w-40 and Wix 1515 filter. I did not add any MMO b/c I like the idea of pure synthetic. At the end of my 9-mile commute today, oil pressure now reads 20 PSI at idle. Getting about 16 MPG ave per engine computer over that 60 miles.

On start-up, ticking is usually heard for a few minutes at idle (both cold starts and warm starts). Sometimes not. After it sat unused for a few days, I heard a more complex sound (marbles?) at start-up. These sounds always go away after about 5 min of driving. We'll see if it settles down, after some more "work-polishing" with the Rotella T6 (I doubt it will). I'll keep you posted either way.

bigbadon

Any white dense cardboard will work as long as you use the same material every time. I use the flaps on the box that my filter comes in.
coffee filter will absorb too quickly and the soot or contaminates will spread with the oil. The goal is to set a reference with mileage points.
After collecting a sample right after a oil change and another at 3k you will have something to reference the next change to. As the oil spreads across the blotter paper contaminates will drop out of suspension leaving symmetrical rings or shades of color.

JohnEP

UPDATE:

To summarize, I had a 2000 Grand Cherokee 4.0 head-crack that put coolant into my oil, and I drove that 4.0 inline 6 for many miles, refilling about 6 gallons of coolant before I realized that this was all going into my oil. The pic in my original post shows the severe resulting wear on my rockers. DID THIS INDICATE THE SAME DEGREE OF WEAR ON MY LOWER BEARINGS?

Short answer: NO.

After replacing the head and rockers, I have now driven this 2000 Grand Cherokee 4.0 over 2100 miles, and the dash oil pressure remains 18psi at hottest idle, using CCKen's exact oil and filter recommendation (Rotella T6 5W-40 and WIX 51515 filter). I am now willing to trust this engine to haul my boat. I'll keep you updated.

Thank you again for all your help,
JohnEP

CCKen

See...a chicken can hall a freight train.

Thanks for the follow-up.