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Oil Sample

Will L. said:
Doug said a key point that I thought and didn’t say, should have emphasized.

Why I said the cooling tablets:
I asked how much coolant you have to add and your answer was basically so little coolant that I almost wouldn’t worry about it.you are not dumping a ton of coolant in there constantly. They are telling you switch to oil changes at 1,000 mile’s because you are doing a flush of the system basically.

Yea the oil in there now is bad. Yes it is showing bearing wear and all that. But 260,000 miles on this engine that we know most likely they are not good candidates for a rebuild. With the expense is takes it’s better to trashcan the GM unit and find an optimizer to put money into. So who care if the gm block blows up.

If you are in a situation where truck breaks down on the road it could be dangerous for you- like I have a friend missing right leg- he can’t walk 5 miles so for him it could be deadly. For me, it is gonna be a sucky day because my plans for 1 day get ruined while I walk a few hours until cell service then wait for a tow truck. Maybe use a sick day at work.

I pulled out my optimizer and tore it down because it had low mileage and I knew it was a great candidate for rebuilding. But if my nephews 1988 6.2 starts to go- we aren’t pulling that engine until it is fully seized and has a couple rods laying on the ground. Get every last mile out it. Rare, but I have seen condemned engines run for 40,000 miles before actually dying. Most of the time they go about 5,000 miles when getting early warnings like this. But when dealing with a block not most likely to rebuild- might as well drive it unless you are in a dangerous area, or risky health condition.

You are talking about leaky ip- we all are seeing coolant in the oil- not diesel fuel.
And btw- I would be putting in low cost oil not synthetic anything. Yeah- run it for 1,000 miles and spin on new filter. Probably do that for next two thousand miles and would not bother with sampling- this is a condemned engine at this point. Don’t waste money on trying to get longest life from it. Then when you get close to the 3,000 mile level and it’s about time for the next oil change- THEN send in a sample.

Obviously you are watching for any loss of coolant along the way. If you start adding coolant frequently then expect engine death soon.

If money is a situation where you will probably get rid of the rig once engine is gone- or you’re not gonna put a new one in the truck but have to keep this running long as possible at lowest cost possible- then the right answer is pull both heads, new gaskets and diy the brass sleeves. Ignore bottom end keep running it.

260,000 miles on a truck that didn’t get the life extension tactics applied until 200,000 mile mark is not gonna make it to 350,000. Your shooting for 300,000 target. So running say 30,000 miles on bearings half gone- so what. Starts blow by soon- so what.

Other than doing a few oil changes at 1,000 mile mark and adding those tablets at this oil change, I would not spend an extra dime on longevity because it is looking like it is done soon.

If this engine were a candidate for - or you have to make it work because of money- yes do all the testing WarWagon is saying to. Otherwise- meh.

I once had a gm inline 6, 250 cid gasser. Head cracked and was sipping coolant like this 6.5 seems to be doing. I was broke and the roof of that car looked like roof of my home if ya get what I’m saying . I would change the oil at 1,000 miles and kept the old oil in a couple glass pickle jars. Old oil filter stored so it would drain out inside the new filters box. The next month was about 1,000 miles and the coolant separated from the oil. The filter dripped dry. That oil and filter went back in the engine and what came out sat there the next month.
About 8 weeks into this the head crack got bad enough I removed the pushrods to the bad cylinders valves. Dropped the pan and pulled that rod/piston. Popped the pan back on.

Still had to keep cycling to oil because of coolant contamination- which since only 3 months of winter here means cold enough- most the time was just water in the system- not spending money on antifreeze.

No, that engine didn’t make it super long- only about 35,000 miles, and i think I only bought 2 more qts of oil and never another filter. No more spark plugs or anything. Rented mule treatment. But money saved went to a better engine.

In your case the tablets are a worth while gamble. Not much else if ya wanna just push it. If ya wanna tear off heads- don’t buy tablets yet.
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I sense different advice here. On the ‘94 I had been troubling shooting, the advice was open the wallet and put on all the good shit. Is that because I have the wallet? We bought it with 242K on the engine which has a lot of blowby, but no coolant consumption. Never had the oil tested. It now has 296K miles on it and still running strong. We have a back up 6.5 stored in a crate. It was harvested from the ‘95 K2500 my son wrecked and it had 185K miles. It had a little blowby and consumed a quart every 2,500 miles. That engine has always been our fallback for when the one in the ‘94 blows.
 
Twisted Steel Performance said:
You're going to spend more getting the heads reworked than new heads cost, guides, valve job, decks trued, pressure tested, cracked fixed, etc. Even though aftermarket stuff is Chinese they are new and crack free for now.
Click to expand...
I was thinking reworking these heads because other than grinding the valves and planing the decks and pressure testing, I can do the rest of it myself.
Freshen the valve guides and ream to size, I can do that. I know a shop owner that has the valve grinding equipment and if I ask I am sure he would let me do that portion of it too.
 
Oh crap.
I think I sent in a sample from the wrong pan.
Moving some stuff around and I discovered this pan, covered with a rag and waiting for some to go for the sample test. I now remember cutting that off the top for that pan and flushing it out thoroughly to make sure there would be no contamination within. Then having to wait a couple weeks to get the sampling bottle and so much going on I forgot about this pan.
IMG_7808.jpeg
And so another oil sample will be going in today. See if the results are the same.
IMG_7809.jpeg
 
MrMarty51 said:
Oh crap.
I think I sent in a sample from the wrong pan.
Moving some stuff around and I discovered this pan, covered with a rag and waiting for some to go for the sample test. I now remember cutting that off the top for that pan and flushing it out thoroughly to make sure there would be no contamination within. Then having to wait a couple weeks to get the sampling bottle and so much going on I forgot about this pan.
View attachment 84032
And so another oil sample will be going in today. See if the results are the same.
View attachment 84033
Click to expand...
I always take the sample while draining or from a sample port, if I have One.
 
Big T said:
I sense different advice here. On the ‘94 I had been troubling shooting, the advice was open the wallet and put on all the good shit. Is that because I have the wallet? We bought it with 242K on the engine which has a lot of blowby, but no coolant consumption. Never had the oil tested. It now has 296K miles on it and still running strong. We have a back up 6.5 stored in a crate. It was harvested from the ‘95 K2500 my son wrecked and it had 185K miles. It had a little blowby and consumed a quart every 2,500 miles. That engine has always been our fallback for when the one in the ‘94 blows.
Click to expand...
Yes that is part of it, but more so is the coolant issue he has.
If Stoney had identical truck as you or Marty, my advice would be different yet.

If you look at my comments for someone new here you’ll see I give a wide variance of what they could do.
The best answer for everyone that owns a 6.5 is to replace it. But that simply doesn’t work.
 
Will L. said:
Yes that is part of it, but more so is the coolant issue he has.
If Stoney had identical truck as you or Marty, my advice would be different yet.

If you look at my comments for someone new here you’ll see I give a wide variance of what they could do.
The best answer for everyone that owns a 6.5 is to replace it. But that simply doesn’t work.
Click to expand...
I’m doing some work with a different insurance company to get the cabin thing onto a separate policy from my house, then I can go to the bank and do a standard home mortgage loan and get out from under this HELOC.
While I am in there I am going to get enough money beyond the HELOC so that I can purchase a new Optimizer long block. If the bank will go that. No reason why they wont, house and property is valued at far more than I’ll be requesting.
See what happens.
 
MrMarty51 said:
I’m doing some work with a different insurance company to get the cabin thing onto a separate policy from my house, then I can go to the bank and do a standard home mortgage loan and get out from under this HELOC.
While I am in there I am going to get enough money beyond the HELOC so that I can purchase a new Optimizer long block. If the bank will go that. No reason why they wont, house and property is valued at far more than I’ll be requesting.
See what happens.
Click to expand...
Just saw home loans at 8%.

When was the last time they were that high?

I don't believe our savings is making that amount
 
dbrannon79 said:
Be sure to get enough extra for Chris to do all the upgrades too. then that engine will last you for an eternity. Your son will thank you for the truck later down the road!
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Will have to wait and see how well the bank will work with Me and how much the payments will come to.
That would be mighty nice to have Chris work over an engine.
 
If you're going to have Chris do work on an Optimizer, I'd just buy the new block off him rather than put out the money for an engine just to have him tear it down. That's exactly what I would have done if it would have been available at the time.
 
Will L. said:
I wanna see you get a new engine and nicely done.
But man, this interest rate and pay for that many years on it? IDK if I could do that
Click to expand...
Yeah, there will most likely be a couple refinance modes if interest rates drops.
If they continue to climb then I’m locked in.
Scary is the thought of doing all of this at My age. Cant afford life insurance to pay off a $100,000.00 note but whats a person to do.
No, it wont take $100,000.00 but to pay off the HELOC and enough for engine will be close to $70,000.00.
If there is any left over the wifey has been bugging me for years for a deck out the front door. Maybe it is time for that too. 🤷‍♂️
 
SnowDrift said:
Take your time and bank the money away little by little if possible rather than getting a loan?
Click to expand...
Been trying to do that.
Have the JD rider mower paid down and it is getting paid off this coming week.
CC is down to less than $2500.00 and paying $400.00 every two weeks against that plus another $400.00 a month against that HELOC loan thing. That pays only about $75.00 towards principal.
Get the tractor oaid off and thats an extra $75.00 a month towards the CC so will most likely jump that payment to $500.00. Get that CC paid off then I can start banking a little. I hope.
 
MrMarty51 said:
Been trying to do that.
Have the JD rider mower paid down and it is getting paid off this coming week.
CC is down to less than $2500.00 and paying $400.00 every two weeks against that plus another $400.00 a month against that HELOC loan thing. That pays only about $75.00 towards principal.
Get the tractor oaid off and thats an extra $75.00 a month towards the CC so will most likely jump that payment to $500.00. Get that CC paid off then I can start banking a little. I hope.
Click to expand...
You're making progress. Do not take on additional debt, particularly mismatched duration of debt (i.e. home loan against car engine). Really a new engine should be paid for in cash.
 
Will L. said:
You are talking about leaky ip- we all are seeing coolant in the oil- not diesel fuel.
Click to expand...

There is fuel listed on the sample, but, my advice is for a properly done sample.

MrMarty51 said:
I think I sent in a sample from the wrong pan.
Moving some stuff around and I discovered this pan, covered with a rag and waiting for some to go for the sample test.
Click to expand...

Bluntly this contaminated and "wrong" oil sample just about sent you down an expensive rabbit hole. Either do the oil samples properly or don't do them at all!

Not sure you have any action needed as the sample contamination from an unknown drain pan used for who knows what before getting dust dropped on it from the air simply ruined the sample.

Start over as you may have many miles left on the engine.

Sample at the drain plug or use a "vampire" to suck a sample out the dipstick tube.

Samples tell you when you say have coolant in the oil before it wipes the engine bearings completely out. Or cracked intake boot/dust leak/ fuel in oil (OR in one of my cases ATT spool valve on a 6.2 with non-coated pistons going beyond the limits of the engine oil I was using.)

The blowby you have is not even interesting. Nothing to see there esp. with the miles on it. Someone has kept the temps in check and not hurt the rings!

This is blowby and if it would start and run I would have run it further...

 
MrMarty51 said:
Been trying to do that.
Have the JD rider mower paid down and it is getting paid off this coming week.
CC is down to less than $2500.00 and paying $400.00 every two weeks against that plus another $400.00 a month against that HELOC loan thing. That pays only about $75.00 towards principal.
Get the tractor oaid off and thats an extra $75.00 a month towards the CC so will most likely jump that payment to $500.00. Get that CC paid off then I can start banking a little. I hope.
Click to expand...
If you can add another $75 towards the Heloc, you'll in effect be doubling your payment.
 
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