Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/536679
MAINTENANCE MATTERS 22 // OWNER OPERATOR // JULY 2015 burning the fuel – and oil is high in detergent, which means it cleans. Your oil fi lter removes most of the dirt, but every fi ring of an injector results in more dirt in your oil. To make matters worse, 2003-07 exhaust gas recirculation engines take the soot that usually collects in the muffl er and get pushed out of the stack, and instead puts it right back into the intake manifold. To use another body metaphor, run up a hill to see how far you can get. Now take a quarter- inch plastic hose, and put one end in one of your nostrils. Then slice the other end at a 45-degree angle and put it in your other nostril so that some fresh air also can still enter your nose. Now take off up the hill again, and see how far you get. That's similar to the way EGR systems work, and much like your hill running, it's not going to let you get nearly as far as when you're able to breathe clean air and expel it. Also just like your body, your engine can't reburn oxygen, and the air being sent back into your intake manifold not only is fi lled with soot but also has had the oxygen supply depleted. This wears out the valve guides, rod and main bearings, cam bearings, cam shafts, cam followers and thrust washers. When your dirty oil wears out your cam shaft or turbocharger, you'd think a warranty would cover it, right? That's not always the case, because the oil in your engine is fi lthy, and the iron count in an oil analysis will be too high. Having iron particles in your oil is like having sandpaper in your engine: It'll wear out parts quickly. When you became an owner-operator, you became responsible for maintaining your truck, and this means changing the oil. With truck ownership, you have a big decision to make: Change the oil, or replace the parts. It's up to you. If the iron count in your engine oil is at 20 parts per million or less, your engine, if maintained properly, likely will run for more than 1 million miles. I'm looking at an oil analysis for an engine sitting on my desk showing an iron count between 60 and 79 parts per million. Guess what? It needs a new cam shaft and cam followers. For this particular engine, parts and labor run $7,170. How many oil changes is that worth? OO Bruce Mallinson is the owner of Pittsburgh Power, an engine performance shop in Saxonburg, Pa.