First 500 miles duramax break-in opinions?

[diyer2]

Updated my post about sediment in oil and included a picture of sediment on bottom of jar.

 

[Sask Farmboy]

Thank you diyer2.

 

I get so much flack from guys that get mad if I change my oil sooner than the oil life monitor tells you to.

They try to make you feel bad by saying you are wasting your money with unnecessary oil changes.

 

That sediment (AKA "liquid sandpaper") is not good and on the really cold starts like we are still seeing here in Canada, there is a good possibility that the oil filter bypass valve is opening and letting unfiltered oil through.

I am going to start oil sampling but I will also do oil changes at the 1,000 to 1,500 km mark, like I have always done on new vehicles, and probably again at 5,000 to 7,000 to confirm that I now have no sediment in the oil.

 

Some of that abrasive sediment will be smaller than the 20 to 30 micron size and so it will pass through the filter media and continue on to everything that is lubed by engine oil.

That sediment is the result of the mechanical parts wearing in to their mating surfaces.

 

This will also be found in your diffs, the transfer case and the transmission.

I change oil in those as well to get this abrasive oil out so it doesn't cause extra wear that is totally unnecessary.

This effect of the sediment at the bottom of the oil is magnified when the component oil capacity is smaller like in SUV transfer cases.

 

I have been a mechanic for 35 years and had a real life accelerated wear test on Nissan SUV transfer cases when I worked there.

Nissan has excellent quality in their powertrains but even that could not stand up to leaving the "liquid sandpaper" in their transfer cases.

We were replacing multiple transfer cases, within 6 months to 2 years, for noise and leaks until I found the oil contamination problem.

We started changing the transfer case oil at 1,000 kms in new vehicles & monitored.

We checked the transfer case oil for sediment at every engine oil change after that and never found any, only clean oil.

And, we never had any more problems with transfer cases.

[FirstAscent]

@Sask Farmboy I'm with ya. an extra $100 here and there over the life of the vehicle is worth it to me. I've never done oil sampling before but decided a couple months back I'm going to on this new truck just because. and I think that kind of stuff is interesting and would be fun to see how it progresses/changes throughout different cycles of the vehicle (break-in, broken-in, continuous yearly use, etc)