Why can transmission and differential oils stay clean for 250,000 miles or longer but not the engine oil? What makes engine oil dirty is the combustion of fuel with oxygen. There are two items that wear out the engine, not counting driver abuse. The first is Silicone, which is ingested dirt that gets past the air filters and into the combustion chamber, and the second is carbon and soot, which is a by-product of burning diesel fuel. These two things contaminate the oil in your engine and make it necessary to replace at regular intervals.
The first thing, silicone, is a fine abrasive dust that can wear away the cross hatch of the liners in as short as 30 days. The cross hatch holds the oil to the cylinder wall and the piston rings actually ride on the cross hatch. Once the cross hatch is gone, oil consumption accelerates. This is called Liner Bore Polishing. Once the engine has liner bore polishing it must be rebuilt. To help avoid this damaging condition, we at Pittsburgh Power utilize Fleet Air Filters, which are made of foam, not paper.
Fleet Air Filters have three layers of foam of different densities, and they need to be washed in a tub or bucket with Dawn dish detergent, allowed to dry, and reoiled at regular intervals. The foam air filters have another benefit – less restriction. This allows the turbo to compress more air into the combustion chamber. Another advantage of lower air restriction is less wear on the thrust washer of the turbocharger, thus extending the life of the turbo.
When the thrust washer of the turbo wears out, the end play of the turbocharger becomes greater than .012 and the compressor wheel (fresh air wheel) will come in contact with the compressor housing. The photo shows thrust washer wear due to being on and off the throttle too quickly (left), versus a new thrust washer (right). The result of this is having to replace the turbocharger, and we all want to avoid that! The Fleet Air Filters have many advantages over paper filters, and we urge you to contact our service department to discuss how they can specifically help your truck.
The second thing that contaminates your oil and makes it black and “dirty” is carbon and soot. The burning of diesel fuel, along with the fine dust in the intake air, creates soot and carbon. Carbon is the by-product from burning fuel. The more efficient the burn, the less carbon and soot in the combustion chamber. Reducing any air flow restrictions can help, as well. Other ways to decrease restrictions in the exhaust system is by using our ported and ceramic coated exhaust manifolds or our low restriction mufflers. These products will make it easier to vacate the combustion chamber of soot and exhaust.
The Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) was introduced in 2008, and this exhaust filtration system drastically increased the amount of back pressure in a truck’s exhaust system. As most of you know, the DPF stores the excess soot and carbon in the filter until the emission system burns it out with a regen. The main purpose of our Max Mileage Fuel Borne Catalyst is to increase the efficiency of the burn, which means less carbon and soot entering the DPF.
The catalyst burns the fuel 33% faster, burning 70% more of the carbon and soot in the combustion, thus greatly reducing the amount of soot and carbon the DPF has to absorb. The pistons stay cleaner, the exhaust valves stay clean, the EGR valve stays clean, and so does the EGR cooler. The sensors that monitor the amount of soot and carbon in the exhaust system also stay clean. The catalyst costs around 1 cent per mile to use, however the savings in downtime, engine efficiency, and greatly reduced emission-related problems and regenerations create a savings of up to 6 cents per mile. The DPF will need to be cleaned of ash build up every 200,000 to 500,000 miles, depending on the operating environment.
Max Mileage can also be used in gasoline engines. Put 1 cc of Max Mileage per gallon in the fuel tank and notice how much crisper the engine performs. Harley Davidsons, lawn mowers, leaf blowers, chain saws, muscle cars from the 60’s, and even new cars, will all benefit from the catalyst. Max Mileage was created by Dr. Jane Gates, who has worked in the chemical and diesel fuel business for the past 36 years. She was raised on a chicken farm in North Carolina, along with her parents and four sisters, and 60,000 chickens. Needless to say, she has a great work ethic, just like all you owner operators out there who were raised on farms, ranches, in logging families, and in trucking families. People who were raised on farms and ranches are the backbone of our society, and they deserve an engine that will perform as tirelessly as they do.
If you have questions, please come to our shop in Saxonburg, PA, call me at Pittsburgh Power at (724) 360-4080, send me an email to marketing@pittsburghpower.com, or visit our website anytime at www.pittsburghpower.com. We are here to help you!