Oil Cooler Tubes Copper??

[lbszr]

Does anybody know if the oil cooler tubes are copper?

I hope they are......my oil analysis copper went from 3 or 4 ppm to 41. The 3 to 4 was street miles. 41 was analysis with mostly track miles.

A quick search shows if the other metals are normal, then it is probably the oil cooler. It would make sense, cause from posts on here I've seen the oil cooler thermostat opens at 220 or 230 and I've been tracking the car so most of the oil on this analysis saw temps of 230 to 250 consistantly, so the cooler is actually getting used now and the search also said higher temps will cause copper to leach more.

Please let the tubes be copper

[A26B]

Oil cooler is all aluminum.

[lbszr]

Thanks for the reply A26.......

[tomtom72]

Sorry to inject myself in your thread....but I want to learn new stuff. This looks like I can learn new info here...is it true that copper is also a component used in a motors cam, rod and main bearings???? Copper in the oil analysis would point to a possible problem with those bearings?

Again, I apologize for jumping in here.

TIA!

Tom

[DaveK]

Most bearings are copper-lead-tin composition. A much more likely source of copper than leaching from pipes to my mind.

Dave

[DaveK]

Just to follow on. If you're tracking the car you're going to be pushing the engine harder and probably to higher RPM than just cruising, as a result the bearings will take more of a beating and will suffer more wear depositing more copper in the oil. This is the intended function of the bearings in a sense, they're a sacrificial part to prevent damage to more important parts (rods etc.).

So you would expect to see more copper in the oil after tracking the car, though this doesn't necessarily indicate a problem in itself. I'm not sure what levels would be considered too high though. Perhaps someone else would.

Thanks

Dave

[lbszr]

Originally Posted by tomtom72

Sorry to inject myself in your thread....but I want to learn new stuff. This looks like I can learn new info here...is it true that copper is also a component used in a motors cam, rod and main bearings???? Copper in the oil analysis would point to a possible problem with those bearings?

Again, I apologize for jumping in here.

TIA!

Tom

No problem....I like learning about this stuff also. Bobs the oil guy has a good explanation of what all the ingredients represent under oil analysis, I would post the link but I've been having a hard time letting the site let me post and don't want to leave this page now, might not make it back.

The cams ride on aluminum journals so I don't think there would be any copper with the cams. I was in denial that it could be the crank bearings.....but it's about the only thing left, I think. Unless valve guides have any copper in them.

The lab stated the higher copper readings were "unusual" because nothing else was higher like tin, lead, if the crank bearings are the problem. But they said the copper wasn't too high to be a problem yet and said overall everything looked good.

[phrogs]

Did you take another sample just incase?

When I get samples that are iregular I always do another one.

but thats with aircraft engines I don't bother to do oil samples on my cars.

[lbszr]

Originally Posted by phrogs

Did you take another sample just incase?

When I get samples that are iregular I always do another one.

but thats with aircraft engines I don't bother to do oil samples on my cars.

I just took one and changed that oil, so too late for that. I do have one or two samples from the last two years that never got sent in. I'm kind of curious how they would test.

I don't know if it's right, but I was thinking if it's into the copper only, then the lead and tin has already been worn through and it might show up in the earlier tests. But if it was wore that bad, seems like it would be knocking or blown up by now. I think I'm leaning towards the copper is from somewhere else, or inaccurate test results.

Or......maybe the thrust bearing surface is wearing. I don't know if there is tin and lead in that part of the bearing or if it would should up as copper with no elevations of lead or tin. Iron has normal levels.