I recently had an oil analysis done on my 2007 Mercury Verado 150XL outboard (100 hours) and the only red flag that came back was a high copper level. The recommendation was to monitor closely which was of no help... One thing to note - on the result sheet it said the oil being analyzed was from a diesel engine, my Verado is gas (duh)... What could be the cause of this above average amount of copper?Thanks!
I believe copper would come from the bearings. If this is the first oil change done on the engine it would have any metals in it from the initial wear in of the engine. I used to have to sample engine oil monthly in the USCG and send it in to be analyzed and would say that I never trusted it to begin with. The report was almost always bad and you would think the engine was about to fail. Never did. And it also said to re-sample in x amount of time. At one time I sent in new oil out of the can and still got a bad report. On top of this you don't even know if the oil sample report was from your engine!
Agree with mark- your sample was mixed up or contaminated. Wouldn't do a sample till at least the third oil and filter because of the break in process. Copper is the binder for the white metal of the bearings and the steel backing. Some rockers are also copper clad to improve the wear in process.
Main Bearings and also Cam Bearings have copper in the alloy that it is made of. The real question that you need to worry about is why are you getting results that say your oil is from a diesel! This is probably a mix-up in oil samples.... some guy out there with a diesel and worn Main bearings is clueless to the fact that his engine is about to blow.
