How many of you utilize oil analysis to monitor engine health?

[cyclops2]

Re: How many of you utilize oil analysis to monitor engine health?

So are the engine companies, filter companies, oil companies delibertly destroying all my 200,000 plus milage engines ?

Or do we have another FEAR product to dump on people ?

 

[glenn property of pam]

Re: How many of you utilize oil analysis to monitor engine health?

we use oil tests alot at work as it saves changing the oil on large units until it needs to be done. on some real big machinery i have heard that instead of changing the oil they bring in special equipment and filter the oil then replace it the same way we do high voltage transformers. on a small motor im unsure if theres a real benefit especially if the sample is being done during a oil change but $25 wont break the bank so theres no harm in testing it. one of the notes you should add on the test is the type of oil used as the percentages change depending on the oil.

 

[Howard Sterndrive]

Re: How many of you utilize oil analysis to monitor engine health?

So are the engine companies, filter companies, oil companies delibertly destroying all my 200,000 plus milage engines ?

Or do we have another FEAR product to dump on people ?

All maintenance practices are somewhat fear based.
truth is, you never need to check or change your oil or do any maintenance. Just repair things if they break.

It's like insurance. Some people choose none, some over insure...

there's no right or wrong. Do what you are comfortable with.

Oil sampling is not marketed to the automotive or recreational marine customer so nothing's being "dumped" on you. (I assume the 200,000 miles is a car or truck.) most agree it is of little use for cars and trucks. The duty cycle on an auto/truck engine is very light.

most car/truck engines are operated on average at less than 30% of their rated HP their entire life.

 

[cyclops2]

Re: How many of you utilize oil analysis to monitor engine health?

Good call about auto change frequency. Remember when the engines vented to the air outside the car thru a breather setup ?

Then the went to a COMPLETLY filtered air system. In my brands. 5 years later I figured out..... no dirty air in. I started to increase the milage between oil changes. Water vapor drawn in at night or winter ? Never seen a trace in the oil. Water will deposit on the colder outside of metal surfaces.

I will not tell you how many miles we go between changes of our light duty vehicles. Oil companies might stone me.

 

[Wind dog]

Re: How many of you utilize oil analysis to monitor engine health?

Good call about auto change frequency. Remember when the engines vented to the air outside the car thru a breather setup ?

Then the went to a COMPLETLY filtered air system. In my brands. 5 years later I figured out..... no dirty air in. I started to increase the milage between oil changes. Water vapor drawn in at night or winter ? Never seen a trace in the oil. Water will deposit on the colder outside of metal surfaces.

I will not tell you how many miles we go between changes of our light duty vehicles. Oil companies might stone me.

6,000miles? Am I close?

 

[cyclops2]

Re: How many of you utilize oil analysis to monitor engine health?

Both record holders are Japanese. 1 is done at 10,000. The other at 15,000. both are well over 100,000 now Same pep milage No smoke.

Clean in Clean out. The internal blowby & wall oil is not doing any damage yet. Maybe soon ?

 

[T_Herrod]

Re: How many of you utilize oil analysis to monitor engine health?

My boat is a 2 stroke so no oil to sample but the company i work for has lots of diesel engines and they are sampled at every oil change. Oil sampling is priceless for diesel engines. You can see a problem coming long before it becomes a major expense.

 

[SteveMcD]

Re: How many of you utilize oil analysis to monitor engine health?

I went on a field trip from a hydraulics class to a place that does oil tests. Hundreds of samples in progress, numerous robotics. I thought that their USB microscope was cool, this was circa '90. They could have told me it was a DNA research lab, and I wouldn't have known the difference. I just spent $5,000 having the engine bored and rebuilt. On dis-assembly, I found issues that a test would have revealed. That might have been like getting a crystal ball for $25. Maybe I just needed head gaskets, manifolds, or something. What makes me want to slap myself is I did them routinely at work, and it never occurred to me to do one on the boat. I can tell you from personal experience, that a major engine failure(and kicker failure) is not fun. Oil testing is on my list now. As captains, it is our responsibility to keep our vessels as seaworthy as possible. Considering the rest of the boating costs, fuel not withstanding, $25 almost sounds too cheap not to.

 

[QC]

Re: How many of you utilize oil analysis to monitor engine health?

...maybe QC, who was a diesel guy for many years, will check-in with his thoughts on this topic.

Missed this until today.

We had a lab onsite, and I ran the truck shop for over 5 years, and was always involved in service to some degree. I looked at, sold, and sent in 1000s of samples. Annnndd, I am not a huge believer, but there are some definite benefits. To me the only difference between diesel and gasoline is the relative cost of the engine. There is also a benefit to monitoring soot on diesels for determining oil change intervals. I do believe in it for that, but not necessary to do a whole fleet for example.

Most of the time it just confirmed what we already knew as we would pull a sample for a lot of different issues. Fuel dilution we could usually smell, antifreeze we would have a complaint of using coolant, etc. Big stuff you see when cutting filters as has been mentioned here. My favorite "save" is from silicon in the oil which is dirt (bad air cleaner or intake leak). Fact is you still have to be lucky, as any significant time period and the engine will be worn before you get the dirty sample back. Sort of Bubba's point. Annnnd, dirt is not a risk on marine engines and that's why we don't have air cleaners... So, for me, unless you are putting a ton of hours on your engine, you have to change once a season anyway, so . . . save your money.

 

[rbh]

Re: How many of you utilize oil analysis to monitor engine health?

Just have a look at the oil strained through some cloth to see if there are chunks.

Aluminum, brass, steel, cork and maybe some stainless from? its all going to be in there as a wear by product.

Your plugs give you a better "ALL AROUND" picture of the shape of your top end anyways.