Anyone here regularly send their engine oil in for analysis?
I am planning on doing this and wanted to see if anyone has any recommendations. I was planning on using Blackstone Labs since they are relatively close to me. This seems like a good idea considering the investment and effort many of us have put into our engines.
Monty many of the large oil suppliers offer this as a free service to large truck fleets . It really is a good service and allows you to pinpoint specific component wear problems . It is definitely an all win win situation .
I just figured it was an inexpensive way ($20) of knowing what's going on inside the engine. When I was in the Army, I know the mechanics used to do it on a regular basis. I think my HUMMV got a new engine as a result of it.
I'm about to perform my first oil change after a few hundred miles of street use and thought it would be worthwhile to start now as a means of establishing a baseline. It might not be the most accurate since there will probably be higher than normal amounts of certain contaminants like moly and silcone from the assembly lube and sealants, etc. Of course it's the trend over time, or big changes from test to test that are the indicators of problems.
Years ago on the forum there was a guy that worked for some big power plant and he talked about it. They could tell exactly what was going on. He gave a detailed write up of which metals were used in each motor piece from copper to zinc. They have a PPM per cc of oil ratio.
My chipped up roller made me decide to go with an all new block.........
I use ANA Labs out of New Jersey. Good service at a reasonable price.
Something to think about is the interpitation of the results as some of the newer oil formulations useing additives that will show false positives such as Polyalkyleneglycol could seem to lead one to believe that he/she has anti-freeze in the oil or Lead Naphthenate that would likely make one think they are having bearing trouble. Same with Moly if it's in the formulation. Can't tell how much is the MoS2 vs the ring pack never the less analysis is a fun hobby and although it's not 100% accurate " + or - 4 ppm" it sure can expose the weak oils out there and there are many :yesnod:
Well, since I built it, I can guarantee there is no candy bar residue in it. But I suppose traces of malted hops and fermented yeast is a possibility ;).
Monty, Blackstone is a good choice, however you may find that http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/terry.html has results a bit more detailed than Blackstone. Ah, I don't believe he can diagnose the paticular brand of candy that was used, however. BTW, good oil forum available at: http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/
Used Blackstone from new and they are good. On my preprinted form I have Mobil 1 5/30 as oil of choice and they came back and said it appeared to be 10/40. I called and told them that I had added one qt of 20/50 for a hot track day and they were able to diagnose it. I was impressed.
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Engine Oil Analysis
