[Shop-talk] Oil analysis - Blackstone

[Wayne]

On 6/25/2011 12:50 PM, BJNoSHOV8 wrote:
> I've heard of this before and I always wondered what the purpose was.
> Any engine will wear, and there will be trace metals in the oil. If your
> analysis says that there are trace metals in the oil but the engine is

Good point, hadn't thought about it quite like that.  Changing very 
frequently is safe;  but expensive and environmentally unfriendly. 
Guess the idea is to see how long you can stretch it out, and if the 
lube you're running is adequate.  Pretty much given any oil is adequate 
for street use for 3k;  but if you're racing or otherwise running hard 
it lets you know if you're going over the edge.

One of Blackstone's marketing points is, if you're doing auto fleet 
maintenance or industrial equipment, then the savings in labor across 
many identical vehicles or machines can be substantial if you stretch it 
as far as possible.

Here's their blurb from the BMW engine with 17,200 miles on the oil:

"Note aluminum and iron. We don't know on this first sample whether this 
upper-end wear is from something operational (racing, driving hard) or 
just the long oil runs, but if the owner has been doing normal driving, 
then 17,000+ miles is a little long to run the oil. A shorter oil change 
would probably help bring wear down, so we suggest trying a 10,000 mile 
run and resampling to monitor. Wear should drop nicely, and we found no 
coolant, moisture, or fuel in the oil. The TBN read 1.8, still okay on 
active additive. The viscosity went high from the long use."

Stuff like the gas and coolant in the oil can give you an advance 
warning on problems that could get much more expensive to fix if you are 
unaware of them.

-Wayne