Engine oil testing????

[Kays Supply]

Has anyone out there used an oil testing service to decide when to change engine oil? I have read about some very long oil change intervals using the oil test to decide when to change. Is this a good or bad thing to do?

 

[art]

After some testing was done I believe the average oil is changed prematurely 90% of the time. It does help to tell you when it is worn out as well as if you have additional contaminates that might be a sign of a pending failure.
Not many do this procedure unless they have access to the testing nearby or are large enough of an operator with enough machines to justify the added time and expense. Some manufacturers have taken this into account so you should be safe at their recommended intervals.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

Has anyone out there used an oil testing service to decide when to change engine oil? I have read about some very long oil change intervals using the oil test to decide when to change. Is this a good or bad thing to do?

Unless you're using a mega-buck wonder oil, it's probably cheaper over the long haul to just simply change at regular intervals well within a reasonable service life of the oil. Testing strictly as a method of stretching the life out of an oil change may be a wasted expense.

Where oil testing is valuable is in detecting contaminates such as copper or aluminum that may indicate a bearing failing or excessive piston wear as a couple examples. So long as a test report comes back "clean", it's not neccisary to test at every oil change. It's not a bad idea to have oil tested after a major overhaul to look for unusual contaminates that may be warning of a bad fit of a replaced part. It is VERY interesting to see what does accumulate in an engines oil after time though.

I have oil anylized at 1000 hour intervals. Only once did that detect anything potentially harmfull. (copper where a rear main bearing was wearing out at 7000 hours on an old IH 574 I owned for a few years. Test PROBABLY saved a block and crankshaft)

 

[frank_miller]

If you use a search, some real good users have done it for years and posted them on this very forum.

The real advantage to oil testing is to see how the engine is performing. The bonus is what the oil has left for life.

Yes in most times it is cheaper to change the oil but you are missing the real point of UOA's. Plus people spend thousands on a tractor and then will not spend the $20 to test. To me, that is crazy.

They are priceless info.

 

[chh]

If it was an aircraft engine I'd test it at every oil change. after all many of those engines cost in major $$$$$ to overhaul and have a TBO of 1500 to 2200 hrs. Oil testing can let you stretch your time on an engine if the abnormal metal readings stay low and the compression stays high. On a tractor I just change the oil and go on. After all 6 to 8 qts of rotella T at $3 a quart and a $6 or so filter is cheap enough insurance. If oil consumption gets high or?? I'll trade it or fix it depending on how good a shape the rest of it is in. Long term 500 hr or 1000 hr, test would probably good checks on an engine. The longest I've kept a tractor was 12 years and 5000 hrs. Had 5000 in it when I bought it and at 10,000 was still going strong.(4020 JD)
The only time I know of that it would have helped me is if I had one done on a used JD 2460 before I bought it. Knowing how bad a shape it was in internally would have stopped me from buying it.

 

[Mahana79]

i use blackstone labs. they are right around the $20 mark and have been very happy with their timely replies.

i have extended my OCI on my truck to ~10K miles with Rotella 15W40 and ont he Jetta to ~15,000 with Rotella Syn 5W40 and WIX filters.

they saved me a motor int eh Jetta. i had some cam lobes pitting out 2 100k miles and the UOA picked it up. replaced a cam and all the lifter for about $300 where a new enigne was several thousand.

with the Kubota they are reccomending oil changes sooner then called for by Kubota. i am about due for another change and test so we will see what this one says.

 

[dknarnd]

Just recently had the oil analyzed in my pickup (36K miles) to see what they said and it showed a higher than normal sodium but metals were below average. Sodium is an indictor of anti-freeze but apparently it can also be found in Mobil non-synthetic which is what I had used before this test. Blackstone labs said it probably isn't from antifreeze since the metals were good and suggested I try increasing my mileage before the next change to 8500 miles. So I thought that was interesting...I will get another analysis at the next change but if everything is back to normal I will only test once a year or two after that.

 

[frank_miller]

Problem I have is Blackstone tests for like $20 are poor. They make you pay more for TBN, TAN, etc and they do not do sulfate by-products, vndx, OXID, NIT & soot. They do not check much for the price. And I think their write-ups are okay at best.

What I do is get a good baseline and then test every few changes. UOA saved me hundreds...as it is designed too.

 

[frank_f15]

Has anyone out there used an oil testing service to decide when to change engine oil? I have read about some very long oil change intervals using the oil test to decide when to change. Is this a good or bad thing to do?

Just change oil as recomened, very few tractors or cars or trucks have engine failure form bad oil lubrication, of course this is just MHO

 

[JSharp]

Just change oil as recomened, very few tractors or cars or trucks have engine failure form bad oil lubrication, of course this is just MHO

We've caught head gaskets leaks on two vehicles from routine oil analysis. Had we not done this and just changed the oil we would have never known it until we saw some real problems. By then it may well have been too late.