Any oil analysis to share?

[dmccarty]

JimG,

I have been using Blackstone just because that is who was recommneded on TheDieselStop. I happened to be searching for Blackstone URL a while back and found a site that reviewed oil labs. Blackstone came out on top.

Is the test worth the money? If you change your oil 3,000 miles then the test is not worth the money. But if you are going past the normal and severe service milage then its worth it for piece of mind and proof that the oil is fine. I'm supposed to change my oil at 5,000 miles. Testing shows I most likely can go to 10,000 miles before a change. That is double the milage. I use 13-14 quarts a change. I drive enough miles that I would have to change the oil every 2-3 months if I changed at 5,000 miles. By changing at 7-8,000 miles I get another couple months of driving between changes and save some money on filters, oil and my time. So for me the tests are worth the money. I have learned things from the tests.

Its possible to get a bad results I am sure. But if you have been doing the tests over a long time you would see that the test was giving out of whack numbers and you would most likely retest the oil. If it was a false positive kinda error you would not be out of the base line so you would not notice. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I don't think its really worth it to test on an engine that is not broken in yet since you will just get high numbers indicating the engine is wearing. Duh. The engine is wearing in. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif But once break in is done its time to start. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Later,
Dan

 

[dmccarty]

Jim,

Idling is bad as the mfg states. But I was suprised that once I got out of the traffic the oil did not get cleaned up. At that time I would not have considered myself driving in severe service mode. With the exception of the fuel in the oil the other numbers were A-OK. I *** THINK *** I had 7-8000 miles on that oil. Severe service would have had me changing at 2,500 miles.

Now my tractor is not idling. Its not running at idle RPMS. Its running just like I was using the box blade or FEL. So I am concerned about the fuel being in the oil. My tractor seems to use about .5-.75 g/h at these RPMs. I let it run to keep the engine warm, make sure the battery is charged and hopefully burn out any moisture that is in the system. Even with fuel at $2.89/g I'll just spend the couple of bucks. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Unless it is causing problems and then I'll shut the engine off.

I would like to know how often UPS changes oil. They most do it often....

Later,
Dan

 

[JJT]

Oilguard does my testing, at $10/test. Since I run synthetics and change once a year in the 80 hour range I have not sent samples out for either of my Kubotas. The cars do get sent out, every 3rd oil change. I'm seriously thinking about going to a 15Kmi oil change interval, (been doing 10K mi for the past couple of years). The samples keep coming back in great shape, plenty of additive left and almost wear metals, and no fuel, carbon or water. Check out bobistheoilguy if you are serious about testing.