So Amsoil and Redline BOTH agree that oil analysis is NOT a good way to measure wear or compare oils. Tear downs obviously are superior. Now with different oil chemistries from RL/M1/Amsoil in different engines, it's very difficult to measure what we are seeing. Even if trends are taken, oils like RL will keep wear metals off the surface that normally wouldn't show up with other oils. So really oil analysis benefits those that want to make sure nothing unusual is going on inside the engine, such as coolant leaks etc. Maybe this is why we never hear of anyone wearing out an engine bc of the oil.quote:
Used oil analysis is not always a useful tool to compare one oil to
another, as
each and every engine is different. Even if you had engines that were
exactly
identical in every way, operating conditions could not be reproduced.
Oil
analysis is intended more for giving you a picture of what is going on
inside
your engine, and if the product you are using is safe for continued
use. Let's
take iron wear as you had mentioned as an example (you are correct 20
PPM vs. 6
PPM IS insignificant). An increase in PPM of iron may not have anything
to do
with the oil at all! But, it could be related to many other things such
as
faulty components, dirt ingestion, internal coolant leaks, fuel
dilution, severe
duty, and on and on....... In looking at thousands of analysis reports
you may
be able to get somewhat of an idea of what oil outperforms other oil,
but even
then, there are so many variables to consider that there is no way to
control
these tests outside of a laboratory environment. Therefore, comparing
oil
analysis reports of used oil is not a totally accurate way of
determining the
performance of one oil over another. Although, it is an excellent way
of seeing
how the oil is performing in a single given application, and that is
what oil
analysis is intended to do!
Thank you,
Ed Kellerman
Manager, Amsoil Tech Services
[ April 20, 2004, 05:07 PM: Message edited by: buster ]