Blotter / paper test.

[slee]

Hello everyone,

I am at a loss as to the "rules" of preforming a home,don't have the right stuff, blotter/paper test.

1. What is the recommended paper type?(ie;any old paper?)

2. Thickness of said paper?(ie;weight)

3. When 1&2 are satisfied,what should one look for on the paper?(ex;1,2,3 etc....)

4. Any other special instructions.

This sounds like a very good way to get a rough evaluation of the oil!!!!

Thanks for any input,

Slee

 

[Gary Allan]

I've used common index cards. They appear to work well. The only thing, is that if you backlight them, the density of the paper will make it look odd. That is, if just hold up an index card to the light, you'll see variations in how much light comes through. This seems to really make the center circle translucent ..while the outer ring is more opaque. After you figure out what you're looking at ..it's fine (I btw-am so far the only one that noted this ..so

)

 

[RalphPWood]

Four layers of white TP a drop of oil on it and hold it up to the sun. For diesel engines I check for slick oil that feels like the same viscosity as new oil. If I rub a little in the palm of my clean hand and it leaves a clean oily film I know the soot content isn't too high. If the oil leaves a black stain that won't wipe off with a rag I know I need to change the filter more often.
I have an instrument that checks the oil to see if it is clean. Dirty oil is a better conductor of electricity. You zero the instrument on new oil. It is too expensive for non fleet use.

Ralph

 

[yugrus]

quote:

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Originally posted by RalphPWood:
I have an instrument that checks the oil to see if it is clean. Dirty oil is a better conductor of electricity. You zero the instrument on new oil. It is too expensive for non fleet use.

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Forgive me my ignorance, but that's the first time I have heard about that. Having the power electronics background I don't see it difficult to measure the oil's electrical resistance, and it does make sense that contaminated oil (soot, acid, water) is more conductive...Why do manufacturers not build such a MOhm-Meters into oil monitors? Wide impedance spread?

Sorry, I did not mean to hijack the thread. Do I have to start another one?

 

[yugrus]

I use my old business cards with 1000km sampling period. I compare what I see with images at this page. It appears that the similar thread from UOA section does not work anymore...

 

[slee]

Thank you to everyone for the input,
I will try all suggestions.
Thanks again,
Slee

 

[Shannow]

yugrus,
when I worked in power transmission, we had a dielectric tester for the transformer oil.

We tried it on used engine oil and it didn't work properly for ages.

 

[Bill]

quote:

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I have an instrument that checks the oil to see if it is clean. Dirty oil is a better conductor of electricity. You zero the instrument on new oil. It is too expensive for non fleet use.

---

Hi Ralph,

Is this oil tester made by 'Northern Instruments'?

I have seen someone use a device where you place a drop of 'used' oil from the dip stick onto it to show how much it has changed from 'new' oil, I believe they zeroed out or prepared the the oil tester with clean oil of the type of oil they were going to test, and then dropped the 'used' oil onto the tester and the tester would reflect the difference of the 'used' oil from the 'new' oil.

 

[Stinky Peterson]

There is a test called Ruler that uses a meter to test oil. I think it measures antioxidants or dispersant properties, something like that. We found it too expensive for routine use because of the proprietary chemicals required. I've often thought of doing a water extraction of used oil and then try measuring pH and or conductivity to see what that would show. Unfortunately I've never got around to doing it and don't know if it would tell anything.

There is a special blotter paper than can be use to test oil but as others have indicated business cards or light cardboard can be used. I've heard some people using the lid of their oil filter box. The compounds (polar and non-polar) in the oil interact differently with different papers so some are better than others. If you want to do some research search on paper chromatography as that is what you are doing with the paper test.

 

[Dick in Falls Church]

>>>>Is this oil tester made by 'Northern Instruments'?

I have seen someone use a device where you place a drop of 'used' oil from the dip stick onto it to show how much it has changed from 'new' oil, I believe they zeroed out or prepared the the oil tester with clean oil of the type of oil they were going to test, and then dropped the 'used' oil onto the tester and the tester would reflect the difference of the 'used' oil from the 'new' oil.

Many years ago, I had one of these. Seemed to work OK for a while. Then there was a major, at least to me, problem. AMSOIL reformulated at least one of the oils. As a result, the test of the used oil was way off the charts--
The reference oil I was calibrating with wasn't anywhere near the current issue. Cost me a customer when it indicated that the oil needed changing well before recommended interval.