engine size & analysis

[simwah]

Say I have a 4 cylinder engine and send in some oil for analysis. It comes back, but upon review I realize they tested it for the 6 cylinder model. They both hold the same 5 quarts. How will this effect the results?

My naive logic says that the 6 cylinder engine oil will have more elements in it after 3,000 miles. Therefore, if the report is great for what they thought was a 6cyl., it might only be so-so for the actual oil that was analized - that being from a 4cyl.

Can they recalculate the analysis based on what they already have, or do I need to send in another sample?

 

[simwah]

And just out of curiosity, what if the difference was not in the number of cylinders, but the displacement - i.e., if a 4cyl., 4.0 liter engine was tested as a 4cyl., 5.0 liter? How would the results be impacted in this scenario?

 

[Patman]

It won't affect the actual printout of the wear numbers, those will be the same, it only affects how they interpret your results. So there is no need to have the sample retested again, simply tell the lab which engine you have and ask them to base their interpretation on that.