Thought I would share an example of some of the things we have to deal with when testing equipment.
We have a test fleet of off road equipment. On one particular unit it has been using about a gallon of oil every 80-100 hours. Diesel engine, 5 gallon sump capacity around 300Hp. Unit had 500 hours with 300 hour oil change intervals.
So, one day the operator noticed the oil was on the add mark (one gallon low) so he added a gallon of oil. Operated the unit for a while and the engine oil pressure light came on. So he added more oil. Long story short, the operator was filling the engine will hydraulic oil instead of engine oil. Not only that but it was 3 inches above the full mark. For some reason he continued to operate eventhough the oil light would flicker on and off.
We discoverd this the next day and drained the oil. The oil pressure switch is set at 25psi so this partucular unit was running at full governor break with around 25psi with about 40% hydraulic oil. It didn't fail but I'm sure the bottom end is not in too good of shape. The only reason the PCM didn't shut it down is because the light wouldn't stay on long enough since it was flickering.
So, we are going to run this unit 100 more hours and pull an oil sample. I can't post it but I'll try to let you know how bad it looks.
Sure is hard to find good help these days...
We have a test fleet of off road equipment. On one particular unit it has been using about a gallon of oil every 80-100 hours. Diesel engine, 5 gallon sump capacity around 300Hp. Unit had 500 hours with 300 hour oil change intervals.
So, one day the operator noticed the oil was on the add mark (one gallon low) so he added a gallon of oil. Operated the unit for a while and the engine oil pressure light came on. So he added more oil. Long story short, the operator was filling the engine will hydraulic oil instead of engine oil. Not only that but it was 3 inches above the full mark. For some reason he continued to operate eventhough the oil light would flicker on and off.
We discoverd this the next day and drained the oil. The oil pressure switch is set at 25psi so this partucular unit was running at full governor break with around 25psi with about 40% hydraulic oil. It didn't fail but I'm sure the bottom end is not in too good of shape. The only reason the PCM didn't shut it down is because the light wouldn't stay on long enough since it was flickering.
So, we are going to run this unit 100 more hours and pull an oil sample. I can't post it but I'll try to let you know how bad it looks.
Sure is hard to find good help these days...
