Make the right conclusions from UOA

[FordSVTGuy]

Like many here, I have been scouring through the UOA section looking for the right combination of vehicle, engine, and grade of oil so I can make informed decisions about what oil to use and how long to keep it in service...ect.

I guess that recently I am coming to the conclusion that if I want to make any real "informed" decisions about what oil to use and how long to keep it in service, I need to do UOA on my vehicles...

That way I know that my driving habits and conditions are factored in...

Does that make the rest of the UOAs essentially useless for me????

 

[mountravlr]

Not necessarily "useless". Of course the variables are myriad, but wear trends are helpful, especially, iron, copper and lead data.
The lesson here is that engines are a law unto themselves, and UOA results are helpful and can provide real information about what is going on inside your engine.

 

[cryptokid]

a single uoa done on youre truck is almost meaningless sence it wont be trended. you really, really need to do a trend analisis to be able to use a uoa for anything usefull in terms of wear numbers.

 

[Gary Allan]

Well ..the UOAs of others have "suggested" certain things. The main thing that I've learned is that without a UOA you're just guessing of what works with your engine with your usage . You've also got to keep in mind that they are a limited tool to the extent that, in some instances, there is NO SOLUTION to a poor engine design or design characteristic ...just the most "effective" way of compensating for it (my engine, for example is a known "iron hog". It will always be an iron hog ..just less of an iron hog if I use UOA properly). That is, although you may be able to "read into it" a little for some expanded insight (Terry D. for example) ..some things do not have a perfect fix. Without it, however, you can't balance the costs.

I find most UOAs here useless only the extent that no one seems to really be interested in extended OCI. Your typical UOA is between 3-5000 miles ..hardy anything beyond (or even up to) the OEM OCI recommendation ...so they don't do a thing for me.

 

[mikemc]

I would say the most useful aspect of doing several UOA's is catching potentially devastating problems early, the one that comes to mind being a coolant leak.