UOA test done?
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Blackstone Labs.
To what end purpose?
The first UOA will tell you the most about the health of the oil. Most times, the first UOA will give you a blurry snapshot of the health of the engine at best. Subsequent UOAs, will establish a trend that will put that engine health picture more into focus. That first UOA may make you feel good or bad, or give you braggin' rights, but it may not tell you anything useful about engine condition. Exceptions would be if you have a coolant leak or you happen to catch a mechanical problem right as it's starting (the odds are mightily against that, they usually progress more rapidly than a typical OCI).
As far as the health of the oil goes, and determining a useful OCI, the oil analysis can be very useful... as long as you are not switching brands right and left (thus mixing oils and delivering a skewed reading to a degree). You need a couple UOAs with a particular oil to get a clear picture. That extra-cost TBN test is worth the money in looking at oil health. The things you will look at in the test are: TBN, which tells you how depleted the additive pack has become: insolubles, which tell you how much contamination has built up in the oil (all the stuff that's too small for the filter to catch): fuel, which tells you how much fuel dilution is going on (and that's why you ONLY take the sample after the car has had a good run to heat it up, else you get a distorted picture of what's "normal" for your engine): viscosity, which tells you how much the oil has sheared or been diluted. From there you'd look for traces of coolant (internal cooling system leak), excess silicon (ineffective air filter) and the metals for anything cautionary. Remember to keep things in perspective: the test shows metals in PARTS PER MILLION and people can get their sphincters needlessly spasming over a relatively small change. Longer OCIs will inevitably produce more metals than shorter ones, but better oils may produce fewer metals at any OCI (though there is a list of caveats a mile long to that statement).
Unless you also get a particle count or contamination analysis (two different tests using different equipment but that tells you things in more or less the same format), a UOA will tell you nothing about the filter because the spectral analysis done for a UOA only "sees" the very small particles in the oil which are too small for the filter to catch. The contamination analysis sees the big stuff, breaks it down according to size and then you can tell how well your filter is working.
The first UOA will tell you the most about the health of the oil. Most times, the first UOA will give you a blurry snapshot of the health of the engine at best. Subsequent UOAs, will establish a trend that will put that engine health picture more into focus. That first UOA may make you feel good or bad, or give you braggin' rights, but it may not tell you anything useful about engine condition. Exceptions would be if you have a coolant leak or you happen to catch a mechanical problem right as it's starting (the odds are mightily against that, they usually progress more rapidly than a typical OCI).
As far as the health of the oil goes, and determining a useful OCI, the oil analysis can be very useful... as long as you are not switching brands right and left (thus mixing oils and delivering a skewed reading to a degree). You need a couple UOAs with a particular oil to get a clear picture. That extra-cost TBN test is worth the money in looking at oil health. The things you will look at in the test are: TBN, which tells you how depleted the additive pack has become: insolubles, which tell you how much contamination has built up in the oil (all the stuff that's too small for the filter to catch): fuel, which tells you how much fuel dilution is going on (and that's why you ONLY take the sample after the car has had a good run to heat it up, else you get a distorted picture of what's "normal" for your engine): viscosity, which tells you how much the oil has sheared or been diluted. From there you'd look for traces of coolant (internal cooling system leak), excess silicon (ineffective air filter) and the metals for anything cautionary. Remember to keep things in perspective: the test shows metals in PARTS PER MILLION and people can get their sphincters needlessly spasming over a relatively small change. Longer OCIs will inevitably produce more metals than shorter ones, but better oils may produce fewer metals at any OCI (though there is a list of caveats a mile long to that statement).
Unless you also get a particle count or contamination analysis (two different tests using different equipment but that tells you things in more or less the same format), a UOA will tell you nothing about the filter because the spectral analysis done for a UOA only "sees" the very small particles in the oil which are too small for the filter to catch. The contamination analysis sees the big stuff, breaks it down according to size and then you can tell how well your filter is working.
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i think the standard analysis for $25 is good for me. http://www.blackstone-labs.com/standard-analysis.php
what test should i be running for oil filter?
what test should i be running for oil filter?
For $22.45 you can go though OAI which includes TBN. Plus OAI runs samples through an ISO accredited lab.
The test for the filter just involves cutting it open to see how it held up during x amount of time and x miles
Hi,
Jim - Thanks for a great and meaningful Post
Jim - Thanks for a great and meaningful Post
dnewton3
Staff member
Originally Posted By: Jim Allen
To what end purpose?
The first UOA will tell you the most about the health of the oil. Most times, the first UOA will give you a blurry snapshot of the health of the engine at best. Subsequent UOAs, will establish a trend that will put that engine health picture more into focus. That first UOA may make you feel good or bad, or give you braggin' rights, but it may not tell you anything useful about engine condition. Exceptions would be if you have a coolant leak or you happen to catch a mechanical problem right as it's starting (the odds are mightily against that, they usually progress more rapidly than a typical OCI).
As far as the health of the oil goes, and determining a useful OCI, the oil analysis can be very useful... as long as you are not switching brands right and left (thus mixing oils and delivering a skewed reading to a degree). You need a couple UOAs with a particular oil to get a clear picture. That extra-cost TBN test is worth the money in looking at oil health. The things you will look at in the test are: TBN, which tells you how depleted the additive pack has become: insolubles, which tell you how much contamination has built up in the oil (all the stuff that's too small for the filter to catch): fuel, which tells you how much fuel dilution is going on (and that's why you ONLY take the sample after the car has had a good run to heat it up, else you get a distorted picture of what's "normal" for your engine): viscosity, which tells you how much the oil has sheared or been diluted. From there you'd look for traces of coolant (internal cooling system leak), excess silicon (ineffective air filter) and the metals for anything cautionary. Remember to keep things in perspective: the test shows metals in PARTS PER MILLION and people can get their sphincters needlessly spasming over a relatively small change. Longer OCIs will inevitably produce more metals than shorter ones, but better oils may produce fewer metals at any OCI (though there is a list of caveats a mile long to that statement).
Unless you also get a particle count or contamination analysis (two different tests using different equipment but that tells you things in more or less the same format), a UOA will tell you nothing about the filter because the spectral analysis done for a UOA only "sees" the very small particles in the oil which are too small for the filter to catch. The contamination analysis sees the big stuff, breaks it down according to size and then you can tell how well your filter is working.
Well, I ..... ummmmmmmm ..... Ditto.
Darn it, Jim, if you're going to apply logic and common sense to this, then where will all the oil-biggots hide out?
To what end purpose?
The first UOA will tell you the most about the health of the oil. Most times, the first UOA will give you a blurry snapshot of the health of the engine at best. Subsequent UOAs, will establish a trend that will put that engine health picture more into focus. That first UOA may make you feel good or bad, or give you braggin' rights, but it may not tell you anything useful about engine condition. Exceptions would be if you have a coolant leak or you happen to catch a mechanical problem right as it's starting (the odds are mightily against that, they usually progress more rapidly than a typical OCI).
As far as the health of the oil goes, and determining a useful OCI, the oil analysis can be very useful... as long as you are not switching brands right and left (thus mixing oils and delivering a skewed reading to a degree). You need a couple UOAs with a particular oil to get a clear picture. That extra-cost TBN test is worth the money in looking at oil health. The things you will look at in the test are: TBN, which tells you how depleted the additive pack has become: insolubles, which tell you how much contamination has built up in the oil (all the stuff that's too small for the filter to catch): fuel, which tells you how much fuel dilution is going on (and that's why you ONLY take the sample after the car has had a good run to heat it up, else you get a distorted picture of what's "normal" for your engine): viscosity, which tells you how much the oil has sheared or been diluted. From there you'd look for traces of coolant (internal cooling system leak), excess silicon (ineffective air filter) and the metals for anything cautionary. Remember to keep things in perspective: the test shows metals in PARTS PER MILLION and people can get their sphincters needlessly spasming over a relatively small change. Longer OCIs will inevitably produce more metals than shorter ones, but better oils may produce fewer metals at any OCI (though there is a list of caveats a mile long to that statement).
Unless you also get a particle count or contamination analysis (two different tests using different equipment but that tells you things in more or less the same format), a UOA will tell you nothing about the filter because the spectral analysis done for a UOA only "sees" the very small particles in the oil which are too small for the filter to catch. The contamination analysis sees the big stuff, breaks it down according to size and then you can tell how well your filter is working.
Well, I ..... ummmmmmmm ..... Ditto.
Darn it, Jim, if you're going to apply logic and common sense to this, then where will all the oil-biggots hide out?
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Accolades from Doug and Dave at the same time... I'm all aflutter. Of course whatever logic and common sense I applied to that post was at least in part due to having learned from the great BITOG brain trust, to which Doug and Dave have contributed a lot.
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