There have been several questions lately on the value of UOA. While most people on this board play with it and try to determine which oil is better after one of two changes that really have more variables in terms of driving habits, temperature, trip frequency, etc. to determine the advantage between one oil and another, others use it seriously to fix maintenance problems or determine through many changes on similar vehicles what oil is better.
Before catching my plane to the states I will share with you the snapshot of the results I got back this morning and what they will do for my customers:
1. A brazilian oil that apparently sheared down, causing 5 ppm of copper, 5 lead, 4 chrome.
2. Another sample of the brazilian oil with 3 times the wear numbers as they had on previous oils.
3. A Case tractor where they continue to mistreat the air filter and have high wear numbers.
4. A Nissan water pump with potassium and Sodium indicating water from the cooling system.
5. A pickup with very high (20 ppm) silicon from air filter abuse. 59 ppm iron. Last analysis had half the dirt, half the wear.
6. A John Deer Tractor with high silicon (9 ppm) and 29 ppm of iron. History for last 3 analisis showed average or 3 to 5 ppm of silicon and 18 to 19 iron. Abuse of air filter.
7. A New Holland tractor with constantly high (19 ppm) silicon and constantly high (60ppm +) iron, 30ppm lead, etc. 4 samples over 1400 hours and maintenance people still mistreat the air system.
8. A Nissan water pump with 8% Soot. Viscosity increased to 20.99 and iron 63, lead 18, copper 12, aluminum 13. History was normal until 400 hours ago when we identified 5.1 soot and suggested maintenance of combustion system.
9. A CAT G3508 where the wear numbers are iron 12, lead 8, copper 6 as long as they keep the nitration below 20. This time they took it to 32 and doubled the wear numbers.
10. A Toyota diesel pickup with 22 ppm of silicon, 1.3 soot, 22 potasium 10 sodium. Serious problems with water leakage from the cooking system, poor maintenance of air filter. 158 ppm iron, 13 ppm chrome.
11. A John Deere tractor with 120 ppm iron, 1.7 soot. Discussion with maintenance found it operating without a thermostat.
12. a customer with 3 large tractors, John Deere, Massy, Valmet with 500 hours on each, 1 ppm of silicon, average of 13 ppm of iron. All with the same oil, one had thinned down to 12.9, one stayed at 14.4, the other thickened to 15.9.
13. A brazilian oil that lost viscosity to 12.3 at 10,000 km
14. An Atlas Copco screw air compressor with 1% water in the oil and 178 ppm of iron.
15. An Argentine oil that showed the same problems
16. Chevron HDAX gas engine oil in Waukesha with 1180 hours and still only 1/3 of its life (looking at nitration and oxidation) only 5 ppm iron
17. A compressor oil with Zinc/Phos sold for screw compressors with silver bearings that will be destroyed by the zinc.
18. A customer with 4 CAT 3412 G engines, 2 with Chevron, 2 with Shell. The shell continues to have twice the oxidation and nitration, twice the TAN increase, double the wear. But they still haven’t put the right thermostats in them or coolant, so they run at 86 C instead of 88 to 93 C. Their purchasing people say they don’t need new thermostats. They once substituted Volvo truck 86 C thermostats for the original CAT ones because water boils at 85C at their altitude.
Anyway, just a quick snapshot. The real work starts with the details of all of this, their maintenance people, and management at the different companies. The difference between 13 ppm of iron in 500 hours vs some with 200 ppm in 250 hours is worth fixing for most people.
Before catching my plane to the states I will share with you the snapshot of the results I got back this morning and what they will do for my customers:
1. A brazilian oil that apparently sheared down, causing 5 ppm of copper, 5 lead, 4 chrome.
2. Another sample of the brazilian oil with 3 times the wear numbers as they had on previous oils.
3. A Case tractor where they continue to mistreat the air filter and have high wear numbers.
4. A Nissan water pump with potassium and Sodium indicating water from the cooling system.
5. A pickup with very high (20 ppm) silicon from air filter abuse. 59 ppm iron. Last analysis had half the dirt, half the wear.
6. A John Deer Tractor with high silicon (9 ppm) and 29 ppm of iron. History for last 3 analisis showed average or 3 to 5 ppm of silicon and 18 to 19 iron. Abuse of air filter.
7. A New Holland tractor with constantly high (19 ppm) silicon and constantly high (60ppm +) iron, 30ppm lead, etc. 4 samples over 1400 hours and maintenance people still mistreat the air system.
8. A Nissan water pump with 8% Soot. Viscosity increased to 20.99 and iron 63, lead 18, copper 12, aluminum 13. History was normal until 400 hours ago when we identified 5.1 soot and suggested maintenance of combustion system.
9. A CAT G3508 where the wear numbers are iron 12, lead 8, copper 6 as long as they keep the nitration below 20. This time they took it to 32 and doubled the wear numbers.
10. A Toyota diesel pickup with 22 ppm of silicon, 1.3 soot, 22 potasium 10 sodium. Serious problems with water leakage from the cooking system, poor maintenance of air filter. 158 ppm iron, 13 ppm chrome.
11. A John Deere tractor with 120 ppm iron, 1.7 soot. Discussion with maintenance found it operating without a thermostat.
12. a customer with 3 large tractors, John Deere, Massy, Valmet with 500 hours on each, 1 ppm of silicon, average of 13 ppm of iron. All with the same oil, one had thinned down to 12.9, one stayed at 14.4, the other thickened to 15.9.
13. A brazilian oil that lost viscosity to 12.3 at 10,000 km
14. An Atlas Copco screw air compressor with 1% water in the oil and 178 ppm of iron.
15. An Argentine oil that showed the same problems
16. Chevron HDAX gas engine oil in Waukesha with 1180 hours and still only 1/3 of its life (looking at nitration and oxidation) only 5 ppm iron
17. A compressor oil with Zinc/Phos sold for screw compressors with silver bearings that will be destroyed by the zinc.
18. A customer with 4 CAT 3412 G engines, 2 with Chevron, 2 with Shell. The shell continues to have twice the oxidation and nitration, twice the TAN increase, double the wear. But they still haven’t put the right thermostats in them or coolant, so they run at 86 C instead of 88 to 93 C. Their purchasing people say they don’t need new thermostats. They once substituted Volvo truck 86 C thermostats for the original CAT ones because water boils at 85C at their altitude.
Anyway, just a quick snapshot. The real work starts with the details of all of this, their maintenance people, and management at the different companies. The difference between 13 ppm of iron in 500 hours vs some with 200 ppm in 250 hours is worth fixing for most people.
