Will a UOA show stuck rings???

[JohnBrowning]

Dr.T I think for UOA to be effective you must have a decent amount of base line data to work with. By looking at the UOA trends will apear. If something upsets this trend you look more closely at those parts that could be generateing the numbers. Most of the predictive capabilitys of UOA lies in the hands of the person doing the interpeting. If rings were stuck things like fuel dillution, magnessium or mangenesse(can not remember), flash point and insolubles from carbon blow by be high. I think that sludge would show up as high nitration, lots of silicon, low TBN and alot of insolubles. Most things happen slowly in an engine normaly and take years to turn into big problems. If you address the maintence early you prevent the problem or at least slow it down. Terry and some of the others will probably do a better job at answereing you but in the mean time that my $.02

 

[Dr. T]

Or maybe the question should be: "What won't a UOA show"? ie. we've all seen low wear numbers by using 5-20. So what? What about gradual and chronic sludge build up, stuck rings and ever-increasing consumption. Will these turn up on a UOA?