Oil samples
- Thread starter pellgrn
- Start date
Any of the Speedco oil change and lube places will do an oil anaylsis for you. They take a small sample out of your crankcase and will give you the results in about 15 minutes. It will tell you if there is a excessive build up up of various minerals relating to your engine. Example if you are showing a lot of Glycol (anti freeze) you may have a head gasket leaking.These tests cost about $16 and are well worth it,but one test doesn!t mean too much.You need several to determine if something is failing. Also test your oil at about the same time,new oil won!t show problems,when I do it I wait till the oil has about 5000 miles onit.I do it 3 times a year.
Thanks Rich, I am going to buy a used van and was gonna have it checked, i am glad to here you have a history with the system.It's a gas van ford 5.4 and has recite for a replaced head gasket at 110,000 it's over 200,000 now,he said there was a recall on them.I had one the same year and had no trouble with the head gaskets.
I used to be a rep for an oil company (no not AMS***) and we did a lot of oil sampling for our customers....
Generally speaking ...you are sampling to determine if the additive packages in your oil have depleted...and for things like the previous responder pointed out.....
On a product changeover. I would change the filter on the vehicles at about 5000 miles (non-diesel) and run an oil sample (send it out to an independent lab...cost about $8)...if the sample came back clean and had a high TBN (Total Base Number)...then I would run the oil another 5K or so and just send off a sample...If it was good (still had a high TBN)I would change the filter...and continue to run the oil.
In some cases, I would see useful oil life of 25 to 35k...before I would change it out......
Once you develop a pattern...you can track the oil life on each car/truck...and if you watch it can help you spot trouble...
Most of my customers ran oil samples to save money ...since draining 30-40 quarts of oils every 5-10k was a lot more costly than sending out 3-4 samples...
The other benefit was that he found out what brands ran best in his trucks...and stuck with them
We had one customer that had their entire fleet (55 trucks) running an average of 50k between changes (or about 2 times/year)...We toredown two engines (Cats) and the dealer said they look as good as the day they were built....no bearing wear at all...
Bottom line...if you run hard ...do oil sampling !!!!
Thanks,
Frank
Generally speaking ...you are sampling to determine if the additive packages in your oil have depleted...and for things like the previous responder pointed out.....
On a product changeover. I would change the filter on the vehicles at about 5000 miles (non-diesel) and run an oil sample (send it out to an independent lab...cost about $8)...if the sample came back clean and had a high TBN (Total Base Number)...then I would run the oil another 5K or so and just send off a sample...If it was good (still had a high TBN)I would change the filter...and continue to run the oil.
In some cases, I would see useful oil life of 25 to 35k...before I would change it out......
Once you develop a pattern...you can track the oil life on each car/truck...and if you watch it can help you spot trouble...
Most of my customers ran oil samples to save money ...since draining 30-40 quarts of oils every 5-10k was a lot more costly than sending out 3-4 samples...
The other benefit was that he found out what brands ran best in his trucks...and stuck with them
We had one customer that had their entire fleet (55 trucks) running an average of 50k between changes (or about 2 times/year)...We toredown two engines (Cats) and the dealer said they look as good as the day they were built....no bearing wear at all...
Bottom line...if you run hard ...do oil sampling !!!!
Thanks,
Frank