OIL ANALYSIS

I have just passed the 100 hour mark on our new ECI IO-360 Titan engine and would like to get the engine oil checked for wear etc. Can anybody suggest a facility to mail the filter to? Thanks for any suggestions!

Pete Joslin
Atlanta (KLZU)
RV-6A
ECI IO-360 Titan
Garmin 430
Dynon 10A
Garmin 396 for XM Weather

Southwest Spectrochem Labs, South Houston, Texas
http://www.swsclabs.com

Have processed many hundreds of samples (industrial machinery and aviation related) with these people over the last 10-12 yrs. Lately I've been getting the faxed reports for the few items we're sampling. A few years back in another world when I was doing multiple pieces of equipment I had them emailing me electronic data for easy review, manipulation and reporting to my customers. I'm sure they'd still do this if requested.

We use Aviation Laboratories here at work.

Always quick with faxed results.

I've had excellent service out of these folks:

http://www.blackstone-labs.com/

Blackstone

These guys have had good ratings from magazines.

They have been fast, and e-mail the reports to you....

http://www.blackstone-labs.com/aircraft.html

gil in Tucson

The one time check won't tell you much. It's the trend over time that is important. Keep sampling on a regular basis and watch the trend. If one element suddenly starts giving larger numbers, then you have some useful info.

RScott said:

The one time check won't tell you much. It's the trend over time that is important. Keep sampling on a regular basis and watch the trend. If one element suddenly starts giving larger numbers, then you have some useful info.

Click to expand...

True, to a degree. A one-time will give you some good info on rust (iron), water, viscosity, acid, etc.

Trending, although valuable info, is tricky with recip engines. Especially recip engines that burn leaded gas. If you do decide to trend, make sure you are very consistent in your sampling technique, oil selection and timing. Otherwise, you introduce a *lot* of variation in your info. Don't forget to check the compression when you sample your oil - or every 2 or 3 changes. This is good supplemental info for trended condition monitoring.

I have access to a spectrometer and run samples for my friends (for free). Iron has ranged from 5 ppm to a high of 29 ppm on one engine that is flown regularly. Without knowing what the engine typically produces, how would the owner have known that the 29 wasn't a problem? On an engine that has flown irregularly--not much in the winter--the high has been 94 ppm. These high numbers show up every spring, because he doesn't fly much in the winter. There is probably some rust going on, but where would you draw the line for a tear down? The next sample, in early summer typically drops down to the 20's. Without knowing the pattern of use and what is typical for a particular engine, you have little useful information for a single sample. And with that high of 94, the proper action was to resample later after flying more.

Sampling on a regular basis is the only reliable method for the wear metals. Water, pH, etc. may be another story, but we don't measure those at the lab I have access to.