Thread: Oil Analysis
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Old 08-26-2003, 08:13 AM   #1
Charlie
Scooby Newbie
 
Member#: 23751
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: San Jose, Ca
Vehicle:
2003 Passat W8 Wagon
Reflex Silver

Default Oil Analysis

Last week changed the oil in my wife's forester, and before doing that had some questions about whether I needed to change the crush ring on the oil plug with a Subaru, and got some good info from people here about that (thanks guys).

As part of that I sent the oil out for anlysis, to a place called Blackstone labs. It's $20 for a basic report and $10 extra if you want a TBN (total base number) which basically tells you whether the oil had any additional life left in it when you pulled it out o the car. I guess some people use that info to see if they can extend their oil change interval. I guss looking at extending your oil change interval could potentially make sense if you had a fleet of vehicles to look after, but for me I was just interested in seeing how the oil was doing.

The link to their site is:

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

And they'll send you a free sample collection kit which you can use to mail in your oil. There's a lot more info on their website, including a sample report showing what kind of info you can get on your car.

I'm not associated with these guys in any way. I just thought it was cool that you can have this kind of info on how your engine is doing for a reasonable price.

My view on it is that I'll probably wanna do this something like once per year per car. You can see whether there are any concerns over the amount of metals present (indication of wear), whether the oil filtration system is doing a good job, whether there is anything abnormal like water or fuel or coolant in your oil, etc... For me I figure it's good info to have as part of your overall maintenance program, not to mention that if you had, for example, coolant making its way into your oil, that's the kind of thing you probably wanna know before your engine warranty expires.

I couldn't figure out a way to copy the tables into this post in a way that was clear, but here's a copy of the "comments" section of the report they sent me.

********Report : Comments Section ****************

CHARLIE: No problems showed up in the initial sample from your Subaru. All wear read at or close
to averages for this type of engine, which is a very good indication of normal wearing parts. Universal
averages show normal wear after about 3,500 miles on the oil. Insolubles (oil oxidation due to heat,
use and blow-by) were low at 0.2%, showing good oil filtration. No fuel dilution or anti-freeze was
found. The TBN was okay at 2.4, showing some active additive left. A low reading is less than 1.0.
At 45,000 total miles, this engine appears to be doing well.

**********************End of comments section **********

Hope that's of some use to people.

Charlie
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