Where to send my oil for analysis?

blackstone labs.com

 

Hate to sound like a rutherford lemming, but Polaris costs $14 when purchased up front as part of a 10-pack.

Blackstone sends you the kits for free but charges $25 when you test -- and that test does not directly measure fuel dilution

 

Where to send my oil for analysis? the same place you send in for blood work, when at the dr.

sorry, just feeling goofy this morning.

 

Well I suppose the docter certainly better check my blood for fuel dilution, wander if we could get that done for 14$ or 25$ , seriously though the having the oil tested is a good idea , some times it saves money , I new a guy who used to swear if you changed the filter and added the filters worth of oil at regular intervals that our would be saving the cost of say 8 or what ever capacity of oil , just needed oil test to confirm the lack of contaminants , can also diagnose a small coolant leak early sometimes.

 

I buy sample kits from local CAT house for about $12. Price includes a postage paid envelope to mail off the sample. Get results emailed. I would think Detroit, Volvo, Cummins all have their own in house sampling labs with competitive pricing like that.

 

My local CAT dealer has the kits. I'm not sure how that works or the price.

I'm about to send mine out to Blackstone labs. They send you the kit in the mail for free but the standard analysis costs $25. I also would want the TBN (measures the amount of active additive present) which costs $10 more.

 

The CAT sample kit comes with a plastic hose you can run down into the oil dipstick tube and siphon oil out of the pan. Don't spend $30 on a pump you don't need. I just grab a sample when the oil is draining every oil change while it's pouring out the drain hole. Let it drain for about 5 seconds or so then get the sample. You don't want the first oil coming out nor the end of it. Make sure you idle the truck up to operating temp where the oil temp is at least 175*. Do not send sample from an engine that is not up to operating temp. Might be overly optimistic expecting a report in 7 days. Thompson CAT has a lab with 2 technicians working 8 hours a day 5 days a week and lots of samples from all over everywhere. They have franchise locations all over the southeast. The analysis lab is at the corporate headquarters branch in LA Vergne, TN. So might be a week or might be a month you can never tell. Other CAT franchises may do better on that.