Oil Samples

Sample the old oil as you drain it. A sample of new oil will tell you nothing has no wear metals in it, just clean new oil. Sample it every time you change it. Get your oil to operating temp, pull the drain plug, let it drain a couple of gallons (never take the first that gushes out it will usually be contaminated and give false results), then catch your sample. The cheapest and best I have found is Thompson CAT for oil sample kits. You pay $13 and get a sample bottle with a label you fill out plus a postage paid envelope to mail the sample off to their lab. They will test oil on any engine make or gearbox, whatever you need sampled. You will need to do several samplings to get an idea of what your motor is like. One oil sample doesn't always tell a story. Sometimes you get bad samples no need to immediately panic if some numbers come back high.

 

Don't waste you time bothering with samples taken and tested by flunkies at Speedco, Petro, T/A or anywhere on the road. Send your samples to a real lab. Your local Cummins or Detroit shops (not a truck dealer freightliner, kw, pete, etc) probably have their own in house labs and sample kits. There are also companies that specialize in it I think Blackstone Labs is one Google them.

 

Btw, what do you think about Mr "I'm gonna pound them" getting inside their heads like that? He better get to pounding soon that one seems to be haunting him lol.

 

Ta sample sucks.

 

http://polarislabs.com/

I know I know, from Snake Oil salesman, but I like it.

 

Definitely make a habit of sampling regularly. Just one sample is a waste of time IMO because you have no baseline to compare the results to. As was mentioned above, sample it with the engine warm and let a gallon or 2 drain out first. I always make sure to thoroughly clean around the drain plug area. I'll also fill the bottle once, dump it immediately and then re-fill it with the sample. The reasoning for that is I've been told that it will help remove any possible contaminents that may have been left in the bottle from manufacturing. Any shop I've worked for has used CAT SOS oil analysis so I'd recommend that.

 

I have used Blackstone Labs for years now, about $25 is the cost for the analysis. They have always done good for me.

 

diito