Usefulness of Oil Analysis

Mostly it was Blackstone calling me telling me to check for a broken
pin plug. Any professional oil analysis will come with professional
evaluation of your data. The main indicator for me was progressively
higher AL in the oil.
[
-Robert


How about just laying your eyes on the filter at every oil change -
then washing the filter in solvent, filtering the particulates out of
the solvent, and saving them in a plasticine envelope for comparison
to the next change(s)...
Total cost about 2 bucks an oil change - 1 quart of solvent and 1 Mr.
Coffee filter...

And the quart of filtered solvent can be re-used for cleaning the
landing gear...

denny

("Denny" wrote)
And the quart of filtered solvent can be re-used for cleaning the landing
gear...


And the Mr. Coffee filter?


Montblack

Montblack wrote:
("Denny" wrote)

And the quart of filtered solvent can be re-used for cleaning the landing
gear...



And the Mr. Coffee filter?


Montblack



Donate it to the FBO for their next pot of coffee. It is probably
better than the one used to make todays pot :grin:

("Ray Andraka" wrote)
Donate it to the FBO for their next pot of coffee. It is probably better
than the one used to make todays pot :grin:


Ray, how's the flying, out your way, been this fall - wet?


Montblack

Montblack wrote:
("Ray Andraka" wrote)

Donate it to the FBO for their next pot of coffee. It is probably better
than the one used to make todays pot :grin:



Ray, how's the flying, out your way, been this fall - wet?


Montblack



No, not wet enough actually. It's been some great VFR flying though. I
still need to get that air-gizmo installed for the 496 I got at OSH.

No, not wet enough actually. It's been some great VFR flying though. I
still need to get that air-gizmo installed for the 496 I got at OSH.

Sounds like a great excuse to come see us, Ray! We'll set up the
installation at KALO, and you spend a couple of days in a hot tub...

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck wrote:

No, not wet enough actually. It's been some great VFR flying though. I
still need to get that air-gizmo installed for the 496 I got at OSH.


Sounds like a great excuse to come see us, Ray! We'll set up the
installation at KALO, and you spend a couple of days in a hot tub...

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"



My A&P seems to be willing to sign it off if I do the work. It's mostly
a matter of finding a free weekend. This weekend looks like it will be
partly spend rebuilding my front strut *again*. I went out to the plane
today to find the nose wheel sitting in a puddle of M1506 and the strut
completely collapsed. Seems to be about an annual occurrence. There's
no pitting on the strut, and we can't see anything that is causing the
seal to roll, but roll it does. This time, I'll probably do the whole
thing while my A&P works on his hot rod.

On Sep 26, 4:46 am, Denny wrote:
Mostly it was Blackstone calling me telling me to check for a broken
pin plug. Any professional oil analysis will come with professional
evaluation of your data. The main indicator for me was progressively
higher AL in the oil.
[
-Robert

How about just laying your eyes on the filter at every oil change -
then washing the filter in solvent, filtering the particulates out of
the solvent, and saving them in a plasticine envelope for comparison
to the next change(s)...
Total cost about 2 bucks an oil change - 1 quart of solvent and 1 Mr.
Coffee filter...

And the quart of filtered solvent can be re-used for cleaning the
landing gear...

denny

I never saw anything in the filter until the AL got very high. The oil
analysis was showing progressively higher AL for about 2 years before
that. Sadly, it did not tell me which cylinder so I ended up having to
do a boroscope every 2-6 months to watch for indications of wear. In
the end I started pumping oil in the bad cylinder which finally told
me which to pull. I really didn't want to spend $5K to have all
cylinders pulled searching for the issue.

-Robert

On Sep 26, 1:36 pm, "Robert M. Gary" wrote:
On Sep 26, 4:46 am, Denny wrote:





Mostly it was Blackstone calling me telling me to check for a broken
pin plug. Any professional oil analysis will come with professional
evaluation of your data. The main indicator for me was progressively
higher AL in the oil.
[
-Robert

How about just laying your eyes on the filter at every oil change -
then washing the filter in solvent, filtering the particulates out of
the solvent, and saving them in a plasticine envelope for comparison
to the next change(s)...
Total cost about 2 bucks an oil change - 1 quart of solvent and 1 Mr.
Coffee filter...

And the quart of filtered solvent can be re-used for cleaning the
landing gear...

denny

I never saw anything in the filter until the AL got very high. The oil
analysis was showing progressively higher AL for about 2 years before
that. Sadly, it did not tell me which cylinder so I ended up having to
do a boroscope every 2-6 months to watch for indications of wear. In
the end I started pumping oil in the bad cylinder which finally told
me which to pull. I really didn't want to spend $5K to have all
cylinders pulled searching for the issue.

-Robert- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Well, my bias is showing and your tale supports it... Knowing there
was rising Aluminium in the analysis accomplished nothing... You still
waited until it was showing in the filter and a cylinder finally
started pumping oil... I suppose somewhere there is a story that
analysis saved an engine from incipient failure and probably saved
lives... But, I'll take my chances the same way I have done for over
50 years of flying...

My old mechanic/FBO demanded that his customers use oil analysis every
50 hours or go somewhere else... I wound up going somewhere else...
The reason was that his own fleet of 9 aircraft were not on
analysis... When I challenged him on this he said that analysis never
showed anything that he didn't already know or suspect based upon
seeing, smelling, listening, and knowing his engine... I said what
was sauce for the goose was sauce for the gander.. He said it
wasn't... I moved on...

denny