On my last oil change I sent samples off to Blackstone Labs for oil analysis. I figured it was a good idea since I had found those tiny bits of metal in the left engine, and I've heard good things about using oil analysis to monitor the health of an engine. Today I received the results in a nice pdf document which showed the various levels of metal compared to other engines of my type near my location and universally across all of Blackstone's samples. The results were very good on both engines. I'll spare posting the levels of each mineral, but I did find the comments from the tech to be useful:
Left Engine: ADAM: The only reading far enough out of line to notice in this sample was the silicon, and we doubt it is from an engine problem. When silicon is abrasive dirt getting past air filtration we typically find excessive wear. In this case, wear looks good. There are other possibilities for silicon like sealers and lubes (like Dow-4), both of which are harmless. Universal averages show typical wear levels for this type of engine after about 40 hours on the oil. This oil was run 25 hours and wear metals read around averages. No fuel or moisture found. Not a bad first report.
Right Engine: ADAM: Thanks for the note about the ECI nickel cylinders installed. The high iron and silicon are likely from lingering wear in and we'll look for both to improve next time. All other metals read around universal averages with are base on an oil run of 40 hours for the IO-520-E. The oil was in good physical shape containing no harmful contaminants (fuel, moisture), and the viscosity read on target for W100. Insolubles, oxidized solids due to heat, use, and blow-by, read low at 0.3%, showing good oil filtration and no combustion problems. All in all, not a bad report at 1,361 hours.
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