hross14

From the what i know about the air force and there reasoning behind UOA's--

1. It was used to determine when the oil was in need of changing (At XXX gallons in an F-16 or XXXX gallons in a C-5--you can see how premature oil changes would waste money

2. If and when numbers exceeded the mean within a pre determined upper and lower bounds, closer inspection of the motor would be done.

So, for WHEN and WHAT TO DO:

3. UOA on F-16 and Oil numbers are within the upper and lower bounds but low enough to signify changing--change the oil and fly on

4. UOA on F-16 are not within the upper bounds--take off some panels and have a look. Maybe you would see signs of bearings overheating, oil leak in a seal allowing in dirt--the list goes on an on

Funny, but not only did i work for air force audit agency in my later years, my uncle was also a crew chief--and before things got security tight--we were allowed to hang out in the hangers during the summer time.

So Gnarly--i will concede the Troll remark --but I am surprised you didnt have a failure analysis program like this in place.- Was it more cost effective to do customer "burn in" on products

And for those who dont know--upper and lower bounds is like when your teachers would draw that mound on the board that looked like a hill--then SAY--0-15% of the people in the class will make F's and D's, 70% will make a C, and 15% will make B's & A's. The lower 15% and upper 15% would be your upper and lower bounds (standard deviation kind of stuff)

So it is an indicator based on the mean in a sample--and if you want to get more complicated you could branch out into a Stratified stat analysis with engine hours, throttle application, and etc---

brian2sun

Where you guys are taking your samples from is another variable to think about. I'll bet if you scoop your sample from the bottom of the container you drained your oil into, it will have a lot more metal particulates than if you just skimmed a sample off the top.

mt_goat

The instructions say if you're draining the oil to catch your sample from in the middle of the draining, not the first oil out, not the last (with the engine hot is best). Never from the container you drained your oil into. If you are just sampling (not changing the oil) you stick a 1/4" tube down the dip stick tube and pump out a sample. Again a hot engine is best.

brian2sun

That's good they come with those instructions, obviously that could change the findings a lot if you collected the sample wrong. After reading through this thread before and after it was edited, I think I may try this with the Amsoil I'm running now when it gets to 8K and maybe switch to Castrol Syntech and have it tested at 8K and see which oil holds up better.

brian2sun

I suppose I'll drive the vehicle relatively the same and hopefully I won't be doing any maintenance since it's all caught up for a while. I guess the only variable is the time of the year and I use 4x4 a lot more in the winter months.

mt_goat

Got my 2nd UOA back yesterday:

BTW, my oil filter this sample was a Mobil 1 (M1-209), last time was a Napa Gold (1516).

This was the last of my Mobil 1 5w30 oil, I'm now trying Rotella T6 5w40 (full synthetic HDEO)

stir_fry_boy

Has anyone had any other brands of oil tested in their engines besides Valvoline Syn Power, Pennzoil Platinum, or M1?

J2F42C

my GF's brother uses it in his Subie WRX with nothing but good results since it came out. For turbo crowds, it is a coveted oil. A good friend has been using T5 10W-30 in his 4 runner for quite some time with no problems reported.

In keeping with the SOPUS themed post for oils, I myself have Penn Ultra in both my 4 Runner and Tundra at the moment. Smooth and quiet, will do a UOA on at least one vehicle by the end of the year.....

exphose

Posting an update to my oil report a few pages back..

been through 2 more oil changes and reports this year, yes, that's basically 30k miles in a year... and I have another car I drive and a bike...

All 3 changes have been with Pennzoil Platinum synthetic, Bosch oil filter, K&N air filter. Half of the miles are daily driven miles, the other half are road trip (alaska/utah etc) miles... which on a 3RZ means sustained periods of high load :o

rworegon

Rock, thanks for this thread. I'll post up my recent UOA that showed coolant was leaking into the engine. I knew there was a very slight external leak and was using 6 ounces of coolant every 6 months or so. No visible oil or coolant contamination, no excessive white smoke in exhaust, and no overheating.

With this UOA combined with what I already knew, I decided to tear down the top-end. Sure enough, 2 cylinders (drivers middle and rear) were both getting some steam cleaning action. The recalled HG was at the early stages of failure - it was replaced at 20K miles. It's all back together and running great now.

I've done a oil change (no UOA) 50 miles after re-build and will do another in 3K miles with an UOA. It will be interesting to see the differences.

rworegon

Here is my latest UOA approx 7,400 miles post HG change. The HG seems to have sealed nicely.

aa1911

iTrader: (1)

can't do a JPEG right now but this should attach I think, it's a PDF of my UOA from Blackstone.

The first part is cut off from where I covered up the address, the first blurb reads:

"A high viscosity was the only abnormal find in....."

Overall much better than I had expected, very pleased that the engine appears to be wearing quite nicely and that the oil good. Been using lucas stabilizer for at least 4 years or so now and have been using lucas 5w-30 and just switched to redline 5w-30 synthetic with lucas additive (approx 0.75 qts of the 5.5 qts).

I bought the truck with 1 PO in mid 2003 with 52k on it, used penzoil 5w-30 conventional until synthetic became more popular and switched to that, then been using lucas 5w30 for a while now. I started with lucas additive roughly 4 years ago or so.

Will do a follow up next oil change with the redline and then do another vehicle.

I let this oil go for over 6k, this is the longest I've ever gone; before with conventional, I never let it get past 4k, synthetic I change every 5k.

hopefully the attachment posts correctly... woo hoo!

aa1911

iTrader: (1)

ok, let me try again...

aa1911

iTrader: (1)

ok, cripes.... finally got it in JPEG format and photobucketed...

rworegon

Great to see no coolant in there! The very minimal wear metals is sweet.

aa1911

iTrader: (1)

This was for sure a very pleasant surprise; I am by no means easy on this thing! Had a guy that could not believe I was SC'ing at nearly 130k. It's not really hard on the engine and I don't consider it broken in until they hit 100k, hahaa

yours looked very good also, good to see. I have a feeling my 4runner will have not so good of a report, will know in a few months or so when it's due.

aa1911

iTrader: (1)

Number two, alright! Elevated shtuff but still looking good.

aa1911

iTrader: (1)

I did do a significant amount of driving during hunting season, much of it loaded down very heavy. I do like to stomp on it!

aa1911

iTrader: (1)

and my first one on the Sequoia if anyone cares: