UOA Discussion

How many of you anons actually get your oil tested, to see how both it and your engine are wearing?

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I test it with my eyes, works great and it's free

Eyedrops?

I had my oil tested 3 times.

First time I had a ton of metal, worn bearings.
Second time was after a fresh rebuild
3rd was a year later.


would recommend doing this if you really want to know what's going on, and prep yourself for potential upcoming issues.

"Yep, it's black. That means it's doing its thing...."

Care to elaborate a bit on your post?

You can see how old oil is by looking at it and if it has excess metal in it. If I really wanted to find out what was going on I would rip the filter open rather than mail off some oil.

Look for the stripper glitter user

I have and my oil was still good at 16k miles.

If you see this you're fucked right

nope.jpg

I have better things to waste my money on, like cider.

Has anyone tried peeing in the blackstone cup . curious of the results

If it's that abundant, yes.

>You can see how old oil is by looking at it
No, you can't.

Anyway I don't get UOAs done because they already did that when they designed the car.

>Double-dubs makes a point
They do test it, but aren't those results only comparable if you only use the exact oil as specified by the manufacturer?

If you were to change oil suppliers or even weights, doesn't that change results since the control is now different? Aside from using a same weight synthetic, there's kinda a change. Now I could see why you wouldn't test your beater daily.
But with people driving built motors, changing weights according to bearing clearance, and even specific engine wear, I guess $28 is kinda worth it.

>inb4 hurr-durr my LS69,000 makes 12k WHP and I've been using conventional for 8 years

That's like trying to detect knock, by listening for engine pinging. By the time it's audible you're already pretty fucked.

If you run E85 your oil will turner black quicker than it will with pump gas. And yet it still hasn't gotten bad yet. You can check oil life by smell though. If you run E85 and smell the pungent corn smell in your oil, it's contaminates and needs to be changed. Same goes with gas, you can smell it and even taste it. But even then are you already too late.

They are measuring for trace particles of dirt, metal, coolant, fuel, and anything else that can get in your oil. Possibly down to a few parts per million. They can detect things like a coolant leak(something like a head gasket going bad) when it's physically impossible for you to notice oil in your coolant or a drop in your coolant level.

Which are the best oil labs to send oil samples to in terms of the reports they give you? If the lab sends me a list of numbers, I don't know what to do with that.

>but aren't those results only comparable if you only use the exact oil as specified by the manufacturer?
And why would you do anything else?

Yea, you can see, smell, and taste it if you really want.

If you see metal tho, you can have it sent out, and tested to determine what kind of metal is in it. Different metal is used for different things.
Rings, bearings, sleeves, etc.

You could have failing rings, but nothing coming off your crank, or piston arms.

An oil analysis would tell you that.

Oil tests reveal problems in the early stages. Your eyeballing for problems is good only for the latter stages. It's usually better to deal with a problem in the early stages than waiting for it to get bigger. That's not true for all car problems, but for the types of problems that would show up in the oil, that is true.

I did when I bought my ford ranger, sent to oil analysis inc

Why would you want to have your oil tested if you have no engine performance problems?

Any samples showing particulate matter outside of acceptable levels indicate catastrophic failure regardless of how early it is detected.

I use to check my used oil with a magnet and strain in through cheesecloth to get a real good look at the particles

>I use to check my used oil with a magnet
Are magnetic drain plugs worth getting? Or just one of those useless items?

Yeah sure, cheap enough and you should replace the drain plug every once in awhile anyways

I check it on the dipstick, and when I do oil changes. Otherwise, I take the precaution of not driving cars that are liable to die.

If you could afford a car that's newer than 10 years old, you'd understand that.

>I take the precaution of not driving cars that are liable to die.

Easy to say, difficult to fulfill without testing.

>Are magnetic drain plugs worth getting?
If you get your oil changed by some service, you should have them look at the plug for any metal bits. Otherwise ask them to wipe it off since you don't want to be putting in more flakes.

>I check it on the dipstick,
The dipstick isn't magnetic, so I cannot tell if there are a higher than normal number of metal molecules on it. For those types of tiny values, oil testing in a lab is necessary to show if the wear rate is changing suddenly.

How much postage do I put on the bottle? Can't find any helpful info on that.

thanks for the reminder. I have a sample bottle and need to do my oil change soon

You just ship it, bring it to any UPS, USPS, or Fed-Ex. Oil is not considered a hazardous volatile material. Mainly due to the fact that it was a higher flashpoint.

Just don't drive old shitty cars.

>not owning both brand new and older than you
Who's the real poorfag?

>Oil is not considered a hazardous volatile material.
But if it leaks it will mess up many mail packages and they have to clean the machine and pathways. Ahh, who am I kidding, they just let the other packages and letters soak up the oil and "clean" the mess up that way cuz it's just a job.

>USPS
If your package leaks, USPS can fine you for improper packaging, cleanup, and damages even for non-hazardous materials.

>Just don't drive old shitty cars.

Yeah, yeah, I hear you. I should have taken that job offer as a billionaire instead of my current shitty job.

>How many of you anons actually get your oil tested

Which oil testing labs give the best analysis descriptions? I don't want just some list of numbers to be made available at their website or via email.

>aren't those results only comparable if you only use the exact oil as specified by the manufacturer?

There is another situation that complicates the situation. Besides the manufacturer typically specifying only their own brand of of blended oil (mix of conventional and synthetic) such as what GM does, the additive package formulations of other brands of oils changes over time. Thus, the same brand of synthetic oil is probably different 2 years later. This has been a typical situation with full synthetic oils which continue their evolution.

>aren't those results only comparable if you only use the exact oil as specified by the manufacturer?

Don't limit your thinking by only comparing analysis results by using the same oil. Each analysis is also its own stand alone snapshot result at that time of what is going on with the oil. So if you changed your oil, you can also see if there are more silicates in the oil. That would suggest that the air filter is letting in some grit that is then getting into the oil via blowback. So if you changed air filter to a different brand, that oil analysis could also give you insight to the air filter that way.

>Which oil testing labs give the best analysis descriptions?

I'd like to know too. If they give practical comments along with the test data, that would be great.

like OP, Blackstone Labs. They give you good personalized readouts.

blackstone-labs.com/gas-engine.php

cheap too. 25$ +postage.

>Why would you want to have your oil tested if you have no engine performance problems?


Why would you ever want to detect a problem before it impacts performance?

So you can fix it. Before it gives you performance problems.

>So you can fix it.
But some people don't believe in fixing big problems. They switch to concealing it, then sell the car to someone else on craig's list.

>some people

Dude, some people like to eat shit.

Don't be like them.

Yeah, clearly some people don't believe in preventative maintenance. However, those people also don't believe things like oil testing are part of the package of preventative maitenance techniques.

I've seen over and over that regular waxing of cars keeps them looking like new even over 20 years later. That type of preventative maintenance is proven, yet a ton of people still say that isn't worth doing.

Perhaps there is a different issue here and it's not about preventative maintenance. It's more like these other people don't care about the longevity of a car. So, here those people are in Veeky Forums with no real love for their cars.

>Thinking a car needs to be newer than 10 years old to be healthy
I'd bet you a fucking kidney that my 24 year old 1J is healthier than a 9 year old VW engine.

>>Why would you want to have your oil tested if you have no engine performance problems?

Because some problems begin slowly and this gives you advance notice. Another plus is that if you have something else major to fix, you can choose to combine repair jobs (like head gasket leak) to save time and money because stuff on top of the engine has already been removed.

Of course, stealerships don't give you much cost advantage because they will often charge you twice due to their "a la carte" charging system. To stealerships, having parts removed for one repair just makes another repair faster so they make more profit.

The oil is isolated in a separate container, surrounded by absorbent material; which is then sealed in the postage container. They're both screw lids with decent seals. As long you let the oil cool in the sample container b4 you seal it, and start flipping it upside down. You should be fine.

>So, here those people are in Veeky Forums with no real love for their cars.
This.

>Which oil testing labs give the best analysis descriptions? I don't want just some list of numbers to be made available at their website or via email.

Here is an example of Blackstone Laboratory comments

You fags try too hard. The only time you need to send your oil in to get tested is if you race your car professionally. Because you're going to be using a lot of custom internal parts, and need to tear your engine down anyways. And if you're not breaking your engine in on a dyno you are a shit racing engine builder anyways.

>The only time you need to send your oil in to get tested is if you race your car professionally.

If your state has that 30 day warranty on used cars, you may also want to test the oil on a used car you purchased. Or if you can somehow get a sample, you can test a car before you buy it.

If the oil test shows there is a lot of non-standard substances in it to conceal noises or other mechanical issues, then that can also serve as proof the previous owner knew of the problems but tried to deceive you. Some states have anti-deception laws, but it is hard to prove the oil was adjusted to hide the problem unless there's an oil test.

>The only time you need to send your oil in to get tested

After you get a new head gasket job, you might have the oil tested to see if there is any small coolant leakage in the oil.

>see how both it and your engine are wearing

In choosing an oil for the long term, one might try several different oils. But without oil tests, you are forced to accept the company's words. At least the oil database has info on various oil properties. But an oil test would have more data.

archive.4plebs.org/o/thread/14985876/

>The only time you need to send your oil in to get tested
There's other types of repairs that is useful to have an oil analysis done afterwards after some time has gone by but not too long.

>The only time you need to send your oil in to get tested is if you race your car professionally.

If the engine gets overheated because it was driven on low coolant, wouldn't an oil analysis be one way to check if the gasket seal was compromised by the overheating? If the gasket decided to leak, then some coolant would get into the oil after awhile.

>How many of you anons actually get your oil tested, to see how both it and your engine are wearing?

While you still have the new car 3 year bumper to bumper warranty, get an oil test to check if there are any problems that can be fixed while you still have warranty coverage. Of course, if you have a Stealership, they don't want to fix it until after your warranty coverage is over with. They make more money fixing the same thing if there is no warranty coverage (since they bill you instead of GM).

My stealership wouldn't accept any oil tests or exam results from anyone else as a sign there was something wrong. The service advisors all stick to their stealing script playbook. They use lines like their equipment isn't calibrated like ours. Or "how do you know they are right?"

Basically, they use one-liner dismissals that force you into a corner of both being a mind reader and a deity. You have to know what they were thinking. You have to prove their gear is calibrated. You have to prove that blackstone labs has qualified staff. etc. It seems ridiculous when I write it down here for you to read, but the stealership service advisors have such an overbearing attitude that they pull it off. And if one is losing, they get the others to come help.

Some dealers make more money by separating out the charges "a la carte". Some dealers do not and simply charge you one price for your repair or service such as "4 wheel Alignment". A stealership would charge you for both "examination" and then "4 wheel alignment".