Anyone had their oil tested?

[b5blue]

  I found a guy on the Cherokee forum who had his oil tested to gauge on how his 145K mile engine is holding up. Interesting results and very informative. I'm going to do controlled testing on both the Jeep and the Charger as both are due for fresh Valvoline VR-1 oil changes. At 25.00 per test it will be interesting to compare my 125K mile Jeep Cherokee to the 2K 440 rebuild results using NAPA Gold filters and the same oil.
  www.blackstone-labs.com 
  With all the time/money spent by us on our mighty Mopar power plants it might be valuable data. 

[flyinlow]

They do SOAP (spectroscopic oil analysis program) samples on aircraft turbine engines. You could see if an engine was making metal. This would sometimes let you remove an engine before failure or a more damage was done. Never have done it on a car. Thought about it. You would have to know the composition of all the wearing parts in you engine.  They also used chip detectors. A magnetic sensor in the oil system that would turn on a warning light if a piece of metal touched the two contacts completing the circuit.

[Ryan.C]

The Army has the AOAP army oil analysis program. a sample is pulled from all ground vehicles at  certain intervals and sent off to the lab for interogation. the findings of this are used to determine if the oil NEEDS to be changed instead of changing it just because the vehicle hit a certain mileage/hour.
im sure some other organisations that run large fleets of vehicles would do the same.

[myk]

The Army has the AOAP army oil analysis program. a sample is pulled from all ground vehicles at  certain intervals and sent off to the lab for interogation. the findings of this are used to determine if the oil NEEDS to be changed instead of changing it just because the vehicle hit a certain mileage/hour.
im sure some other organisations that run large fleets of vehicles would do the same.

That's a great idea.  I'm thinking that this would be cost-prohibitive to people like us; at the cost of the test I could almost do one oil change...

[Ryan.C]

agreed.
but with large diesel engines that have crankcases that hold several gallons it is cheaper to do the test. or so im told.

[Cooter]

Most times in the shop I see people running syn. Oil and trying the 10-15k mile oil change....

Even the Amsoil rep will tell you, even if the OIL is 'ok', you still need to change the FILTER every 3k miles.
On newer cars, I see VVT timing problems due to filters in bypass....especially Chevy Trail blazers.

[myk]

That's a good point; they may have 15K capable oils but there aren't any filters that have that capacity.  Regardless, my 'syn oils get changed out after 5K...

[bull]

We do oil sample testing on engines and transmissions at work and then no one bothers to analyze the results, or everyone ignores them, and we run them til they croak anyway.

[Ryan.C]

That's a good point; they may have 15K capable oils but there aren't any filters that have that capacity.  Regardless, my 'syn oils get changed out after 5K...

BMW (BM trouble you) runs 15K between oil changes on most vehicles.

[myk]

That's a good point; they may have 15K capable oils but there aren't any filters that have that capacity.  Regardless, my 'syn oils get changed out after 5K...

BMW (BM trouble you) runs 15K between oil changes on most vehicles.

So I've heard; when I used to manage a quik-lube shop BMW drivers would always remind me that they don't need to change their oil for 15K.  I always told them that may be the case, but I personally wouldn't want old oil circulating that long; just my  and BMW people aren't really car people anyway...

[b5blue]

  The test kits came in yesterday, kinda neat bottle mailers. The Chargers will be interesting as it's about 2 years old but very little miles. (The car mostly sat around getting body repairs and paint.) They want the car driven for 20 minutes and the sample from the middle of the draining.
  I've started using NAPA Gold oil filters on both cars.

[lukedukem]

This is who I use
http://www.blackstone-labs.com

It is 25 bucks for my cummins to get results. Haven't sent off charger yet. Sending Toyota gas saver sample off next week. 160k mile on it.

Luke