Thread: Oil Filters
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Old 09-23-2015, 12:26 PM   #40
dannc
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City: NC
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 1,350
Quote:
Originally Posted by sunchaser View Post
I indeed understand what can show up on an oil analysis. My question though is reality based, who has done what based upon an oil analysis on their recreational marine engine?
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Coolant - you surely would note problematic coolant losses well before your oil analysis results are in every fall.

Heavy metals above spec - what to do here?

Fuel oil - surely one would note their oil level is rising or smells funny well before the oil analysis is due.
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Anyway, as I said, I'm just curious.
Fuel did not show up on the dip stick in my two engines. The amount of fuel in the oil was under 5% but it should be 0%. The tractor has a Yanmar engine which does not use oil but I did not notice a volume increase on the dipstick. The truck uses a quart or so of oil every 5,000-7,500 miles so a little fuel in the oil would be easily missed.

My truck engine has been loosing coolant but then it stopped loosing coolant. I will be changing oil soon and see what the UOA says but I suspect the missing coolant is from the coolant pump. I seem to remember this as being a known issue for this engine.

The truck engine had a bump up in metals in the UOA. Not bad but not good compared to the long term trend of the engine and other engines. This has been going down since that UOA. WHY did this happen? I let the oil get a bit low. What to do about it? Don't let the oil get low. At least that is my theory and the next UOA will be interesting. If the metals get worse I will talk to the lab and see what they have to say.

I run extended drain times on these two engines so UOA confirms my usage. With the exception of the fuel in oil issues, I have been tossing perfectly good oil. The truck oil is run 12,000-14,000 miles vs 5,000 by the book. Oil is still in great shape when I change it out. One year the tractor was changed after three years but very low hours. Did not mean that much time to pass but stuff happens some time. The oil was just fine and I got rid of perfectly good oil that was three years old. According to the Internet, that engine should be a smoking wreck. Still runs just fine with no oil usage or wear problems.

For me, UOA has highlighted a specific problem I could fix, ie, the fuel in oil issue. Just as importantly, UOA has shown that I do not have issues with the change and use periods I am doing with the engines. The wear problem might/should go away, which the UOA will show and UOA will show if I have a coolant leak in the engine vs the water pump. That is good to know since it tells me what needs to be fixed.

Later,
Dan
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