Usefulness of Oil Analysis

On Sep 26, 1:36 pm, "Robert M. Gary" wrote:
On Sep 26, 4:46 am, Denny wrote:





Mostly it was Blackstone calling me telling me to check for a broken
pin plug. Any professional oil analysis will come with professional
evaluation of your data. The main indicator for me was progressively
higher AL in the oil.
[
-Robert

How about just laying your eyes on the filter at every oil change -
then washing the filter in solvent, filtering the particulates out of
the solvent, and saving them in a plasticine envelope for comparison
to the next change(s)...
Total cost about 2 bucks an oil change - 1 quart of solvent and 1 Mr.
Coffee filter...

And the quart of filtered solvent can be re-used for cleaning the
landing gear...

denny

I never saw anything in the filter until the AL got very high. The oil
analysis was showing progressively higher AL for about 2 years before
that. Sadly, it did not tell me which cylinder so I ended up having to
do a boroscope every 2-6 months to watch for indications of wear. In
the end I started pumping oil in the bad cylinder which finally told
me which to pull. I really didn't want to spend $5K to have all
cylinders pulled searching for the issue.

-Robert- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Well, my bias is showing and your tale supports it... Knowing there
was rising Aluminium in the analysis accomplished nothing... You still
waited until it was showing in the filter and a cylinder finally
started pumping oil... I suppose somewhere there is a story that
analysis saved an engine from incipient failure and probably saved
lives... But, I'll take my chances the same way I have done for over
50 years of flying...

My old mechanic/FBO demanded that his customers use oil analysis every
50 hours or go somewhere else... I wound up going somewhere else...
The reason was that his own fleet of 9 aircraft were not on
analysis... When I challenged him on this he said that analysis never
showed anything that he didn't already know or suspect based upon
seeing, smelling, listening, and knowing his engine... I said what
was sauce for the goose was sauce for the gander.. He said it
wasn't... I moved on...

denny