Flat6 Innovations

UOA is just another tool. There are some failures that it will only find, and some failures that it will never find.

You can't judge an engine by one UOA, trend data is the key from that particular engine, over a period of time.

This is why I start a UOA program for all my engines from the first oil thats drained, and watch it at every step of the way, for as long as possible. I have 30-40 samples from some engines.

Mario1

To be fair to everyone here, what you guys need to know is I bought that car a month ago without having it inspected. I was in a hurry to get it, I was dumb, naive, it's a long story but the seller said he did all maintenance religiously. The day I pick up the car, he said he didn't have time to do an oil change so I have to do it. Ok I said, I mean the car has what, less then 20,000 on it. A week later, I do the oil change, find these metal flakes in the oil filter and all hell breaks loose.

From that moment on, he can't recall when he did his last oil change. He can't remember a date, a month, a season, not even a year. Of course he won't talk to my lawyer. My guess is he used the Dt40 because that's what he sold me. Collecting fresh data is what I will do, but I still bought that car to lap it instead of my race car. Better news so far then rebuilding/replacing engine.

Flat6 Innovations

I hear that about 10 times a week.

5CHN3LL

That's true - and I also am not having weekly colonoscopies, so I don't know that I don't have a butt problem...and I'm not having weekly blood tests, so I _could_ have contracted Zika unknowingly.

I've made it to the ripe old age of 46 without analyzing oil from a single car...I think I'm going to let it ride and go a while longer.

Flat6 Innovations

I learned about UOA working with rotary wing aircraft. We pulled samples from 5 places on every engine, every 10 hours.

Sometimes we'd get a call from maintenance admin saying "Go drop the motor out of 02 and send it to the engine shop"... BUT it ran perfectly fine, didn't flame out, the power management system wasn't doing funky things, and it was smooth.

I tend to treat cars like they have wings, instead of wheels.

Tbred911

agreed! just because your doing UOA doesn't mean you'll catch everything but if you don't do UOA and trending like you mention you are at a higher risk of not catching something that may be obvious in the UOA analysis...

biggest one for me is to know when my oil has dropped out of it's grade due to heat cycling on the track because I do a lot of tracking... so the 100C centistoke value sheds a lot of light on that... a regular castrol 5W40 syntec oil is no good for more than 4-5 track hours !!! a 5w50 castrol is good for 10 hours MAX - I know guys running castrol 5W40 in their 991 GT3 RS for 20 hours .... it's because nobody has told them... there are people out there running on one oil change for the whole track season.... not good...

Tbred911

that's right you may - now back to cars... it's your car and your $$$ - you accept the risks and no one else

Flat6 Innovations

This is spot on!! I also pay more attention to TBN and TAN than the other values, but Blackstone only includes those for more money. You can't judge the sample without those values.

People pop engines at the track all the time, because they are running the same old (junk) street oil on the track thats been in the engine for a few thousand miles. The oil is dead before they arrive at the track, and they get a 20,000 dollar surprise later.

This is what kills these engines... Assumption, and a lack of situational awareness, coupled to plain old common sense. Nobody has that anymore, because their keyboard can't help them with it.

Watching cinestoke levels, and adjusting services based upon visq is the way we have primarily came up with ur own service intervals, and our own flavors of oil.

Mario1

So what's the best oil for track use?

DBJoe996

Holding breath...I don't wanna post...I don't wanna post...I don't wanna post...breath
Look, if your racing your car and testing oils..great get a UOA and see what the values are, go from there. Got it, you're after performance and reliability.
If your an engine rebuilder/constructor - I totally get it. The knowledge derived is helpful.
But, I'm never going to pay for a UOA. I drive my car and love it. It will die some day. Everything does. Every mechanical part wears out. But all this seems to really take the joy out of owning a terrific car. I'd rather drive my car, enjoy every minute of it, than fret over a oil change, UOA, waiting for results and wondering if I'm sitting on a "timebomb". They all are, eventually. It's a car, not a passenger jet airliner. I may get flamed over this but I'm not loosing sleep over it. Done.

Paul Waterloo

I like the UOA because it allows for a trend over time, more of a hobby than anything else. I also figure when I sell the car if I have one for each oil change, it's going to allow the next owner to sleep better at night, if the values are good.

I am in the nuclear power industry, and trending data is part of life. I just sell them stuff, so I want to do my own trending!

Slakker

XP9 is what I was recommended for this specific engine. It only has a life of about 750 miles but I use a 55 micron 5 gal bucket filter to reuse it or DT40 when switching back and forth.

I think you are actually right on point. There are many different ways to experience a 996. DD, DE, Weekend Toy, or wrenching hobby. For me, it's all about learning as much as I can through working on them, getting dyno's, looking at UOA etc. I think it's awesome when someone can spot the type of motor oil used simply by looking at one of these. I don't think they are required to have a good car and a good experience.

5CHN3LL

Yup.

If I am paying for UOA and I learn that some part of my engine is being eaten and I get talked into a $20K rebuild because it's been run with material-laden oil, yada yada, how is this substantially different than my engine just quitting one day and needing a $20K rebuild? Maybe I'd get a little advance notice, but it seems that many just continue driving it because they don't want to pay for a rebuild before it becomes essential.

I'm sure that those miles between "probably has a problem" and "screw it, I'll finally do the rebuild now" would be carefree and enjoyable...

Mario1

This stuff? http://http://lnengineering.com/joe-...12-quarts.html
But why is it only good for 750 miles? You filter it and reuse it!? I've never heard of anything like that. Why would it not be good after 2,000 miles?

LexVan

Because it's a racing oil. Completely different chemistry and detergent package.