mikefocke

that there was someone in the Porsche world who understood the specific metallurgy of our M96 engines and would take a sample of your oil and analyze it and tell you, based on seeing hundreds/thousands of other samples from running engines and the oil characteristics of a certain number of failed M96 engines, if there was a increasing statistical probability of a certain kind of failure in your engine. IOW, the value of this characteristic in your oil sample or the slope of this change in your oil's characteristics between samples is typical of what we see in an engine about to have failure Q. (Sally's engine, which just had failure X, had exactly the same change in characteristic Y of her car's oil as yours is exhibiting.)

This isn't the typical oil analysis done from the oil's perspective without regard to what engine the oil came from but rather is an analysis of the way the trace content in the oil tells specific things about what is happening in a M96 engine. This trend data may be the only way that forecasts of potential problems can be identified and forecasted in advance of an actual issue. This would help ease the mind’s of owners knowing that the wear occurring within their engine is being traced and evaluated by specialists that also watch and create trend data for hopefully hundreds of other M96 engines that could become part of the same program.

Would you be interested in paying for an oil analysis and thus contributing to the data base assuming you got a written M96 oriented analysis? Would you be willing to do it repeatedly if the value of trendlining your engine and its oil was increased the more times the analysis of your oil would be done (IOW you'd get a better prediction from multiple samples versus just the one and the data base gets better at predicting)?

Assume for this discussion the cost was $30 per analysis. And assume the process of getting the oil sample done was no more complicated than it is using existing labs and is thoroughly documented so that the DIYer can obtain a clean sample.

Turboflyer

Oil analysis can do just that., predict what is changing in your engine. What it cannot do is predict failures caused by metal fatigue or flaws in casting or forgings. What it may be able to do is tell you if certain component are wearing abnormally. If Porsche or a reputable, knowledgeable shop can provide what is failing that is causing the IMS failure beyond catastrophic metal failure unrelated to wear then we are in business. Oil analysis can show a trend and or increase in metals in the oil. I have included a copy of one of my oil analysis for you to take a look at in the next post . Also BlackStone Labs charges half that and are very helpful friendly and professional folks.

mikefocke

is tell you the significance of any increase in a specific metallurgical residue in the oil? Is this typical of a 986's bearing, the cylinder linings, etc. Because they don't know the engine and what parts are made of and they don't have samples taken from broken engines.

This wouldn't be that much more expensive than existing labs because you'd actually be using one of them and paying a surcharge that is little more than postage for the M96 specific analysis. The greater value is to the M96 community of the data accumulated.

Turboflyer

Mike have you ever had an oil analysis done on any vehicle or aircraft? Of course that is what they tell you. That is why aircraft owners do it. It can give you a heads up on abnormal wear for those components. Maybe I am not understanding what you are saying. I agree, that Porsche could easily give us a volume in information on IMS statistics from all the engines they have replaced. Do not t hold your breath on that one.

Cincy_Ron

Mike, I send my oil in Blackstone Labs for analysis. It's not car specific but they can tell based on which elements are showing up what part of the engine it can be coming from. They have a lot of info on their website.

http://www.blackstone-labs.com/gasol...port_expl.html