Blackstone Labs for oil analysis/report
05-19-2009, 12:53 AM
#16
Drifting
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Dallas/FortWorth Texas
Posts: 3,438
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I'm a huge fan of Blackstone. They are very customer service oriented and will even talk to you on the phone about the results if you want. I've even called and asked them to expedite a report for me because I needed to know whether to go ahead and change the oil before an upcoming track weekend.
Regarding the question of whether Blackstone has ever indicated wear problems in the oil, I can vouch for that. They analyzed the oil sample from my RS America which I took months before it spun a rod bearing. The irony was that I took the oil sample several months before I knew I had an engine problem. But I set the sample aside and didn't send it in (got busy, forgot about it, etc). Then the car spun a bearing. So for curiousity sake, I sent that sample in without telling them that the engine had shelled on me a few months after taking the sample. The analysis came back that I had serious bearing wear and may very soon be hearing some knocking. It cautioned me that I had bearing problems in the engine that needed to be addressed asap.
On my BMW M Coupe, while I was tracking it (due to the RSA being down for an engine rebuild), their analysis indicated that I needed to shorten the oil change interval due to tracking the car. Wear metals in the first sample after tracking it a couple of times were higher than normal. So I switched to a much shorter oil change duration for the next couple of oil changes and DE's. After that, the oil analysis indicated everything was back to normal in the engine and wear metals were well in the safe range. I've been sending in samples on the BMW at every oil change ever since. BTW, I rarely go over 3000 miles on the M Coupe before changing the oil. And even shorter duration than that if I am tracking it.
Bottom line is that Blackstone gives me valuable intelligence about what is happening inside my engines. I use it on all of my vehicles now including my F250 diesel and my miata track car. And if I ever sell one of my cars (which I never seem to do), I'll be able to hand the prospective owner a stack of oil sample reports on the engine so they can see exactly how the engine metals have been wearing for most of the car's life. BTW, if you buy a minimum of six prepaid samples, you get a good discount on the cost.
Regarding the question of whether Blackstone has ever indicated wear problems in the oil, I can vouch for that. They analyzed the oil sample from my RS America which I took months before it spun a rod bearing. The irony was that I took the oil sample several months before I knew I had an engine problem. But I set the sample aside and didn't send it in (got busy, forgot about it, etc). Then the car spun a bearing. So for curiousity sake, I sent that sample in without telling them that the engine had shelled on me a few months after taking the sample. The analysis came back that I had serious bearing wear and may very soon be hearing some knocking. It cautioned me that I had bearing problems in the engine that needed to be addressed asap.
On my BMW M Coupe, while I was tracking it (due to the RSA being down for an engine rebuild), their analysis indicated that I needed to shorten the oil change interval due to tracking the car. Wear metals in the first sample after tracking it a couple of times were higher than normal. So I switched to a much shorter oil change duration for the next couple of oil changes and DE's. After that, the oil analysis indicated everything was back to normal in the engine and wear metals were well in the safe range. I've been sending in samples on the BMW at every oil change ever since. BTW, I rarely go over 3000 miles on the M Coupe before changing the oil. And even shorter duration than that if I am tracking it.
Bottom line is that Blackstone gives me valuable intelligence about what is happening inside my engines. I use it on all of my vehicles now including my F250 diesel and my miata track car. And if I ever sell one of my cars (which I never seem to do), I'll be able to hand the prospective owner a stack of oil sample reports on the engine so they can see exactly how the engine metals have been wearing for most of the car's life. BTW, if you buy a minimum of six prepaid samples, you get a good discount on the cost.
