Oil analysis

[knotflying]

Anyone with a 4BY2 doing oil analysis with their changes? I have been doing mine since new and all is okay, however, the copper always seems to be a bit above the normal range. My recent report is showing 41 parts per million.

 

[Levitation]

I am not a fan of oil analysis. For the same price of repeated oil analysis you can simply change your oil more frequently and have the engine last forever.
Many of the guys using the the Royal Purple, etc. rip off type lubricants want to be able to brag that they can go 10k 15k 20k miles without changing oil and they use analysis to one-up each other.
Shucks, I've got an aunt with a 1964 Valiant that has 47,000 miles on it and never has changed the oil - eat that you high mileage braggarts! :mrgreen:
We used oil analysis at the factory on our hydraulic fluid and transmission oil on large machines and there it is useful. An oil change is thousands of dollars and being able to go longer between changes is simple economics.

Good information can be found at:
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/
You probably know the website, but just in case I threw it in.

OK, now to your question - and brazenly stolen from Bob:
Copper is widely used due to its high ductility and thermal conductivity. It is mainly utilized in bushings and bearings such as: crankshaft journal bearings, connecting rod bearings, camshaft bushings, piston wrist pin bushings, thrust washers, and even heat exchangers (oil coolers).

From what you say and from experience back at the factory I tend to think that the copper level you are seeing is normal for your engine. What you will watch for is an upward trend in the copper level which would indicate increasing wear of some component.
And this is what oil analysis is really useful for - as opposed to absolute levels of this or that metal.

 

[knotflying]

Thanks Denny, I actually do the analysis to see if any suspect parts are wearing abnormally, not to extend oil changes. It actually helped me discover a bad piston cap on one of the cylinders on my plane.

 

[trailertrawlerkismet]

I've not done the oil analysis on our R27 but it was done on our last boat from the time the boat was new. I had the analysis done for the same reason as Mike in addition to having a very good record of the oil for prospective buyers when we sold that boat. A record like this helps make a sale easier because there is one less hurdle to overcome. As far as the copper % in your oil I'd also like to hear from someone about this as well.

Jim

 

[HRowland]

Mike,

Copper in my 4BY2-180 has varied from 25 ppm on the first sample tapering down to 14 ppm on the sample from last month. Specifically:

Date, Hrs on oil, Total Hrs, Cu PPM
Oct 2012, 100, 165, 25
Oct 2013, 84, 249, 23
Oct 2014, 94, 343, 16
Oct 2015, 61, 404, 14

Other metals- Iron, Lead, Nickel, and Aluminum have also trended down as the engine broke in. I did not take samples on oil changes during the first year I had the boat. The comments from the lab indicate normal trends.

I have been using Blackstone Labs, I previously used them with my airplane engine oil analysis.

Howard

 

[knotflying]

Thanks Howard,
Interestingly my numbers started coming down, which one would expect, but spiked on this one. I was using Mobile-1, but it was unavailable and I used Valvoline. I read an article that stated there could be a change in readings with a change in oil. I would assume that all oil is specified the same, but who knows. On this change I used Rotella. It will be interesting to see how the next analysis come out.