Oil Analysis Results
Posted: Mon May 12, 2008 10:03 am
Semantics...ShortyFortyTwo wrote:No one said soot doesn't cause wear, the term I used was "abrasive agent". Meaning that the primary damage soot will do is block galleries, just about any particles in your oil will cause wear.
Be careful changing oil based on soot percentage, some tests give a soot reading as a total percentage in the oil, but some give it as an allowable percentage. Don't change oil at 3% of allowable percentage or you will be changing it every second day, Only at 3% total percentage.
Pollution laws prevent this now.ShortyFortyTwo wrote: Interestlingly cummins have introduced a system on the large engines were by oil is slowly fed into the fuel system an burned, the sump is topped up automatically from an external tank and keeps the oil level constant, you no longer do oil changes you simple make sure the oil tank is topped up.
Of course I have seen sludge. I have seen engines that are full of sludge. Sludge is not soot, I doubt the soot content of sludge is much higher than in normal oil, but haven't seen any test to prove or disprove this. I can show you petrol engines with sludge deposits just as bad as any diesel.ShortyFortyTwo wrote:Don't put words in my mouth or try to tell me what I'm saying. I know exactly what I'm saying. The reason you've never seen soot blocking oil galleries is because people change their oil.
Ok, listen into what I am saying, don't misquote me or tell me what I am trying to say. As engines run they form sludgy deposits, a percentage of this "sludge" is soot. When you change your oil not only is the new oil clean but it contains detergents which break up these deposits. If you don't believe me take an old B or H series toyota engine and run it for about 30,000kms without changing the oil(if it makes it that far), what you are left with is oil that closely resembles grease due to sludge build up.
Since you've never seen an engine with sludge build up in the galleries I recommend next time you know someone with a hydraulic lifter that is tapping, pull it apart and tell me what you find? Since i'm so nice i'll save you the time, you'll find it's orifices are blocked. Companies make additives to clean the galleries of dirty engines, or is that just a scam? I can't believe you have come on here and tried to tell me that engines don't suffer from deposits in the oil galleries.
Typical engineer, you can use big terms but your obvious lack of real world experience really shows. That isn't pixie dust blocking galleries.
Paul - there are 2 different types of filter systems - full flow and bypass. Full flow filters just remove the rocks. Bypass filters can even remove primary soot particles (in the case of centrifuges).me3@neuralfibre.com wrote:My goal was to extend from 5000, back to factory 10,000, or maybe more. I'll go 10/10 (oil/filter) next as opposed to the 15/5 I was doing before. Then try 15/15 and maybe 20/20.
If anyone cared to do simialr with differnet brand stuff would be really interesting.
I have noticed when soot goes up too much, so does iron - wear, and the oil gets thicker.
Elemental analysis doesn't really show that much, as a detergent is a complex molecule. Broken down or combined with something else, the elemental balance is still the same to a spectrograph, is the molecules it makes up that have changed. Analysis may show same / same calcium, yet the calcium is now 100% "consumed" by being bound with something else.
Also with Iron, big particles won't show up in Fe count, but will be there in magnetic count. Catastrphic damage may not be immediatly obvious.
Finally, with filters, it's not just micron rating, it's capacity. No point in adding an external filter if the micron rating is the same, and the current one still has heaps of capacity left. I'm assuming toyota was prob conservative here and that 10,000 changes in a good motor would be about 30%-50% filter capacity to allow for poor fuel, cheap oil, and worn engines.
Paul
Z334A (Cruiser filter and pics in the links on my website) are a dual element type. I have dicsussed my reservations there, as there is no way I can think of to determine element capcity with a dual element type. Even the external ones the only way I can think of would be flow measurement, maybe some spinny beads like an old fuel filter.ISUZUROVER wrote:Paul - there are 2 different types of filter systems - full flow and bypass. Full flow filters just remove the rocks. Bypass filters can even remove primary soot particles (in the case of centrifuges).me3@neuralfibre.com wrote:My goal was to extend from 5000, back to factory 10,000, or maybe more. I'll go 10/10 (oil/filter) next as opposed to the 15/5 I was doing before. Then try 15/15 and maybe 20/20.
If anyone cared to do simialr with differnet brand stuff would be really interesting.
I have noticed when soot goes up too much, so does iron - wear, and the oil gets thicker.
Elemental analysis doesn't really show that much, as a detergent is a complex molecule. Broken down or combined with something else, the elemental balance is still the same to a spectrograph, is the molecules it makes up that have changed. Analysis may show same / same calcium, yet the calcium is now 100% "consumed" by being bound with something else.
Also with Iron, big particles won't show up in Fe count, but will be there in magnetic count. Catastrphic damage may not be immediatly obvious.
Finally, with filters, it's not just micron rating, it's capacity. No point in adding an external filter if the micron rating is the same, and the current one still has heaps of capacity left. I'm assuming toyota was prob conservative here and that 10,000 changes in a good motor would be about 30%-50% filter capacity to allow for poor fuel, cheap oil, and worn engines.
Paul
Oh and "micron ratings" of filters are a bit of a misnomer, as a filter isn't a sieve. A filter with a 25 micron rating will usually remove 50% of 25 micron particles, and may still let through 10% of 40 micron particles.
As you have noticed, there is a good correlation between soot levels and wear indicators. That is why most/all modern (heavy duty) diesels have bypass filters/centrifuges.
Paul, a lot of the work that I do is filter R&D. (oil) Filters will find it hard to remove particles lower than about 1-5 microns, as due to the high viscosity of oil (compared to water and air). This is because only inertial and interception (and sieving) collection mechanisms operate effectively under those conditions, diffusional collection is negligible (needed for smaller partricles). However centrifuges are a completely different story...me3@neuralfibre.com wrote:Z334A (Cruiser filter and pics in the links on my website) are a dual element type. I have dicsussed my reservations there, as there is no way I can think of to determine element capcity with a dual element type. Even the external ones the only way I can think of would be flow measurement, maybe some spinny beads like an old fuel filter.ISUZUROVER wrote:Paul - there are 2 different types of filter systems - full flow and bypass. Full flow filters just remove the rocks. Bypass filters can even remove primary soot particles (in the case of centrifuges).me3@neuralfibre.com wrote:My goal was to extend from 5000, back to factory 10,000, or maybe more. I'll go 10/10 (oil/filter) next as opposed to the 15/5 I was doing before. Then try 15/15 and maybe 20/20.
If anyone cared to do simialr with differnet brand stuff would be really interesting.
I have noticed when soot goes up too much, so does iron - wear, and the oil gets thicker.
Elemental analysis doesn't really show that much, as a detergent is a complex molecule. Broken down or combined with something else, the elemental balance is still the same to a spectrograph, is the molecules it makes up that have changed. Analysis may show same / same calcium, yet the calcium is now 100% "consumed" by being bound with something else.
Also with Iron, big particles won't show up in Fe count, but will be there in magnetic count. Catastrphic damage may not be immediatly obvious.
Finally, with filters, it's not just micron rating, it's capacity. No point in adding an external filter if the micron rating is the same, and the current one still has heaps of capacity left. I'm assuming toyota was prob conservative here and that 10,000 changes in a good motor would be about 30%-50% filter capacity to allow for poor fuel, cheap oil, and worn engines.
Paul
Oh and "micron ratings" of filters are a bit of a misnomer, as a filter isn't a sieve. A filter with a 25 micron rating will usually remove 50% of 25 micron particles, and may still let through 10% of 40 micron particles.
As you have noticed, there is a good correlation between soot levels and wear indicators. That is why most/all modern (heavy duty) diesels have bypass filters/centrifuges.
Only small diesel I heard of with centrifuge was the Rover, and they dropped it off it for some reason. Some bikes used ot have them too.
I dunno if there is much benefit to be had with soot though.I know some of the guys pushed the 1HDFT direct injection motor to 60,000km with synthetic and still got passes, whereas the 1HZ is too sooty (indirect injection). The one I wonder is do any of the things out there srub the soot well enough to make synthetic oil a viable proposition. I doubt the base stock for dino oil would last past 20,000km, even with additive topups. Syntheitc is supposed to go 150K+, if you can scrub it and replace the additives. With soot being sub micron size, I haven't heard of any fitler that goes that small.
Paul