Oil Analysis Report
 

Has anyone ever had their oil tested after it's used? I just saw this site today and it seems fairly legitimate . You send them a sample of your used oil and they do an in-depth analysis of it and send you a report back letting you know of any potential issues in the future. Cost is about $23

Blackstone Laboratories - Standard Analysis

I'm pretty sure I am going to start doing this and posting results up here.

I know wstar is doing this, not sure about others here. It looks good and by the sounds of what wstar was telling me can be very helpful in more than just knowing what is in your oil.

I did this in my old 350 and my 4Runner. Its useful for determining how long to keep your oil I think and for any problems. Get a TBN test which will tell you how much of the add pack is left.

ETA: I used Blackstone and had good results with them. When I ran Syntec in my 350 according to the TBN numbers I could have run it to 10K, I was doing the 7.5K OCI at the time with Nissan filter.

I'm mailing off a batch to Blackstone for testing tomorrow. Doing it more out of curiosity than anything else to see what results come back.

My dad does it regularly for his airplane. Of course, when his engine fails he falls out of the sky (though his plane does have a parachute attached to it), and when ours dies we walk home. So I guess it makes the most sense for him to be doing it...

^^ good point..

they let you know the full details of what has been found in the oil and what amounts also.

they also let you know if it's common or uncommon.

Blackstone has done a good job for me
 

To me, the real value is doing oil analysis over time. You start to see how your engine is holding up. Also, as stated, always get a TBN done if not standard. This shows how much of the additive package is left and in reality how long you can go on the oil. I have had good TBN numbrs at over 15,000 miles with Amsoil's best. Will be interesting to see the numbers on the 370 when folks start doing tests with some miles on them. Perhaps we will learn more about the effects of any high oil temps.

Yeah I've already gotten my first one back. I didn't analyze the factory fill unfortunately. At 1,800-ish miles I did an oil change using Nissan Ester 5W-30, then at about 4,000 I switched to Motul (300V, 5W30) and sent off that Nissan Ester out of my engine for analysis, this is the report from it:

http://www.the370z.com/members/wstar...ine-myself.jpg

I just changed oil against at 7K miles (to Motul 300V 5W30 again) and sent a sample off that off last week, haven't gotten the report back yet.

Ill be interested to see that. Im @ 500 and I think Im going to drop the factory fill in the next week or so. I dont think I will start UOA's until maybe 20k or so. Even at that mileage my last vehicles numbers were trending down.

Here is my oil analysis..

0-1500mi = Nissan factory oil
1500-5000mi = Nissan Ester Oil & Nissan OEM Filter

http://www.vocontrol.com/370z/oil report 5000mi.png

rackley, are you planning on staying with the Nissan oil or moving to something different? oh and you sure had a bit more iron than wstar did... hmmm?

good post by the way, thanks

Would the oil analysis show lower iron if you use a drain plug magnet plus the oil filter magnet sleeve? Or to ask differently is the iron that shows up in the oil analysis in solution or suspended? Thanks.

The wear metals difference is going to be mostly that my report is from a 2,200 mile interval, and his is from a 3,500 mile interval. So we would expect him to have accumulated more wear metals than I did during that time. Interestingly though, my oil "suffered" slightly more than his during my shorter interval, coming out with lower viscosity, and a lower flashpoint even though we used the same brand/type of oil. Probably harsher environment and/or driving.

I switched to Castrol Edge 10W-30 for the 5,000 to 10,000 mile period. We'll see what the oil analysis says at 10k before lengthening the change interval.

I'm waiting for my kit now and changing my oil this week. Oil will be from 2200 to 7000 miles on the car with Mobil1 -- can't wait to see how this compares to the ester oil.