Does Your Engine Have Hidden Damage? How To Know!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ก.ย. 2021
- How do you know if your engine is healthy? How To Read An Oil Analysis!
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What happens to an engine oil over a road trip? We’ll travel 3,000 miles, and perform an oil analysis before and after to find out. There are two main purposes of an oil analysis. First, you want to check engine health, by looking at wear and contaminants. Various metals can help you identify any significantly wearing engine parts. Contaminants can tell you if you have any engine coolant leaking into the cylinders, and how well your engine air filter and oil filters are working.
Second, you want to check your oil’s health, to know if you can keep using it, need to change it, or learn what your appropriate oil change interval should be. The analysis will cover viscosity, TBN, fuel dilution, oxidation, nitration, soot, water, and coolant, as indicators for the oil’s health. You can also check additive levels, like calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, and zinc.
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1:23
i cannot un-imagine Jason just basically whipping out his whiteboard then lecturing the bear on engineering.
I bet it was about BEARings he he he he
Being a casual mechanical hobbyist, I never really thought about the parallel oil provides to an engine's health as blood does to a person's health. Great video, as always, sir.
I've been using Blackstone for a few years to keep tabs on my vehicles. I can concur with the more personal analysis they include in each report, with an atta boy or two thrown in for a good report. Lol. It's a nice touch with what would usually be a dry read.
I totally agree. I've been using them for a number of years and find their service to be very informative and valuable.
I came to the comments to say Blackstone. Totally agree
what does such an oil analysis cost?
@@HazewinDog 30 dollars a Blackstone. They'll ship you the sample kits for free. It's amazing what you can learn about your engine and oil
@@jons4686 $30 definitely worth doing once a year on a vehicle that you plan to keep long term. I did that for my Jeep Liberty CRD for 10 years and already started with the first oil change on my 2020 Tacoma.
Hi Jason, retired mechanical engineer here, you should teach to local universities - you are presenting the common applications of engineering science (most important for consumers' knowledge). Back in the 70's it took me a one year internship at Ford to learn about "practical" applications of some (if not all) of the theoretical knowledge I had learned at my University. You make it interesting and your enthusiasm explaining engineering principles is contagious. Thank you for these great presentations, Ciao L
I'm a former chopper pilot from the French Navy. I remember we did *a lot* of oil analysis for gas turbines. They were pretty helpful to know if the engines were fine of if they were gonna eat their internals. =)
man these videos are truly the best on youtube, I don't think enough people appreciate the work that goes into these
It was a lot of work to put together, and fascinating information - thanks for watching!
Its all personal opinion tbh, In my opinion GreenHamGaming has the best content on youtube.
Blackstone is great! I love how personal the descriptions of the results are. They liked my name for my Kioti tractor, which I mainly use to mow fields: Mow-Bi Wan Kioti. Unfortunately, that old, formerly abused machine more or less makes Blackstone's people say "yikes!".
true im also using them for my e85 engines tests on my channel . they show great care always
Great video! Didn't think oil analysis would be that interesting. Seriously what a good dude for putting this info out there for all of us.
11:46 - Hmm, not sure I trust the third party if they said no oil showed up in your oil samples. 🤪
(just joking, it was supposed to say water)
Wow, great catch, yes, it's supposed to say water! 🤦♂️😂
Did you just include your vacation expenses as a tax write off?
You're a genious, Jason.
Great video BTW.
After several years of being a mechanic, I am still shocked and amazed when a vehicle comes in with "most" of its oil. Almost all are waaay overdue, low or almost none. Trying to explain to someone about oil consumption "but it doesn't smoke and I was told to change my oil when the "light" comes on"......
That's scary. Used car buyer beware.
Sounds like most are women who are single and no one is telling em too change there oil lol.
@@mikeschultz6383 of the hundreds of vehicles I see a year most of them are owned by men. Age is 35+ for more than 80% of my customers. Almost zero percent are owned by young women or single women.
@@MrAPCProductions very interesting so i guess don’t go off the assumption that women don’t know anything about cars and there maintenance nice too know. Also good too hear
@@mikeschultz6383 I think the reason is that the vast majority of car owners are not interested in cars as anything but transportation devices or to a degree as a status symbol. The inner workings are not what interests these people. It also says a lot about how reliable cars has become. It used to be that you more or less had to know a bit about how the car worked as they tended to break down now and then. Just look at something as simple as oil leaks. If you look back forty or fifty years there would be an oil slick under a lot of cars. It was just the way things were. Today it's really uncommon to see this and when you discover one under your car you will react by wondering what has gone wrong. I've also thought of the number of cars I see having broken down on the highway and standing on the shoulder waiting for assistance. When I was a kid you saw this every time you drove for any distance on the highway. Today it's really uncommon to see anything worse than some one who ran out of gas, and even that is uncommon and fuel gages are usually a lot more reliable today than they used to be. Remember when cold starting a car could be an adventure? Remember using the manual choke, pumping the gas pedal, or perhaps having to use starter fluid if it was freezing? I have almost forgot all of that. My twenty year old Toyota has never had a problem starting even when it was really cold.
Cars has become so easy to use that people are forgetting how they work. And when something goes wrong most people just leave it to a mechanic to fix. The only time they care about what makes their car run is when they pay the mechanic for taking care of their car. Heck I have friends who never open the hood unless they are forced to do so. They have a mechanic service it once a year, and just assume that they will take care of things like oil changes, air filters, thread depth, coolant levels and so on. I can safely say they have no idea about oil change intervals or anything else. All they do is fill it up with gas and drive.
I have used Blackstone on all of my cars for several years now. The information they provide is invaluable. It’s reassuring to KNOW what my engines and oil are doing versus just changing oil blindly.
Didn't know this was a thing. Just ordered two kits to get my rigs checked out. Thank you!
I think this way of oil analysis response is to make it more accessible and understanding to the avarage driver. I think that is actually pretty good. Also shows that there is most likely a human actually writing that.
An excellent presentation as always. I drove an F250 7.3 for 16 years and had oil analysis at every oil change after the second one. Nothing showed up and I felt very comfortable.
Please repeat at 6k, 9k, etc: as much as you will alow on the mighty croastreck. Thank you.
Great video👍really interesting, I used to work in an open cast mine as a welder. They took oil samples from all the machines every couple of weeks (engines, gearboxes and final drives). I always wondered how they analysed it. Thanks👍
I’ve been monitoring my engine oil with Blackstone since 0 miles. Good way to know what’s going on with your engine.
I've ordered and recieved a Blackstone analysis kit and plan on a 3k change on my 2.4 DIT. About 600 miles to go.
I feel this is a very important subject and have since the 70s and 80s while working as a heavy equipment operator and saw oil samples taken every oil change.
Thank you for posting. 👍
Very interesting video! I recently learned about oil analysis at my new job, we operate a big turbine compressor that compresses chlorine and I take samples of the oil every month to get it checked for wear and possible chlorine leaks. These measurements realy can tell you a lot.
I think it's great that you did a video about this. Yes oil analysis' are often not cheap, but they can well be worth the money. My last oil analysis predicted a head gasket failure well ahead of the gasket failing catastrophically. Could have been a lot more expensive hadn't I done the analysis and not knowm about it.
This is highly informative and very educatiomal, thanks a lot Jason!
No, it is not educatiomal at all.
As always, pleasure to watch things that my professors at the university tried to explain to us, but unsuccessfully.
this was really cool to learn that you could gain so much insight just from analyzing the oil
The oil analysis shows what many Subaru Turbo owners have been saying for years. Mobil 1 thins out way to fast. At 12:35 in the video, the answer to why the viscosity dropped was you used Mobil 1. :)
This is probably one of the most informative videos on engine oil I've ever seen. Well done, m8
I remember arguing about an early oil change with the service lady at Ford. She was convinced it was pointless.
Same at my Honda dealership. I change my oil every 5,000 full synthetic and the service manager said “that’s pointless it can go 10,000 miles”.
Those ford ecoboost engines need early oil changes as the deposits build up quickly. Ford Boss Me channel did several vids on this.
@@JohnS-il1dr now that is interesting.
As far as mobil 1 I am quite impressed with their new GF6 oils, i’ve been running full synthetic in my 3.6 R legacy from day one, i’m currently almost at 120,000 miles and the engine barely burns any oil I just recently was able to get my hands on this new classification of oil and the oxidation rate is impressive compared to its old blend! Jason!
You did an excellent job presenting this information! Well Done.
Thanks!
Fantastic job making oil analysis into an interesting video. Thanks as always.
The reason for the fuel dilution issue is because cold engines are programmed to run rich until warm.
I'm doing an oil analysis on my own vehicle later this week when I change the oil. The video was really informative on the metrics to watch out for for my engine health. Thanks Jason.
If it's a subaru yes, the motor has hidden damage.
I was lucky enough to hear about blackstone before I bought my first new car 15 years ago. Since I do all my work myself, its good to be able to catch something early enough to do something about it. Blackstone is great!
I literally clicked on this because I’m leaving from LA to Yellowstone and little did I know you did the same trip.
I love things like this. Rather than just "part breaks, replace it" instead use a service point to analyse potential issues and address weak points before they leave you standing at the side of the road with the hazards on.
Both options keep the mechanic in a job, but only one causes, at minimum, huge inconvenience.
I got a new car this year, and was a bit surprised when I looked into the owner's manual that it recommended the first oil change at 12 months or 6,000 miles. I did a double-take. IIRC, coolant flush was either 100 or 120k miles. It's amazing what these engineers have done.
Always enjoy Blackstone oil reports. It's also nice that they respond to any questions or concerns that I may write in.
"changing oil"
my 20 year old car that burns a liter of oil every month: "i don't have such weaknesses"
What's your car?
@@firasalzharani4328 hyundai Tiburon RD2 (2001) with the 1.6L engine
Got an Expedition that's started doing that. Now it's going to go live out it's days on my cousin's farm. 20 years, not bad
@@KF1 certainly, getting 20 years out of a car ain't bad at all
Just top-offs every few days😄
well, I might change oil this year. After some years (more than I'd want to admit), my engine deserves it.
Excellent video thanks Jason... clear concise and very interesting.
makes me happy I have decide to have my Turbo Direct injection car serviced every 7500 Kilometers since new... to make sure the carbon levels are low to minimise carbon buildup on the valves.
A fascinating idea for diagnostics.
I am reminded of all the CR-V 1.5 turbo engine videos claiming fuel-oil dilution. I got rid of my 2017 though.
I didn't realize that such a service was available to end-users smaller than fleet operators. Interesting! Seems like a very useful service indeed, depending on the cost.
It's like $30 with Blackstone
Blackstone will also send you bottles for free. with free shipping back to them.
I’ve been testing oil for 30 years. Running oil analysis for my trucking fleet. No one absolutely no one beats amsoil.
Absolutely amazing video! Thanks for the post!
This video is timely for me as I'm about to send a sample to Blackstone for the first time ever. Just waiting to rack up 3,000 miles on this batch of oil and get a check-up on the trusty '92 Ford.
Kudos for taking samples for separate analysis
Keep them coming.. as they are Informative
Nicely done. Thanks for the video.
Had a bad analysis on an old boat engine. Still ran and performed like a champ.
You took so many samples it must have been close to a full oil change!
This is really interesting, I would love to see a fourth column from samples of the same oil taken at the next oil change to see just how much it changed. Also it would be really interesting to see a similar test done on an older engine with lots of miles on it perhaps paired with additional data such as cylinder compression, fuel trim etc. just to see if you can draw any conclusions from them.
Now we need an experiment for transmission oil. Great video 👍
I’ve honestly been waiting for this video forever haha. I saved a couple oil samples from my first car, 98 dodge stratus, and really wanted to send it in, but had to move.
My prelude will certainly have some interesting results.
would be cool to know
@@nicolaasvandenberg4023 - I certainly intend to use their services, I'll do the lubricant analysis as soon as I can 👍🏼
Nice job! We are big believers in used oil analysis. Higher levels of blow-by will increase oxidation, soot and fuel dilution, so used oil analysis is a great tool for checking and monitoring piston ring seal.
I'd like to see an oil analysis on a CNG (natural gas), or propane fueled engine. I have no personal experience, but anecdotal have these engines running very clean with very little sludge and soot. Edit: I wonder if this is how oil manufacturers come up with such long change intervals?
I worked at a gas station that had a huge propane tank with a pump next to the interstate in the 90s. We would get people that needed to fill their vans (mostly vans for some reason) with propane. Often they would check their oil and I would check it out with them. The oil always looked brand new. As a side note my car is E85 and being in Ohio its readily available. If I run mainly E85 my oil seems to stay much cleaner than when using gasoline.
You know I always wondered the same thing because I have a propane (dual fuel) powered generator and I wondered if the propane was easier on the oil than gasoline. Ohio player1177 thanks for the info also I appreciate it
Thanks for the great topic Jason and your interesting and informative presentation.
One possibility that I'd suggest you consider for the reason for the hot temperature viscosity drop is the action of any kind of complex valve timing adjustment system that might be using oil pressure to actuate the mechanism. With high contact pressures and local temperatures in these mechanisms, you could be having the oil's VI additives being sheared down. I had this happening on the VQ37VHR engine in my 370Z using the recommended Nissan ester oil. I looked at a number of used oil analyses of this engine in 370Zs and G37s with this oil and saw a consistent drop in viscosity from 5W-30 to about a 5W-20 after about 3K miles. The recommended oil change interval(OCI) for this oil in this engine is 3750 miles, and so that informed my decision to go with 3K mile OCIs on my car. The oil temperature on this engine runs characteristically high, the consensus opinion being because of the VVEL mechanism, and so it's just an inherent property of the beast. You may be having a similar situation with your car if everything else is okay and so you may just have to live with shortened oil change intervals if you want to maintain proper hot viscosity.
One consideration might be the use of one of those synthetic base stock group V esters that don't need as much VI improvers added to achieve the desired hot temperature viscosity levels. The problem with them is their cost and it might just be cheaper to go with the less expensive synthetics and just change them more often.
Thanks for sharing, good stuff
maybe the question isn't how to know about hidden engine damage, it's do I want to know? And with 160,000 miles on the engine, I don't think I do 😅
I have to concur. Same thing with compression checks on an otherwise good engine. The only result if something's wrong is it will just make you feel bad or worry about it. You'll know hidden wear by one or all of three things, 1) noise, 2) oil consumption, 3) check engine light might be showing a condition that is also cause excessive wear.
Damn, I want an enthusiastic and supportive oil spec sheet. Anyway, congrats on your car's internal tolerances, they must be magnificent.
Blackstone is great, I've been sending them locomotive oil samples for years. Thanks for explaining what everything on these reports means, I was a bit lost on a couple items before. Fun fact, locomotive engine oil cannot contain zinc because it's not good for the silver bearings present in certain engines.
A fascinating video, can’t wait to run this test on my Tesla
I used to send in oil analysis. All it seemed to do was determine and confirm what you already knew. When a motor isn't happy they usually let you know it other then that not worth losing sleep over common wear.
Can you make a detailed video on specifically why alternators go bad (failure mode analysis) as well as the symptoms that said failures produce?
Practical information such as the “why” behind the “what” is typically very interesting to most people.
I have a 16 F150 with the 2.7L Ecoboost engine. At about 75k I had a Blackstone oil analysis done. I only use Mobil 1 full synthetic 5-30 and I change it at 3-4k mile intervals. That analysis was at 3k and the only warning I got was about the viscosity as well. They informed me it may be from fuel dilution but after checking my fuel trims and injector leak down I saw nothing unusual. It's nice to see you had a similar experience and they give follow-up information on how it could just be you're changing it sooner than you need to. I was thinking since my engine is direct injected and turbocharged it may just have more blow-by than a standard vehicle engine and that could be the reason for the fuel dilution/drop in viscosity. Thanks for this video Jason, very informative.
Jed Brown: Better to change it a little too often than to have a HUGE engine rebuild bill, or decide you need a new car. From someone who likes driving reliable older cars with no car payments who considers oil changes MONEY WELL SPENT.
would you consider talking about oil burning? you've enrich our minds with lots of useful engine oil topics, thanks man.
I use blackstone for oil analysis with my vehicles, I love the comments I get back from them!
Vital information for all gear heads!
Decades ago when my brother was a diesel truck mechanic, he told me about oil analysis as a way to determine an engine's health.
When it comes to hidden engine damage, I wonder how the VW air-cooled flat-four in the 1960s would rate? Having operating such vehicles, it's remarkable the amount of maintenance neglect that engine could be subjected to, and still keep running.
As always, ,great content and info.
Yes, I use Blackstone (have for many years) and they are both competent and lightheartedly friendly.
Great test and video.
Let's see some more oil test on the Subaru
Interesting, thanks.
Hi Engineering Explained, I wanted to know if you plan on posting the second part (off-road) review of the new Ford Bronco? Would love to hear your input on that, as it's the main attraction for me if I were to purchase that type of vehicle! Thank you so much for your hard work, long time subscriber, long live the white board!
Hey - thanks for all the awesome videos! I thought it might be cool if you made a video about engines at the extreme end of car engineering (for example, semi trucks and/or monster trucks). Or maybe you already made those?
Great video! Really enjoy all of your work. Side note: may want to look into a Fumoto valve; I have a BRZ and oil changes are much easier (and cleaner) when not dealing with the drain plug and washer, plus you can take quick samples without needing cleanup of a pump after. Need to install one on our CX5 but I have way too many washers left to justify it yet.
What about oil extractors? What’s your opinion on them?
Good info!
So when do you do your first oil change on a new car? I do mine at 1000, to me that's when an engine is broken in and ready to go!
Very interesting.
Great explanation of UOA. Why I really like your channel, it's SCIENCE based. NOT as so many are, opinion based. Well done.
Interesting addition re sand... I used to work with dual fuel diesel engines that would run on mixture of diesel and CNG or LNG. The attraction for many was to use Biogas/Biomethane for the CO2 benefits. We found that this kind of gas had siloxanes in it. Overtime it would basically be sandblasting the insides of the gas injectors and getting into the engine oil etc. Not good! They tend to leave a white powdery residue on the hot stuff.
Very helpful!
lol. Took extra samples just in case Mobil1 was lying. I like that dedication.
Reminds me I need to send in the sample sitting on my toolbox.
With experimental aircraft the first oil change is after 5 or 10 hours of use. And it critical to use a specific oil to do the break in(one without a lot of detergents I think). I wish I knew more but after learning this I wondered why the same strategies weren’t practiced for cars.
People like you make America great!
Nice video. It's very instructive. But there's one topic I would like to hear about, and it's why some fluids cannot be mixed? I'm thinking especially of coolant fluid or hydraulic fluid, like transmission oil. There's different kind of these fluid and they can cause damage if they're mixed together. Could you make something about this?
Hey...
That's a great video quite informative...
The reason why the results showed high level of fuel in the 15min idling is for a reason explained below.
Piston rings and compression rings have a small gap which expands once the engine is warm enough.. till is was warm enough your vehicle had a the addition of fuel to the oil...
I hope this information helps you and others reading this...
Thanks
Who knows, could be a massive lie! Extremely doubtful, though. Love Blackstone. Feels like we are talking to real people… because we are. Have had more than one prolonged experience where the regular monitoring of my used oil was exactly in line with my direct personal experience/assumptions & other evidence, and helped me figure things out at present & in the long run, in order to care for engines - in one case, provided knowledge to help save it entirely, with early warnings via analysis. Totally worth it. Highly recommend doing it at least just once a year!
Cool bear and sample kit!
Very cool, big fan of Blackstone! It would be much more interesting to see the same test on a vehicle where you expect to find some issues. Try to find a high-milage rental Camaro or something for another road trip and see what kind of results you get :)
Well done... I have used Blackstone labs for years.
Would love to see a follow up analysis of the oil just before you change it for an additional data point!
This analysis is invaluable.
Its useless if you get an electric car
@@UnipornFrumm It is not significant if you travel by foot also.
@@miltiadiskoutsokeras9189 yeah but you wont do that to go to another city for example
@@UnipornFrumm completely pointless if i take Greyhound.
@@UnipornFrumm and your electric car is useless after 125,000 when the battery dies
Great video, Jason! Finally someone provides an understandable explanation! I’ve been struggling to establish a position on my engine/oil condition, but with some confusing feedback, I wonder what your take on this would be. A BMW S63TU engine, appr 15k miles with oil changes always at 3-5k miles. 2 oil analysis (just under 10k miles - 3rd oil change, and appr. 12k miles), both returned all clear EXCEPT for fuel dilution - both times measured at 3%. BMW service advisor feedback was this is likely due “poor driver profile”, after digging into this more appears lots of short distance driving is classified this, second time this issue was definitely not a factor, but I struggled to get anything meaningful out of them, finally they responded with a strange message: 7% is considered a warning level, 10% a write-off level! Sounds bs to me, but I haven’t been able to verify this with BMW directly. Any thoughts?
If it is under warranty you may not want them to kniw about fuel dilution since they will say poor driver profile is a reason to deny warranty work.
As always great content
The military has been using oil analysis for decades (since the 80's) particularly for their tanks. It works but in general its only worth it for fleet vehicles that have constant heavy use. In passenger cars its overkill.
Awesome video
as an engineer, im surprised you did not explain that your 15 minute idling session having the highest oil dilution makes perfect sense. It goes to show you should NEVER let your car sit and idle to "warm up" in a modern car. you want to start moving as soon as humanely possible (still keeping it under 2500rpm until your water is up to temp) to allow the piston rings to expand under heat and properly seal off the fuel from getting through the pistons into the crank case. So short trips and idling around cold = BAD in short. But after 3000 miles, this is why most of that fuel "cooked off", as with a road trip *and in particular lots of long 10+ mile highway speed daily commutes* - it is much better for your engine, as all the dilution that occurs at cold start has plenty of heat and time over distance to burn away and evaporate itself out of the flowing hot oil during a long and fast enough drive.
I use BSL yes I always enjoy the commentary.
My Audi dealership, which has perhaps the best customer service on the planet, does oil analysis every time you get your fluids changed. Hilariously (and mostly due to Covid) I purchased a new Q5 SUV in July 2019, and I was alerted to a service (for the first time in my life) based in TIME. As in, instead of the dashboard saying “100 miles to next service” when you startup, it said “12 DAYS to next service.” Due to the lockdown and my extreme extra caution because I’m immunocompromised, after one year I had driven a grand total of 2,236 miles. Oil and other fluids really should be changed after a year no matter what, and luckily my results came back no concerns. I just thought it was cool that this dealership goes to these lengths to show how your engine is holding up. Hopefully in the next year I will have the opportunity to drive more. I like driving. And my sweet Irish Wolfhound LOVES going on drives, rides, trips, around the block, whatever. We need to do more of that.
Stephen Miles: Having sensors might be better. My friend, who drives a 25_ year old Mercedes changes the oil promptly when the car tells him to, roughly every 10K miles. It does it based on sensors detecting how much dirt the oil has in it.
Many auto dealers, OTOH, want to charge you for service every chance they get, and also sell you things you don't need, so there's that.
@@rogergeyer9851 I agree with all of that. However, fluids really should be changed at least once a year, especially if one lives in a hot climate like I do. And all of my services up to 120,000 miles were included with the price of the car, which, because of my wife’s job, was a non-negotiable fixed price.