By carrying our regular motor oil testing you can make a big contribution to extending the life of your car engine and help boost performance. Tests on engine oil for vehicles can be simple, and carried out at home or a more involved oil analysis done using a kit or in a laboratory.
One of the often repeated sayings about good engine care is to carry out a regular oil change, say between 3-5,000 miles, whether you are running a family car or a fleet of vehicles for a company.
Oil can only hold so much dirt, and whether you do a lot of short trips around town or longer distance runs, eventually the accumulated dirt will lead to increased friction. This will eventually result in wear and tear on the moving parts and can be very costly if major repairs are needed.
So setting up a regular motor oil testing programme for your vehicle is a good way to go and will help avoid more serious maintenance problems later down the line, particularly if it results in damage to the car engine. A regular test will allow you to work out the normal pattern for your style of driving in your car.
One way of testing your engine oil is to take small samples and placing a drop of the oil in the centre of a sheet of white blotting paper, and this can give you an indication of when you may need to do an oil change. When you have put new oil in the engine, take a sample and use this as a reference for future samples.
Relatively new, clean oil will most likely show up as a yellow to light orange spot on the blotting paper, while engine oil which is due for a change will be a darker colour, closer to light brown and there will probably be a more defined dark, sooty ring.
Over time you by carrying out these simple motor oil tests you will get a feel for when it’s time to do a motor oil change for your vehicle. If you are buying a second hand car you may want to be confident about the state of the engine. Again you can take a drop of oil from the engine and place it onto blotting paper. A lighter grey ring around a darker ring may indicate some water in the engine.
If you are looking for a more sophisticated and sensitive motor oil testing approach then you can go for an analysis which passes light of varying frequencies through an oil sample. The chemical components of the oil sample can be analysed under ultra violet and infra red light, and it will be a better predictor of potential future problems for your car engine.
As an example, this motor oil test will show up dirt in the engine when it reveals traces of aluminium contamination in the sample. Over time this dirt will accumulate and cause damage to moving parts such as piston heads. A timely oil analysis can save you from problems in the future and let you know when to carry out an oil change.
Motor oil testing using this spectral analysis will also show whether your engine has a fuel dilution problem. This happens when unburned fuel finds its way to other parts of the engine including the crankcase. Wear and tear due to friction will harm the engine due to the reduced viscosity of the oil caused by this fuel dilution.
The oil test can also measure the level of sooty deposits, which can be due to over-fuelling or backpressure at the exhaust.
James Honeybill works with Ultimo GT, a lubricant distribution business. For more information on motor oil testing and high performance engine oils.
News About Red Line Oil:
Extend Life of Your Vehicle
Car Engine Overheating
Car Engine Care Tips
redlineoil2013 