Have I thanked you recently for the service you provide? Well, let me thank you now: you folks are great , and a comfort to those of us who trust our lives to our aircraft engines.

Wow – you still had on file the results of my skid steer’s sample from 2003?! I am impressed and grateful. Thanks! I will change the oil as you suggest.

Many thanks for the oil analysis. You were right about the spike in silicon! Yes, the poor air filter had suffered a backfire during the engine start. The backfire evidently occurred since the last oil change. The heat warped the air filter, allowing dirt in and depositing goo in the air duct. We just got a new air filter and cleaned up the air duct during annual inspection. I’m not sure what I did to cause the backfire. First time in 30 years of owning the plane that I’ve done that. Anyway, thanks again – your detective work was spot on! Love your newsletters and archive articles. Have a great holiday season!

This report makes me so HAPPY! Particularly on a rough Friday afternoon. Thank you guys SO MUCH!

Your analysis is spot on! Both engines had been sitting for a very long time in a salt water environment. Heads were pulled and cylinders were ball honed with pistons at BDC and sealed with a rubber plug to prevent abrasive from reaching rings. Cylinders were cleaned with purple cleaner and rinsed. A bearing cap was pulled and showed little wear. Both engines are currently performing flawlessly in St. Augustine, FL. No strange noises, no smoke. Will take your advice and change the oil.

Thank you very much for the reports! In the Focus report, it was noted that the silicon value was high. The sample was taken on July 4, 2018. In October 2017, as I was installing new spark plugs, I discovered a head gasket seal leak. I replaced the head gasket and had to also redo the spark plug installation. Hence, there could have been some intrusion from spark plug boot silicon paste, as well as dust/sand during the head gasket removal. I used some cans of air cleaner to get everything clean ahead of the installations, yet I know that contaminant could have remained present. On my way to the post office now with this 2019 sample.

Thank you for your quick analysis!!! I have used your services for decades and you have been very consistent with my airplanes and boats. I recommend you any chance I get and encourage establishing on ongoing analysis as opposed to a snapshot. I anticipate using your services in the future, but the machinery has yet to be determined.

I had a mechanic who, although he is highly regarded as a premier Subaru expert, is human and misdiagnosed my engine. He told me the engine was shot, and that I should sell my car for parts rather than investing money in repairing. While he did have strong evidence (failed compression test, knocking noise, etc.) there was also evidence to the contrary, including a perfect report from your lab. I called your lab and asked the representative how often an engine could be failing without any evidence in the oil. He strongly recommended I get a second opinion. I took this advice and hauled the car to a Subaru dealership. Within a couple hours they had it properly diagnosed and repaired (stuck oil control valve). I went from selling a $10k car for probably $1k – $2k for parts (with a $4k loan remaining), to paying $300 to repair. I paid it off and drove it for another two years, and just sold it two days ago for $7500. I can’t thank you guys enough!

You guys are awesome. Back in 2017 I had analysis done on our Hyundai sonata and you noted excessive iron in it. Now after the major recall and issues from Hyundai on metal not being cleaned out properly from the factory it all makes sense after a larger chunk of the lose metal finally lodged in our motor this past weekend and caused it to seize. Sure hind sight is 20/20 but the dealer ships are reading codes on their scanner trying to listen to noise to identify affected engines (which ours past even after the oil test…). In REALITY the dealers/Hyundai should be sending oil samples for analysis to you to identify affected vehicles! What a mess 🙁

Thanks so much guys! This just inspired so much confidence about my car. 30 years and 173k miles is a lot, and it’s so good to know the engine is in such good shape. I’m 18 and this is my first project car, I’m excited for many more miles to come!