I just wanted to say a big big, thank you and express my gratitude to you and your team. We had all those emails about the Nickel content in the engine getting high and backwards and forwards with the engine overhaul is about the nickel, plated cylinders etc etc… And you guys were spot on the money and watching the trench, and sure enough, I had to bad exhaust valves and needed to replace two cylinders!!!!

I will be far more regular with my oil samples and put a lot of faith in you guys… So a huge shout out to everybody at Blackstone laboratories.

Merry Christmas, happy holidays to all of you and your families. The safety of myself and my family is in your gratitude.

Great catch, you are exactly correct… the weather had been rainy and cold, and the first halfway decent day (no rain, but cold temp), I took the car to get the oil changed at the dealer (15 minutes away) … to get the water temp to 185, and oil up into the mid triple digits, I had to let it idle longer than normal so warmed up, about 15 to 20 minutes.

On top of that, the road was cold (and Michelin Pilot Sport tires are a summer tire not at all a cold weather tire, not sticky when cold), so the car didn’t get hard driving to help it warm up and burn any fuel out of the oil.

Again, great catch, and thank you for everything.

I appreciate your oil analysis, but your write up is even better.  I shared it with my wife and she loved it.  This is our 3rd trawler, hence the name Trilogy.  Your awareness and creativity is fabulous and spot on! A huge kudos to whoever does the writeup.  It made our evening! Who knew a mundane oil analysis could put a smile on 2 faces!

I was convinced my engine had spun a bearing because of the repetitive sound of something spinning, then it froze up.  But since your report showed very little metal in the oil, I decided to keep looking.  Turns out, the starter gear got stuck and was still engaged with the flywheel gear while the engine was running.  Replaced the starter, and no more problems!

Your report saved me a lot of time and money!  Thank you so much!

That was impressive!

Attached is a video of the alternate air door. It was found during maintenance, but for it to show up on an oil sample was not what I expected.

Great work!

IMG_8077

Hey!

Just wanted to share my findings. When I received this email I decided to pull the motor and tear it down. What I found was that in one of the cylinders the piston skirt was wearing pretty bad against the cylinder wall. That would explain why the high aluminum (piston skirt), high iron (sleeve wall) and chromium (ring material) was in the oil. The funny thing is that my car was running excellent. It couldn’t have been running better. (So I thought)

Just wanted to thank you for what you guys do because I was able to save my motor from catastrophic failure. The motor is now undergoing a full rebuild. With some upgraded parts.

Thanks again!

What a sigh of relief! This made my day! Thank you guys very much, I seriously appreciate the comfort in knowing my engine is wearing properly after all the care my Grandfather and I have put into it.

P.S. Slick talk is sweet! Checked it out and it’s right up my alley!

Just wanted to send you a follow up on this last oil report. As you showed the iron had taken a sudden jump from where it was tracking. We brought the truck in and went through the top end. After opening it up we found the very beginnings of the cam and lifter failing. I was grateful to get this taken care of before things started to really wear and potentially send damaging amounts of metal through the engine causing me to have to do a full overhaul. A $35 adder to each oil change for sampling just saved me a few thousand.

I have some follow up information on this engine…

Blew up around 300 miles after this oil change, after taking apart the engine, it appears the forged pistons were rubbing against the cylinder walls, causing etching, which made compression very weak. Rod bearings were also hot spotted and were not going to last much longer. My engine builder/tuner believes that this engine did not get properly bored/honed to accept the forged pistons, and the clearance was too tight. Might have also not been properly broken in. The WRX just got a new engine put in, and hoping this one lasts much longer!

Please find attached evidence of cam follower failures in our IO540 at at 350 hours following a complete rebuild. The damage was caused by failure of the diamond coating on some cam followers. If we had been regularly sampling these defects could have been detected earlier and possibly the consequently piston damage could have been avoided.  There was apparently a bad batch of cam followers distributed at the time our engine was first remanufactured.

After receiving oil analysis from you  and before removing engine from  aircraft we borescoped the camshaft and follower access via removing the oil filler tube top of engine.  In the first image the cam lobe is ok but in others you can see the obvious preening and wear. Also note the photo of metal filings from washed oil filter element!

The moral of our story is don’t hesitate to sample, and don’t wait for engine hours to build up. We missed a warranty claim because because the problem was detected 3 years after remanufacture.