This is really a good thing to do. Been doing it for years. First
learned of it when working for Page Industries at Ft. Rucker Alabama. I
worked in an oil analysis lab there. Rucker was the Army's advanced
helicopter training facility getting the troops ready for deployment to
Vietnam. This was where the pilots - after initial helicopter training
in Texas - would come to for training in Huey's and the big tandem rotor
Chinook choppers. There were lots and lots of transmissions that needed
maintenance and part of the Army's regimen was to try and catch
transmission and engine failures before they happened. The oil analysis
was part of that. We had gotten up to about an 85% predictability rate
on engine and transmission failures - and that was way back in the
'60's. Saved a bunch of  GI butts. We analyze the oils with a spectral
analysis machine that we received from the mechanics. The mechanics
would drain the oil, taking samples direct and ship directly to the lab.
Then they would add a little mineral sprits to the remainder, and wash
it  through very fine paint filters, leaving impurities trapped on the
surface of the paint filter. With a magnifying glass, you could see
clearly the metal slivers that were shaved off of wearing parts. A
magnet was also used to pick out the ferrous vs the non ferrous metals.
You could get a really good idea what was going on in the engine with
this system. Later, when I went to aircraft mechanic school. these
procedures were emphasized again and again. Later on I applied the
principle to my automobile engines. and parts.

There will always be some metal in the oil. What has to be done is to
keep a record over time as to how much metal. When there is a sudden
jump in the amount of metal, you know there is a problem at hand. Oil
lab analysis is the betst way, however, it can be done just by visually
examining the particles washed from he filter. With modern digital
camers, it's a snap to take a picture of the stuff for the record. Over
time you have a visual comparison from oil change to the next, and can
see the changes taking place as the engine wears.

Regards.

John Rodgers
88 GL Driver

Don Hanson wrote:
> Another thing I learned at the racetrack about engines and oil.  Cutting
> open your filter each change can give you early warning of problems inside
> the motor.  Race supply catalog and Cyber stores sell a tool to cut open
> your canister oil filters with ease.
>   Then you spread out some of the paper core and look closely at it to check
> for metal filings and specs of worn interior parts.  I do it while the last
> of my oil is dripping out, use a magnifying glass.  I once found some bronze
> specs in my 928 filter core and knew I had a bottom bearing problem...We
> saved that motor by replacing the #2/6 bearing the night before I went to
> Laguna Seca, where for sure it would have blown..The bearing was spun,
> sending bronze (or whatever alloy that is) into the oil system to be trapped
> in the filter paper..
>   Cheap way to see if anything is grinding any other thing off, inside your
> engine...
>
>   Don Hanson
>
>
>