Water Ingression Test: Get Your Oil Analysis for Free
The article shown below will describe for you 1 of 6 incredibly simple engine oil tests that you can use to quickly evaluate the condition of your oil, without ever paying a single dime to an oil analysis lab.
If you would consider yourself to be one of those people who owns a vehicle which is driven infrequently, is commonly driven for short distances and/or is driven or stored in a humid climate or one that often has wide temperature swings, then performing the crackle test would likely be a good idea. This is a simple test which will clearly indicate if condensation has caused water build-up in your oil.
Why is water in your oil a problem? Because water in your oil causes acid build-up, which causes corrosion. Corrosion causes pitting, and pitting is BAD for your vehicle's engine. Even a high TBN extended change interval synthetic oil like AMSOIL can eventually be overcome by water/acid build-up.So, it is really quite important to know if you're getting water build-up in your oil BEFORE the acid fighting additives in your oil are depleted. THAT is why we do the crackle test.
It should be noted that fuel in your oil can cause the results of the crackle test to be inconclusive. Performing the blotter spot test (business card test) beforehand will indicate whether you have fuel dilution. If you do, then water ingression is irrelevant and the crackle test is likely unnecessary. You already have a problem that likely will have you wanting to change your oil.
To use the crackle test, you place a small quantity of oil onto a hotplate of some sort which is set to a temperature high enough to boil off any water in the oil. Since most engine oils are not volatile until they gets up over 350 degrees or more (synthetics much higher than that), setting the plate to something between 250 and 300 degrees F should work well.
At that temp, when you place the oil on the plate, you'll hear a crackle as the water boils off. You should hear it very quickly as long as the amount of oil you use is small. Of course, if there is no water in your motor oil, there will be no crackle.
Obviously, this hot plate test is not a very informative test, and it won't tell you how much water you've got in your oil, as a professionally performed oil analysis will, but, it can still provide you with some valuable, cheap information. - 21393
If you would consider yourself to be one of those people who owns a vehicle which is driven infrequently, is commonly driven for short distances and/or is driven or stored in a humid climate or one that often has wide temperature swings, then performing the crackle test would likely be a good idea. This is a simple test which will clearly indicate if condensation has caused water build-up in your oil.
Why is water in your oil a problem? Because water in your oil causes acid build-up, which causes corrosion. Corrosion causes pitting, and pitting is BAD for your vehicle's engine. Even a high TBN extended change interval synthetic oil like AMSOIL can eventually be overcome by water/acid build-up.So, it is really quite important to know if you're getting water build-up in your oil BEFORE the acid fighting additives in your oil are depleted. THAT is why we do the crackle test.
It should be noted that fuel in your oil can cause the results of the crackle test to be inconclusive. Performing the blotter spot test (business card test) beforehand will indicate whether you have fuel dilution. If you do, then water ingression is irrelevant and the crackle test is likely unnecessary. You already have a problem that likely will have you wanting to change your oil.
To use the crackle test, you place a small quantity of oil onto a hotplate of some sort which is set to a temperature high enough to boil off any water in the oil. Since most engine oils are not volatile until they gets up over 350 degrees or more (synthetics much higher than that), setting the plate to something between 250 and 300 degrees F should work well.
At that temp, when you place the oil on the plate, you'll hear a crackle as the water boils off. You should hear it very quickly as long as the amount of oil you use is small. Of course, if there is no water in your motor oil, there will be no crackle.
Obviously, this hot plate test is not a very informative test, and it won't tell you how much water you've got in your oil, as a professionally performed oil analysis will, but, it can still provide you with some valuable, cheap information. - 21393
About the Author:
Interested in knowing how the other 5 oil analysis tests can be performed? Simply click over to my BestSyntheticOil.com website to read the rest of the "Oil Analysis on a Budget" article to determine your proper oil change intervals............
posted by X - Men @ 4:43 AM
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