Who do you use for oil analysis?

texasclouds

texasclouds

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Post the company you use and how often you do it, please. I haven’t been sending off oil samples on my O-300, but may start having it done. Or at least every 100 hrs. Thanks!
 
I have been using AvLab (AvLab.com) but am changing to ALS Tribology. The problem with AvLab has been their return shipping method is slow and unreliable. I choose to get oil analysis test kits with return packaging and postage included because, in the event of an accident leading to oil release, there is no question that I shipped the oil sample in substandard packaging. AvLab using a cheap Fedex return service that typically takes 3 days to get from NJ to TN or MS, and 2-3 weeks to get from TN/MS to AvLab in Louisiana. They have lost 2 samples in 10 years, and often lose all trace of the sample for weeks prior to its delivery.

I have used ALS once before. It took 4 days for the sample to reach Phoenix from NJ and I had the results the next day. The results were equivalent to the AvLab results from the same oil change.
 
Blackstone, every oil change (~30 hrs). Overkill, I don’t care.

US Postal Service delivers samples prepaid. Lost once, never found. Solution: don’t recycle your oil until you get the results, or grab 2 samples and save one.
 
Ditto on Blackstone at every 50 hour oil and filter change. I also log the data into a trending, normalizing spreadsheet.
 
Blackstone every oil change for the past 20 years, never had one lost in the mail. Very pleased with their service.
 
I provided two reports for you to see. The first is just after my overhaul, and the last is my most recent with 350 hours since overhaul.


1.jpg 2.jpg 3.jpg 4.jpg
 
Blackstone every oil change (35 hours). For what you get I can't believe how cheap it is.
Capture.PNG
 
After using AOA for a couple of changes, the shop used blackstone on our annual. Big difference. I think we are going to stick with blackstone moving forward because of the level of personal attention that blackstone provides.
 
Perhaps I am just dense this morning, but I don't understand the AOA plots. I understand the vertical axes of PPM. I would expect the horizontal axis to correspond to past and present samples, but only the second report shows a date and only one.
 
Last edited:
texasclouds said:
Post the company you use and how often you do it, please. I haven’t been sending off oil samples on my O-300, but may start having it done. Or at least every 100 hrs. Thanks!
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Blackstone at every change since I got the aircraft, plus both the car and the truck at each change.
 
Domenick said:
ps I am just dense this morning, but I don't understand the AOA plots. I understand the vertical axes of PPM. I would expect the horizontal axis to correspond to past and present samples, but only the second report shows a date and only one.
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Rebuild Hours. Roughly in the middle of the tabular data. It's not exactly obvious. I have a visceral negative reaction to unlabeled axes and to inconsistent labels on the same axis (date and hours). So I would not consider you dense :)
 
Hang 4 said:
Rebuild Hours. Roughly in the middle of the tabular data. It's not exactly obvious. I have a visceral negative reaction to unlabeled axes and to inconsistent labels on the same axis (date and hours). So I would not consider you dense :)
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Oops, you're right. I went by memory, which was wrong. I deleted my post.
 
Hang 4 said:
Rebuild Hours. Roughly in the middle of the tabular data. It's not exactly obvious. I have a visceral negative reaction to unlabeled axes and to inconsistent labels on the same axis (date and hours). So I would not consider you dense :)
Click to expand...
Thanks. :)
Hours since rebuild does not give you a trend since the clock is reset at each oil change.

For example, since the Fe value for a 25 hour oil change interval will be different than a 65 hour interval. The only way to track a trend is to normalize the values from each oil change to a consistent number of hours. I personally normalize to 50 hours.
 
+1 for Blackstone. The write-up from the lab is very competent and they dumb it down for us IAs that haven't done lab stuff since high school biology.

At roughly $30 every oil change, it's a really cheap investment to monitor the health of your air pump
 
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