History of oil analysis

Engine tech, for those engines, products, and technologies of yesteryear.

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Kevin Johnson
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History of oil analysis

Post by Kevin Johnson »

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hoodeng
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Re: History of oil analysis

Post by hoodeng »

An interesting article on Spectroscopy, thanks Kevin. One of my tasks as an apprentice was a stint in the metrology section of the tool room, one of our tasks was testing oil samples taken from rail cars and locomotives and some of the heavy plant.

Heating, agitating and rolling carbon wheels in the samples then recording all of the results was captivating work. The railways and engine manufacturers had such a log of information they could pretty much tell what components in the engine were making metal [silicon also showed up but that was typically contaminant] Cummins, Detroit and RR were all different but similar between their own engines. These also had defined service periods which was when hot samples would be taken.

Locomotive engines were different, these had service schedules called A,B,C,D etc. An A service would involve a number of checks and adjustments to the unit plus the taking of a hot sample, these were monitor tests, the oil change may not be till the B or C or whatever the manufacturer had stipulated. An F or G service was a full frame rebuild.

Back then I had a Triumph Bonneville and I asked one of the white coats if I could do an test on it's oil,,,he pretty much said before the test I might not be very impressed with the results as the engine we were testing had no base data ,,,,he was right,,,,What a rainbow, it was sheet.
That bike gave excellent reliable extended service, but i did tighten up on change periods.

Cheers.
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