Analyze Your Way Out of Trouble

Light & Medium Truck, Nov 2005 by Gilroy, Roger

Regular oil testing could be essential to maintaining the new engine systems coming onto the market in 2007.

Recently, one of Paschall Truck Lines' big rigs was cruising along on schedule, all systems humming. Yet beneath the hood, trouble lurked unseen. The crankcase had sky-high levels of potassium in its oil - a chemical imbalance with the potential to cripple a heavy-duty diesel.

What happened next saved the engine.

Paschall, a carrier based in Murray, Ky., learned of the problem when the laboratory that routinely analyzed the fleet's used motor oil phoned in an emergency alert.

The analysis showed the parts-per-million level for potassium was maxed out, an indication that coolant had entered the lubricant. Coolant causes engine oil to thicken into sludge.

"We immediately tracked the truck down and stopped it, and were able to take care of it right then, right there. Otherwise we could have had to buy an engine," said Mike Mills, Paschall's maintenance manager.

A regular oil analysis program paid off for the 50-year-old carrier, as it has for other careful trucking operations. What's more, the experts say, such analysis will become essential for properly maintaining the new engine systems coming onto the market starting in 2007.

Mills said Paschall had been sending engine-oil samples to a laboratory for analysis for more than 10 years. "It is just a little bit of extra knowledge for us to find and fix problems early, before they cause disastrous results."

Apparently, the truck's driver had mistakenly added coolant instead of engine oil to the crankcase, after grabbing the wrong hose reel at one of the fleet's terminals. After flushing out the old oil, the company sent the replacement oil off for sampling "to make sure that was the only problem."

Coolant in the oil can lead to engine failure quicker than just about anything, according to Steve Waggoner, a technical manager at D-A Lubricant, which performs used-oil analysis and sells its own brand of fluid lubricants and greases.

Coolant "is a water-based substance that does not mix with the oil. When it gets into the crankcase it forms sludge, reduces the lubricating ability of the oil and plugs oil passages, which leads to starved bearings," Waggoner explained.

Mills described oil analysis as the ability to see what is going on in an engine without being inside the engine. For many trucking operations, it is the basic step in determining the unique oil-service life for each class and make of engine that a fleet operates. Results of the analysis are key to setting the interval for draining the engine crankcase on each tractor and refilling it with new oil.

Oil analysis typically involves searching for the presence of wear metals, dirt, coolant additives, lubricant additive metals and viscosity, as well as the acid-neutralizing capability of the oil, experts said.

Companies that provide laboratory services reported costs ranging from $9 to $15 per sample, depending on the thoroughness of the analysis.

Yet for all the value inherent in oil analysis, many fleets and most owner-operators do not subscribe to the practice.

Mike Dargento, business manager for national account on-highway sales at ChevronTexaco Global Lubricants, which offers used-oil analysis, estimated that about 50% of the large fleets and a significantly lesser percentage of smaller fleets and owner-operators are involved in an ongoing program in which a sample is drawn at every oil drain.

"There are fleets that don't use oil analysis at all," Dargento said. "They listen to what the engine manufacturers recommend. They drain oil at that time and expect the manufacturer of that equipment to step up and provide warranty protection if anything happens."

The number of truck operators ordering an oil analysis could rise after 2007. The industry faces uncharted territory in a combination of a new breed of motor oils, ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel and exhaust aftertreatment technology, designed to meet the Environmental Protection Agency's more stringent emission standards taking effect that year.

Mills said the '07 engines would "absolutely" cause more fleets to try used-oil analysis "because the way that they are making the engines, even now, is driving some [oil drain] intervals lower."

Dan Arcy, technical marketing manager for Shell Lubricants, which offers used-oil analysis, said, "I'll guarantee you that there will be a lot more inquiries coming in with these new engines, to get an understanding of what is going on inside of them."

When technology changes, fleets already involved in used-oil analysis usually increase the frequency of analysis "to either validate their existing practices or uncover the need for modifications to accommodate the changes in new hardware," Dargento said.

D-A's Waggoner said fleets that had never supported used-oil analysis are going to want to know why they should do this, what they would get for their money, and why it is important to them.

Waggoner tells potential customers that laboratory analysis of wear metals and contaminants can help them get the most life from their equipment.