Looking over all the UOAs that people post here, I often wonder what constitutes acceptable or normal levels of iron, or insolubles, or water, or how low the TBN can get before the engine is damaged.
Has anyone done any studies that correlate numbers of wear metals, to actual engine wear, or damage? I see Blackstone in their UOAs will put high numbers in boldprint, but I wonder what exactly that is supposed to tell us. I will call them and see what they have to say about it (if they are willing to communicate this). I realize that in Blackstone’s reports, they do have a column of what the average is, or what they like to see as a maximum or minimum. But my question would still be, what is the basis for saying that 9 ppm of iron is ok, but 40 is too high? Do chances of engine wear, or part failure, increase by 50% when iron gets that high? Has anyone identified UOAs of cars that had engine failure, and noted certain levels of iron, silicon, etc.?
Has anyone done any studies that correlate numbers of wear metals, to actual engine wear, or damage? I see Blackstone in their UOAs will put high numbers in boldprint, but I wonder what exactly that is supposed to tell us. I will call them and see what they have to say about it (if they are willing to communicate this). I realize that in Blackstone’s reports, they do have a column of what the average is, or what they like to see as a maximum or minimum. But my question would still be, what is the basis for saying that 9 ppm of iron is ok, but 40 is too high? Do chances of engine wear, or part failure, increase by 50% when iron gets that high? Has anyone identified UOAs of cars that had engine failure, and noted certain levels of iron, silicon, etc.?