CaptnWil's Short Shots 001

^From time to time, information comes to CaptnWil.  Some of the time that
information is in connection with current or past "works in progress."
Sometimes the information is enough for a full-featured article, but often
the information is only worth a paragraph or two.  You, of course, could
decide that none of the information is worth any post at all, and if you do,
if you let me know, it will cease.  But otherwise, this series will be about
some of those minor bits of information.

OIL SAMPLES FOR LAB ANALYSIS
The general advice one gets on taking oil samples from the literature
included with a sample kit is to take the sample when the oil is drained.
But why would you ever want to do that.  If the result you get from the lab
says that you don't need to change oil, how do you get back what you have
just drained?  CaptnWil doesn't think you do.

The very best way to take an oil sample is to do some plumbing on your
engine so that you can just open a valve and take a sample while the engine
is still running.  That way you get a sample that is actually being pumped
through the engine, and that is just what you are concerned about.

However, if you don't do the plumbing, you still need a way to take an oil
sample without draining the oil from your engine, and that sample needs to
be as near to what is pumped through the engine as possible.  If it is safe
to take the sample while the engine is still running, that is the time to do
it, but you should never endanger life or limb when taking oil samples.
Most of the time, that means taking the sample after the engine has been
stopped.  If that is the case, the sample should be taken as soon as
possible after the engine is stopped so that heavy contaminates won't settle
below the sample point.

Normally the most vexing problem is how to take the sample.  You have a
sample bottle and an oil pan full of oil and no way to get them together.
Those who use a Portable Oil Analyzer (POA) have syringe-like apparatus with
which to take the sample, but it has so little capacity that it isn't
convenient for a full laboratory sample.

It is important that the sample is not contaminated with the residue from
previous samples.  An excellent solution to this problem is a clever device
sold by Caterpillar distributors - it may be available elsewhere also, but
it is so clever that it has a patent number.  A standard oil sample bottle
will screw into the device on one side and a 1/4-inch or 5/16-inch tube can
be pushed into the bottle from the other side.  Then a fitting with an
O-ring can be tightened around the tube for an air tight fit.  After
assembling the parts and inserting the other end of the tube into the
dipstick connection, the oil can be pumped directly into the sample bottle
by operating the device's pump handle.  If you are just a little careful: no
runs, no drips, no errors, and above all no contamination from a previous
sample.  The whole thing is only about 8-inches long and very compact.  Its
price is in the $23.00 range.

If you purchase your laboratory sample kit from Caterpillar, a section of
tubing that fits the device comes with the kit.  But if you use someone
else's oil sample kit, you can buy the tubing at your local hardware
store -- mine was $0.09 and $0.12 per foot.  If you use a new section of
tubing each time and follow the instructions, you will always get
uncontaminated samples.

The next problem is how to get the sample tubing to the correct location in
the drain pan.  The answer is so obviously simple that CaptnWil is ashamed
to admit that it took him many tries before he mastered the obvious.  The
position of the end of the dipstick in the oil pan is the correct location
from which to take the sample.  No matter how you draw the sample through
the dipstick-tube, insert the sampling tube into the dipstick-tube to a
depth equal to the length of the dipstick - you may want to mark the
sampling tube to aid you the first few times.  If you follow this procedure,
you'll get a perfect sample the first try.  Until CaptnWil used this
procedure, it took him many tries and he felt like Third Class Seaman Wil.

FACTORY FILLS OF SYNTHETIC OIL
While the flood of synthetic oil has not yet overwhelmed the four-cycle
engine world in general, or the trawler world in particular, it is coming.
We all need to be aware of what is going on in connection with that
impending flood.  That is the reason for CaptnWil's investigation into
synthetic oils and for this short shot.

Mobil reports that Chevrolet Corvette, Dodge Viper, all Porsches,
Mercedes-Benz AMG and all Aston-Martin cars come from the factory with Mobil
1 in the crankcase.  It's not clear what the connection between these
manufacturers and one synthetic oil brand means except that they consider it
an advantage of some sort.

WHAT FILTERS CAN DO
A recent experience with a fresh-water cooling system pointed out how we
sometimes confuse just what filters do.  The case in point is the
fresh-water cooling system on my 6BTA5.9 Cummins.

After seven years of neglect, a bypass filter was installed in the cooling
system.  The results were phenomenal.  A few hours of running time after the
installation, laboratory analysis disclosed the coolant to be in perfect
condition except that the ethylene glycol percentage was low and the
additive package was weak.  After changing the coolant -- reinstalling the
additive package, the antifreeze has stayed in perfect condition.  The
bypass filter element has been changed often since then.

This week, all the hoses and belts were changed for the upcoming summer
season.  It was shocking to see all those scale deposits and mild rust on
the wire coils in the old radiator hoses.  At the same time, the antifreeze
was perfect.  It was drained and reused.  There was not even one piece of
sediment in the container.

The obvious conclusion must be that the filter works on the fluid and the
fluid must work on the cooling parts to keep them clean from scale buildup
and rust.  The problem here was that the seven years of neglect had
exhausted the antifreeze additive package whose job is to protect the system
from all the bad things.

To make things right, a cooling cleaning package was circulated in the
engine for forty-minutes, followed by flushing with fresh water and
refilling with antifreeze.  While the cleaning was going on, the bypass
filter valve was closed.  When the system was put back in operating
condition, the bypass filter was returned to the system.

You might expect that all the crud removed from the surfaces by the cleaning
process drained from the system when the system was drained, but you would
be wrong.  After less than an hour of running time on the engine, the bypass
filter element was inspected.  It had more junk on it than I have ever seen
before.  Its color was also different than I have ever seen before.  I
changed it, and you can believe that I'll run it a while and inspect it
again.

The moral is that all that junk circulating in the system after the cleaning
was up to no good and demonstrates to me the great advantage on installing a
bypass filter in every fresh water cooling system as well as keeping up with
the antifreeze additive package.

The reality is that we should always remember just what the filter is doing.
In most straight filtering situations like a diesel fuel filter, the
filter's sole function is to remove junk and water from the diesel and leave
the fluid clean and pure.

In oil and coolant bypass filter situations, the filter's function is to
remove the junk and water just like the straight filtering case, but in
addition, the filtered fluid must be able to do its job.  The motor oil
additive package must do its job in accumulating the crud from the products
of combustion that get into the oil for the filter to remove, and the
cooling system must already be in a clean condition so the antifreeze
package can maintain the surfaces.

The success of our filter applications depends, in large measure, on how
well we understand and attend to these concepts.

CaptnWil, Ret
40 Pier Pointe
New Bern NC 28562
(252) 636-3601
captnwil@coastalnet.com

The oil analysis kits I use (available from my Detroit Diesel dealer)
include a long flexible sample tube and the sample bottle itself is made
like a little accordian. You squeeze the bottle down then insert the sample
tube down the dipstick tube and the sample bottle draws the engine oil
right out of the engine.  Cap the bottle, drop it in the special mailer,
and send it off. Each accordian bottle comes with a new sample tube. Costs
about $12.00.

Frank Timpano