It was $25.... They provide you a few containers for free...

 

Us airplane guys routinely have oil analysis done on our airplane engines. With an oil change costing $80 plus $13 to $17 for the analysis kit (Lab One or Metal Check brands), but a new Lycoming aircraft engine running $25-30K, that extra $17 for the oil analysis is cheap insurance

 

what exactly does the oil analysis kit tell you? sounds interesting.

 

See attached. I didn't include the header information of the PDF since it's my personal info.

 

So I get the car back from the Indy... it took a while to source the correct bolt. The car is put back together and guess what? It lives!!! Not only that, that little rumbling I heard when revving the engine is gone also. Maybe it was the screw that was causing it rattling around in the oil pan!

Now, the only other potential issue I have is that they better have fixed the oil pan leak which was what the car was originally in for. Upon my initial inspection today, it seemed like I saw some leak when viewing it from the top of the engine (it doesn't really drip onto the floor since there's that undercarriage cover). I'll be taking it for a long drive on Monday. So well see what happens.

 

Tells you how much of various metals are in the oil, such as iron, aluminum, chromium, copper, lead, etc.... as well as also silicon from dust being injested into the engine's air intake, which also ends up in the oil. Folks who operate engines in west Texas where there are frequent dust storms often see a lot of silicon in their oil analysis.

In an airplane engine, an oil analysis can often show when your cam lobes and lifters, or crankshaft bearings, or oil pump gears are wearing excessively, and you can predict how many more hours you can fly the engine before you need to tear it down for an overhaul even if the compressions and oil consumption are still good. This is vital information that can let you get some more useful service life out of an engine before it makes you have a forced landing in some farmer's cow pasture, which is something you really want to avoid

 

Great info! I will have to get one of these, I have always wondered if there was something out there. I feel like its good to know every single piece of info possible on your engine.

You can tell by whats wearing, like cams or bearings, just based on the material that shows up in the analysis correct?