Water Ingression Test: Must You Pay for Motor Oil Testing?
This is number two from a series of half a dozen very useful, and low cost, oil tests that you can perform without even a simple chemistry set.
The crackle test is valuable for determining whether water build-up from condensation is an issue. Typically, you will be most susceptible to water in your engine oil if you are a short trip driver and/or if your vehicle sits for long periods without being run.
Why a water test? Because water build-up leads to acid build-up. Acid causes corrosion which leads to pitting. You don't want pitting in your vehicle's engine. Even a high TBN extended drain synthetic oil like AMSOIL can eventually be overcome by water/acid build-up. So, as a general rule, you'd probably want to know if you were getting water in your oil BEFORE acid build-up depletes your oil's acid fighting ability. For this reason, I recommend performing the crackle test.
It should be noted that fuel in your oil can cause the results of the crackle test to be inconclusive. Performing the blotter spot test (business card test) beforehand will indicate whether you have fuel dilution. If you do, then you probably don't need to worry about water ingression and the crackle test is likely unnecessary. The fuel dilution alone may be reason enough to consider changing your oil, if it is severe enough and/or causing any other issues.
To use the crackle test, you place a very small quantity of oil onto a hotplate of some sort and set it to a temperature high enough to boil off any water in the oil. Since most engine oils are not volatile until they gets up over 350 degrees or more (synthetics much higher than that), setting the plate to something between 250 and 300 degrees F should work well.
At that temp, when you place the engine oil on the plate, you will hear a crackle as the water boils off. The crackling should occur very quickly as long as you don't use much oil. Of course, if there is no water in your engine oil, you will hear no crackle.
Of course, paying for a an oil analysis performed in a lab will tell you not only IF your oil has been contaminated with water, but also how much contamination has occurred. Nevertheless, even though the crackle test is not quite as informative, it's nice that you can utilize this DIY test to at least tell you if water is present. - 21396
The crackle test is valuable for determining whether water build-up from condensation is an issue. Typically, you will be most susceptible to water in your engine oil if you are a short trip driver and/or if your vehicle sits for long periods without being run.
Why a water test? Because water build-up leads to acid build-up. Acid causes corrosion which leads to pitting. You don't want pitting in your vehicle's engine. Even a high TBN extended drain synthetic oil like AMSOIL can eventually be overcome by water/acid build-up. So, as a general rule, you'd probably want to know if you were getting water in your oil BEFORE acid build-up depletes your oil's acid fighting ability. For this reason, I recommend performing the crackle test.
It should be noted that fuel in your oil can cause the results of the crackle test to be inconclusive. Performing the blotter spot test (business card test) beforehand will indicate whether you have fuel dilution. If you do, then you probably don't need to worry about water ingression and the crackle test is likely unnecessary. The fuel dilution alone may be reason enough to consider changing your oil, if it is severe enough and/or causing any other issues.
To use the crackle test, you place a very small quantity of oil onto a hotplate of some sort and set it to a temperature high enough to boil off any water in the oil. Since most engine oils are not volatile until they gets up over 350 degrees or more (synthetics much higher than that), setting the plate to something between 250 and 300 degrees F should work well.
At that temp, when you place the engine oil on the plate, you will hear a crackle as the water boils off. The crackling should occur very quickly as long as you don't use much oil. Of course, if there is no water in your engine oil, you will hear no crackle.
Of course, paying for a an oil analysis performed in a lab will tell you not only IF your oil has been contaminated with water, but also how much contamination has occurred. Nevertheless, even though the crackle test is not quite as informative, it's nice that you can utilize this DIY test to at least tell you if water is present. - 21396
About the Author:
Are you interested in learning more about cheapskate oil testing, how to compare motor oils, how synthetics CAN and sometimes CANNOT be good options, how to compare oil filters and much more? Check out my Motor Oil Bible Blog or head over and check out my Motor Oil Bible ebook.
posted by X - Men @ 3:22 AM
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