Water Ingression Test: Get Your Engine Oil Testing at No Cost
You are reading about test 2 of six do it yourself tests that you can run on your oil without any special training or equipment.
The crackle test is useful for establishing whether water build-up from condensation is an issue. Typically, you will be most susceptible to water build-up in your engine oil if you are a short trip driver and/or if your vehicle's engine is started only on occasion.
Of course, you might wonder why you would need to check for water ingression, and the answer, to put it simply, is that, water build-up leads to acid build-up. Acid build-up leads to corrosion, and pitting is caused by corrosion. Pitting is BAD, and, even a premium, extended drain synthetic oil like AMSOIL can eventually be overcome with water/acid build-up. So, perform a crackle test to determine whether water is building up in your oil BEFORE acid build-up depletes the acid fighting additives in your oil and corrosion begins.
However, if performing the blotter spot test prior to the crackle test shows that there is fuel in your engine oil, performing the crackle test will likely give inconclusive results, since the fuel in your oil will "throw off" your results. This is the reason that the blotter spot test (business card test) is most often performed BEFORE the crackle test. If there's fuel in your oil, you may already need an oil change, and the results of the crackle test will not be clear anyway.
So, how do you do it? Simple. Find a hotplate. Set the temperature between 250 and 300 degrees F . Then, place a few drops of oil on the plate.
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 the amount of oil you use is small. Of course, if you have no water in your oil, there will be no crackle.
A professionally performed oil analysis will be more informative in that it will tell you if the level of water in the oil is a problem and what the level is, but the DIY test described here is a good, free way to find water in your oil. - 21392
The crackle test is useful for establishing whether water build-up from condensation is an issue. Typically, you will be most susceptible to water build-up in your engine oil if you are a short trip driver and/or if your vehicle's engine is started only on occasion.
Of course, you might wonder why you would need to check for water ingression, and the answer, to put it simply, is that, water build-up leads to acid build-up. Acid build-up leads to corrosion, and pitting is caused by corrosion. Pitting is BAD, and, even a premium, extended drain synthetic oil like AMSOIL can eventually be overcome with water/acid build-up. So, perform a crackle test to determine whether water is building up in your oil BEFORE acid build-up depletes the acid fighting additives in your oil and corrosion begins.
However, if performing the blotter spot test prior to the crackle test shows that there is fuel in your engine oil, performing the crackle test will likely give inconclusive results, since the fuel in your oil will "throw off" your results. This is the reason that the blotter spot test (business card test) is most often performed BEFORE the crackle test. If there's fuel in your oil, you may already need an oil change, and the results of the crackle test will not be clear anyway.
So, how do you do it? Simple. Find a hotplate. Set the temperature between 250 and 300 degrees F . Then, place a few drops of oil on the plate.
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 the amount of oil you use is small. Of course, if you have no water in your oil, there will be no crackle.
A professionally performed oil analysis will be more informative in that it will tell you if the level of water in the oil is a problem and what the level is, but the DIY test described here is a good, free way to find water in your oil. - 21392
About the Author:
Interested in knowing how the other 5 oil analysis tests can be performed? Simply click over to my BestSyntheticOil.com website and read through the rest of my "Oil Analysis on a Budget" article to determine your proper oil change intervals............
posted by X - Men @ 1:47 AM
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