Quote:
Originally Posted by Davisca455
Based on the circumstances of my own situation, using an oil analysis as a way to predict rod bearing health seems like it would have be done in a very narrow set of circumstances?
The only way that I can envision it ever being useful for that purpose, is that the oil reports would need to be started at the beginning of life, and then done at every oil change.
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Correct. And even then it's sketchy because we don't know whether or how any rod bearings other than 088/089 will show wear on oil analysis.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Davisca455
I only have 220 miles on my new BE Bearings rod bearings, so it seems like I'll have an opportunity to start fresh, if I choose to do so.
But, since this first oil sample would have assembly lube and anti-seize in it, I would need to know if the assembly lube or anti-seize contained any copper or lead, and if so, how much?
If I wait for the second oil change, then I'm not really starting from square one, and then I'm back to guessing if the rod journals clearanced themselves in the first few hundred miles?
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Change the oil sometime between now and 500 miles to get most of the assembly lube and anti-seize out. Start sampling at the next change
after that. That'll start you as close to square one as you need to be. There is basically no chance you'll lose any useful info by starting a few hundred miles after the RB job. A real baseline takes several reports over many thousands of miles to establish -- a long time in oil analysis terms, but very little time for any decent (and properly installed) rod bearings.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Davisca455
It just wasn't a very complicated procedure to get the oil pan off, so I will likely invade the crankcase again when the car reaches 130,000mi (another 65,000mi), even if every oil analysis were to show low levels of lead and copper.
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Probably the best policy in any case.