Oil sampling is only as good as the guy taking it. If you do not do the sample at operating temp. it is useless all the sediment, contaminents fall to the bottom. A single sample without facts is pretty useless.
I always sampled used or rental equipment to avoid serious surprises. There have been many machines I parked immediately or never used because of poor sample results. Saved me many bucks.The samples have saved my butt many times as the owner or seller of this equipment could not argue with the evidence shown in the analysis. I always sampled machines coming on my job from other company projects. That saved a lot of finger pointing too.hydraulic engine transmissionLead 0 PPM 1 PPM 33 PPM (HIGH)Silver 0 PPM 0 PPM 0.1 PPMWater 0 0 0Aluminum 3 PPM 0 PPM 2 PPMChromium 2.6 PPM 4.2 PPM (TAD HIGH) 0 PPMNickel 0 PPM 0.3 PPM 0 PPMCopper 5 PPM 2 PPM 115 PPM (HIGH)Iron 15 PPM 14 PPM 7 PPMSilicon 8 PPM 7 PPM 2 PPMGlycol 0 0 0Tin 0 PPM 1 PPM 0 PPMI marked what I think is a bit high, but other than the engine model, you do not state what this critter is. That could have an effect on interpetation of the results you listed.A single sample is good to start a trend, or to have a better idea of what a machines insides are like, for example say you were thinking of buying it. I always sampled new machines right off the lobed too. Just because they are new doesn't mean a thing. They could have the wrong fluid, wrong viscosity, or be severely contaminated by dirt or other debris as a result of production at the factory. Has some vandal peed into the engine filler tube? Who knows unless you sample.Good Luck!
it is in a rough terrain forklift (Lull) telehandler thanks!When I do mine I run the machine to temp then change the oil and mid point of drain I capture some in the container Blackstone supplies and send it off. No clue how ironplanet does it.
Iron Planet used to use a vacuum pump and plastic hose. That is the preferred method of all the labs I have dealt with. Most don't like the drain method.On used equipment it depends on whether or not the oils have been changed before I consider doing it. I look at a lot of equipment and can pretty much tell when I need the extra ammo for a negotiation. If you only look at equipment purchases once in while the $15 to $30 cost of each sample is cheap insurance.I usually only do engine, transmission and maybe the hydraulic system. Axles and finals are almost always high in wear metals. Usually you will know more from the magnet on the level plug than the sample will tell you.The other thing to consider is how long it will take to get the results back. In a hot market machines will many times move faster than the oil lab. In todays climate I don't see anyone in a hurry to buy more iron.
It goes up for bid so you get what you can amd they give you. Guess it's a gamble. You cannot look at it either. Thanks for the help all!
oil sampling is used mostly for trending on a piece of equipment you own. you cannot draw reasonable conclusions from a random oil sample from a random engine taken at a random point in the oil's lifecycle when it has been run in some random environment. i would rather check oil pressure run my finger inside the intake pipe after the air filter and look under the oil cap check magnetic drain plugs or better yet, cut open the oil filter to judge the condition of an engine trans or whatever than wait for an oil sample to come back and try to figure out what the normal baseline is when i have no baseline to go by. obviously an NTA855 from a cement truck is going to have more silica copper and everything else present in it than a 4B3TA on a stationary generator. you buy the equipment do a thorough evaluation on it and send in samples from the first oil change or two to establish a baseline, then watch each additional oil change for pronounced changes in those figures to establish that there is a problem. D
That is what I figured I'll look at the no water or glycol (and hope) and bid cheap to leave plenty of room for fix'in. Guess I'll bid this time and it will go to the moon! My luck.
ide sample a machine befor buying ive seen super high iron copper crome and so on wouldnt matter how many hrs the oil had on it it was to high. trending is the best. and known oil life. cause tran oil with 1000 hrs and 250ppm iron and tran oil with 2000 hrs and 500ppm are the same as far as contamination