Small amounts of metal from wear of your piston engine are suspended in the oil. By analyzing oil samples taken from your engine you get perfect insights of how your engine is doing and if there are any upcoming issues that can be addressed before they become expensive engine repairs.
To get the full value of the oil analysis it is important that you do NOT introduce FOD (Foreign Object Debris) to the engine oil when you do top-up and oil change. Always use proper oil filler equipment. Open funnels, reused cardboard funnels and cut-open plastic bottles are sources of contamination. Often covered in dirt and debris they can be difficult or impracticable to clean before next use.
TheCanKey Funnelcap is designed to keep a FOD free environment for your oil. Also, it keeps you from spilling oil. Read more about: “Are you chasing engine oil leaks, or someone just spilled the oil.”
Photo: Funnelcaps and Cirrus Aircraft logo printed turbine oil can opener.
Did you for example know that not warming up your engine properly before takeoff can damage the piston pin plugs, creating aluminum debris in the oil and filter?
Knowing that you can change your engine warm-up routines and save lots of money.
Did you know that high chrome content in your oil can be the cause of excessive piston ring or cylinder bore wear. This can be due to overloading the rings due to incorrect magneto timing. Whereas chrome flakes are usually material coming from the camshaft and lifters.
High Fuel dilution combined with high water content shows that the engine is being operated for too long on the ground at low idle speeds. Again, an easy change of your routines, that will save lots of money.
Using an oil analysis companies that not only gives you the wear materials and values, but also offers diagnostic service is key to understanding your engines wear condition and take corrective actions.
One such company providing good diagnostic service is Blackstone Laboratories: https://www.blackstone-labs.com/engine-types/aircraft/
Watch “How to use FunnelCap” videos
There can be several reasons for why you may not be more concerned about how they fill and change oil.
- You may not fully understand the importance of proper oil servicing and the potential damage that can be caused by FOD in oil systems. Without understanding the risks, they may not prioritize it as a high concern.
- You may rely on service providers to handle the oil servicing and may not have the knowledge or resources to properly monitor and control the servicing process.
- You may not have a process in place to track and monitor the oil servicing. Without a process in place, they may not have visibility into the servicing process or the condition of the oil system.
- You may be focused on other pressing concerns, such as flight schedules and compliance with flight regulations, that they may not have the capacity to focus on oil servicing.
- You may have trust on their service providers and believe that they are following the industry standards and regulations, which is not always the case.
Become more knowledgeable, by educating yourselves on the importance of proper oil servicing and procedures for oil servicing. Choose experienced and reputable service providers, use only FOD preventing oil filler tools and get the oil analyzed.
You should ensure that your engine is serviced in a proper and effective way that prevents FOD. Using TheCanKey FOD free oil servicing tools will ultimately save costs and improve the overall safety and performance of your engine and aircraft.
