Engine Oil, whether it be Mobil ATF LT 71141, Total Motor Oil, or a less well-known product, is expensive and vital to your engine health, which is why it is imperative that you take the best care of it possible. One thing that you absolutely need to do if you want your engine to run smoothly is minimize the amount of unwanted contaminants in your lube oil. Here are some tips for doing just that:
Use an independent testing lab
So many people change their engine oil when their oil supplier tell them that it is necessary to do so. Allowing oil suppliers to test your oil is not the best idea because they have a vested interest in selling you new oil.
Instead, you should schedule regular oil analysis check with an independent lab, which is not only more likely to be straight with you, but will also be able to help you monitor your oil health, so that you can keep on top of it and stretch out its workable lifespan.
Test oil before you use it
When the time does come to replace your engine oil, you should always test it first. Most people wrongly assume that newly purchased oil will be free from contaminants, but that is not necessarily the case, and you could be making a costly mistake by using it without performing a simple filter test.
Purifying engine oil
If you do happen to find that your engine oil is contaminated, your best course of action would usually be to use bypass filtration in conjunction with purifiers, as neither method can remove all contaminants alone, but when they are combined, they do a pretty decent job.
Ideally, you should try to use a centrifugal purifier for removing larger contaminant particles and any water that may have found its way into the system, and a purifier to get rid of the smaller particles that are often difficult to pick up.
Maintain ideal conditions
Of course, perhaps the most important thing you can do to keep engine oils pure is to not allow them to become contaminated in the first place. This is easier said than done, and no engine oil is going to say contaminant free forever. However, if you carry out regular cleaning and maintenance of your engine and its surroundings, and you put best practices for transferring oil into place, you will find you experience far fewer contamination issues than you otherwise might.
