Testing Parameters

    It is of paramount importance that we know the mechanisms of wear that are occurring in the engine while it is running.  One of the long-term goals of this project is to determine how this engine degrades as it is run on straight vegetable oil (SVO).  After an initial beak-in of the engine on diesel fuel, we hope to measure the wear in the engine in hopes of pinpointing the time when abnormal wear starts to occur as in the figure here. 

    Using this measurement of wear, the total life of the engine can also be approximated.  To do this, the lubricating oil can be analyzed.  The description of this oil analysis follows. 

    Oil Analysis

                We will be using Herguth Laboratories to provide us with engine oil analysis. (Find out more about Herguth at www.herguth.com)  We will be purchasing the standard oil analysis package at a cost of $27.50 per test.  We will run the engine on varying amounts of SVO and diesel fuel in10-hour increments, take a sample of the oil, and send it to Herguth to be analyzed. (See the testing procedure section that follows.)  The package includes four basic tests.  They are as follows:

• Spectrochemical testing.  Identifies trace metals in oil sample using an atomic emission spectrometer.  Provides information concerning metals in the oil due to engine wear, the levels of metal oil additives, and the levels of other contaminants.
• Infrared spectrophotometry.  Provides information concerning fuel dilution, which will be especially pertinent to our project since, according to current research, biodiesel fuels tend to leak into the lubricating oil more frequently.  Also measures levels of soot, oxidation, sulfination, and nitration. 
• Viscosity testing.  Measures thickening/thinning of lubricating oil due to dilution or solid additives.  This gives insight into the oils resistance to flow. 
• Total Base Number (TBN) Testing.  Measures how much alkaline additives still remain in the oil.  Alkaline additives are neutralized when corrosive wear causes acids to build up in the oil.  TBN is a good indication of corrosive wear in the engine. 

Overall, we expect these tests to provide us with a good overall indication of engine wear.  It is possible that some tests will show high levels of oxidation (that is not actually occurring) when the engine is run on a large percentage of SVO.  If this occurs, more in-depth tests are available to determine true levels of oxidation.  The analysts at the laboratory will provide us with a detailed report for the specific fuel we are using and make recommendations based on the engine wear in the results.