Why get an oil analysis?

Oil travels through all moving parts of an engine while it is operating picking up trace elements of all moving parts plus contaminants such as water, anti-freeze, particles, etc.. Knowing what and how many elements or particles are mixed with the oil can give us clues of wear and impending catastrophic failure.

This is somewhat analogous to going to your doctor for a physical. He draws a blood sample because blood is pumped through every organ in your body picking up chemicals, enzymes, etc.. The results of a blood test screening can tell the doctor the condition of many organs in your body.

A Marine Survey is a physical examination of a boat and the goal is to discover as much as possible in a relatively short time about the condition of the boat and machinery. Every available tool should be employed and oil analysis is cerainly one of those tools.

But then the question remains: how far do you want to go in trying to uncover all the problems. You, as the client, is the one paying for these services and it's up to you to make the judgment call of how much you want to spend in facilitating the discovery of as many problems as possible before you buy. While an oil analysis will still not guarantee anything, it's your call whether you want to invest in testing. But at $60 per sample you might agree it's a worthwhile investment to try to uncover as many problems with machinery as possible.

Marinetech can have results of engine and transmission fluid analysis included with your Survey Report 48 hours after the inspection!