Oil Test results on fresh engine rebuild

[wayneh]

It's been about nine months since we rebuilt the engine in my 56 PW. I changed the oil last week and sent it off to be analyzed. So yesterday I was at the machine shop cleaning threads on a '48 Cadillac engine and I get a call from the lab. The man asks did we use a copper head gasket and what sealant did we use? It turns out my copper levels were higher than normal and the folks at Blackstone were debating if I used an OEM copper gasket. We did, and we also used copper coat on all the gaskets during assembly. Another thing that caught my interest is we put zinc additive in the oil. I guess it really had zinc in it since the zinc numbers were pretty high!

Wayne

[Cheyenne Dave]

So Wayne, were they concerned with the high levels of copper?

cd

[wayneh]

No, they were not concerned. I think if the other metal levels were high we'd all be more concerned. When we put the engine back together I used spray copper coat on every gasket. I also used a zinc additive, which I guess is why the zinc numbers are high.

Wayne

[Matthew Welcher PWA]

I am very curious as to compare the results after a few thousand miles.