Blotter Spot Test Helps Improve

Engine Reliability
The blotter spot test dates back to the early 1950s. It is one of the oldest techniques used to
identify excessive engine soot, evaluate a lubricants dispersancy and detect the presence of
glycol, diesel fuel and other conta!inants in diesel engine crankcase lubricants. "everal
different field !ethods and even sophisticated instru!ents are used to take advantage of this
si!ple technique. #or large fleet operators, this si!ple, yet po$erful technique can provide
valuable infor!ation $hen used as a screening tool. In fact, this !ethod is so po$erful that
%rupo #lecha &!arilla of 'eon, (exico, one of the largest transportation co!panies in
(exico, found a significant reduction in catastrophic engine failures in its passenger bus fleet
by integrating offsite laboratory)based oil analysis $ith onsite blotter spot testing.
#lecha &!arilla operates !ore than *,500 buses, each logging approxi!ately 500 !iles daily
under stop)start conditions. "tandard operating procedure required changing the oil every
*5,000 !iles, $hich led to about 1,500 oil changes per !onth.
The procedure also required an oil sa!ple to be taken at every oil change and sent to a
laboratory for co!plete oil analysis.
+il analysis $as perfor!ed in an independent laboratory located in ,ouston and the results
$ere delivered electronically to each service shop for trending and interpretation. The
turnaround ti!e fro! the ti!e the oil sa!ple $as collected to the ti!e analysis results $ere
received averaged 1- days. This $as !ainly due to the logistics associated $ith consolidating
the oil sa!ples fro! different service shops and sending the! to the lab.
The oil analysis progra! delivered so!e benefits to the co!pany, alerting it to diesel fuel
leaks and glycol conta!ination. It also helped the co!pany detect co!bustion proble!s and
abnor!al $ear. ,o$ever, the !aintenance !anager $as not satisfied because he had to $ait
up to *0 days to find out $hen an engine had a proble! ) all the ti!e $ith the engine in
operation. In so!e cases, the proble! !ight be present in an engine for !ore than .0,000
!iles before oil analysis identified the proble!. This delay so!eti!es led to !a/or engine
failures, even though an oil analysis progra! $as in place.
To aid the !aintenance depart!ent in identifying proble!s before they caused !a/or engine
failure, a plan $as presented to refine the procedure and use the blotter spot test onsite as a
screening tool. The test $as seen as a $ay to quickly detect proble!s in the diesel engines
and as a decision tool for those engines requiring i!!ediate !aintenance inspections and
corrective action.
Dual Analysis and the Learning Curve
The strategy e!ployed by #lecha &!arilla $as si!ple. & sa!ple $as taken at each oil
change interval and $as initially pre)screened using the blotter spot !ethod 0see The 1lotter
"pot (ethod, page *-2. &ny abnor!al result $as used to trigger either an exception field test
or inspection, or !ore in)depth analysis by the outside lab. "a!ples that sho$ed no initial
proble! fro! the blotter spot test $ere sent to the outside lab for routine analysis 0#igure 12.
Figure
&n i!portant part of i!ple!enting a successful progra! $as to co!pare the blotter spot test
results $ith data provided by the outside lab. 3henever an abnor!al oil analysis result $as
flagged by the lab, !aintenance staff analy4ed the blotter spot results to try to correlate the
appearance of the blotter $ith the lab data. 1y doing this over a period of !onths, their
!aintenance staff began to recogni4e ho$ different proble! conditions such as soot, glycol
and fuel dilution identified by the lab appeared on the blotter. 5ventually, !aintenance
personnel beca!e so co!fortable $ith analy4ing the test data that they could rely on the
results to !ake i!portant !aintenance decisions, $ell in advance of data being returned fro!
the lab.
The Blotter Codes
&bnor!al results $ere classified according to severity and a code $as created for each
category. This si!plified the interpretation and decision process. &lso, a reference standard
$as created to help i!ple!ent the progra! in different service shops 0#igure *2.
Figure !
& three)digit blotter code $as created to report results in a pseudo quantifiable fashion. The
first digit indicates soot load, the second fuel dilution and the third relates to glycol
conta!ination 0soot)fuel)glycol2. 5ach code has three possible categories, $hich are related
to the observed conditions and correlated to laboratory data 0Table 12.
3hen results are reported, the position relates to the conta!inant or condition, $hile the
nu!bers identify the proble!s severity. #or exa!ple, an oil sa!ple that indicates excessive
soot load, but is negative for fuel and glycol, $ill have a 6)1)1 result 06 soot, 1 fuel, 1 glycol2.
Cli"# Here to See Tables and !$
Chromatogram %atterns
In addition to the blotter codes, four different 4ones for each chro!atogra! $ere created
0Table *27
8 ) 8enter 9one ) &rea $here the original oil drop $as initially deposited
& ) &ureole 9one ) :ings for!ed outside of central 4one
; ) ;iffusion 9one ) &rea of diffusion of !ediu! to s!all si4e particles
T ) Translucent 9one ) 5nd of the chro!atogra! 0base oil and diesel fuel2
The !ost frequently detected proble!s are diesel fuel dilution and excessive soot load.
%lycol has been the !ost difficult to detect. ,o$ever, based on severe dispersancy failure
and sa!ples that are thought to contain glycol, a filter inspection is ordered to confir! the
glycol leak. %lycol conta!ination is confir!ed if the filter paper is $avy and saturated $ith gel
or sticky !aterials, again allo$ing corrective action to be taken in advance of catastrophic
failure.
3hile the blotter spot test is not a substitute for quality, laboratory)based oil analysis, #lecha
&!arilla has found that by integrating onsite blotter spot analysis $ith offsite oil analysis,
i!portant insight can be gained into co!!on engine oil proble! conditions, such as excess
soot loading and dispersancy failure, fuel dilution and glycol leaks. "ince the routine blotter
spot test progra! $as put into practice, no !a/or engine failures have occurred and proble!s
are no$ controlled in the early stages, helping increase engine life.