I just wanted to take the opportunity to thank you guys for what you do. You are very good with the podcast. I love it and have been binge listening since I found you. Have a great day and my hubby said he DID taste oil before… typical shadetree mechanic I guess. 😊

My mechanic filled a sample, but the outer shipping package disappeared. Your customer service agent on the phone was great, a real human!!! Had my info based on my phone number and what I needed on the way without me even giving my address. In a day of less and less, y’all give more. Thanks for that!

I want to say thanks so much for the diligent digging and helpful analysis from this series. This has likely saved me an epic, expensive failure at a race weekend! I have kicked off a rebuild for my spare engine and hopefully will have that resolved before this becomes a real issue. Many thanks, keep up the amazing work.

I just want you all to know how much I enjoy receiving your reports. They are personal and worded in a way that helps me understand what’s going on with my car. Thank you for that and you all should be very proud of the business you have created.

Blackstone Labs is our trusted partner in maintaining our customers’ engines in top condition, identifying trends before they become problems, and helping us deliver service for our customers’ aircraft to remain SAFE, AIRWORTHY, LEGAL, and RIGHT!

We first thought the high temp on the oil was due to a couple of small exhaust leaks at the cylinder flange blowing on the push rod tubes. The AI was in the process of replacing the gaskets when he asked if I had cut the filter open. He too was worried about the source of aluminum that you alerted us to. There was nothing in the filter material but the bottom of the filter looked like glitter.

He stopped the reinstall and we both decided to pull a cylinder to inspect. We did, and found that the wrist pin had abnormal wear,(to say the least first pix). Not what I wanted to see. Unanimous decision was to pull all 6. Not good, it appears that the overhaul was better on paper than reality. Four of the six wrist pins are the same.

I am fortunate in that the AI’s father owns an aircraft engine shop. He stopped by and within 10 minutes found that the connecting rod bushings were worn more than 371 hours could do. Long story short, we are going to pull the engine for a complete tear down and hopefully it can be overhauled right. Thank you and Blackstone for possibly saving our lives. The next time you get an oil sample it will either be a newly overhauled or a new engine. 

I absolutely love how simple you make this process for us non-professionals!

Thanks for the great summary and the care that is taken to compare results against run hours.  This report is invaluable to me.  I’m a 60- something female that never even changed the oil in her car.  Bought a boat so I could cruise to Canada and back and decided I needed to know how to do all the maintenance, winterizing, etc. by myself.  This report gives me peace of mind that I’m maintaining the engine properly.  I won’t talk about the quart of oil that ended up in my lap and bilge this year!

Thanks for the great service.  Very much appreciated!!