Managing high oil soot levels:

High oil soot is a concern for maintenance people, since it becomes quite abrasive. It also saturates the oil with contaminants, to the point where it can’t keep the engine clean. It’s also the main culprit limiting the ability to safely extend engine oil service periods.

Reducing high oil soot levels is certainly achievable, and easily so. It’s an excellent approach to reducing engine costs.

Excessive soot has been linked to turbocharger failures, EGR valve problems, diesel particulate filter clogging, blow-by, bore polish, shortened engine life, valve failures, overheating and other issues.

While a good handle on maintenance is essential and obvious, you will need to incorporate two important additional initiatives. The following steps will absolutely minimise soot levels, safely extend oil service intervals, as well as targeting extended engine service life.

1. Clean up accumulated sludge, carbon & soot, from crankcases, piston ring grooves, cylinder heads, valves, turbochargers and emission control devices. Those deposits can exhaust a lot of the oil’s detergency straight away . They also increase the production of combustion soot. It used to take a complete engine rebuild to achieve this, but it can now be done safely, and at very low cost, using Flushing oil Concentrate. Downtime savings are also a big winner.
2. Catalytically enhance the diesel combustion so that only minimal amounts of soot are produced. That’s achievable using the FTC/FPC range of industrial combustion catalysts. They bring combustion efficiency a step closer to the theoretical ideal,and it’s a zero-downtime step.

Some factors causing high oil soot levels are:

• Exhaust Gas Recirculation Valve fouling
• Fouled injectors
• Incorrect air/fuel ratios
• Turbocharger fault
• Clogged Air filters
• Fouled piston rings
• Incorrect timing
• Engine blow-by
• Intake manifold deposits
• Excessive combustion chamber carbon
• Excessive engine wear
• Accumulation of crankcase sludge
• Excessive idle or light duty work
  

For more information on how to rectify high oil soot levels or any other problems your site may be experiencing contact the team at Cost Effective Maintenance.

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