It’s that time of year again. Spring is around the corner and it is time to take care of maintenance on your Porsche and that includes changing your oil with Driven DT40, DT50, or DI40 depending on which model you own and also having your engine oil tested with SPEEDiagnostix.

We know many of our customers are firm believers in used oil analysis. Those who have their oil tested regularly receive valuable trend data for the health of their engine that can be used to make intelligent decisions on what oil they use and how often they should change it. More importantly, used oil analysis is the only tool in your toolbox that can identify potential engine problems even before you have symptoms, preventing costly catastrophic engine failures.

For those of you unfamiliar with SPEEDiagnostix, the Speed family with their vast experience in the racing industry started their own service to fill the need for expedited expert used oil analysis. SPEEDiagnostix is a family business run by Lake Speed Jr.’s daughter, Caroline Speed.

The Speed name may ring a bell for some– Lake Speed Jr. has been involved in the racing industry for decades. His dad, Lake Speed, is a well known Nascar driver and the only American to win the World Karting Championship until 2015. Most recently, Lake Speed Jr. joined the team at Total Seal Piston Rings. Lake was previously with Driven Racing Oils where he developed all the oils we rely on for protecting our Porsche engines.

Having your oil tested by SPEEDiagnostix through LN Engineering provides you access to experts who know Porsche engines – something other labs just don’t have. Where other labs might think the following used oil sample was normal for a Porsche engine, with our extensive experience, we know that is not the case:

Owners of Porsche Boxster, Cayman, or 911 models with the M96 or M97 engine know bore scoring is a real problem. As we have covered in previous Tech Tuesday emails, there are many ways to help extend the life of these engines. That starts with giving your engine a clean bill of health with bore scoping the cylinders and doing used oil analysis. The above results show this engine has scored bores, identified with increased aluminum and aluminum levels and significantly increased total wear rates.

Aircooled Porsche engines aren’t immune to problems either. Engines that are tracked heavily should have their oil tested regularly as well:

This aircooled Porsche 911 engine, although still running, clearly has a main or connecting rod bearing issue. Elevated copper and lead levels are clear indicators of bearing wear. Continued operation will lead to catastrophic failure and costly repairs.