Benefits of Modern Diesel Engine Diagnostic Tools in Fleet Maintenance and Engine Testing of Fuels and Lubricants

Modern electronic diagnostic equipment, which displays fuel injection pressure curves, combustion pressure patterns and compression quality, has been used to improve the reliability and repeatability of laboratory engine tests used for lubricant development and evaluation. Major savings in man hours per test engine and greater engine availability have been obtained, along with great improvement in test repeatability.

The same equipment used in fleet maintenance has provided significant savings by detecting incipient breakdowns in time to make repairs and avoid engine replacement and on-the-road failures. The fleets tested showed 10-25% of the vehicles had specific malfunctions which could produce costly failures if not immediately repaired.