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The improvement of engine efficiency, without adversely affecting oil consumption, blowby-gas, wear, or costs are desirable objectives for today's engine manufacturers as they strive to improve engine performance while trying to meet increasingly stringent emissions regulations. In this context the development of piston ring designs as well as optimized surface texturing and lubricating oil formulation is of main interest. The combination of simulation programs and the application of dynamic online oil emission measurement techniques lead to a target oriented development and a deeper understanding of the mechanisms causing oil consumption. The paper presents the results of the experimental and theoretical investigations of oil consumption mechanisms. A mass spectrometric method developed by the author et al., was used to measure the online oil emission in the exhaust gas by means of direct analysis of the lubricating oil molecules.

The limitation of fuel entry into the oil sump of an internal combustion engine during operation is important to preserve the tribological properties of the lubricant and limit component wear. For observation and quantification of the effects leading to fuel entry, a highly sensitive and versatile measurement system is essential. While oil sampling from the sump followed by laboratory analysis is a common procedure, there is no system for automatic sampling of all the positions and fast online analysis of the samples. For the research project ‘Fuel in Oil’, a measurement system was developed especially for the described tasks. The system is placed next to the engine in the test cell. Sampling points are the target point of the fuel injector jet and the liner below, the oil sump and the crankcase ventilation system.