The Sky Awaits

I trusted the lab reports. For three years, every oil analysis came back “normal wear levels”—no red flags, no trending metals, nothing to worry about. Yet when I finally looked inside with a borescope, I discovered both engines had spalling camshafts. The very components doing the worst damage had somehow eluded detection by every oil lab I sent a sample to. Oil analysis is a useful tool—but it’s not a guarantee. It can miss the beast hiding in the details. What a borescope reveals is often what your lab results won’t. If you’re relying solely on oil reports to monitor engine health, this post is for you. Before you trust “normal” to mean “safe,” read what went wrong for me—and what might be going wrong in your engine, too.