Field Evaluation of Built-In Test Equipment (BITE) for Vehicle Oil and Air Contamination

摘要

A two-phase, three-year project has been completed to select and evaluate candidate commercially available Built-In Test Equipment (BITE) for monitoring diesel engine crankcase lubricant quality (Oil-BITE) and engine induction system are quality (Air-BITE) for use with Army Tactical and Combat vehicles. The screening criteria employed in the selection phase for both Oil-BITE and Air-BITE were found to be adequate for identifying primary candidate equipment items for field test. Operational evaluation of Oil-BITE and Air-BITE equipment in a small, but representative sampling of tactical and combat vehicles at two major Army installations demonstrated that the specific Oil-BITE equipment evaluated does not have potential for significant vehicle maintenance savings and the Air-BITE equipment shows potential for sensing the presence of potentially harmful concentrations of sand and dust in vehicle engine air induction systems. (Author)