Why does my oil turn black so quickly?

[MMead]

I've done a search on this question and found various reasons why people say oil in the 3rd gens turns black so quickly - i. e. the engine isn't fully broken in, or bad injectors.



My engine (with 6400 miles) seems to run smoothly and I realisticly get 15-16 mpg overall which I think is reasonable for such a heavy 4X4 truck. So I just assume the black oil is normal.



So my questions are: 1. Should I be worried about a bad injector etc. , or is the black oil normal; 2. What causes the oil to turn black so quickly?



Thanks for the help.

 

[SRadke]

Is your truck stock or are you running a fueling box? The oil in my stock truck would go 3000 miles before it lost the carmel color. Now with the fuleing box and pushing it harder I only see 1500-2000 miles of clean oil. Just how black how soon are we talking here?



-Scott

 

[MMead]

Yes my truck is completely stock. I need to pay more attention to the exact milage the next time I put in fresh oil, but I think it's pretty black after only a 1,000 miles.

 

[vagabond]

I have a 04. 5 23,000mi completly stock and it gets black in a short time. Dealer says normal. Do they all have the same answer written on every finger?

 

[mconstable]

I had a post about this when I first got my truck... scared the crap out of how black it got and how quick, but I was told it's normal and from the soot getting suspended in the oil... anyway, I was told not to worry... hope this helps

Michael

 

[RonsRig]

I had the dealer make the first oil change @ 3800 miles and I checked it two weeks later and it was as black as I ever seen it.

 

[SRadke]

May also be an anomoly with the 600's... .



-Scott

 

[J&LRam]

I drive 110+ mi a day and mine doesn't turn color until 6-7000 mi... ..... JIM

 

[vagabond]

I think it is 1 600 issue. I don't have a answer because everytime I take it in for anything they say it is normal.

 

[DannyCornelius]

I always noticed that the oil was black as coal even shortly after an oil change. I started using a Fleetgard filter a couple oil changes ago and noticed a significant difference in color.

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

From what I have seen, yes it's mostly the 600s for some reason. My '03 the oil would still look pretty clear on the dipstick after running 8000 miles on a change.

 

[AGrubbs]

My '03 seems to be a clean runner. I changed the last batch of oil out at 10,500 miles, and it was just a little darker than when it went in.



I changed out factory oil at 2500 miles, then at 5500, and at 9500 I put in

Rotella T synth. 5w-40. After a little over 10K miles on it it looked like this. .



Oil after 10K miles.



The picture was taken in the shade, so its a little dark, but you can see the

writeing on the dip-stick thru the oil very easly. I use the fleetguard filters.



I figure that since they say 7500-15,000 for oil changes, and as good as the oil looked soot loading wise, I'll change out at every 10K miles, as its easyer for me to remember. .

 

[nickleinonen]

AGrubbs: nice paper towel you are using there [pink teddybear :-laf] i perfer the scotts blue shop towels myself...

 

[LightmanE300]

This IS a 600 issue, they are dirty. I'm not sure why they dirty the oil more than the HO's, however the 305/555 is extremely clean burning. It's typically after 10,000 miles to see 0. 2-0. 5% soot... incredibly low I've not seen too many 600 oil analyses, however everyone seems to report the oil turning black quickly. On my HO, after 7000 miles on the oil, it is still golden and easy to see through. I've never seen the oil on my truck darken to any sort of 'dark' color, let alone get black... Sorry 600 owners... it wasn't EGR as we all feared, but you guys certainly did pick up a few problems with that tiny extra bit of torque and hp. It's too bad.