Black oil after 2000kms

[greenacc]

Yes, go back an read, I mentioned the breather issue and the fact people try and do 15k on semi synthetic.

Also just for those of you that don't know, I used to work at a place that used Valvoline and unknown to some is actually probably Australia's most quality oil, they'll take you for a tour of their plant at Eastern Creek.
Well as a mechanic you have a technical line to your oil supplier, be it Penrite, Castro, Valvoline ect.
I've been using all those plus Fuchs.
Well one day the Valvoline technical guy was telling me the 10w-40 semi is only good for 7500km in any engine, this was for a Jeep V6 petrol.
So I asked about the GM V6, Valvoline actually changed their recommendations to full synthetic only because so many numpties don't understand this.

Years ago Valvoline recommended semi syn durablend for Alloytecs. I wanted to use Synpower so I asked the tech line. They first recommended dura blend then I asked why not Synpower? And the answer was basically oh, well Synpower is a great oil, that would work really well too LoL. They were stuck because they have to recommend products in line with the manufacturers spec'd oil.

 

[shane_3800]

Years ago Valvoline recommended semi syn durablend for Alloytecs. I wanted to use Synpower so I asked the tech line. They first recommended dura blend then I asked why not Synpower? And the answer was basically oh, well Synpower is a great oil, that would work really well too LoL. They were stuck because they have to recommend products in line with the manufacturers spec'd oil.

Yea but they changed that about 6 years ago and started recommending only Synpower DX6.
I think it might’ve been back in the day when they all used a shared oil tech centre.
Now they all have their own tech lines.

 

[bradp51]

I bought a higher km VF calais, and the service intervals were a bit longer.

I changed the oil and filter immediately when i bought it, and just changed again after 2000kms as i figured it needs more regular changes.

I intended to change at 5,000kms after this, but wondered as the oil as so black if i should do 2,000 km changes a few times, or do the intended 5,000?

I have not done it on my LS3 VF, (it only has about 18,000km) have had sumps off on two Toyota Camrys that I have owned. I had two Camrys both V6. One I sold at 470,000km the second went to 503,000 km. I got both cars at around 70,000km. Both one owner and both had 10,000km oil changes. from new. I kept that up with regular services and 10k oil changes with Full Synthetic with the same mechanic for about 15 years.
Both cars ended up getting so much oil sludge in the sump that it blocked the wire mesh covering the oil pick up pipe. I removed the sumps on both about a year apart and could not believe how much crap builds up in the bottom of the sump pan. Changing oil does nothing to remove that. You have to scrape that crap out physically. It is hard work. I put pics up in the Toyota forum and people could not believe how bad they looked with regular oil changes. With even longer intervals it would be much worse. I now own two Aurions which are the daily drivers and I change oil in those at 7500km. Pull the sump off I think you will find a lot of baked on sludge.

 

[daves8]

@daves8 are you fairly handy on the tools? If yes it might be worth pulling off the rocker covers and washing them out with kero. Gives you a chance to see how much sludge is up the top end too.

About as handy as a no armed brick layer…..

I can do oil changes and that’s about it.

 

[daves8]

What does servicing the PCV entail?

 

[shane_3800]

I have not done it on my LS3 VF, (it only has about 18,000km) have had sumps off on two Toyota Camrys that I have owned. I had two Camrys both V6. One I sold at 470,000km the second went to 503,000 km. I got both cars at around 70,000km. Both one owner and both had 10,000km oil changes. from new. I kept that up with regular services and 10k oil changes with Full Synthetic with the same mechanic for about 15 years.
Both cars ended up getting so much oil sludge in the sump that it blocked the wire mesh covering the oil pick up pipe. I removed the sumps on both about a year apart and could not believe how much crap builds up in the bottom of the sump pan. Changing oil does nothing to remove that. You have to scrape that crap out physically. It is hard work. I put pics up in the Toyota forum and people could not believe how bad they looked with regular oil changes. With even longer intervals it would be much worse. I now own two Aurions which are the daily drivers and I change oil in those at 7500km. Pull the sump off I think you will find a lot of baked on sludge.

On engines that old the oil control rings can get weak and let more oil past the ring then when it gets scraped back down to the sump it'll have more particulates.
On older cars maybe decrease the intervals.

 

[shane_3800]

What does servicing the PCV entail?

There's plenty of threads on here.
The best way is to check what valve covers you have and if you have the old ones get a revised set.

 

[Immortality]

Or drill out the one you have. @Fu Manchu has a great thread on it.

The only way to be sure oil is "used up" or at the end of it's service life is to have it tested. Colour alone is not a guide.

Something @shane_3800 might be able to answer, how many of the modern engines you service have engine oil heat exchangers that use the engine coolant?

The reason I bring this up is because oil temperature is critical to the proper functioning of the engine but also the oil, too hot or too cold is not good for oil. Too much heat kills the oil from a lubrication point of view, not enough heat and the oil can't burn off contaminants that accumulate in the crank case and you get into sludge issues. Oil temperature needs to be just right (like baby bears porridge). A oil/coolant heat exchanger helps to get oil up to temp faster and also helps to keep it at the proper operating temp but unfortunately this is not something Holden/GM considered for our engines (except the 3800 V6 cars that went to Middle East).

Increasing oil volume is great for extended service life (more oil, more capacity to carry contaminants before it reaches saturation) but if you don't get that oil up to full operating temp what you actually get is.....sludge.

Mom or dad doing the school run in the morning and a quick trip to the supermarket isn't great for getting that engine oil up to temp, if you read many owners manuals you'll note that they say that type of use is considered hard use and you should half your oil service interval.

Something I've not considered, but turbo cars are probably good for heating oil reasonably quickly. Running engine oil through the turbo would be a great way to ensure it heats through quickly....

Engine oil sludge issues....fit a turbo

 

[RevNev]

Mate I serviced a MK5 GTI golf today, it was at 350km it has had 15k services as per the book.
It's still going strong, no rebuild no turbo or anything.
Just Fuchs oil and Hengst filters.

That's well and good, but unless you have an identical vehicle driven the same way with same km's and shorter oil change intervals, strip both engines and compare them for mechanical condition and sludge contamination, the longer oil change interval theory isn't proven is it.

I respect your 16 years, but I've got 46 years in the game if we're measuring anatomy!

Unless we're focused on penny pinching on oil costs, extending oil change intervals won't result in a cleaner engine and longer life is the bottom line! There's no mechanical advantage whatsoever leaving oil in an engine for extended periods of time.

 

[Fu Manchu]

https://forums.justcommodores.com.au/threads/vz-and-ve-alloytec-pcv-problem-fix.279039/