OK this truck is my first Oil Burner so this is probably a silly question.

I changed oil In my truck Saturday and the oil I drained was BLACK,I mean VERY BLACK. The only time I have ever seen oil this black was when I waited about 20k miles to change oil in a Toyota I had once.

The truck only has 4500 miles and it was the factory oil taken out. I had pulled a 7500# trailer for about 3500 of those miles (maybe a bit more). I have sent a sample in for analysis, but thought I would ask here...is the used oil ALWAYS this black?

Usually oil changes in my life on gassers have shown a little darkness maybe approaching black, but NEVER this black! Is it normal?

 

pretty normal, there is alot of soot blowby collected in the oil, but the soot particulate matter is actually suspended within the oil particles and up to a point does not effect oil durability.

 

Also, since you have so few miles the engine isn't broken in, and any engine that isn't broken in will have a decent amount more blowby then one that is. Not to mention the breaking in itself makes the oil get pretty dirty pretty fast, which is why the first oil change is usually recommended at a shorter interval then the others.
Mine has 113k and my oil is darker then any gasser oil I have seen. Well almost... there was this VWbug with oil in it that was 30k miles and 4 years old with more then one spun bearing, it was black and thick and somewhat "shiny" from the bearing pieces... Anyhow, diesels have detergents and such in the oil to deal with that soot and typically don't have any worries with it.
Let us know how the results of the analysis go.

 

ABSOLUTELY !!!!

I'll bet if you pull your dipstick after just a couple hundred miles driven it'll look just as black. Perfectly normal.

 

you are supposed to check the oil between changes? j/k
I actually only checked it one time from the time I bought it til the day I changed it, and it was somewhat dark outside so I guess it did not dawn on me how dark it was at that time.
Since oil pressure always looked good I guess I never felt the need to check it more often, probably a bad indicator, but on my old Toyota I could tell by pressure when I was needing oil. Prolly should reprogram myself to check it a little more often.
My Dakota, well I think I checked the oil twice in the 70k miles I owned it...it was all under warranty and never showed signs of leaking, or usage so I never screwed with it. Plus I always had oil changes done by the dealer, so if oil was low it was thier fault.

Since I have a feeling I am going to end up being my own warranty station, not because of the dealer but rather I am not sure how long I can repress the need for MORE POWER, I probably should pay more attention to things

damn...I think I just hijacked my own thread.

 

The day I bought mine I pulled the dipstick for a look, and the oil was VERY BLACK. The odometer showed 17 miles. Our common rail injectors with the multiple injection events produce more soot, and some of it blows by the rings. The soot particles are so small they don't cause any trouble.

 

You've come to the right place my friend !!! [sm=badbadbad.gif]

 

About the only way to keep your oil clean if you really really want to is to put a bypass filter in. It'll help to strain out the soot and keep your oil a lot cleaner.

 

yea, if ya gots the money!!

 

I've always thought the bypass filter was a good idea, but does it really filter out the soot? Soot particles can be smaller than 1 micron, so I can't see how a filter could trap them. For you guys with the bypass filter installed, does your oil turn black a lot slower than before you installed it?