Dirty motor oil

37chief

Well-known Member
Location
California
Recently I purchased a 2000 chevy tracker (a Suzuki in disguise)It has 127k miles. I plan to tow it behind my motorhome. The motor oil was very dirty. Here is a question. I changed it today. I have room for a qt of Rislone should I add it, and change the oil in a few hundred miles, or just change the oil again without the Rislone engine treatment? I can't understand why someone lets oil get so dirty, some people just don't have clue about mechanical things. Any thoughts? Stan
 
Some people will only put gas in a car and not do any maintenance.

I don't know if I would use the Rislone at this point. I think I would drive it a couple weeks and then use an engine flush and change the oil again. Then maybe the Rislone. It may take a very long time to get the gunk out of it.
 
i would do acouple more frequent oil changes instead of the risoline. the treatment may break too much stuff loose all at once.
 
(quoted from post at 19:33:09 11/13/17) Recently I purchased a 2000 chevy tracker (a Suzuki in disguise)It has 127k miles. I plan to tow it behind my motorhome. The motor oil was very dirty. Here is a question. I changed it today. I have room for a qt of Rislone should I add it, and change the oil in a few hundred miles, or just change the oil again without the Rislone engine treatment? I can't understand why someone lets oil get so dirty, some people just don't have clue about mechanical things. Any thoughts? Stan

I bought a 97 Tracker last year with 172000 miles on it, changed the oil and it hasn't used or leaked a drop in 12 months, and still so clear you can hardly see it on the stick at 175000. I'd just watch it for color, if it darkens change it.
 
I?ve tried before to swing big and fix years of semi-abuse. A lot of times if there?s no massive oil usage or burning it?s better to just take maintenance up a step without the engine cleanout stuff. How about a couple more frequent oil changes, let the filter work its magic. And cut it open just to see. My 2 cents.
 
this is what i do... i drain old oil then add 1/2 the amount it holds and run it for a while 10- 15 min. then drain it all and change the filter and oil and it stays clean for a while. but that me. no big deal to use up 3 or 4 quarts of oil.
 

Leave it in the engine and short change it if it makes you happy. If the oil is working it will get dirty if it does not then you have a problem.
 
I would not use any additives. Just change the oil, and keep an eye on it, maybe change it again in 2000 miles or so, and keep watching it, changing it until it cleans up. Also be sure it has the right thermostat, and the PCV valve is clean. In fact, everything should be checked. If the oil wasn't changed, you can bet nothing else was maintained either.

Use your favorite oil, and stick with the same brand.

One thing I have found, the health of a modern engine can be better determined by the deposits under the valve/cam cover. If the metal is clean, not the oil, but the actual metal surfaces, the engine is in good health and will go a long time. If the metal is caked with carbon, it's getting near the end of it's life.
 
Instead of that stuff get a quart of Marvel Mystery Oil and put in. I have been using it since the seventies when I change oil and have never had a moments trouble with any engine. Lot of people don't believe in it but I do.
 
Do about 2-3 low mileage oil changes (!500 miles). Then go a 2500 miles with oil with SeaFoam and after that just oil. I have did this with several engins and cleaned them out. You might want to check thermostat and that engine is running at proper temp.
 
Don't know that weight oil you're using but pickup enough diesel quality oil for a couple of changes. That oil is higher in detergent and will hold more dirt in suspension then regular oil.
I have a '86 Volvo with over 300k miles that I use nothing but 15-40 and it is absolutely clean.
 
I have a '63 Ford 2000D that was smoking on my 15w-40. Dumped in a can of snake oil and ran it several hours, changed the oil and after several more hours oil was black. Changed the oil and smoking all but stopped.......that's in addition to the Power Services snake oil I keep in the fuel; added to the 55 gallon storage drums when I fill up. Snake oil.....wouldn't be without it. Proven time and time again.
 
I recently worked on a friends Tracker that was running rough. I found one plug was oil-fouled and came out covered in dirty oil. There are rubber gaskets as part of the valve cover that seal the spark plug wells and they had turned to glass. I changed them and the plug and all is well. I would suspect your 17 year old gaskets may be due for replacement. I had good luck with Rislone, wouldn't hesitate to use Seafoam, change it in about 500 miles since you are trying to clean out some crud.
 
I would fear of loosening up too much junk. Maybe just change it and run it and change it more often than normal ?
 
I would change the oil and filter more often to clean out the engine. Gunk Motor Flush cleans well, but don't drive with it. Add a quart, just let the engine idle a few minutes and then drain the oil and change the filter.
 
If you do use some type of solvent in the oil (Seafoam, Gunk, etc...) ad some quality stop leak (Bar's?) to the oil when you change it. The solvents dry out the seals and gaskets.

I would just fill it with some synthetic and do a short oil change (1000 miles) then refill with synthetic.
 
Never heard that about Sea Foam. I drove An IH truck back and forth to work for 10 years and used Sea Foam in oil all the time.
 
I agree that short oil changes is the safest method.

I sometimes use solvents as a flush when changing oil in a very dirty engine, but I won't drive do any work with them in an engine. So far, I haven't had trouble with increased oil leaks, but I can see how it could easily happen. Some motor oils for high mileage cars advertise that they have seal conditioners.
 

Generally, I add Rislone in the fall and run it thru the winter...helps the engine to crank better, while it cleans..

It will not act like Kerosene and cut the dirt out guickly...(though I HAVE seen recommendations to use Kerosene to flush engine and transmissions) found in the older John Deere Operators Manual..
 
If oil is very dirty I would change now and in a hundred mile change again. Would give enough time to mix what dirty oil will not drain and get things out. Then repete again at anouther hundred miles then go to what you plan to keep in and then add the treatment if you want. Why spend the money on treatment when you need to throw away the first two rounds of oil at a very low milage. That is the closest to what the receomed way to flush a tractor with kerosine was. Just use a cheap oil for the first flush then the better quality oils. You need to clean it out fast and not wait for thousands of miles to get the dirt out. Even drain, put that cheap oil in and just let it run for a half hour-hour and drain and when you do that see how dirty it is and go from there. But no reason to waste the treatment by putting it in to soon as you need to flush at least twice before you put treatment in. And I have use those treatments. The local Ferguson dealer was also a small plane poilet and owned his own plane and always said using STP he would get 200 more RPM out of that engine and on that he needed every RPM he could get. Know I am not a good speller.
 
Older engines (high mileage) will be ok if you treat them right. I use Lucas oil stabilizer in my old tractor and change oil at 2-300 hours. Never have a problem. My Lincoln has 160,000 on it, I change every 15000 with Mobil 1 15000 mile oil and have no problems and burn no oil. However, 30 years ago I bought a sailboat with a Nissan 6 CYL diesel that had over 20000 hours on it. I used a quart of oil every 20 hours or so. I got the wild idea that Slick 50 would benefit the engine. What a mess Cleaned engine out so well it used a quart every 5 hours until I finally got a 1000 hours on it to get back to normal . Now I am very cautious using anything except Seafoam or Marvel Mystery oil.
 

Do 3 oil/filter changes in the next 300 miles.A good quality oil will always look dirty after 700 to 1000 miles and always look pretty on the dipstick.
 
Had a fella bring me his 68 gm car way back when. Had a noise in the engine. Pulled dip stick,no oil,pulled oil pan,there had been oil at one time but it had turned to like putty. Never seen anything like it before or sense.
 
First engine I ever went into, a 62 Pontiac 389, had a layer of gray sludge about 1" thick stuck to the bottom of the oil pan.

It was like putty, peeled out practically in one piece. Never seen it since. That engine had a floating pick up screen, so nothing on the bottom of the pan got disturbed. My dad always ran Gulfpride, not sure why, I never did after seeing that!
 
Think I'd be scared of loosening too much crud too fast, decent oil and a couple of shorter change intervals will start to clean it up.
 
I did an oil change with a quart of Rislone in my first car back in 1973, car was a '70 Nova with 307 small block. I had run 400-500 miles since I bought the car, no appreciable oil usage. After 4 quarts of 10W-40 Quaker State and the Rislone I started using oil about a quart every 200-250 miles. Engine had been run hot before I bought it, O-ring valve stem seals were cracking and breaking off valve stems and valves were very loose in the guides. Engine needed rebuilt heads, or a whole new engine. Traded car after about 70-80 thousand miles. Last year or so I carried a 24 can case of oil in the trunk when it was using a quart every 125-150 miles. Every six months I'd spin a new oil filter on and add more oil.

Risolne does NOT FIX Anything!

If your worried about sludge, run 2-3 changes of 10W-40 Rotella, Valvoline, or Delo, or Delvac in it, 400-500 miles per change.
 
When you changed oil did you take a look down filler to see how dirty top of head. Also was there any sludge in bottom of pan and on plug.
 

Looking at the filter base is a good indicator of what the inside of the engine looks like are if you have a issue going on. The filter base should be as clean as the day you put it on unless you are one of those that believe in extended oil changes :(...

Most of these filters have bout 3/5K the dirty one in the middle 3K he was losing a qt of coolant into the crankcase between changes causing sludge issues.

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Truck had the 258 inline 6 cylinder AMC engine in it. The engine was clean and had 80,000 miles. Right after every oil change several lifter wanted to hang up but if I put in 3/4 of a quart of SeaFoam in it the lifters run quit.
 

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