Hello everyone. I wanted to get a solid answer regarding the condition of what to do in regards to my motor oil. I have a 88 iroc vert with a 5.7(swapped by previous owner). The owner had this car for about 9 years and had the motor rebuilt when he first put the motor in. In the 9 years he roughly drove the car 3000 miles. I bought the car last year and I havent drove it much either, maybe 400 miles at most. The car mostly sits due to me not using it as a daily driver. When I got the car I immediately changed the filter and oil with a pureone filter and royal purple oil. The oil turned black quite quickly. My question is, what can I do? I don't drive the car often at all. At most in the summer only. During the rest of the year it sits and I start it up about once a week. I am also thinking its a fuel issue, the fuel might be to rich(I have a superram). I also thought about putting one quart of atf fluid, but don't want to risk blowing a bearing. My best self suggestion is to run synthetic, but this won't do much help because I BARELY drive the car. If I would have driven the car more the synthetic would have slowly cleaned the internals, due to synthetics nature. At this point im stumped . Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Royal Purple turning black?!?! That's a new one on me.

Maybe you could e-mail that post to Royal Purple?

i run rp and change it every 2500 miles, its ALWAYS dark brown/black when it comes out, i think the purple color goes away after juts a few minutes of driving

The oil does not stay purple for long. I would not worry about it.

sailtexas, how black would your oil turn out when you drain it?

The problem isn't it doesn't stay purple, but the oil turns black within minutes of driving. I'm assuming the internals are either really dirty or extremely rich fuel in the oil.

engine flush... from having the same oil in it for 9 years... the additives in the oil stopped working... thus the oil just sat there.. and collected dirt.. from where ever it was touching... also.. your 400miles in a year... makes your oil dark..

so change it every three months.. weither your driving it or not... thats why its 3,000 miles OR 3 months

but go to an oil changing place and get an engine flush (do not go to jiffy lube if you love your car.) Try to find a place that knows what they are doing and can explain to you what the engine flush does.. if they try to bs you ... go somewhere else... if they tell you the facts and how they do it... i'd get it done there..

i've done this on several cars... and it cleans the oil right up... cleans the carbon build up where the oil has ran and turned into carbon...

And i doubt its fuel in your oil... but drain some out onto your finger and smell it or pull the dipstick tube out and smell it if it smells like fuel.. and not oil... your rings are shot on the pistons...

If you start the car once a week do you drive it and let it get fully hot? Or do you just run it at idle? It causes alot of condensation if you just idle it and not drive it. This may contribute to the black colored oil.

mike

I just let it idle. I don't have plates on it, so I can't drive it around.

Yea it's probably sludged but you don't want to loosen it up since it's not hurting anything. I had a buddy that bought a sludged FB. He put flush in it (against my advice) and it spun a bearing two days later. If it's ain't broke, don't fix it (and don't waste your money on purdy purple oil) :-)

I wish I could drive it more, but with NYC weather I only get to drive it spring and summer, lol how many oil changes can I do in those few months?

i feel running a synthetic oil in a motor that sees very little road time is a waste of money.
like was mentioned, there is also the time factor to consider.
i have a friend who drives his truck very little, about 2500 miles a year, so he was only changing the oil once a year. and he had a sludge problem, again. he was loosing oil pressure with only about 12,000 miles on the motor. he dropped the pan and the pickup was clogged with sludge.
this was the second time it happened with this truck. he was lucky this time, the first time he spun a bearing.
he uses the same oil and brand of filter in his daily driver and the pan was clean with almost 200,000 on the motor, the oil & filter in it gets done every 3000 mile or 3 months.

you would probably be ok with 3 a year.
change it when you first start driving it, change it during the time your driving it, and again right after you park it for the year.
when you change the oil, get the motor fully warmed up before you pull the plug and let it drain for at least 10 minutes, the dirtiest oil is the last drop that comes out.

Thanks everyone for the replies. Anyone know a good flush place near the Bronx? I was also thinking of putting those flush bottles, are those good?

Exactly. This is the worst thing possible for an engine. One of the byproducts of combustion is water and it's going to get into your crankcase. You've got to run it long enough for the oil to get above water's boiling point so it can escape. Otherwise that water in your oil forms acids and sludge.

This can be exacerbated by a low degree t-stat.

I have my car stored right now also. I dont have the car insured right now, so i cant drive it around to get it fully hot, but i can let it idle. Its allright to let it idle up to a tempuarature where there wont be any water left in the motor.

If you can't get it up to temperature then don't even start the car.
Personally, I would do the slow clean with synth. Start cleaning when you can start driving. I bought a sludged car before and it took 3 oil changes before it became normal.

I'd be a little afraid to run a flush through the motor. Here is what I have done in the past: It costs a few bucks, but I think it is a safe way to go. Drop the oil and filter. Replace the filter, add fresh oil, and run the engine until it reaches operating temperature. Shut down, drain and refill with new oil. Repeat until the oil stops turning black. Then drop the oil and filter and replace with new.

I did this on a Buick V6 with 120K miles, and it cleaned the engine right up. IIRC, I went through about 20 quarts of oil, and a couple of filters, but the engine cleaned up without any risk of damage. I am planning to do this on my 138K mile GTA.

Now you don't have to use anything beyond the recommended oil for your engine, because it will only be in the engine for a few minutes. Once you got your oil clean, make sure you periodically check it, and be sure to change it when the color starts to darken, regardless of the actual mileage.

I prefer to run 1 quart synth mixed with the rest of the oil.
Next change, 2 quarts synth
Next change, 3 quarts synth

You get the idea. It's a slow clean.

Ternandes, Viprklr, you guys have some good ideas. I can't wait until it gets a little warmer so I can atleast do something. Flushing the engine would be the last resort, I know the havoc that runs with those. I might also add 1 quart of tranny oil in the mix...

I store my car in the winter and don't pull it out until the spring. In the fall I take it for one last good romp then change the oil right there in the building where it is stored. Been doing this for a few years now and have not had any problems yet.