My oil looked brand new for the first 1400 miles it was in my car. Then over the next 200 miles somehow it went to heck and is dark black. Is that anything I should worry about?
I have M1 synthetic in it. After only 1600 miles it looks like it should have been changed a long time ago. It was also down a quart and a half, ive never had a problem with oil loss before. The only thing I can think of is that my fan temp sensor went and it overheated. I'm not sure how much, gauge doesn't go that high I was stuck in the left lane of traffic and it took me much longer than I wanted to get over. I would say no more than 300 (coolent was boiling and almost overflowing) degrees. Then I drove the next 20-30 minutes in and out of the red. Would this have killed somthing?

 

uh yeah, I'd think the 300 degrees might have something to do with the sudden change, if this is when you noticed it. I bet someone's going to read your post and tell you that if you haden't been using M1 synthetic you wouldn't have a running motor right now. But if it were my car I'd fix the fan sensor and make sure you're keeping cool, then change your oil.

 

The thing is I didn't check my oil untill about a week after that happend, so i'm not sure if that was it. I just wanted to know if that temp would do that to oil. Thanks.

As for the switch somthing is screwed up, grounding the wire doesn't start the fan so I just put in a manual switch untill I have the time to figure out whats wrong. As soon as I put in the manul switch the fan temp switch started working again too, go figure. But grounding still does nothing. I'm away at school, and the local police didn't like it the last time I was working on my car in the public parking garage

 

ouch, 300 degrees will definately destroy your oil. Did your oil pressure change any? Any glitter in your oil?

 

Oil looks/feels clean exept the being black part. My oil pressure remaind perfect when it heated up, and is still just fine. I guess ill change it soon, and hope not to find any "glitter" in it. Thanks. Keep in mind i'm not sure it hit 300, it was off the gauge is all I know. I figure from the rate it was heating up though and the time it took me to get off the road 280-300. $30 oil change damnit.
Actually now that I think about it, I think it helped my car. Used to have like a rattle inside the engine, its not as loud anymore.

 

why don't you buy yourself some el cheapo synthetic oil like walmart brand (which is actually quaker state) and filter this time around, and continue to work the bug out of your fan. You might also want to flush the radiator. Then, when you are confident that you've fixed the cause of the problem, change your oil to the brand you prefer. That way it's only going to cost you about $15 instead of $30 if this happens again in the near future. The reason I didn't reccomend saving more money by doing this with conventional oil is that it will break down at a lower temp and will not protect you if you pin your gauge again.

 

Check the oil by rubbing it in your fingers, if it's silver you've got some damage, otherwise change the old oil and you're good to go.

 

Just change your oil and watch your temp guage more closely in the future. I'd still use mobil 1, you're probably not going to get as good of protection from some cheapo walmart synthetic.

 

walmart in the only place i hsop for oil...good stuff where else can you get 5 querts of mobil one for 19.97 =)

 

if you really care about the quality or condition of your oil send a sample to blackstone labs other wise it's all wild guesses as to what you have and why.

 

Also, if you EVER overheat that bad, DON'T RUN IT AFTER!! Change the oil, it breaks down and is useless!

 

Thats not good, I drove hundred of miles before I noticed it.
On the upside maybie Ill have an excuse for a 350 a bit sooner.

 

PyRo,

Several observations/comments:

1. Mobil 1 (and all other brands of synthetics that use Exxon/Mobil PAO as it's base stock) will not start to break down until it reaches over 420°F. Mineral oil would be sludge well before that. So in that respect, you were wise/fortunate to have had Mobil 1 in your sump;
2. The elevated temperatures of both the engine and lubricant likely lowered the viscosity enough and loosened or flaked off existing deposits of sludge in the engine which were then carried away by the hot lubricant. Once the filter was saturated, the oil carried the remainder of the debris.
3. Due to those points, your engine likely didn't suffer any loss of lubrication, but got "steam cleaned" from the inside out. You may, however, have overheated some seals and should monitor for leakage for a few weeks to make sure.
4. Change your lubricant and filter NOW. Definitely refill with the same lubricant, and use a quality filter. Plan to monitor oil level and condition regularly, and possibly change the filter and top off the lubricant level before the customary 3,000 mile interval. Lubricant should be changed if particulates are so high that a clean filter doesn't improve the clarity.
5. Inspect the drained oil for particulates by pouring through filter paper (even a coffee filter works for this). Any metallic particles are an obvious red flag.
6. If you have a one pint container, save a sample and get a sample kit for analysis if you are so inclined.
7. Fix your coolant fan!

 

Thanks Vader.
I already changed the oil, replacing it with Mobil 1, I have always used NAPA oil filters and have always heard that they were pretty good.
For some reason when it overheated I lost a quart of oil, but I cannot find any leaks and it hasn't been low since.
I didn't pour the oil through a filter, but I will do so as its still in the garage in the oil pan.
I will definatly change my filter after a few hundred miles and if the oil looks as black as it does now again from sludge that didn't come out the first time I will change that again too.
The coolent fan I added a manual fan switch because I was unsure of where the fan switch was and really didn't have time to go looking for it. I havn't had any heat problems since then, but I bought the part and plan on doing it before the car moves again.
Ive been thinking about the analysis for a while, Ill do a search and see how other people have done and what they found out with it.
Thanks to everyone for the help.

 

From my experience with industrial equipment (and a few of my own and corporate engines), oil analysis usually reveals a lot more about the lubricant used in the assembly rather than the assembly itself. It can indicate whether the additive package is correct, the change interval is correct, the base viscosity is correct, and filtration is adequate. If you start seeing traces of the machinery (or engine) material from an oil analysis, you're too late, and are in a reactive mode rather than a proactive mode. I think some of the people at some of the more popular "Oil-Guy" sites haven't figured that out just yet. A tribologist would probably get a migraine after reading some of the "professional advice" being offered in some of those pages.

You really need to establish a baseline with analyses results BEFORE you have an incident like this so you have a basis for accurate comparison when sopmething like this occurs. Any results you get now may not have a lot of meaning, since you already can bet the drained oil has lost viscosity, has a high particulate count, has a higher pH, low moisture, high DS, and is maybe low in the EP wear barier minerals (zinc, boron, clay, etc.) since it was "cooked" by the elevated temperatures. Revealing that through analysis won't be any earth-shattering news.

 

Sorry I didn't see that he was running synthetic! If you were running regular oil it would be like WD-40 now lol... been there, done that!