FRAM Ultra XG2 - 2020 Jeep SRT - Varnish?!

OVERKILL

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This is actually a pretty low mileage filter. Was run from October 3rd, 2021 through to June 26th, 2022, so through the winter for 5,579km.

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Continued in next post...
 
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A bit of metal in the filter, which shouldn't be surprising, this was the 3rd OCI in the vehicle and it only had 17,000Km on it when it was dumped.
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Pretty surprised by what appears to be varnish on the bottom of the filter cartridge, the can, and the combo bypass/spring assembly. I can smear it with my fingers, it is definitely non-ferrous and has a golden hue to it. I wiped half of it off the combo valve and decided to run an experiment with the other half:

I have what came out of the empty @High Performance Lubricants Super Car 0w-40 containers that went into the Jeep (with another XG2). I'm submersing the other half of the combo valve in this oil and will leave it for a week. We'll see if it does anything to the deposits!

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Inside, wouldn’t thinner metal discolor easier?

Maybe? But I don't recall ever seeing varnish in my oil filters before, though this was a straight winter run basically, so probably lots of fuel dilution and the vehicle sat for quite a while when I was in the hospital, then at home. I Did grab a sample and once my OAI kits show up from AMSOIL, will be sending it off. Previous, much longer run on the same oil didn't have this in the filter, but it was a full year and plenty of hot weather use.
 
Shouldn't be anything to clean, the engine has had this oil since new and it only has 17,000Km on it.

Direct injection?

Worth noting that GM has capped their OLM to 7500 miles since they started using direct-injection engines. And the oil looked pretty well spent at 7500 miles on the one direct injection GM engine I saw.
 
Direct injection?

Worth noting that GM has capped their OLM to 7500 miles since they started using direct-injection engines. And the oil looked pretty well spent at 7500 miles on the one direct injection GM engine I saw.
Nope, port injected. The HEMI's are old school.
 
I also have the XG2 off my wife's truck with double the mileage, but same winter usage, draining right now. It will be cut open next.
 
BTW, somewhat OT, but with the deep synthetic fibre media, the metal gets quite embedded in the "fuzz", which is one of the reasons I really like this style of filter.
 
That filter media looks like it's holding a lot of carbon for that relative low milage. Not familiar with this engine but it looks like it gives the oil a hard time.

Can you mesure how hot the filter gets at op. temperature and after shut down?
 
That filter media looks like it's holding a lot of carbon for that relative low milage. Not familiar with this engine but it looks like it gives the oil a hard time.

Can you mesure how hot the filter gets at op. temperature and after shut down?
I can track oil temps via the SRT dashboard, it has a very large coolant/oil heat exchanger, so it doesn't get super hot, max is probably around 120C.

But yes, the 6.4L isn't super kind on oil. High compression, huge bores, mostly hemispherical chamber, which runs pretty dirty at low speeds. The oil is always jet black when changed (find my previous OCI thread on here, you can see the oil) but this is an extended drain Euro oil with multiple OE approvals, it should be able to handle this interval without anything plating-out.

The filter still has some oil in the media, it's the nature of the multiple layers of synthetic media, you'll never get it dry, so what you are mostly seeing is black oil, not carbon IMHO.
 
Pretty surprised by what appears to be varnish on the bottom of the filter cartridge, the can, and the combo bypass/spring assembly. I can smear it with my fingers, it is definitely non-ferrous and has a golden hue to it.
I'd say it's debris that the filter caught. Doubt it's actually "varnish" ... if it was, then there should also be the same varnish build-up going on inside your engine.
 
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