Here's an interesting one.
I did a long-awaited oil change on the original Louisville Sludger, a 1996 Toyota Avalon with the legendary 1MZ-FE "Sludge Commander" motor.
To this day, people on this forum whisper in hushed tones about the sea of sludge this motor unleashed upon the pristine driveways of America's motorists.
So when I did the oil change [MaxLife 5w30], I didn't have a filter wrench handy and had to put the filter change off for a day. The old filter, which I will cut open and post about at some point, seemed to have been installed with an impact wrench.
The oil color on the dipstick was a little darker than I expected with the new oil and the old filter.
When I changed the filter and ran the car for a couple of days, I checked the oil level once more and, surprise surprise, the oil color had lightened considerably!
Since I still have the old oil filter I can do a blot test of the oil that is in the canister and compare it to the output of the dipstick. But this is a subjective observation right now: The oil color had lightened with the new filter installation. Very bizarre! The old filter had no doubt been loaded up to its absolute maximum with sludge and golden bottom end bearing glitter.
One thing to note was that I ran Wal-Mart's Seafoam equivalent 'motor treatment' through the brake booster and also in the sump, immediately before changing this oil, so there will have been more crud in the old filter than in a normal case.
Has this ever happened to anyone here?
PS I found a 1MZ-FE valve cover gasket among my stash of miscellaneous engine stuff. Just one cover out of two. But its the perfect excuse for me to yank off the front valve cover and take a photo or two of the dreaded varnish that is to be. This car was criminally neglected before it fell into my hands, so I expect to see a mess of varnish and sludge when the cover comes off. 246,000 miles on this motor.
I did a long-awaited oil change on the original Louisville Sludger, a 1996 Toyota Avalon with the legendary 1MZ-FE "Sludge Commander" motor.
To this day, people on this forum whisper in hushed tones about the sea of sludge this motor unleashed upon the pristine driveways of America's motorists.
So when I did the oil change [MaxLife 5w30], I didn't have a filter wrench handy and had to put the filter change off for a day. The old filter, which I will cut open and post about at some point, seemed to have been installed with an impact wrench.
The oil color on the dipstick was a little darker than I expected with the new oil and the old filter.
When I changed the filter and ran the car for a couple of days, I checked the oil level once more and, surprise surprise, the oil color had lightened considerably!
Since I still have the old oil filter I can do a blot test of the oil that is in the canister and compare it to the output of the dipstick. But this is a subjective observation right now: The oil color had lightened with the new filter installation. Very bizarre! The old filter had no doubt been loaded up to its absolute maximum with sludge and golden bottom end bearing glitter.
One thing to note was that I ran Wal-Mart's Seafoam equivalent 'motor treatment' through the brake booster and also in the sump, immediately before changing this oil, so there will have been more crud in the old filter than in a normal case.
Has this ever happened to anyone here?
PS I found a 1MZ-FE valve cover gasket among my stash of miscellaneous engine stuff. Just one cover out of two. But its the perfect excuse for me to yank off the front valve cover and take a photo or two of the dreaded varnish that is to be. This car was criminally neglected before it fell into my hands, so I expect to see a mess of varnish and sludge when the cover comes off. 246,000 miles on this motor.