Pennzoil Ultra VERY black after 1,000 miles?

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A few weeks back I changed my oil and my fill was 4.5 quarts of PU and a Motorcraft filter on my '07 Focus. I bought the car from a local guy who buys salvaged Focuses and rebuilds them; and does one heck of a job, btw. Anyhow, the car ONLY had 20,000 miles on it when i bought it. Not bad for a 4 year old car! Of course, the first thing I check is the oil... it was super dark black. The filter was a ServicePro filter, so i'm guessing that the oil was last changed at a quicklube shop. Anyhow, I did an hourlong drive so that the oil was nice and hot, then i drained it for a good long while and filled with the PU. After only 1,000 miles, the PU is so dark. I know that Duratec engines (like my mom's 2.3 in her Mazda) dirty the oil up pretty quickly too. But i wanted to run this OCI at least 7,500 miles. Anything less would be a waste of this oil IMO. But should i maybe change the filter at around 4,000 and keep going? I know that PP and PU have a great ability to clean, but i'm not seeing how there could be that much to clean on a 20,000 mile-old engine. Maybe, since the oil was so black when i bought it, it had only had one oil change in its life...?
shocked.gif
regardless, it burns no oil at all and it runs like a top.
 
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A UOA would be useful. Anything that was salvaged ill bet was never taken care of. Possible chance its doing some cleaning. Who knows even though the car has 20K the oil could of been changed once for all you know. Have you checked through the oil cap?
 
Personally I'd be doing 2-3k OCIs with something like Pennzoil yellow bottle and filter changes every time.

Hopefully it has only 20k on it. With savage titles everything goes out the window in most states.

Keep us informed!

Bill
 
I agree with Bill on this one. Do two or three shorter oil changes, 3K using regular Pennzoil in the yellow bottle, then if everything appears okay, go the the Pennzoil synthetic.
 
Originally Posted By: ARB1977
A UOA would be useful. Anything that was salvaged ill bet was never taken care of. Possible chance its doing some cleaning. Who knows even though the car has 20K the oil could of been changed once for all you know. Have you checked through the oil cap?


yes sir. thankfully, this car has an oil fill hole that looks directly at a portion of the valvetrain. it is spotless! No varnish, sludge, or buildup, even on the non-moving parts. it looks very nice.
 
Originally Posted By: Bill in Utah
Personally I'd be doing 2-3k OCIs with something like Pennzoil yellow bottle and filter changes every time.

Hopefully it has only 20k on it. With savage titles everything goes out the window in most states.

Keep us informed!

Bill


i dont think the ODO reading was tinkered with. this guy and his business is very well known in the area. he has a full team working for him, and gives a one year FULL warranty on all of his vehicles he sells. everything looks to be spot-on.
 
I would do a UOA and go from there. To me it seems odd that the top end looks great and still the oil looks jet black. As they say you can't judge an oil by its color.
 
Originally Posted By: Bill in Utah
Personally I'd be doing 2-3k OCIs with something like Pennzoil yellow bottle and filter changes every time.

Hopefully it has only 20k on it. With savage titles everything goes out the window in most states.

Keep us informed!

Bill


DITTO. Run the current Ultra until 3K then do 2 more OCI's of 3K miles with the plain old jane PYB... Then go back to Ultra for 7500 miles changes. I would bet it only had one oil change prior to u getting it...
 
One thing i can say is this: i maintain my mom's 2003 mazda6, 2.3l duratec. That oil also gets dark very fast, whether i use dino oil, MC blend, PYB, whatever. it's always dark very quickly. yet, her engine also looks spotless. i've heard that duratecs darken the oil up quickly (in most cases).
 
Originally Posted By: Klutch9
One thing i can say is this: i maintain my mom's 2003 mazda6, 2.3l duratec. That oil also gets dark very fast, whether i use dino oil, MC blend, PYB, whatever. it's always dark very quickly. yet, her engine also looks spotless. i've heard that duratecs darken the oil up quickly (in most cases).


Must be something in the air at Macomb.
grin2.gif
 
Originally Posted By: Johnny
Originally Posted By: Klutch9
One thing i can say is this: i maintain my mom's 2003 mazda6, 2.3l duratec. That oil also gets dark very fast, whether i use dino oil, MC blend, PYB, whatever. it's always dark very quickly. yet, her engine also looks spotless. i've heard that duratecs darken the oil up quickly (in most cases).


Must be something in the air at Macomb.
grin2.gif


Possibly! ha. i'm thinking maybe 5k miles, then drain and refill with another syn and a 5k OCI. then maybe step it up to 7500.
 
My old Duratec ranger refused to blacken oil no matter how long I left it in there. I babied it though and it never had more than 7k miles on any fill.
 
I will definitely keep you all informed. As an aside... that filter that was on my car when i bought it; it had some scratches on it that were rusting. Hinting to the potential fact that that filter was on there for a long, LONG time, as well as the oil. I'll see how the oil looks at 3k. If the blackness bothers me then, i'll dump it. right now, although very dark, it still has an amber tinge to it. still, it's dark.
 
Originally Posted By: Klutch9
One thing i can say is this: i maintain my mom's 2003 mazda6, 2.3l duratec. That oil also gets dark very fast, whether i use dino oil, MC blend, PYB, whatever. it's always dark very quickly. yet, her engine also looks spotless. i've heard that duratecs darken the oil up quickly (in most cases).


Same thing on my Mazda 3 2.0l.
 
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