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...? regardless, it burns no oil at all and it runs like a top.

i would do a few 4-5k oci`s first on the pu.then go longer. get the old crud out first.

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?

when in doubt, do an oil and filter change again if it makes you feel better.

Q.

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.

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.

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.

looks like you're using the sludge fighting properties that PU has been advertising!

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...

After 10-11K OCI the oil in my 07 Focus and Fusion only gets the dark amber colar.

My duratec doesn't dirty the oil quickly. And anyway, oil color doesn't matter. Unless it looks like it has milk mixed in. Then it's a problem.

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.