DIRTY ENGINE OIL?

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For many years that phrase has been used. OK what does it really mean? Is it the result of many things coming together with the results of it LOOKING dirty? I assume part of it’s look is from carbon suspended in it. Then I wonder why in 2012 can’t decent filters remove the impurities. Just wondering.
BE WELL
 
I went from using HAMP oil filters in my Honda's (which is a Honda After Market Performance filter, built to Honda's specs) to using higher quality oil filters like Mobil 1 and Amsoil and noticed the oil staying cleaner on the dipstick longer then before, all else being equal.

Oil coming out of the bottle isn't crystal clear. If you pour some into a clear cup, you'll notice that it's actually quite dark even when new (Well, i've only come across a few that were much clearer then 90% of other oils i've seen)

Just because an oil gets dark doesn't mean it's bad. If you imagine all the things going on inside your engine, its amazing that it doesn't get BLACK FASTER!

If you add a Bypass filtration system, which is capable of removing EVEN MORE impurities from the oil then your regular full flow oil filter, then the oil will remain cleaner for even longer.
 
They could certainly make a filter that traps to a very small micron particle but that would reduce flow and/or fill up fast. Thus a bypass filter is the solution for those with the room and $$ to install one. If the particle size is small enough to flow with the oil through the bearings, then it would not be that bad.

So two oils could both look dirty, one having a lot of tiny particles and another having less in number but the particles being larger in size. So the one with the larger particle size would not be good for the engine.
 
When changing your oil....Just compare the color of the oil in the used filter to what comes out of the sump at your oci.

IMO...Usually the oil in the filter, for reasons of filtration, is thicker and darker than what will pour out of your engine.

This usually indicates that the filter is doing it job.

I've seen some oil changes on vehicles with very clean engines, where the oil that drops out of the oil filter during the oil change is "almost" the consistency of "Jello".

IMO...Again, it looks like the oil filter had done its job of picking up deposits and dirt during the OCI even though it looks like pudding.

Enough of deserts....lol....too early in the AM.
 
It's not just dirt. Oil is so well filtered by modern filters that something like 95% of the dirt in suspension gets filtered even in the most common filters, like base line fram or store brand filters. The better filters only add 1 or 2 percent additional filtration and useually have better bypass valves, which don't filter anything. Essentially it would be possible to change your filter every so many thousand miles and leave the old oil in. EXCEPT... However, engine oil is made up of other things that get depleted and consumed in the process of running your engine, called the add pack.
That's the little guys that float around and makes nice with your metal parts. When these buffers, neutralizers, lubricators and fortifiers are depleted the oil can start to do damage to your extremely tight tolerance engine, think of metal parts slamming into one another at very high speeds. And the extra heat created by the additional slamming called friction. Oil does a LOT to cool your engine and transfer that excessive heat to the cooling system which is detrimental to your engine.

Also,there is a thing called acid. It has a corrosive effect on your engine. As your oil ages acids accumulate in the oil and eventually become determent to the engine and your happy little party turns in to a bad acid trip! (see what I did there bad acid trip... LSD, I kill me!!)
 
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Thanks for the responses. I’m not so up on the tech of modern things, I still think of a cell phone as a leash! Back in my days MMO was about the only widely used additive as I recall and oil came in 10, 20, 30, and or 40 weight. Makes sense of not using a very fine sorting filter as it might get plugged too easily. I’m probably wrong but don’t most modern cars have by pass filters in them? In my ’42 Chev the filter was a cartridge and some people used a roll of toilet paper as the filter, but that was the “good old days.”
 
Many years ago CONSUMER REPORTS did an oil study (on NYC taxi cabs) and they remarked that the color of used oil in an engine is no indicator of condition of oil.
 
@ OP:

Welcome! YOu must have missed out a lot of technological progress RE: automobile technologies and developments.

Modern automobile engines (mainly gasoline engines): are full-flow, pressurised systems that feeds all the pressurised oil through the oil filter.

With diesel engines which, some of them also comes with bypass oil filtration systems.

Nowadays, oil filters typically filters anything over 15microns with over approx. 95% efficiency. This value was (if memory serves), determined by SAE through decades of testings and research and determined that anything insoluable solids of less than 15 microns does little harm to the engine itself.

One can definitely go fancy beyond that at an additional cost and economy of operations...etc.

Again, sit back, and enjoy!

Q.

BTW: I never believe in the need/benefits of such things such as adding stoddard solvent additives such as MMO, etc. into crankcase to upset the balance of the already chemically/additive-balanced modern motor oil. Just change your oil every 5000miles with national brand name motor oil and drive!
 
Originally Posted By: Donald
Leave the MMO (and any other snake oil) on the shelf collecting dust.


This comment should be a sticky here on BITOG!
 
Like Donald said, of course they can make a filter to make the oil look clean. But it would not flow enough, or be ridiculously expensive.
You want to see dirty oil?
Change the oil in a diesel, and drive one mile!

The way it works, it can be more of a color change than real harmful particles.
 
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Originally Posted By: visch1
For many years that phrase has been used. OK what does it really mean? Is it the result of many things coming together with the results of it LOOKING dirty? I assume part of it’s look is from carbon suspended in it.


If you are talking about diesel, it is carbon. If gasoline engine, no carbon and looks are deceiving.
 
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