So what probably happened?

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Put Pennzoil Plat. in a pretty dirty GDI engine at 121K. At 123K the oil was black. Changed it at 124.5 b/c I THOUGHT I smelled fuel in the gas. (Blackstone said different)

Took it to Toyota (free synth. change) and they used Valvoline MaxLife 5w30

Checked the oil at 2K (today) and its only a caramel color.

So did the PP clean up the engine so well that the Valvoline didn't have much to do as far as cleaning or

Does PP have a superior detergent pkg than MaxLife? So which might it be?
 
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PP is a very high quality GTL synthetic, with a strong detergent package. Odds are extremely good that it cleaned up most of what was gunking up that engine, which is why it turned black.

The MaxLife, while it does have a decent detergent package and quality base stock, probably didn't have nearly as much left in the engine to clean up, after the PP did its work.
 
Or.... the additives in PP darken when exposed to heat faster than in Valvoline.

There is no control; so no conclusions can be drawn.
 
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Originally Posted By: Johnny2Bad
Oil colour alone tells you very little. It's an unreliable indicator of anything, actually.


+1

However, there's a huge difference between black-looking oil with 2k miles on it and black oil with 7k miles on it. My old STI used to turn oil dark very quickly; however, the opacity changed as the miles got on. 7k-mile-old oil looked pretty gross and indicated pretty much depleted in UOA.
 
On the clean non-burning oil engine i dont find PP getting dark very fast, i find it stays in color longer than standard M1. However, it may not last that long, the PU i used is quite black and make engine noisy in 7k km.
 
Originally Posted By: gathermewool
Originally Posted By: Johnny2Bad
Oil colour alone tells you very little. It's an unreliable indicator of anything, actually.


+1

However, there's a huge difference between black-looking oil with 2k miles on it and black oil with 7k miles on it. My old STI used to turn oil dark very quickly; however, the opacity changed as the miles got on. 7k-mile-old oil looked pretty gross and indicated pretty much depleted in UOA.


This fits with my eyeball method. When draining, if I can see through the thick stream at all I know the oil had a bit of life left. If I drain and its tar black and opaque I know it's loaded up and used up.

I did an engine flush today and the drain came out opaque. That's what I expected even though it was just a 3k oci
 
Originally Posted By: simple_gifts
Or.... the additives in PP darken when exposed to heat faster than in Valvoline.

There is no control; so no conclusions can be drawn.
"PP" darkens remarkably slowly in my car, but so did previous oils (TGMO and Rural King, aka Warren synthetic).
 
Originally Posted By: JustinH
My hyundai GDI engine turns any oil black in 500-1000 miles.
I wonder why yours is so rough on oil. Mine still looks pretty good after 4,800 miles so far on this oil change.
 
I ran Pennzoil Platinum 5W-30 in my sister-in-law's Hyundai Elantra for a 5,000 mile interval and when I dissected the oil filter I was amazed at the carbon that was trapped in the pleats. I have never seen this engine produce any amount of carbon resembling this one specific interval.

I believe that the Pennzoil Platinum simply does an incredible job at cleaning the engine internals. The car is a 2002 model with 120,000 miles so it has had time to accumulate some dirt inside.
 
Originally Posted By: gathermewool
Originally Posted By: Johnny2Bad
Oil colour alone tells you very little. It's an unreliable indicator of anything, actually.


+1

However, there's a huge difference between black-looking oil with 2k miles on it and black oil with 7k miles on it. My old STI used to turn oil dark very quickly; however, the opacity changed as the miles got on. 7k-mile-old oil looked pretty gross and indicated pretty much depleted in UOA.


Reads like a fairly definite -1 to me.

I've got no such experience, but I'd say oil colour is a pretty good indication of oil colour, and it has to be caused by something.
 
Could be more dust in the air during last OCI? Could be many reasons.

If you try it again and it goes black, then it may just be how PP reacts in your engine. I don't agree that the level or darkness is the best indicator of how used the oil is, especially after such short OCI's.
 
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