Why Does Diesel Oil Turn Black? Why Is Diesel Oil So Dark?
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- čas přidán 25. 07. 2024
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If you own or operate a Diesel Engine you may be wondering why the oil gets so dark so fast? Is something wrong or is this normal? This video describes why the engine oil turns black and whether it is normal or not.
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I bought a Mercedes 240D years ago. I had the oil changed at my mechanics and a few days later checked it and it was black. I brought it back and asked if he changed the oil. He laughed and said you never owned a diesel before have you. I said no.
I was a mercedes mechanic my whole career. Yes, when you drain oil, you will never drain it all. So the new oil will be black immediately. This is due to the combustion material getting by the rings which is normal. It's just carbon,
@@georgecurtis6463 still a Mercedes mechanic?
@@dineshkrishna809 sorry, no. I retired 14 years ago.
@@georgecurtis6463 curious, what years were you a mechanic? I bought my first classic Mercedes recently: 1980 300SD
@@MrRjnr from 1971 to 2006. Course I probably forgot half of what I knew.
After teaching maintenance and repair vocational classes for over 27 years, I have to say that your presentations are well done and easy to understand. A couple of years ago I bought a 2003 Winnebago diesel pusher with a Cat 3126 330 hp which is starting to give me some problems. Since I do a lot of my maintenance and repairs I have learned a lot from your videos. On the way home from a trip the check engine light came on and the the rv slowed to 45 mph, after a few minutes of this the engine power came back up and I could go normal speed. After stopping, shutting the engine off, and sitting for a few minutes I restarted the engine and drove another 150 miles without a problem. After arriving home a month went by I took the rv to fill it up with fuel and drove it back home - - no problems! I start it once a month and run it a few minutes at a high idle to keep it dried out and lubricated. The last time I did it when I brought it back to low idle and the engine started bucking and shut down and now it won't start. Thank you for the videos - - I am now doing the trouble-shooting according to your advice,.
Thanks for putting this up, I bought my first Diesel Car yesterday and while I decided to do a little check just to make sure the dealer had done what he said he would do, shock horror when I checked the dipstick and the oil was black....so on to the phone and he assured me this was normal and from watching this you have confirmed that I wasn't being duped... Thanks
finally the information I was looking for. I bought my first diesel car 3 months ago and just checked the oil for the first time. I was starting to get worried, Thank you for this video!
Awesome video, I'm about to start Diesel school in the fall. Your videos have been very informative!
Adept Ape, I always find your videos informative, thank you.
I work at an oil shop, and just asked our tech this question yesterday when a diesel came in.
Great explanation on diesel soot or My Dirty little Kitty Cat! Keep rolling those great videos.
It is just plain fun to view these intelligent, well presented videos. At the fleet shop of my current employment, I have the luxury of allowing engines to drain over night, which allows one extra gallon of old engine oil from a 3406E to exit the pan. That, coupled with proper maintenance intervals and converting to CAT oil filters (from the imitations), resulted in the new oil amber color remaining visible much, much longer, plus when the oil is due to be changed the next time, it isn't so thick and black as before. Prior to this approach, one could fire up the engine and not really tell if the oil had been changed.
Unfortunately, that overnight situation is not available to dealerships and most fleet shops.
Chad Jessup Good move going to the Cat filters! There isn't a better filter for diesel engines out there in my opinion. Bullet proof design and premium flow with excellent filtration. I also use the Mystic 15w 50 oil in my 1996 W9 3406e and it takes a while for it to darken up. I also switched my thermostat to a 180° from Pittsburgh Power. I know it has nothing to do with the oil but I'm in the southeast where it gets pretty toasty as well as humid. So my engine runs cooler which also works well with the synthetic blend oil. My engine oil doesn't break down as fast due to my cooler engine temperature and you know heat breaks down everything in the long run. Also dynoflex muffler took alotta back pressure off the turbo which also runs cooler and helps the oil last longer. I also try to stick to one type of fuel (Pilot Mostly) but BP is nice and Quick Trip is ok with a shot of Diesel Clean. Just wanted to throw that in the pot...lol.✌
Do you know who make Cat filters?
Mystic brand oil is CITGO Oil Co from Communist Venezuela.
You don't necessarily want cooler temp, best is optimum temp, which would be whatever the engine came with new.
Allan McCullough Yes i know who makes Cat filters! Nothing to do with the performance and quality. And could careless what Venezuela do on their turf as long as children aren't working the oil fields and platforms! But here in the states via Citgo, Mystic oils are a great product. And my truck operates at a efficient and cool temp. 180° is real nice on the big kitty! Even under a load she still runs cool. They come with a 210° that starts to open at 190°. That might be good up north but not down here in the south. Especially the deep south where i run also. Had my tech run a full diagnostic. He couldn't believe the numbers on a 1996 first year E motor with over 800,000 miles. All my injectors were at the same numbers and very little blow by and decent fuel pressure. Gonna change the spring on the fuel transfer pump and bring it up alittle more. Cat engines are a whole different animal compared to Detroit and Cummins! Lots of moving parts.
Cat filters are made by Advanced Filtration Systems Inc. It is a joint venture between Caterpillar and Donaldson, and all they make is Cat filters.
Chad Jessup there is a liquid product that you pour in the oil and then you warm the engine for about 10 minutes and then you start to drain it. This product also makes deposits to left the engine with the old oil. Currently they are in cans (like pepsi lol) and one can is for 3 changes (1/3 of the can for about 5 liters). I think this combined with longer drainage is the best. But, if you drain longer then you have to pour the new oil and then actually wait 2 or more hours before the first start.
i did asways wonder why the oil did turn so black so quick,thank you for the info i can notch this off of my bucket list of things to know
I’m starting school in February 2020 and these vids are so helpful for an insight on what I’m getting into
Great video, you made it easy to understand and the visual aids were a plus
just what I wanted to hear. Switched from gasoline to diesel after a 30+ years of caring and tending my cars with passion. My new car is still under warranty and I really had serious doubts had the service guy really done the oil change (very tidy or no job: no oiled areas around filter base, drain plug, nothing). The color of oil though HAS changed (lost the amount of black) but far from what I experienced from my gasoline cars. Thx again, just the amount of information I needed for a piece of mind :-)
Excellent video! 👍👍👍
I agree much soot ending up in the oil is only a cosmetic issue since particle sizes are so small they are below clearances in rotating parts of the engine. Manufacturers have been observing dark diesel oil for a long time and if there was an issue effecting warranties ($$$$ for the manufacturers) the situation would have been dealt with long ago.
Short answer its a form of soot control in the engine and in capturing this soot it turns jet black and will "tattoo you" as lube techs say.
yeppers,,, done..!
I'm not tan, I've just spilled a lot of diesel oil on myself.
It's a nightmare to clean off of skin.
I call it finger paint.
@@Ratkill9000 When i checked the oil on a diesel car i tried to wipe the oil from the dipstick and it needed a lot of wipes to clear that off...
Thanks bro! Got a 2019 ram ecodiesel and checked my oil when I finally got it home...
Changed the oil immediately and after a ride around the block, my oil was black!
Since it's Christmas, I'm obviously not able to get into a shop...
Your video put me at ease! Thanks
very good educational video. thank you for sharing your knowledge and for educating yourself first. major Kuddos and Respect!
Thanks for the explanation. I just did an oil change on my Audi Q3 TDI and when topping up and checking dipstick I noticed the oil was already black. Only ever done oil changes on petrol engines before so that was a surprise. P.S. Subscribed.
Thanks for sharing . 1st time owner of a diesel and was wondering why the oil changed so fast.
Great video. All your videos are very detailed and informative. Really enjoy your channel.
+Jason McKee Thank you sir.
Like your style, clear concise and efficient. thanks.
Thank you. We bought a "new" 2004 Kenworth with my son in law. Now, without all the logs, who knows how often the oil was changed? So first things first, the oil was changed. 2,000 miles later it was changed again and after 4,500 miles the oil looks new - no soot. Some one basically took care of the truck. I'm going to watch more of your videos. Being neither a mechanic nor a driver I need your educational videos. FYI, we did have some problems with the fuel filters and we did what I did with my boat - add some tank cleaner and change the filter, repeat the process and then cut down on the cleaner until the filter looks clean when you cut it open - which we did for six filters. Last filter looks great after 2,500 miles so we just need to put a protocol in the log book so it is done on a regular basis. I think this truck sat for some time before we bought it so we will maintain it as though maintenance was not done for a while. Again, thanks for your videos. My 32' offshore fishing boat is gas so I have little problems storing it over the winter - just some gas stabilizer and off we go. I could not afford diesels or the maintenance at the time - nor now that I am retired.Sent you an email with a question: Could you expect a Mack with 775,000 miles on it have a catastrophic exhaust valve failure when the Mack engineers increased the HP from 415hp to 485hp? I would still appreciate an answer. Again, thank you so much for the videos. I have spent 53 years fixing middle market companies but I am grossly ignorant about things mechanical.
Changing the oil after 2000 miles, how does it feel to burn money?
Very well explained.....
I think this was an excellent vid.
We just bought a 1 year old 2500 HD Diesel…. Dealership said “we did and oil change”…. I checked it was black about 2000 miles after…
Was annoyed about it… found your vid apparently it’s normal after checking other resources…. Thanks makes sense. !
I’d never owned a diesel before this.
Accurate info. And yes, there is a bunch of oil left in the gallery. I have a 2001 7.3 F-350 and I believe both heads hold over 2 quarts total. 👍
Thanks for the post keep up the good work.
Excellent clear explanation, I've often wondered why that happens, thank you!
Nice informative video. I have 2 ,7.3 ford diesel motors. One turns black a short time after an oil change and the other is pretty clean looking even after 3000 miles.
7.3 have over a gallon just in the heads. Only was to drain is to pull high pressure pump. So the 3 gallon oil change is only 75% of the oil gets changed everytime. Owned multiple, but also installed a few under warranty at the dealership.
Very reassuring, thank you for taking the time to explain this 👍 👏
My engine takes atleast 2000km to show some blackness in the oil. (Now it's not a truck but a 2.4D Toyota Hiace... which absolutely runs like a dream) Every 8000km there's an oilchange and inbetween there's a enginecleaner additive.... But therefore i also mix some engine oil with the Diesel too make the fuel richer again.
I gues the engine is in great shape! Thanks for the video!
Toyota Hiace coupled with its cousin the Mitsubishi L300 must have been some of the most reliable pieces of machinery ever made in Japan. And they are working class vehicles too, meaning they are not botomless moneypits like most cars, but they bring money to your pocket too...
Good job on explaining for people who are not mechanical long for us who are lol , good job !
Thank for info that clears a lot of stuff up.
But the oil is black, that's not clear 🤔🤣
Soot actually is used as a pigment, they just call it carbon black. Look on any can of black rustoleum and you will see it listed as an ingredient. Thanks for the videos, you have a knack for explaining things scientifically accurate without bias, I am getting tired of people thinking they are diesel geniuses because they read how to turn up the fuel on their "cummings" engines in 8 lug magazine....!
Great vid mate
Cheers 🍻
Makes sense. I bored out a 360 to 366 and Rebuilt the entire thing. ran it with 15w40 diesel oil . its been 6000 miles and the oil is still clean as all hell. as to where out cat 3116 which we run with the same oil, gets dirty super quick. thanks for the video, man!
King Kai in
+frankyboy290 ?
I got a Pete 389 with C15 SDPXXX, I service it myself with intervals of 11k -12K miles even though CAT recommends up to 30K miles. As you know these engines have the DPF system on them, and after a while they become pain in the butt, and break the bank account. I bought the truck with 470K on the engine, can't remember how many hours, but, it couldn't have idled a lot because there is an TK APU on it that I call a life saver. At first, I used to change the oil at a service station, and every time the tech used to show me the deep stick after a fill up to assure the oil level, the oil used to be gold color, and it took a while before it turned black. After a couple of DPF clean ups, I started having all sorts of problems from clogged filter to bad sensors ...etc. I had to take care of the dam thing once and for all, and I did. Since then, truck runs, and sounds like a totally different truck, and when I change the oil, I have a hard time checking the oil level because it's so clean, and it runs like that for few thousand miles before it turns totally black, I would say somewhere between 7-8 K miles, BTW, the truck has 960K miles, and about 23400K operating hours.
Thanks for the video. Now I feel less worried.
Very thorough explanation, thank you.
After I drain the old oil, I add a cheap same grade oil and run the engine to operating temp, then drain and add oem oil to get rid of as much soot as possible. I know it's a bit of a waste of oil during process but it's been so annoying to see a black oil straight after a change. And it's much still cheaper than taking it to a mechanic.
And while you're at it, the next time your tank's empty, dump your dirty oil into your fuel tank before putting in the Diesel. You can save some money on fuel, too.
@@electric7487 I am keeping the old oil for poor people like you, so let me know if you can't afford it, i can post my old oil to you.
@@bmwsolutions7880 💀💀
30 second vid... it is soot in the oil.
Thank You for the info!
A local diesel shop (factory authorized by Mack, Cummins, Cat, and Detroit) has a regular customer. He runs compounds with add on lift pumps and more fuel mods than I can remember. It was an over-road 855 Cummins. When they ran it "full fuel" the oil consumption ramped way up. I theorized that since they were pushing so much fuel, the rings were not sealing and were actually floating between the rings and cylinder, thus more oil left on the cylinder walls.
What do you and the community think?
Thanks a lot for your explanations! I've some older Perkins engines around here (non turbo) with much idle time and the oil is almost instantly black. Now, I get why :)
I worked on an Oliver with one of those engines. Those are some of the nastiest smelling engines ever. Damn reliable though.
Somborn Perkins is very reliable engine but also a dirty engine, if the oil is left too long It will tend to turn solid, when omission testing came into annual testing Perkins had to have an exstension to meet the limits along with rolls diesels
Rolls cat and Cummings all had turbo lags whitch causes the puffs of smoke so often seen on films with temporary over fueling. black smoke ..equals excess fuel. Blue equals unburnt fuel
I also wondering the same issue but thanks for your explanation
Thanks for the info dude, learned something I've always wanted to know!!!!
Great video and explanation.
Very well explained!
Th Y for a very good comment.
Another thing to consider is that the full flow oil filter only filters out particles around 20-25 microns and larger, thus leaving all the smaller particles free to flow in the oil. In order to combat that, a bypass oil filtration system can be installed. These can filter particles up to 2 microns and smaller out of the oil thus giving it a cleaner look without the sooty look
But you run the risk of bypassing a big enough particle to wreck one of your main bearings.
The Jackmaster Classic claims 1 micron if you use their elements. My flat head Ford V8 has been converted to use a 4 1/2 inch roll of Scott 1000. That is as good as you can get. It wont get all of the soot. The oil in the old Ford diesel is as black as it can get. The oil feels good is slick and doesnt stain the skin. It passes the palm test. The full flow filter wll handle the big stuff. The small soot will be either filtered out or be diluted by new make up oil. I probably wont go over 30 hours without changing the toilet paper and adding a quart of new oil. I probably wont drain the oil. It uses heavy duty 30 weight off road diesel oil.
Thats a Ford diesel tractor
Good Explanation!
Thanks for sharing this information and all the very best
Nice! thx for explaining this
Cool video, great explanation 👍
finally found a proper explanation to my dilemma.
Thank you for the explanation. I bought my first diesel truck about 6 months ago. (17 250). Had the first oil change done by the dealer (Ford), and then checked the oil about a month after and saw it was black. I thought that they messed me up and basically charged me for an oil change that they didn't do. About a month ago I decided to change the oil myself using the same Motorcraft oil they used. Filter was changed as well. I was thinking maybe I need to delete the truck due to the soot in the oil. I probably will do that anyway but now I can relax a bit regarding the oil as now I know it's a normal process with these diesel engines!!!
Excellent video tutorial
very true about all the oil not being fully removed. I always drain my oil hot and leave it over night to refill with new oil and by the morning the pan is still dripping out some oil
Excellent video!
nice video, thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the info changing my oil in my 6.7 cummins ...what about synthetic oil with a pro long Oil additive because that's what I have been using I have had good luck so far
Very helpful. Thank you
On another topic, I'd like your opinion on the use of fuel injector cleaner products such as Seafoam in the cat C7 engine.
Great to no always wondered why this happens
I have just bought a 2009 Mercedes ml320 bluetec diesel engine it has 118,400 miles. I changed the oil and filter. It still runs like brand new. Used a 5w30 full synthetic oil. I also changed the transmission filter and fluid.
Thankyou for that.
Thank you for video. So how can we understand the oil quality is good or bad?
ck-4 and Fa-4 oil standard promise to improve oxidation resistance
bought a 6.5turo gm had a good mech but alas noone lasts forever didnt mid learning basics with gas motors eve rebuilt a few dpecils a new world thanks for the videoes learning a lot peace nick
Good video thanks
Pretty good video. But I would have touched on how dirty looking diesel fuel looks vs gas vs propane .
Obviously propane burns really clean and most oil change intervals can be extended vs diesel or gas . Great vid
Thank you! very good and simple
Thanks ! I was really wondering why my oil is allways dark even tho I change it every 10000 km ... ! Even tho the producer of the car says it should be changed at 30k km ...
All those intervals above 10000km/6000mi are crap, never changed oil above that in any of my cars and they run perfect without any issues. Oil is cheap but engines are expensive and car manufacturer's goal is nothing else but to make money
I change my car's diesel engine oil/filter about every 6 months (3-5k miles) and the dipstick is still black immediately after the change (which is most annoying). 30k km seems way too long considering what engine oil does. I suspect they state that as a sales ploy so you avoid the crappy dealership during the vehicle's warranty period, then it's someone else's problem further down the line.
Thanks man. I will stop worrying now coz i changed my after 6k km. Was very black 😢
Can prevent black oil by using a engine oil bypass oil filter down to 1-2micron and reduced fittings to limit flow,
Cat C-12 for example have these standard, they should do same for 15’s and 16’s, oil will stay amber with low micron filters.
Side note : EGR quadruples soot load in oil
Good video !
thank you very much ..... it helped me understand now
Thanks, this helped!
Supper explanation
Good explanation
so happy you stated that correctly " oil galley". not gallery, so often people state that wrong.
+chris keiley I say plenty of other stuff wrong.
I am sure I do plenty of things wrong. nobody is perfect, but "oil gallery" sounds like an art gallery for oil paintings or something
Adept Ape As far as I know a galley used to be known as a cooking area on sailing ships
No idea how this misconception got started but the correct term was/is "Oil Gallery."
If "Galley" is in common usage though and everyone knows what is meant, then I say, no harm done.
thanks 4 info, sot-info.
Dude, you rock
If you add a extra bypass filter, can't this help???
Also, if you have a pre-emissions engine (pre DEF) does it still dothesame thing???
Great topic, great video!!!
good explaination i like
I'm a veteran and would like to say well done on your vids, my friend... Have you done a clip on slow diesel performance, especially at roundabouts and junction stops, plus why putting petrol to your diesel will rectify, miraculously, your poor performance, as there is a good reason/// Many people, who have put petrol in their diesel, may have found this fact out/// I did, when I was a rookie, and wondered why this happened// I know now, why it happened, but tell the guys why this miracle happened... Best of luck from England...
5:36 Having used activated charcoal (which is carbon) to brush my teeth a couple times and having a shirt still stained with it, I can confirm this.
Did it whiten your teeth?
@@heavnxbound I don't know, as I didn't use it for very long nor did I pay attention to that when I did use it
Good info
Maybe soot could be used to make printer toner? lol
+BigDish101 You could be onto an environmental gold mine there.
Someone get this guy a go fund me
ye historically black ink was just carbon from soot
It's used for traditional and prison tattooing. Though obviously that's not Diesel soot :p
Could you do two oil changes with an el cheapo oil (in specifications ofc), run the engine and then after the two changes put the good quality oil inside? I am speaking about doing this procedure once you buy a used diesel or about every 5 years or so. Would it be much less soot remaining inside the engine?
I've had a number of diesel cars and light trucks as well as small diesel tractors and yea the oil went black fast, I even had a MB with an added Frantz toilet paper filter and that was no better. The exception to all this was my Ford Excursion with the 7.3 L turbodiesel, the oil in that was always cleaner than in my gas engine cars and would be cleaner at 9000 miles than my MB was on the day after a change. The Ford had a big crankcase and a BIG filter but even so, the MBs had fairly big filters too and they were black. My mechanic also had the Ford and his oil was clean too and he did a lot of heavy towing with his. Ok, can you explain this or know somebody who can. My go to oil is Shell Toris 15/40, good stuff.
I always thought it was the very high compression that diesel engines run with that causes that blowby as GDI is directly injected into the cylinder on gasoline engines and their engine oil remain clean for at leash 2500km
Centrifigual filters help alot with removing all the carbon/soot out of the oil
Good info. In 1963 I put a toilet paper filter on my nearly new Rambler American flat head 6. Used Delo 100 W 30. The oil went from dirty and black to like new and stayed that way. I thought the same would happen with the Peugeot diesel. It wasnt going to happen.
my mk5 golf variant from 2009 is producing soot while accelerating and i love it also the oil is pitchblack after a couple kilometers
The company I work for has 3 Kubota four cylinder 57 hp Diesel engines. One of them has a rough idle when warm and it sounds like it's running on two cylinders, but when it's revved back up, it runs fine. I don't see excessive amounts of soot billowing out the exhaust, but there is a thick lining of it in the exhaust pipe. It has close to 5,000 hours of use, and the air filter, oil and oil filter are changed every 400 hours. Would worn fuel injectors be the cause of the rough idle?
Is it a good idea to add a cleaner before to do the oil change and thin it out ?
What's your opinion on the automated manual gear box have driven them and hate it so slow to change and at a rounder bout it dose not know what gear to be in ,when you apply the brake the clutch disengages the time delay in so bad is this just a standard gear box and clutch with a air shift system ,automatic is far far better may cost more but worth paying the extra $$$ great videos keep up the great work thanks for down under
You'll get darker oil quicker during normal running and not idle, higher combustion pressure = more blowby and also more fuel injected to create soot.Also, combustion products create acidic mixture (especially if there's a lot of sulphur in the fuel) so its important to have a high TBN (Total Base Number) rating in your oil to make sure it neutralises this and keeps the engine corrosion free
neardood1 Idling a vehicle from start-up also means the components haven't expanded due to heat yet. A great opportunity for blow-by. This is likely what he is referring to.
Thank you 😊
Try a little bit of that orange hand cleaner to help your dirty work wear and oil spots before you put it into the washing machine. Works great!
That pretty much explains it. I dont normally drain oil. I change the toilet paper filter and add a lot of make up oil. I am keeping the oil as clean as possible and diluting the soot too small to be filtered out. If I cant stay ahead of the submicronic soot I will drain the oil. Its easy on the Pontiac. I cant see the soot on the dipstick. I can see it if I put it in a gallon wine jug. I normally change the toilet paper and add a quart of oil every 6.000 miles on the Pontiac. A lot more often on the Ford diesel tractor. Some bypass filter makers mislead by showing the oil before it naturally gets black.