Engine: Oil color

[Hawklover]

Now here is a curious (to me) fact of life(LOL)........I drained the oil in my car yesterday......had maybe 200 miles on it over the period of about 18 months.
The moment the oil plug was removed the oil poured forth with a coal color....and remained that way until about 75% of the crankcase was emptied......then the remainder of the oil turned a golden color, as if the oil was newly installed???

Any reasons for this situation???

[StudeRich]

The Engine must have been Cold and not run for awhile. I always drive a good distance and drain it as soon as I return from a drive, using rubber gloves.

That way all of the oil will drain, and it will be well mixed up and all one color. Yours has settled and separated, are you sure you are using Detergent Oil?

What Brand, Type and Weight was it?
Synthetic?
Synthetic and Dino Mix?
Dino Oil?
Were additives involved like ZDDPlus, Red Line with ZDDP, STP etc.?

[Hawklover]

OMG.......yes you are correct, the car was on the lift for some time before the oil was drained! I use Valvoline VR-1 20W/50 the only thing I add is one qt of MMO to the 5 qts of VR-1

The Engine must have been Cold and not run for awhile. I always drive a good distance and drain it as soon as I return from a drive, using rubber gloves.

That way all of the oil will drain, and it will be well mixed up and all one color. Yours has settled and separated, are you sure you are using Detergent Oil?

What Brand, Type and Weight was it?
Synthetic?
Synthetic and Dino Mix?
Dino Oil?
Were additives involved like ZDDPlus, Red Line with ZDDP, STP etc.?

[StarDiero75]

I used to use Valvoline VR1 racing oil. It has absolutely no detergent in it. I was informed about that about 5 months ago after id been driving my Ranchero for a year and a half on it. If you want a good oil with good zinc and detergent that aint gonna break the bank, try Rotella T4 either 10W30 or 15W45. I use the 10W30. $20 for 4 quarts. Not terrible. If you got some money to play with for oil, the Packard (instead of Cadillac hehe) of oil is Brad-Penn. Its expensive, like $12 a quart but its a racing oil and will do anything you ever need it to.

Yes the Rotella is a diesel oil but it wont hurt it to put in a gas engine, just cant do the reverse.

Good luck,
Ryan

[Hawklover]

Interesting....according to the Valvoline web site the VR-1 does have a small amount of detergent in it, I do know of the Shell Rotella 15W oil, I have used it when the VR-1 was not available. From what I remember, Studebaker "suggested" a straight 30 wt non-detergent oil when the Avanti was introduced, I could be wrong. Just wondering what the use of a non-detergent oil would present to the engine? The car is driven less than 500 miles in a year.

I used to use Valvoline VR1 racing oil. It has absolutely no detergent in it. I was informed about that about 5 months ago after id been driving my Ranchero for a year and a half on it. If you want a good oil with good zinc and detergent that aint gonna break the bank, try Rotella T4 either 10W30 or 15W45. I use the 10W30. $20 for 4 quarts. Not terrible. If you got some money to play with for oil, the Packard (instead of Cadillac hehe) of oil is Brad-Penn. Its expensive, like $12 a quart but its a racing oil and will do anything you ever need it to.

Yes the Rotella is a diesel oil but it wont hurt it to put in a gas engine, just cant do the reverse.

Good luck,
Ryan

[Hawklover]

Follow up............just got off the phone with Valvoline down in Kentucky........the tech assured me that all the VR-1 oil is high detergent.....just wanted to give you a heads up Ryan:-)

[Jeffry Cassel]

If you use Rotella you must --must-- add ZDDP

[StarDiero75]

I heard Rotella has plenty of ZDDP

Thanks for the heads up. Apparently my sources dont know what they're talking about

[StudeNorm]

All oil has ZDDP only in reduced amounts as per modern standards. Do a search and you will see this just as I have. The old oil was 1300-1500 ppm. Most new oil is 700-800 ppm. This is a bit low for our engines so I mix a hi ZDDP oil such as Amsoil Z-Rod with a good modern synthetic and maybe a 2-3 ounce shot of ZDDP additive (not the full bottle as on the label) then call it a day. If I had an engine that was hard on oil I would probably mix a discount oil with the Z-Rod.

Oh, yah. StudeRich is absolutely correct when he recommends running the engine until hot before you drain. It gets all the greeblies mixed into and then dumped out of the engine in one fell swoop, but be careful. Hot oil is nasty stuff...

[Hawklover]

Thank you for contacting Valvoline Product Support



The VR1 Racing Oil is actually a high detergent oil. At one time we did have a non/low detergent racing oil, but this has been discontinued. Both the synthetic and conventional VR1 oils will utilize a similar detergent package to our standard passenger car oils. This way you can still keep the 3000 mile drain interval that was the industry standard around that time. This product will be suitable for use in your 60's era vehicles, given that no catalytic converters have been added to the exhaust system. The increased amount of Zinc and Phosphorous can be harmful to these exhaust components, but if you do not have them, then there is no worry about using it.



If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us via phone at 800 TEAM VAL or by email at productsupport@valvoline.com for assistance.



Thank you and have a great day.

[T.J lavallee]

For normal driving any API approved motor oil works just fine. I've used NAPA 10-40W and a bottle of ZDDP for years. NAPA motor oil is in fact Valvoline. NAPA also has my Gold (top of the line) oil filter for my 59' 259 V8. All that for under $20.00. Why pay more for a "Racing" oil unless you really are going racing in which case spending a lot of money comes with the territory.

[Hawklover]

Why pay for a bottle of ZDDP when VR-1 already has it as part of its additive package???

For normal driving any API approved motor oil works just fine. I've used NAPA 10-40W and a bottle of ZDDP for years. NAPA motor oil is in fact Valvoline. NAPA also has my Gold (top of the line) oil filter for my 59' 259 V8. All that for under $20.00. Why pay more for a "Racing" oil unless you really are going racing in which case spending a lot of money comes with the territory.

[StarDiero75]

Im about to do an oil change next week anyway so this times nicely. I too use NAPA gold
So i can go back to just using VR1? No additives or nothing? This 65 Ranchero is my daily. Ill be doing the same to my 61 Lark when i finally get it drivable

[T.J lavallee]

Because my oil is $2.49 a quart and the ZDDP is $5.00 a bottle.My filter is $4.99. How much is the VR1? $7.99 plus your filter. Go figure. I too agree that the engine should be up to normal running temperature before flushing the engine to remove contaminates.

[T.J lavallee]

Why pay for a bottle of ZDDP when VR-1 already has it as part of its additive package???

Because my NAPA oil is $2.49 a quart and $5.00 for the ZDDP plus $4.99 for the filter. Your VR1 retails for $7.99 a quart plus your filter. Go figure. I agree that the engine should be up to normal running temperature before flushing the engine to remove contaminates.