LB7: oil is black in one day is this bad?

hondarider552

Getting faster
May 28, 2008
10,627
2
36
34
Arizona
I could run 2500 miles on my LBZ with the oil still being honey colored. Why you ask? Because I changed my oil every 1500 miles to "clean up" the soot in the oil. It worked, and I do the same on my LB7. Chnaged the oil when I got it, have put 900 miles on it since, oil is still golden. :thumb:

The black is froem the soot. The more soot you have in the system the faster the oil gets black.
 

Burn Down

Hotrodder
Sep 14, 2008
7,092
28
48
Boise Idaho
Dozerboy is right, its mostly soot that turns diesel engine oil black. Mine will stay a nice dark honey color for a few thousand miles, but I also run a FS2500 bypass filter. I can't remember what the micron rating is .9 I think...

I would guess that the rings are little better sealing on some these trucks that the oil is staying cleaner. Maybe even a little cleaner tuning is helping as well. For sure having the EGR blocked will help. Driving in dusty conditions will blacken your oil up to (suspended dirt particles in the oil)
 

hondarider552

Getting faster
May 28, 2008
10,627
2
36
34
Arizona
The color of the oil is, IMHO a good indicator of how well someone takes care of their engine. Say you do an oil change, pour new oil in, run it ande check stick, oil is as black as when it came out, seems like you need to change your oil more often to clean up the deposits. Im partial to the whole "diesel oil is supposed to be black" theory, cuz my LBZ never was after 45k miles, and neither is my LB7, and it has way more fuel going in the engine than my LBZ did with egr/pcv
 

gr8shot

Practically stock
Apr 28, 2009
262
3
18
Grand Island, NE
My lmm would be black within 30 seconds of starting it after a change. Now my lb7 is still honey colored after about 2k miles. The egr has to have a lot to do with it. The lb7 has 210k compared to 120k on the lmm. But the lb7 is on the stock tune which is all but smoke free. The stock tune on the lmm actually smoked a bit under part throttle and a fair amount at full throttle. I duno if that had anything to do with it or not but its definitely more soot.

Sent from my old skool Droid
 

bluebowtie

duramax addict
Jan 1, 2011
62
0
6
Madison WI
Mine is golden colored with 12k miles in it. I send a sample in every 5k miles. I don't run a bypass filter or centerfuige. It used to be black 30 sec after first start up until I installed the blocker plate and rerouted the pcv. I also flushed the crank case with that amsoil flush stuff.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk while drinking a spotted cow
 

Chevy1925

don't know sh!t about IFS
Staff member
Oct 21, 2009
21,664
5,812
113
Phoenix Az
I could run 2500 miles on my LBZ with the oil still being honey colored. Why you ask? Because I changed my oil every 1500 miles to "clean up" the soot in the oil. It worked, and I do the same on my LB7. Chnaged the oil when I got it, have put 900 miles on it since, oil is still golden. :thumb:

The black is froem the soot. The more soot you have in the system the faster the oil gets black.

never worked that way with mine since new :(
 

BigDMax05

Peanut butter and ladies!
Feb 2, 2009
337
0
16
Indiana
I have had a couple lb7's that stayed clean for a couple thousand miles, and my lbz will get dirty real quick.
 

MACKIN

Smell My Finger...
Aug 14, 2006
3,948
1
0
Connecticut
Mine is black also immediately has lot to do with the volume of soot your making (incomplete burnt fuel) and the type of oil your running. So if you are running close to stock and a low detergent oil yours will stay cleaner longer.

Those that stay honey brown have to be running low detergent oil IMO. Myself I'd rather see it black knowing it's keeping it clean.

Another thing is there is pockets of oil left behind and in the pan. One time I drained my oil and jacked my truck to nearly empty the pan. Then I dumped three quarts (wasted money when oil was cheaper) in and let it run out. When I refilled the crankcase the oil stayed fairly clean but only for a few hundred miles.


Thats the only logical reason I can get behind to explain the fast to black oil. Your mileage may vary.
 

taylorbok

Member
Jan 31, 2011
113
0
16
I run royal purple and it stays fairly purple for a long time,

I would be willing to test out the fact that the detergents work better in another oil, what oil do you guys run that turns black quickly?
 

messejme

Jazzy, Me and Max
Mar 7, 2008
741
0
16
Branchburg NJ
I have been working on heavy equipment for 15 years and every diesel that i ever serviced had black oil Mack Cummins Detroit Cat Daewoo isuzu Nissan Kubota etc....,
 

speedmetal6.6

Dodge Destroyer
Nov 3, 2008
252
0
0
Gillette,Wyoming
I'm curious why it gets so black in the first place? I'm still somewhat diesel Retarded as far as the new ones go! I have had a few built gassers and the oil never got black! I'm just wondering what we can do to keep it cleaner?
 

gr8shot

Practically stock
Apr 28, 2009
262
3
18
Grand Island, NE
Its soot from unburned fuel. Best thing you can do is delete the egr if you have one and reroute the pcv if you have an lly or newer. Other than that I imagine smoke free or low smoke tuning will help since you're making less soot. It doesn't hurt anything though since the soot particles are so darn small. Its just some people like the look of clean oil vs black oil so they sleep better.

Sent from my old skool Droid
 

Dozerboy

Well-known member
Jun 23, 2009
4,892
470
83
TX of course
It has little to do with the EGR. The job of oil in diesel is to clean the soot out of the engine since what is what causes wear. I agree with messejme, been around diesel all my life and they all get back. If it gives you warm fuzzes to throw away good oil and change it every 5k so it doesn't turn black go for it.