Black stuff coming out of oil filter

Um, nooooo. You may clean out some sludge and build up grime, but you will pretty well wipe out the lubricating qualities of the oil. And I think you know what that leads to.

Another online forum I participate in has a regular "contributor" who has the world biggest hack mechanic - who this guy idolizes. Anyway, the "contributor" posted up that he was having oil consumption problems, so he took it to his "mechanic." This guy flushes the engine (with 200+ thousand miles on it) with - wait for it - several gallons of Kerosene. Oh, it cleaned it out alright. Want to guess how the story ended?

 

The way I read it, these particles are coming out of the oil filter, they are not coming out of the oil pan. If this is correct, I believe the engine is neglected and your fresh oil changes are helping to clean out some buildup... sludge, carbon, whatever is built up in there. The oil filter is simply doing its job catching this stuff before it enters the oiling system. Short oil change intervals are not a bad idea for a while. An alternate approach would be running full oil change intervals but change the filter halfway through, and keep a close eye on the oil condition. Sounds like she's in good hands now, she'll be fine.

 

I hate it when the story teller leaves you hanging on the ending................

 

Boom.

 

He barely drove it, heck you only put 4k miles in the last 14 months. Second oil change are you changing every 2k? Looks like some build up broke loose.

 

Frequent changes with quality oil - I like full synthetic Pennzoil - then run them 3-5k while monitoring the level. I had great success with this method with my old Subie and my Taco.

 

This. You want to go slowly. When cleaning if a large chunk comes loose it can and will plug oil passages and the pump pickup strainer. Bye Bye engine.

 

I overheard someone telling a youngster how he puts a little atf in the crankcase to clean it. Youngster misunderstood, dumped the oil, refilled with atf. A few days later the engine was destroyed.

I do it to my air compressor, put in about 3 tablespoons, it holds about 2 quarts of oil. Run it a couple minutes, then change the oil.

 

@OldT Do you have a 4.0? Was that bottle used to catch the oil from the filter drain "cup"? Could it be that crap was sitting in the drain "cup" and did not come out of the filter?

 

He needed to rebuild the sludge? Ohmfg. I can imagine what it sounded like and it wasn't pretty.

And wow, I did not know that about seafoam thinning the oil out to the point of being useless. I usually throw a couple ounces in the oil with my last fill up of the gas tank before I change my oil.

 

Same here. Ive done the seafoam treatment plenty of times prior to an oil change in a bunch of different vehicles. I've never had an engine die on me yet. I personally wouldn't run seafoam 100% of the time in the oil, but I'm sure it's fine in the context here. (I do use it in every tank of gas in the chevy(sbc), but thats another story.)

 

Throw in a quart of Marvel Mystery oil, I believe it has a naptha base which makes sense it would help remove build up.
I only use Toyota oil filters where possible, and run Napa (Valvoline) Full synthetic because it goes on sale for $4/qt or less

 

Has anyone considered that is might just be some dirt and crap that got trapped inside the oil filter housing "drip ring" or whatever its called. OPs pictures show the dirt inside a cut up water bottle. Im guessing like most of us he used a water bottle to catch the oil that spills out as the filter is removed. I know mine is always filled with crap before I spin the filter off.

 

Lol, this is my sentiment as well. I've run a few vehicles over 300,000 miles and have been using Fram for over 40 years. I guess I'm just a dumb ass. I do buy the expensive Fram filters though. I'm am a skeptic about all the Fram bashing when it's likely that all the "Fram failures" were due to something other than the piece of crap filter.

 

I've been adding about 5/6 ozs seafoam before an oil change to both vehicles and haven't seen any issues. I let them idle for about 10 minutes or drive around the block, a city block.
I think it's like drinking, a little is good, but a lot is, well you know.

 

Would the VVT screens need replacing?

 

It very well could be the same scenario of "Ford trucks are crap", because they sell 800,000/year F-150s so they would have 8 times the issues if they achieve the same reliability as Tundras which only sold 100,000/year
(The Tundra 5.7 is not as reliable as the 4.7 2UZ million mile Tundras, I see too many 2007/2008 Tundras for sale with blown up 5.7s and pretty low miles 100,000 to 150,000 miles)
But I do put weight in dissecting new filters to see how they are made, and independent testing of flow and filtration

 

Maybe yes, if they are seriously gunked up or damaged. I would at least inspect them and clean out any debris with carb or brake cleaner. Also pull the solenoid and make sure it's not varnished up too bad and doesn't have any debris or carbon buildup. I used to inspect my VVT solenoid and oil screen (intake only) every 30k but they were always clean so I don't bother anymore, just keep on top of regular maintenance.