Welp, the cleaning phase is finished.
I ran 2000 miles seeing I went over the 1500 mile suggested interval while going through a long 7 hour drive and I could not stop to do anything on the highway.
To finish off the cleaning phase, the engine underwent a 850 mile drive within 2 days. Lots of long easy going highway running at 55-60mph on cruise.
Oil pressure is up, and I know it is time to give this baby some new oil and a filter. She deserves it.
So here we go.
The oil seemed to get dirty earlier on in the cleaning phase and then start to get a little cleaner as the miles piled on. This could be because the initial cleaning of the AutoRX and the filter taking several passes to clean the oil up a bit. Oil looks low here because the truck is up on ramps when the shot was taken.
For only having 2000 miles on the oil, the oil draining out of the filter was really dark to borderline black and didn't flow very well even with the engine completely warmed up to temperature before the change.
Oil filter was replaced with a Quaker State (Purolator) oil filter and a 4.5qt load of Formula Shell Conventional Clean Engine Formula 5w30. Got it really cheap for a US$17.50 for a case of 12 from Costco. I didn't want to go bargain basement with the oil.
The oil was changed and the engine was fired up and WHAT A DIFFERENCE!
Oil pressure was down by 1/4 and valve train noise was slim to none. I was sitting outside of the truck and could hear the fuel pumping whining like they do on GM trucks and I thought I had a problem but then I noticed that I could hear it now because the engine had quietened down that much. My baby was crying for an oil change.
So the oil was changed and the Fram Extended Guard Filter was drained and set on the workbench for disection. I used a hacksaw and in 5 minutes it was cut open. It was amazing just how much oil was still in the oil filter. I still had about 250ml drain oil through the new cut and that is after I drained the filter for 20 minutes into the oil drain pan. Sign of a good ADBV.
First thing is first, this oil filter is built like a brick poop-house. Solid, rigid and heavy. Here is the can, and the filter draining some more. The silicon ADBV was intact and the filter was in perfect order.
For 2000 miles, the oil filter sure was dirty and dark compared to the light orange color is has in its new and dry stock form. Let's rip it apart shall we.
To do this I took a hammer handle and bashed the metal end caps off instead of wasting time cutting it gently off. It worked and in 20 seconds, I got this.
The fibrous synthetic filter media is backed by a support screen mesh which was REALLY strong but easily peeled off of the media for closer inspection.
Although there was no visible chunky sludge, this didn't surprise me at all. The engine has been taken care of. But the filter media was actually pretty well plugged up with fine grit and liquified sludge. Wanna see? Think I am lying, well, wait no longer.
Just scraping the inner seams of the filter media unearthed embedded sludge and grit in the filter. The whole filter was literally plugged with this stuff throughout.
A good sign that the sludge was liquified properly and deposited in the Extended Guard's large filtering capacity media.
To anyone doing a cleaning cycle, USE THIS FILTER! Its' capacity far surpasses and standard paper media filter for cleaning and removing elevated sludge levels in the oil.
I switched to a Quaker State filter for the rinse cycle to lower my oil pressure and allow proper oil flow with my remote oil filter setup. Since the swap, pressure is down for sure.
And now, the other noticed differences
Other than the lower engine noise, fuel economy is higher than I have EVER witnessed in 3 years owning this truck.
With the EXACT same road trip and fuel used, my max fuel economy this time of year was 21mpg.
For this trip, on the way to my destination, I got 24MPG! On the way back, I got 23MPG!!!
The economy difference between going there and coming back was probably from the air temperature being 10c lower than it was when I was going down to my destination.
But still, this is an improvement.....
The Rating for this truck is 18MPG city / 21MPG highway. The truck weighs 4600lbs.
I will keep you updated seeing the rinse phase is still to come.
I will keep you posted.