Sludge Jar

[garre1tt]

I just had to chime in and say that I have seen advertisements for a patented version of this.
The company was out of Montana up by Flathead lake. They had a full page pull out advertisement in the Great Falls paper a couple of years ago. It had me convinced and I tried to contact the company but got no response.
They used a media to help purify the gasses. Made sense to me that the cleaner the air fuel mixture the better the combustion.

Maybe some of the folks up in Montana know of the place?
Michael D

[afgunn]

By mistake (my daughter's mistake) HER '92 Ranger went 7000 miles on the last oil change and the oil on the dip stick was still only a dark honey color. There was about 1 cup of really black oil? in the sludge jar with some moisture and the beginning of sludge in the bottom. I am convinced - at least on a older gaser.

My brother that has the Silverado diesel now is about 2 1/2 hours away and I see him every few months. So, I will keep up with the sludge jar on it as well. The last time I checked, after 3000 miles, there was about 2 tablespoons of really black oil? in it and the motor oil was definitely staying cleaner than before but not as clean as the '92 Ranger gaser. But clean enough to make it worthwhile.

The condenser container can be made with 1 short piece of 4" PVC, 1 4" end cap and 1 4" screw in cleanout. Then drill holes for the in/out hose fittings and make the BB condenser. 3" PVC could be used as well since there does not seem to be so much collecting with a diesel.

[moondoggie]

Good Day!

Any news? It would sure be interesting...

I don't know how we missed it back when this topic got started, but of course the big reason diesel oil gets black is because of the sulfur in the fuel. Even though the sulful in diesel is now greatly reduced, it's still a big contributor.

I found that when I switched to synthetic oil (Rotella 5W-40), it takes longer to get dark. I attributed this to reduced blow-by due to better cylinder lubrication, but of course this is only conjecture.

Blessings!

[More Power]

Maybe some of the folks up in Montana know of the place?
Michael D

Yes, I read about the sludge thingy here in MT some time ago.... Personally, I wouldn't waste my time or money on it. Diesel motor oil gets dark because of an accumulation of soot. Diesel fuel these days is usually less than 10-parts per million sulfur. It's not sulfur than darkens motor oil used in diesel engines.

I've taken aparts enough high mileage 6.2/6.5 diesels to know that if you change oil every 3000 miles or so, there'll be little to no oil related buildup anywhere inside the engine. The 6.5 I pulled down a while back had zero accumulation. The 6.2/6.5 needs its oil changed about every 3,000 miles because of the gradual soot accumulation in the oil.

The Delvac 1 used in my 2001 Duramax stays honey colored over 7-8K miles at its yearly service. The Castrol synthetic used in my daughter's 2005 Chevy Equinox's V-6 stays honey colored through its yearly service as well. Not doing anything special otherwise.

Jim

[Hubert]

I doubt it will lighten the color of the oil. But how about keeping the intake appreciably cleaner? Not that big of deal on a stock truck but I imagine helps with intercooler.

Might help reduce any tendancy to build up crud/carbon on intake valves???

But I guess good filter and proper working CDR does ok but poor air filter and CDR might benefit???

[afgunn]

I doubt it will lighten the color of the oil. But how about keeping the intake appreciably cleaner? Not that big of deal on a stock truck but I imagine helps with intercooler.
Might help reduce any tendancy to build up crud/carbon on intake valves???

But I guess good filter and proper working CDR does ok but poor air filter and CDR might benefit???

I agree with Jim, the newer engines seem to stay much cleaner. My 2001 Montana (84K miles), 2004 Dakota (104K miles) and my 2002 Ram CTD (113K miles) all keep the oil clean for 5K+ oil changes. Must be tighter specs and/or better compression rings, less wear, better oils? I think how well it would work would depend on the age and condition of the engine. If you have some to more blowby, I think it would help.

The 98 and 93 in the sig below both collected some heavy black ?what? in the sludge jar but I did not keep either long enough to KNOW what the real story would be. The 98 I flushed with engine flush before I changed the oil and added the sludge jar and it was staying clean which it had never done before. BUT, was that due to the engine flush or the slude jar? The sludge jar was collecting black something!

IIRC, the 98 had a fitting for the CDR in the turbo tubing BETWEEN the air filter and turbo so, no filtering just straight into the turbo. The 93 CDR was connected directly into the intake manifold and when I had it off I washed a lot of black crud out of the intake.

I put a sludge jar on my 92 Ranger gaser and it kept the oil clean between 5K oil changes which it NEVER did before. About 1/2 cup of sludge was in the bottom of the jar at 5K. 1/2 of this sludge was brown with the other 1/2 on top being BLACK. It definitely worked for this gaser.

I have put a sludge jar on the Dodge because, from the factory, the breather tube just goes into a jar with some fumes/oil getting on the engine, radiator, etc., etc. And then drip onto your driveway!? And you have to empty the jar at every oil change - may as well empty a sludge jar!

Hope some of this helps.