Bubbles on dipstick?

[PalmerWMD]

Anyone else have bubbles on their dipstick right after shut down?

I had them and thought it was due to a overfill conditon,... but my overfill conditon has been correcetd and at least a couple of bubbles are there on shutdown.

So anyone else have them?

I am trying to deteremine if its normal for VH45DE or not.

Fred..

[1qckser]

Fred I have seen them on my old SE-R but it had 238,000 miles on it, the stick only had a couple and I too thought it was a lil odd.

[elwesso]

Ive seen them on my transmission dipstick.......

[squeefoo]

No, never seen it on either Q, Yes on the trans. on other cars though. -Squee

[VimyJ]

Never noticed them on the J.

[elwesso]

What does that actually signify when there are bubbles on the dipstick......

[PalmerWMD]

Bubbles during engine operation <may> reduce lubrication.Of cpourse tehre are always bubbles on an air liquid interface but this is what anti foaming additves are meant to overcome.

Generally I am concerned if this is normal or not. If not normal it may signify a leaking gasket near the oil pumpm intake causing air to be ingested reducing lubrication in my engine.

But I cannot say for sure if that is significant in any way for this engien at this time.

Fred..

[Tgvince]

Fred, I saved my high mileage turbocharged SE-R engine with an oil analysis. I sent it in after i had swapped in a set of new cams and installed the turbo...just for a baseline @ 113k miles:). I got a call from them (blackstone lab) and the guy was like you've got a problem...Turned out that i had two rocker arm oilers that had gotten plugged and was causing the cam lobes to wear due to not enough lubrication. Anyhow i say send in a sample and maybe youll now if youve got a high concentration of iron do to low oil pressure...Just a thought. Could be the best $20 youve ever spent.

Terry

[PalmerWMD]

I generally check my oil only after at least a half hours on standing on even terrain, only way to get a good accurate+ constent reading on VH45de.So usually i never had a chance to see any bubbles if indeed there had been any before.

just now i checked my oil at gas station approx 2 minutes after shut-off (which was shortly after a 110mph run-in with a Z28)with no bubbles in evidence.

Shortly after I got home I checked again and say 3 really small ones.

Terry: I dont expect any plugged passages as the milage is low and the engine very clean internally.

The consensus seems to be that this is not normal, however since I correcetd my overfill condition it appears to happen not very often and only involving a couple <very> small bubbles.

Fred..

[AZhitman]

Terry - Who did your oil analysis?

I'm interested, especially if it's local.

[PalmerWMD]

http://www.blackstone-labs.com/free_test_kit.html

also:http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/terry.html

Fred...

[Tgvince]

It was blackstone labs that did my analysis...I still do it about every 3rd oil change. Ive got 157K on my stock engine...a little over 40k is with the turbo.

Fred...If your concerned...regardless of the mileage it could point out a problem. I had no idea i had a problem....Saved my butt:).

Terry

[DSSA]

Probably a waste of timing asking this, but just in case..

The oil is still completely amber or black, correct? It's not starting to look like chocolate milk colored or anything is it?

Frothy, milky, oil is most likely a blown headgasket. You didn't say anything about the color of the oil though, so I'm hoping that it's because it's still the correct color.

[PalmerWMD]

The oil looks brand new its about 800 miles old, MOBIL1 0w-40.No milkiness of any kind.

Fred..

[squeefoo]

Fred, maybe it's the 0w-40 (!?) when we got some of that in we looked at it and decided it was too thin looking, I'm very sure you researched it, but I don't trust it. SuperSyn? There is a Mobil 1 motorcycle formulation MX4T (10w-40) w/o supersyn, probably zinc-phos. since there are no cats on bikes (yet). Of course the Delvac 1 5-40(which I use) has zinc. BTW how the heck do they figure these huge viscosity ranges, 0-40, 15-50, molecule chains only curl so much! Not to sound like an old straight-weight farmer, but all this newfangled oil crap scares the hell out of me.

Squeefoo

[PalmerWMD]

Squeefoo:

There was much wondering about thos ranges as well.Now 15w-50 is not as big a range as it may sound since the base oil is stll pretty thick very few VII"s must be used.

The 0w-40 starts out with a PAO base with very hi innate VI and also doesnt need as many VII"s as one might think.

Proof of this is the fact it meets MB229.3 and MB 229.5 and BMW longlife.

To be approved for BMW longlife an oil needs to be able to stay in grade prettty well.

Outside of Turbop application the M10w-40 is one of teh very best oils money can buy off the shelf.

Even so you brought up a good point, that I will investiagte furtehr.

Its a good oil inn so many ways, perhaps there was some room made more VIII or SS additve that came at the expense of anti-foaming?

My next oil change I might try another oil.

Fred...

[squeefoo]

Fred, The reason the thought came to mind was that upon hearing of the M1 0-40, and that the bubbles I personally (and otherwise) have witnessed were on trans dipsticks- where the vis. is 7 - 7.5 @100C. I thought I saw a correlation. Good luck! -Squeefoo

[PalmerWMD]

Squeefoo and all others:

Thanks for the idea/pointers :thumbup

In the meantime I also talked to Dennis and he felt it was no big deal.

Since he is <the man> on these things, I am much relieved.

Fred..

PS: The 100C vis of M1 0w-40 is 12.5-12.8 cStA viscosity of 7-7.5 is like a 20 weight..

[Bayarea Q]

Hey Fred,

I was curious what Q45 Tech told you about the bubbles....as I noticed them as well. I noticed them in my 95Q as early as 50K...So I was concerned. Are you going to switch oils?

Thanks,Robert

[PalmerWMD]

No I wont switch oils,Dennis felt it was no big deal at all.

Back in the day, I had heard that this is normal, when reading an oil immeditaly after shutdown ( when u r supposed to wait ).

My concern had been piqued, by the fact that I dont remmeber ever having seen this before, until this new engine install, but then, I never check my oil at shutdown.

Also on a "only oils" board I frequent, I was advised that this may be bad/ not normal. but I trust dennis' judgment above all others.

Fred..

[Bayarea Q]

Thanks Fred!

Hey, have you done any write ups on your new Q? If so, please point me in the right direction.....would love to read about some of your expiereinces with both the nitrous, and that rear end!

Have a great day,Robert

[PalmerWMD]

Robert:

Not yet, I am still ironing out a redline issue, once thats done I will post quarter mile times with a 100 shot (vs 175).

New engine runs strong though.

Fred...

[sultan]

i get the bubbles when i check the oil immediately after shut-off, but that is either due to checking too soon or overfill (i normally put 6 3/8 err.. 1/2, but 6 quarts is all i need?)

fred, i assume everything checks out ok on the consult? are you sure the tach shows the correct engine rpm?

[PalmerWMD]

Sultan,I had Dennis look at it. but since the ECU JWT sent with their package on is for a TCS car (and mine is non TCS) it throws a hard code and the consult can't read anything until u clear a hard code.

I need to get another ECU to send to JWT and then maybe we can track down the problem.

Fred...

PS:6.0 quarts exactly on all VH45DE's, some older manuals state 6 3/8th or some such, but that is now known to be incorrect.

[squeefoo]

OOps. Mobil1 MX4T 10/40 has supersyn. It doesn't say on the box, so I popped open a case and the bottle says supersyn.Invalid assumption. -Squeefoo