Dirty Engine Oil

I had a great shop diagnose a slight ticking sound I had at idle. Seems they ruled out the major concerns but did note that the oil was very dirty. I had oil changed 4000 miles ago (0W-20). Any idea what may cause the oil to get that dirty? She has 123k on the odometer and I drive it fairly hard and mostly with nannies off.

The ticking major concerns I had were:
-faulty lifter
-timing chain tensioner
-serpentine belt tensioner

I anticipate next issue maybe at 150k will be the belt/tensioner. Anything else to lookout for? Water pump?
Thanks

 

Try 5w30, it will typically quiet the ticking down if it's just the normal lifter tick on these engines.

 

You had oil changed? The monkey probably didn't drain all the dirty oil at that time. Maybe didn't even change the filter. DIY is the way!

 

Driving it hard could do that, 4000 miles is a lot if your beating on it.

 

Yea... I agree DIY is the way. I have some constraints so I have it done and check best I can behind them. Took it to my go to for the diagnoses The Truck Shop San Diego https://sdtruckshop.com Great shop! Also yes, I need to throttle back some on it - but its so fun. Yew!

 

Send a sample to Blackstone Labs for analysis, go on from there...

 

Thanks. I was reading on here and considered it.

 

4000 miles into a 5000 mile oil change interval. Ya. It’s probably dirtier than clean oil.

 

-Doubtful.
-Maybe.
-DIY. Yes.

 

Hard to define “very dirty”, so ant really comment on that but, I just run 10-30 syn, it’s still 95 here no worries about it flowing, warranty is over and I’ve already blown any fuel savings with mud tires and skid plates. Stopped the ticking

 

100 miles before your next change, throw 8oz of SeaFoam in with the oil. Should help clean things out, which means the oil should look worse at that oil change. But it should look better at the next one.

 

This was the first thing that came to mind…

 

Thanks for the tip.