Added 4 qts. of oil! Where's it going?

[m5james]

Originally Posted by vivanov1

after you changed the oil seperator valve, did the mustard dissapear? how much was it to change the valve?

I6's have a funny flat area under the oil cap, so looking at the oil where it just sits and puddles there ins't a good gauge to see if the engine has sludge, mustard looking deposits, etc. If you wanna clean your engine, throw some ATF or an can of internal engine cleaner in before your next oil change. It'll clean all the guts of the engine, and the only downside I've seen is that it might clear the sludge from a slow leaking gasket and make it leak more...but then again you should be fixing any engine leaks regardless.

[JCL]

Originally Posted by m5james

I6's have a funny flat area under the oil cap, so looking at the oil where it just sits and puddles there ins't a good gauge to see if the engine has sludge, mustard looking deposits, etc.

I agree with the above, and I know that you made a distinction between sludge and emulsified oil (condensate) but it may be worth qualifying that traditionally, the emulsified paste (cheeze whiz, mustard, paste) isn't called sludge. I think of sludge as being black, and containing combustion byproducts, soot, acids, etc. That paste can solidify and can block oil passages, etc. It was a real problem on certain engine designs some years ago. It is caused by chemical interactions in the oil, and within the lubrication system. Sludge is not a common problem with BMW engines. It is most often used as a scare tactic by the sellers of engine cleaning products.

Sludge (the black kind) is hard to clean out of an engine, since it can harden. In comparison, the white/yellow condensate can be cleaned out by hot oil changes, without any additional additives, in many cases.

Because of the risks you note above relating to adding other products to the oil sump, I would stay away from them and simply change the oil once or twice before considering any oil system cleaning products.