Amsoil turning red?
 

I have a 96 4runner 3.4L v6, recently made the switch to amsoil at 116k miles. I did not use an engine flush product prior to switching. Two thousand miles later I have come to notice that the oil is starting to turn red. Is this normal?

There is a metal strip affixed to the inside of the valve cover that appears to be be somewhat corroded; when I drag my finger across it, small (what appear to be) black metal particles are scraped off. The strip in question is visible through the oil fill hole in the left valve cover, and seems to run the length of the cover. I am afraid that the detergents in the oil may be liberating rust and these shards of metal and dragging them down into the engine oil. Is this something I should see about replacing, or am I just paranoid?

If any kind soul would like to give me some insight, I can email you some pictures of what I'm talking about.

Thanks

Head Gasket
 

The coolant that came in my truck is red. And Toyota cautions us to only use Toyota oem coolant, which is red. If your coolant is red and your oil has turned red I would suspect you have a leaking head gasket. I would verify this and have gasket replaced before further damage is done.

i would't jump to that stage quite yet. what you're probably seeing is some of the accumulated gunk in the engine being cleaned out from the synthetic you put in.

dont be offended but i have to ask..........are you sure you didnt add auto tranny fluid in there by mistake ?? (cause it tends to be reddish in nature).

im sure someone here can verify if the oil has a red hue to it or not.

My coolant is green and my head gaskets were replaced about nine months ago as part of the factory recall, so I'm pretty sure thats not it.

I've made some pretty goofy mistakes in my time, but I'm 99.9999% certain that I did not put transmission fluid in there. Unless Amsoil started putting trany fluid in their bottles for synthetic motor oil, of course.

My main concern is that I can see a coroded piece of metal affixed to the inside of the cylinder head cover and I'm worried about bits of rusty metal being cleaned off of it and getting circulated with the engine oil. I checked my Haynes and an online parts supplier with what appears to be all of the factory parts diagrams online (1sttoyotaparts.com) and I can't find the name of the offending metal bit. However, on the 3.4L it is the first thing you see when you unscrew the oil fill plug. I'm trying to decide of this metal piece should be removed, replaced, or cleaned before I do my next oil change.

Thanks for the replies folks

you might wanna try reposting this in the main forum.

i think that lots of people dont bother looking at these smaller ones so you might find a more sutable response from someone there.