Teaching my 16 year-old how to do oil changes... sent him to the store to get oil and a filter for my 97... got a one-gallon of 10W40 (what I've been running for years) and 2qts of 2W50... I didn't realize that he had mixed the two until this morning when I went to start the truck and it started burning oil like mad. Big plumes of white smoke... shut it down and checked the trash when I found the two types of oil...

...I"m concerned that this is more than just the oil sitting on the valves and burning off. I'll be rechanging it tonight (heh - in the snow no less), and thinking of putting some lucas' oil stabilizer in there as well to try and minimize the damage, but it would do my heart a lot more good if I could hear SOMEONE tell me "don't worry Jay, it'll be fine once you change the oil and filter again with the right oil".

Thanks...
Jay

 

I sure can't see how that's your problem. I've seen many people add different brands and weights between oil changes with no adverse effects.

Did you check the dipstick to verify he put oil in the right place?

Oh yeah, you might want to supervise next time. Or tonight.

 

Heh - yeah, he put it in the right spot Everyplace else I look says vehemently not to mix weights, but won't tell me the ramifications if it happens either inadvertently or otherwise. Sigh.

 

Mixing is not a problem. You just end up with something in between the two weights. That is not the cause of your smoke. He most likely spilled some on the exhaust manifold and that is what is burning off.

 

Potentially... but the smoke is coming from the exhaust pipe, not from the engine compartment.

Now, I've read on some of the RV sites that mixing oil weights will add to the consumption of oil for the engine... now, this wasn't happening until this oil change occurred... what other reasons would there be for this happening...

 

maybe he got ahead of himself and started without oil?

 

Nope - I wont let him start the truck until I've checked the oil level, plug and filter status...

Just found a reference to the PCV valve crapping out and causing this issue as well. So when I head to the store in a little bit, I'll be grabbing that as well... anyone heard anything on this as well?

Thanks again for all the replies... some fresh 10W40, a new filter, and some SeaFoam is on its way...

 

Mixing the two oils has done relatively nothing, other than creating a weight nearer the 11/40 than the 20/50. (something like 14/44 or so) The only ways to get serious white smoke from the exhaust are 1) to much oil! 2) Blown head gasket 3) Its real cold outside and you just started it.

I can't think of anymore, beyond those that we cause with injector cleaners and other products that would directly make it smoke.

 

Like everyone else said...mixing the oil won't do any damage. Its not like mixing oil and water where they will seperate out....more like mixing coke and dr. pepper.

No harm...no foul on mixing oil.

 

This happened in my friends car when he got some bad gas (had a little bit of water in it) and it froze in the fuel line. It blew smoke everywhere and seeing how you are in a very cold environment it could be worth looking at, but I don't really know all that much. Just a guess....

 

I'm wondering if your just being paranoid and seeing condensation. What's the weather like there? Here in Alaska where the temp is just under 0 F right now, I and every other car/truck on the road make huge white plumes that can actually make it difficult to see at intersections. School buses in Fairbanks (where it can get really cold!) have exhaust stacks that go up above the level of other drivers becuase of the visual impairment.

-If it is smoke, likely the oil change had nothing to do with what's causing it.

-If it is smoke, smell it for crying out loud and tell us what it smells like.

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