Jack thanks for your reply. I think part of the problem was my sample method. It had been sitting for maybe 15mins cooling down, and I think i stuck the tube(thru the dipstick) all the way to the bottom of the oil pan and drew it up from there (i cut too long of a tube, sorry, first time!)

Also, just wanted to mention my car is a DIESEL. I've heard that these engines regularly take this long for everything to seat etc.

No amsoil is not a miracle oil, but it is one of the best synthetics out there. It has a lot of detergents in it. The car was previously run on OEM oil, syntec, then quaker state(dino). It was run for an estimated 12-15k on original oil(per mercedes' FSS service intervals, despite being a diesel) (i wasn't the owner at this point), so I believe it to have possibly been pretty gunked up inside. Diesels are hard on oil..

Any thoughts?

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2004 Ram 2500 Cummins HO
2000 Jetta TDI
1999 E300 (sold)