Really dirty engine

Ultradog MN · Jul 12, 2011

I'm working on a 3 cyl Ford engine here. A basket case that I bought and I'm putting it back together. I don't think I've ever seen an engine as filthy inside as this one is. Push rods, rods, rocker arms,timing cover everything had like a 1/32" layer of waxy grease on it.
I'm wondering what would have caused such deposits inside.
Maybe running the engine cold - no thermostat?
Use of nondetergent oil?
Makes for a lot of extra work just cleaning the thing up.
Just curious.
Thanks

Charlie M · Jul 12, 2011

My guess would be running non detergent oil and never changing the oil. I know some old timers that never bothered to change oil - just topped it off when needed. I bought a basket case W30 in that condition.I put some kerosene in mine and towed it around for a while to get it to circulate - cleaned it up pretty good.

Anonymous-0 · Jul 12, 2011

Your best oils will do the same thing if its never changed.Have known several guys that never changed oil and that's what there engines looked like inside. You should have the block boiled to get crud out of it.

elmersooner · Jul 12, 2011

I bought an old buick from a little old lady that just drove it to church and the grocery store---no more than a mile from her house for 30 plus years...I knew her son pretty well and he's the one that changed her oil every year whether it needed it or not. he used to use non-detergent oil and then detergent... since the car never warmed up to operating temp the gunk in there was unbelievable...430 buick was as plugged up as it could be. I soaked and scrubbed before I brought the block to the machine shop for a vat treatment.

Anonymous-0 · Jul 12, 2011

I saw an engine in a Ford truck with the valve covers off that looked like it was full of finely shredded rubber. Took 3 engine flushes and it still wasn't clean. Some idiot used synthetic oil but hadn't changed it in over 30,000 miles.

Anonymous-0 · Jul 12, 2011

I saw an engine in a Ford truck with the valve covers off that looked like it was full of finely shredded rubber. Took 3 engine flushes and it still wasn't clean. Some idiot used synthetic oil but hadn't changed it in over 30,000 miles. He brought it in because it was acting sluggish and was down on power.

dej(Jed) · Jul 12, 2011

(quoted from post at 11:16:33 07/12/11) I'm working on a 3 cyl Ford engine here. A basket case that I bought and I'm putting it back together. I don't think I've ever seen an engine as filthy inside as this one is. Push rods, rods, rocker arms,timing cover everything had like a 1/32" layer of waxy grease on it.
I'm wondering what would have caused such deposits inside.
Maybe running the engine cold - no thermostat?
Use of nondetergent oil?
Makes for a lot of extra work just cleaning the thing up.
Just curious.
Thanks

Oil is blended just like gasoline these days. They ad as little additive as is possible to get away with. It can have all of the API stamps on it you want,it doesn't mean it actually meets the spec. It just means they bought a license to put the seal on it. It is essential that oil and filters be changed on a regular basis.

D15DAN · Jul 12, 2011

In high school I took auto shop one year. A guy brought in a old car(don't remenber what it was)for a oil change. I pulled the plug and was a little confused at first as the oil didn't come pouring out. After a few seconds what looked like thin grease started to ooze out. I showed the teacher and he said just let it drain. When I left to return to the classroom it was still slowly oozing out. I bet the guys at Express oil change just love people like that.

2x4 · Jul 12, 2011

Maybe they used cans of very old oil. Motor oils were once made by 2 processes; cold or hot. Big refineries used the best method: hot. Small refineries like Quaker State & Pennzoil used the cheaper cold process, which left a lot of thick waxy gunk in an engine. Mechanics could look in an engine & tell which type of oil the car owner was using. Refineries quit using the cold process by the early "70's.

ASEguy · Jul 12, 2011

Sludge in an engine usually means that it"s been too long between service intervals. The additive package in the oil has been depleted and therefore sludge develops. Running an engine at too low of a temperature also causes sludge formation over time, but only after the additive package is depleted. I would go through everything in the engine carefully even places you can"t see because sludge goes everywhere. Hope this helps. Gerard

Spook · Jul 12, 2011

One of my jobs at Cadillac Motor Car Company was to measure parts from field returns - engines that failed in the field. I remember one that came in from west Texas. 60K miles, still had the OEM factory oil filter. The oil was so thick that it had to be spooned out of the pan, it was like jelly. You could actually feel the grit in the oil. The engine was still running, but rough. The cam had it's lobes almost all rounded off. The car was less than 2 years old. They must do a lot of long distance driving out there.

Don-Wi · Jul 12, 2011

My 1600 before I rebuilt it had about 1/4-1/2" of gunk in the pan when I took it off. It had been burning ungodly amounts of oil for years, so all we ever did was pour in the used oil from the other tractors, and Dad would get drums of used oil from one of his friends who had a business and we put that in too. I'd guess the filter was probably 20 years old on it.

Surprisingly, the rest of the engine didn't look too bad when I opened it up. Had it boiled and rebuilt by someone else, still useing the same oil pump as before and it still builds plenty of pressure.

Donovan from Wisconsin

BushogPapa · Jul 12, 2011

Sounds like my brother's '68 Camaro..!!

He wanted to use Quaker State (their best) and I changed it EVERY 2,000 Miles..
At 65,000 mi, He drove in the drive and it sounded like the pistons were swapping holes..!!
Turned out the engine was so varnished-up, the valves were hanging open..!
Tore that filthy engine down..it had crap to the top of the valve springs..!!
Took a 20 oz hammer to drive the varnished valve lifters out...BUT, once cleaned there was no sign of bad wear..!!
Found I could have cleaned the heads, removed the intake and flushed it out and run a kerosene mix and it would have flushed the varnish out..
Re-built it and he never ran Quaker State again..!
Ron..

Mark - IN. · Jul 12, 2011

The worst I ever saw was a '73 or '74 Nova that I rebuilt the 454 for friend. Was at least 1/8" of sludge on every bit of the internals. Required lots of scraping before I sent the block out for hot tanking. Lifter gallery and bottom of the intake manifold. Oil gallery on the other side was pitiful. The only thing I can even imagine comparing it to, would be not taking a shower for a month. I can't deal without a shower, at least one, on a daily basis. But once a month? May as well be a gunky mistreated engine.

By the way, you do know that GM built four cars made by Chevy, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, and Buick that were all based off of the Nova and each began with a letter from the Nova name, as trivia? Nova, Omega, Ventura, Apollo...all were Novas with cosmetic differences and different engines until even the engines used were the same, Pontiac I4, Buick V6, Chevy V8.

Mark

greygoat · Jul 13, 2011

Engine full of grey waxey sludge? pretty much a
sign it was using Penzoil!

C.R. · Jul 13, 2011

I had a ventura with a 260 olds v 8 what a hunk of garbage that car was

Hobo,NC · Jul 13, 2011

(quoted from post at 04:18:20 07/13/11)
Sounds like my brother's '68 Camaro..!!

He wanted to use Quaker State (their best) and I changed it EVERY 2,000 Miles..
At 65,000 mi, He drove in the drive and it sounded like the pistons were swapping holes..!!
Turned out the engine was so varnished-up, the valves were hanging open..!
Tore that filthy engine down..it had crap to the top of the valve springs..!!
Took a 20 oz hammer to drive the varnished valve lifters out...BUT, once cleaned there was no sign of bad wear..!!
Found I could have cleaned the heads, removed the intake and flushed it out and run a kerosene mix and it would have flushed the varnish out..
Re-built it and he never ran Quaker State again..!
Ron..

I put 250K on a 72 chevy 350 using Quaker State,,, when I ringed it, it was so clean all i had to do was rinse the oil fim off the parts... Poor maintenance practice will give any oil a bad name...

Really dirty engine

Ultradog MN

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Charlie M

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Anonymous-0

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elmersooner

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Anonymous-0

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Anonymous-0

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dej(Jed)

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D15DAN

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2x4

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ASEguy

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Spook

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Don-Wi

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BushogPapa

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Mark - IN.

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greygoat

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C.R.

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Hobo,NC

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