1991 Nissan D21 Pickup - Old Oil Sitting 4.5 Years

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This pickup belonged to my grandfather who passed away in March of 2016. (RIP Pepaw) I have no idea when he changed the oil prior to his passing or how many miles were on it. It sat in his barn for 4 years before I pulled it out earlier this year to start restoring it. Before changing the oil and cranking it up for the first time in nearly 5 years, I decided to take a sample of this old oil to see what it looks like from just sitting. It's pretty awful as I imagined it would be.

I replaced this oil with a 50/50 blend of Havoline High Mileage Syn-Blend 5w-30 and High Performance Lubricants HP SAE 30 flush oil which I will have a VOA on probably next week through Polaris Labs.

Something else to note, this engine has 482k miles on it with the original timing parts. I just got it started for the first time since March 2016 and will be doing a compression and leakdown test on it hopefully this week.

Enjoy.

11-12-2020 Unknown Oil Initial Barn Sample.jpg
 
Something else to note, this engine has 482k miles on it with the original timing parts.

incredible. i believe that's nissan's old KA24 engine, those are indeed hard to kill along with the rest of those old Hardbodys if you can keep the tin worm away.

will be interested to see the followup on this. i hope it makes for a great little truck, glad to hear you're bringing it back to former glory!
 
It's not the years sitting there that hurt oil. It's full of iron and lead which clearly was run too many miles.

Here's my Mazda RX8 on Mobil 1 0w40 with 7700 miles and 7 years. Sometimes I'd drive 1000 miles to drive on track, but car mostly sitting. No stop and go type.
 

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It's not the years sitting there that hurt oil. It's full of iron and lead which clearly was run too many miles.

Here's my Mazda RX8 on Mobil 1 0w40 with 7700 miles and 7 years. Sometimes I'd drive 1000 miles to drive on track, but car mostly sitting. No stop and go type.

I doubt it was run too many miles as my grandfather was one of those strict by the sticker kind of guys. Every 3 months or 3k. There's an oil change sticker on the windshield but the date is too badly faded to make it out.

Your engine was run at least once a year or so there though. It didn't sit for 4+ years straight and let cylinder walls and crankcase rust. I may get in contact with TestOil about having analytical ferrography done on that oil to determine if the iron is from wear or rust debris. I'm not sure I care that much though or that it would change my course of action.

Right now I'm more concerned with the blue smoke with rpm and load which I'm fairly certain is from cylinder rust and/or stuck rings. It could be valve seals, but I don't think that's likely.
 
BIL had a 1985 version of one of those, also passed down from his grandpa.
He wanted to keep it on the road, but severe rust made it impossible. Similar to this, it had infrequent oil changes near the end, but it still ran like a top. Those Nissan 2.4’s were tough, tough motors!
Let us know how it goes with this one!
 
I doubt it was run too many miles as my grandfather was one of those strict by the sticker kind of guys. Every 3 months or 3k. There's an oil change sticker on the windshield but the date is too badly faded to make it out.

Your engine was run at least once a year or so there though. It didn't sit for 4+ years straight and let cylinder walls and crankcase rust. I may get in contact with TestOil about having analytical ferrography done on that oil to determine if the iron is from wear or rust debris. I'm not sure I care that much though or that it would change my course of action.

Right now I'm more concerned with the blue smoke with rpm and load which I'm fairly certain is from cylinder rust and/or stuck rings. It could be valve seals, but I don't think that's likely.
482k?! I’d say everything is likely. The mileage is impressive as is your project. Good luck.
 
I posted a VOA of the flush oil.

 
I don't think I really need it, just wanted to see what kind of claims they made for it and so forth. I bought my old Navigator recently, but every fluid I've taken out has been clean and the dipstick is clean. I don't think it really needs a flush. It does not burn any oil so far.
 
It's not the years sitting there that hurt oil. It's full of iron and lead which clearly was run too many miles.

Here's my Mazda RX8 on Mobil 1 0w40 with 7700 miles and 7 years. Sometimes I'd drive 1000 miles to drive on track, but car mostly sitting. No stop and go type.
That is caused by rust from sitting plus a dry start.
 
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