Above is a picture of the valvetrain on my friend's roommate's 1992 Honda Accord. The spark plug well seals were leaking, and she's looking to sell it, so she had me pull the cover and replace the seals. My friend assisted.
Apologies for the poor lighting; we were doing the work at about 1am. The camera is the little 3MP camera on my phone and everything is illuminated by an LED Maglite. Hardly ideal, I know.
There was no visible sludge or other goop build-up, only a thin yellow coating (varnish?) on various parts. In certain areas where oil does not regularly flow over (e.g. the wall of the compartment), oil appears to have baked on a bit over the years and the coating is a bit darker, but it's still of negligible thickness. The cams and other moving parts looked great. Places where oil pooled were a bit dark, but still looked good.
After re-gasketing the valve cover and torquing it down to spec, we changed the oil to ensure any environmental contaminants were removed. Observing the new oil getting pumped around the valvetrain by watching through the filler hole, I observed the new oil seemed to be a light brown color (as opposed to amber). I presume this is normal, and due to simply to mixing with any previous oil in the system.
Oil was changed regularly at ~3,000mi at Brake Masters by the owner. Unknown brand and grade, but likely Pennzoil Yellow Bottle 10W-30, as that seems to be the bulk oil of choice at Brake Masters in Tucson. Had a yellow Pennzoil filter. We replaced it with SuperTech High Mileage 10W-30 and a Fram Tough Guard filter (it was late, Wal-Mart was open, and it was cheap and good). The Pennzoil filters seem really flimsy, and my filter wrench dented it severely while trying to remove it. Sadly, I left my preferred type of wrench at home (which removes anything with ease) and had to use the grippy-claw-type Fram-brand filter wrench I keep around as a backup instead.
Looks pretty good for 208,000 miles. Anyone in Tucson looking to buy a well-used Accord with a pretty solid engine/transmission and a borderline interior (seats ripped, floor mats are stained, etc.)?
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