1993 Dodge Shadow - under the valve covers

What are your plans for the car? Rust free southern car?
Just fixing things that need fixed, making small improvements like wheels and tint. Got a transmission fluid drip at the bell housing, headed to the transmission shop on Jan. 4th to get the pump seal or pump gasket replaced ( what I believe to be leaking), and they'll do the rear main seal while it's apart. Nearly zero rust anywhere, which is really nice. Spent it's whole life in Nevada.
 
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Not any more than Maxlife full syn every 3,000 can do. It's a 30-year-old car and varnish doesn't hurt anything. It just would have been a nice treat to pull the cover off and see bright silver parts.
I mean, varnish in the ring land area can reduce compression, increase blow-by and oil consumption, but you are quite right, it's a 30-year old car and it's not unreasonable to define a cap for maintenance type expenses in that context. I ran Redline 5W-30 in a Focus I paid $500 for, lol, but bought that oil on clearance at Canadian Tire.
 
Those 3.0 v6's burned so much oil that they always had fresh oil in them. No chance of sludging up.


Bought one brand new in 1993, sold it in 1997 with 73,000 miles on it. Guess I didn't keep it long enough to experience the oil burning, as it never burned a drop on my watch.

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I had one for a number of years in a Mitsubishi Montero Sport. I never had to add oil. It always stayed at the full mark on the dipstick.

These tended to develop oil weeps thru the block plugs or whatever they called them. Mine did after some years and the dealer installed new plugs and sealant while it was in for maintenance.
 
first thing that came to mind when i saw the body...
Back in 2017, I took my Nephew up to the Dragstip in...Norwalk, OH, For the Roadkill Ziptie Drags.
didn't participate in the racing...(no one wants to see a 2009 Mercury Sable Cruise down the track)
but one of the entrants had one of those cars, ripped the EFI out, and installed a Carb, on a funky, highrise, booger welded manifold.

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IMG_20170701_110950650 - Close up.jpg


overall winner of the event was a 1st Gen Caravan (K, or L body), with a 2.5 Turbo and a 5 speed swapped in.
 
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first thing that came to mind when i saw the body...
Back in 2017, I took my Nephew up to the Dragstip in...Norwalk, OH, For the Roadkill Ziptie Drags.
didn't participate in the racing...(no one wants to see a 2009 Mercury Sable Cruise down the track)
but one of the entrants had one of those cars, ripped the EFI out, and installed a Carb, on a funky, highrise, booger welded manifold.

View attachment 132860
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overall winner of the event was a 1st Gen Caravan (K, or L body), with a 2.5 Turbo and a 5 speed swapped in.

Hmmmm.... Wonder where he got this. Me likey.

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Too bad it's not this one but fun ride anyways.


That reminds me how much I want another Daytona. 😞

I had one of these. Mine was 1990 Dodge Spirit ES with the white monochromatic color scheme. The RT was a great car but was only available as a manual. Mine had the auto. It was a well put together car for the money and by this time was a refined version of the K car. As I recall it had many options, all except the sun roof. I drove it for a 146k, and trade it in on new 1997 Dodge Stratus ES.
 
Hey guys, doing the valve cover gaskets on my recently acquired 93 Shadow. 62,000 miles. All I can say is.... varnishpalooza. According to the thick pile of service records, it's had a steady diet of conventional and semi-syn. At this point, I'm grateful there's no sludge.

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To fix this use a high detergent oil an change every 3500 after about 2-3 changes it’ll be back to normal. This isn’t really varnish. A lot of low viscosity motors run like this. Otherwise it’s very clean under there. Here’s my girlfriends Elantra with 160k she got it with 130k and I’ve only used Pennzoil platinum 5w30 ( in Florida weather) even though it calls for 5w20 with great results. You could get away with using Rotella T6 for those 2 changes and get good results.
Here’s her upper cylinder
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The first new vehicle my mom ever bought herself was a '93 Shadow. 4 door and an ugly maroon paint color.

I'm amazed there's still any on the road, but then again around here I still see an S10 Blazer with the 2.8, a Tempo and an AMC Eagle
 
first thing that came to mind when i saw the body...
Back in 2017, I took my Nephew up to the Dragstip in...Norwalk, OH, For the Roadkill Ziptie Drags.
didn't participate in the racing...(no one wants to see a 2009 Mercury Sable Cruise down the track)
but one of the entrants had one of those cars, ripped the EFI out, and installed a Carb, on a funky, highrise, booger welded manifold.

View attachment 132860
View attachment 132864

overall winner of the event was a 1st Gen Caravan (K, or L body), with a 2.5 Turbo and a 5 speed swapped in.
Wow that's ugly! LOL!
 
Is that the same V6 used in the 3000GTs (DOHC V6)? I drove both of mine way past 200,000 miles and neither ever used a drop of oil. But I only used full synth, so maybe that was the main factor?
 
Is that the same V6 used in the 3000GTs (DOHC V6)? I drove both of mine way past 200,000 miles and neither ever used a drop of oil. But I only used full synth, so maybe that was the main factor?
Nope, it's a SOHC with 2 valves per cylinder. More low-end grunt and less top end than the DOHC 24 valve.
 
Congrats on the purchase. Besides the varnish --- looks great. No 3.0L decals? Could have swore my buddies Moms Shadow with the 3.0L had decals???? Cant remember for sure but hers was brown with the tan interior.
 
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