Cleanest Engine You've Seen - What OCI & oil used?

[fdcg27]

While not the cleanest, two very clean engines are in two CVPIs at work.
Both have been apart a little for cam chains, and both looked exceptionally clean after about 150K, which also included lots of idling.
Not even much varnish to see in there.
I bought both cars ~90K from State Salvage, and they've had Cam 2 10W-30 ever since.
I buy this oil for cheap in 55 gal drums.
I believe the shop changes the oil every 3K, to make up for all of the idling these cars do.
The Mod 4.6s are good engines, no doubt, and apparently Cam 2 is an okay oil.

 

[xtell]

Cleanest for me is my 1987 Chevy 3/4 ton 4x4. 148,000+ miles all with Pennzoil 10w-30 or Castrol 10w-30 conventional and Fram or AC delco filters. 3,000-5,000 OCI. It is a landscaping / plow truck with manual transmission. Took off the intake manifold to fix the leaking front rubber gasket, spotless inside. Looking inside the oil fill cap, rockers and pushrods are clean too.

 

[carock]

My experience is out of date because I stopped professional wrenching in 1996. On the German cars we used to work with, Redline oil was magic. Clean engines were rare, and Redline engines were very clean. Not sure what that information is worth anymore.

 

[qdeezie]

Originally Posted By: carock
My experience is out of date because I stopped professional wrenching in 1996. On the German cars we used to work with, Redline oil was magic. Clean engines were rare, and Redline engines were very clean. Not sure what that information is worth anymore.


Any information is good. My experience is back from the 90s when I did it professionally as well. I appreciate your post!

 

[Clevy]

Originally Posted By: carock
My experience is out of date because I stopped professional wrenching in 1996. On the German cars we used to work with, Redline oil was magic. Clean engines were rare, and Redline engines were very clean. Not sure what that information is worth anymore.

That info is as true today as it was then

 

[hominid7]

My previous car, a 1989 VW Jetta had the valve cover gasket replaced at around 200K miles and the top end was very clean. It had Valvoline 20w50 dino all it's life.

My current car, 2001 Mazda 626 2.5 V6, just had the valve cover gasket replaced at 100K miles and it was very clean as well. I used Havoline 10w30 for the first 50K miles then switched to SOPUS products (Shell/QS/Pennzoil) with a few runs of Motorcraft, Castrol, Supertech, and Valvoline, depending what's on sale.

I don't really think the brand, type, or viscosity matters as much as just regular oil changes.

 

[Buick8]

I was surprised how clean the engine in my old Mercedes-Benz was when I changed the timing chain a couple of years ago. A 1986 420SEL, V-8, I knew the previous owner, but he died soon after buying it, and the family kept the car; it spent several of its later years going to college, and a second family car, and I don't know what oil and change intervals were used over the years. I use Mobil 1, but only drive it a couple thousand miles per year. Engine was very clean inside, esp for 20+ years and 150K miles. Still runs smoothly and uses no appreciable oil.

 

[addyguy]

The only one I remember looking at was my 1991 Corolla SR-5 coupe. It was very clean through the oil fill cap, and while I had it it got pretty well nothing but Pennzoil 5W-30 every 3-5k.

My last Cavalier had an oil fill tube, so you couldn't see the valvetrain, and i never replaced the VC gasket, so I don't know what it looked like. With my long OCI's I did o it (UOA's posted here) it was most likely badly varnished, but I don't 'think' it was sludged-up.

My current vehicle, the Tribute, is pretty clean when looking through the oil fill cap, maybe just a bit of varnish, but the timing chain is clean, and you can see shiny metal, so it's pretty good. I'll be keeping OCI's more than reasonable on it, so I don't expect that to change.

 

[volk06]

1998 f250 with 5.4L. 125k and spotless, clean, no varnish, and shiney. Used motorcraft 5w-30 at 3-4 oci.

 

[qdeezie]

I appreciate all the posts. Please keep 'em comin!

 

[OpelFever]

We had a short and unhappy relationship with a 1996 Ford Mondeo 2.0 Zetec. The thermostat stuck shut so it overheated, blew the head-gasket and warped the head so I was in for a little wrenching.
When I pulled the valvecover it was spotless underneath and there was no visible wear on the cams. The compelete absence of varnish was quite a shock since most cars I`ve seen have had a slight discoloration. It had 360k km (224k miles) on it and due to being an ex-company car had full service history.
It was serviced every 15k km (9k miles) and the oil most likely was some ACEA A1/B1-rated semi-syn 5w-30 that is commonly used in Fords (maybe Mobil?).

I was pleasantly surprised as the Ford-specific oils are cheap and I thought very little of them compared to synthetics. As a company car it was used pretty carelessly and probably beat on quite a bit.

 

[Spazdog]

Cleanest I've ever seen? Mine.

Almost 110,000 miles. I started out using 5W30 Trop-Arctic Semi-Syn that I had stockpiled when WalMart had it for $1.79 qt.
Then I went to Valvoline White Bottle 5W30
Then I went to Quaker State Green Bottle 5W20
Then I did Pennzoil 5W20 when the merchandisers at WalMart built an endcap full of Pennzoil and priced it at $12.50 (I should have bought every one of them at that price...I limited myself to two

One for me and one for the Hyundai XG )
Then I went back to VWB 5W20
Then I went to MaxLife 5W20 for one change
Now I have Castrol GT-X 5W20
I change it at "around 5000 miles" meaning I wait until it gets to 5000 miles and then change it when I have time which could be 5-600 miles or more later.

 

[CBR.worm]

I've only ever had one car that the valve train didn't look shiny and new at high miles. 200k plus in many cases. I have always used M1 or Amsoil.

The one exception was our Audi A4 which had a distinct brown tint to everything and the underside of the valve cover looked like someone had thrown mud on it. I posted it's pics in the engine internals thread in the photo section. I attribute that to poor PCV design and function.

I think the Florida climate (no cold) and lack of short trips keeps everything clean. All of our cars do make trips north occasionally in the winter, but never stay long.