Engine oil fill hole {pics}

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Apr 13, 2013
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After washing and drying the engine bay on my 2012 Accord yesterday I decided to take a peak down the oil fill hole as I do from time to time. I recall things looking cleaner in previous "inspections" and nothing has changed other than switching from Pennzoil Platinum to Mobil 1 and extending my OCI from 6-7 months to 10-12 months. I know Mobil 1 is top tier so I'm not even entertaining the idea that it could be the cause of some varnish, but I am wondering if my driving style is just too taxing for a 1 year oil change interval. As of the past few years this car doesn't see many miles. It gets used almost daily but trips are generally 1-2 miles without a full warm up for months at a time. At the time of the oil change the maintenance minder was at 40% or 50%, which is surprising to me after over 10 months of short trips, but Honda generally has a good track record with the MM system on the 4 cylinders at least. I suppose it is possible that the MM would count down faster the further into the OCI you go, so maybe those number aren't linear.

At any rate, due to my current driving pattern I am considering dumping the oil every 6 months and using the filter for 2 oil changes / 1 year.

Do these pictures show an unhealthy engine? not hardly, at least from what I can see. I just don't care for the color (I am assuming it is varnish) trending DARKER compared to what I was previously seeing. Synthetic oils are fantastic these days, but I am thinking this has a lot less to do with the type or quality of oil and more to do with "severe" short tripping. My thought is a few 6 month OCI's won't break the bank and maybe I'll see things clean up a bit in there.

Either way in all likelihood the engine will do 200,000+ miles regardless of if I chose a 6 or 12 month OCI. Knowing that this is more about keeping the engine as clean and healthy as reasonably possible. Here are the pics:
D27274BD-B586-410E-9028-26E173FFDE53.jpeg
957091A1-8143-4B16-B5B0-E7D982CCCCFD.jpeg
C22522F7-0510-4288-A300-249C9D15D63A.jpeg
571D54ED-A2A6-4C49-81E5-07325D7A5F1D.jpeg
78AA1D91-5499-43DD-94D9-6D210733E8E7.jpeg
A8B4721E-07F7-4E8F-812D-AB6335FAB49B.jpeg
755E55B6-FD2E-4A15-A0C8-0287F15B73F8.jpeg
 
Looks fine to me, for a decade old engine that's pretty light varnish in the places I'd expect to see it, the darker color on the little shield inside the hole isn't anything to worry about it's likely caused by a combination of crankcases gases and that area doesn't really see constant oil flow.
 
After washing and drying the engine bay on my 2012 Accord yesterday I decided to take a peak down the oil fill hole as I do from time to time. I recall things looking cleaner in previous "inspections" and nothing has changed other than switching from Pennzoil Platinum to Mobil 1 and extending my OCI from 6-7 months to 10-12 months. I know Mobil 1 is top tier so I'm not even entertaining the idea that it could be the cause of some varnish, but I am wondering if my driving style is just too taxing for a 1 year oil change interval. As of the past few years this car doesn't see many miles. It gets used almost daily but trips are generally 1-2 miles without a full warm up for months at a time. At the time of the oil change the maintenance minder was at 40% or 50%, which is surprising to me after over 10 months of short trips, but Honda generally has a good track record with the MM system on the 4 cylinders at least. I suppose it is possible that the MM would count down faster the further into the OCI you go, so maybe those number aren't linear.

At any rate, due to my current driving pattern I am considering dumping the oil every 6 months and using the filter for 2 oil changes / 1 year.

Do these pictures show an unhealthy engine? not hardly, at least from what I can see. I just don't care for the color (I am assuming it is varnish) trending DARKER compared to what I was previously seeing. Synthetic oils are fantastic these days, but I am thinking this has a lot less to do with the type or quality of oil and more to do with "severe" short tripping. My thought is a few 6 month OCI's won't break the bank and maybe I'll see things clean up a bit in there.

Either way in all likelihood the engine will do 200,000+ miles regardless of if I chose a 6 or 12 month OCI. Knowing that this is more about keeping the engine as clean and healthy as reasonably possible. Here are the pics:View attachment 110965View attachment 110966View attachment 110967View attachment 110968View attachment 110969View attachment 110970View attachment 110971
I see no issues. Totally normal appearance.
 
The valve cover and baffles run cooler than the engine.

Looking at the castings, I see nothing alarming; just a mild gold tint to the metal.
Right, no concerns on the baffles or valve cover. I expect that. The cam lobes and castings have a film that was not present even a year or so ago.
 
Easier said than done, esp with higher gas prices, but driving it 15 or 20 miles once a week would probably help.
 
Is it just me or are there what appear to be flakes or chunks of broken off varnish bits? I'd worry about that clogging an oil passage.

View attachment 110988
Possibly. I've noticed those before but never gave it much thought other than thinking it was build of of some kind, and likely not to travel anywhere.
 
The valve cover and baffles run cooler than the engine.

Looking at the castings, I see nothing alarming; just a mild gold tint to the metal.
Certainly nothing alarming, just a noticeable change in color since last time I checked. Looking at other K24 "under valve cover" pictures, even at 100K+ miles they look new. Literally shiny brand new metal new. I'm thinking it must be linked to 1-2 mile drives for months on end without much of a full warm up. A 5 quart jug of Mobil 1 can be had easily for $25 these days. If you break an extra oil change over a 1 year period down, it is just over $2.00 per month. I know the general censuses is these days to run the oil out to the bleeding edge, but for $2.00 per month I think I'll sleep better and maybe have a cleaner engine in the process. As another member mentioned, I'll look into replacing the PCV valve as it has never been done.
 
Definitely looks like some varnish. You don't have any "before" pics eh? If you touch it with your finger, is it sticky, or just it smear? If it smears, it's not varnish.
Maybe I'll do a wipe test and see. No, unfortunately I don't have any before pictures. Just going off of what I remember seeing, which was clean shiny silver metal with no gold tinge. This oil change only has 200 or so miles on it, so if anything the oil film should look cleaner than normal.
 
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