Originally Posted By: mr_diy
Your front value train really does not look sludged to me, but cannot tell about the oil return passages. On the other hand it's not that clean for such low miles. Maybe the prior owner used really poor oil or ran lots of short trips.
The oil return passage (on the left) was clear - no sludge.
The previous owner drove about 6k miles a year (!) which I'm assuming was just short trips. She got the oil changed once a year.
As an observation worth sharing... I'm a Mobil 1 fanboy, but this car and Mobil 1 do NOT get along. With M1 HM I would occasionally get a big cloud of smoke at startup (and it doesn't smoke AT ALL with any other oil I've used). With M1 HM I also got grey metallic stuff on the dipstick every time I checked the oil. That hasn't happened with any other oil either. I'm sticking with Maxlife 5w-30 for now.
OH, so I finished up the Kreen/MMO soak the other day. When I cranked the motor to get the last of the MMO out of the chambers, a LOT of hard oily crud came flying out of the spark plug tubes. Much more than I've ever seen doing this on other cars. I'm hoping that's a good sign.
Most weekends I visit my wife 3 hours away (long story), which is round trip 250 miles of 70mph interstate + 70 miles of back roads. My current best result is only 1/2 quart of oil consumed. I'll be going down there this coming weekend - I'll report back on if my oil consumption has changed!
Your front value train really does not look sludged to me, but cannot tell about the oil return passages. On the other hand it's not that clean for such low miles. Maybe the prior owner used really poor oil or ran lots of short trips.
The oil return passage (on the left) was clear - no sludge.
The previous owner drove about 6k miles a year (!) which I'm assuming was just short trips. She got the oil changed once a year.
As an observation worth sharing... I'm a Mobil 1 fanboy, but this car and Mobil 1 do NOT get along. With M1 HM I would occasionally get a big cloud of smoke at startup (and it doesn't smoke AT ALL with any other oil I've used). With M1 HM I also got grey metallic stuff on the dipstick every time I checked the oil. That hasn't happened with any other oil either. I'm sticking with Maxlife 5w-30 for now.
OH, so I finished up the Kreen/MMO soak the other day. When I cranked the motor to get the last of the MMO out of the chambers, a LOT of hard oily crud came flying out of the spark plug tubes. Much more than I've ever seen doing this on other cars. I'm hoping that's a good sign.
Most weekends I visit my wife 3 hours away (long story), which is round trip 250 miles of 70mph interstate + 70 miles of back roads. My current best result is only 1/2 quart of oil consumed. I'll be going down there this coming weekend - I'll report back on if my oil consumption has changed!
