Honda J35 V6 (J35Z4) Sludge and Cam Scoring

Iam guessing the car was never really driven hard for longer periods and the oil never really reached its temp to vapour off the gasoline en moist vapours.
Then you should stick to "extreme conditions" interval.

Does this car come from a colder climate?
Is the thermostat working properly?
Or maybe elderly people that drive slowly?

In Holland we also see this a lot with short distance driving, especially elderly people who think driving slowly and never revving it high think that like in the 1960 their car lasts longer while in reality it is worse for the car.
Also with brake discs rusting etc.. and then almost new brakes have to be replaced due to rust.
 
Front Cylinder Head was removed due to a broken spark plug on #4. The owner tried to remove the broken plug, but broke the ez-out. Prior to this incident, the front bank had an audible knock/tick.

After disassembly, two scored cam lobes were found on #5. All of the rollers on the rocker were in perfect shape, so maybe we caught it just in time?

Service intervals were “annually” with Amsoil Signature Series 5W-20 and Amsoil filter. Since this was a 2009 Pilot with 180K, I would estimate the annual interval to be around 15K. Driving conditions were a mix of city and highway.

Note: this is a J35Z4 with VCM.
I know there was a bad run of soft cams on the J35, and some kind of Honda recall, warranty or service program for that... but IIRC it was well before 2009. Might want to double check that.

My non-VCM J35A5 was still flawless at 214K when I sold it, well it did burn 3/4 qt of oil between 6K changes. Just had the valves adjusted so the cams were known to be OK.

But cam issues are not unheard of, especially on the VCM engines:



Amsoil Signature is good, good stuff. There is more to this story, but that "more" might just be "it's yet another VCM J35 cam failure." Many of these stories include regular oil changes, so I'm not sure changing more often will really make a difference here.
 
I had a 2010 Pilot sold it to CarMax at 30k, the VCM took the shine off a otherwise nice car, resale at that time was eye popping high, easiest car sale I ever did.
 
Front Cylinder Head was removed due to a broken spark plug on #4. The owner tried to remove the broken plug, but broke the ez-out. Prior to this incident, the front bank had an audible knock/tick.

After disassembly, two scored cam lobes were found on #5. All of the rollers on the rocker were in perfect shape, so maybe we caught it just in time?

Service intervals were “annually” with Amsoil Signature Series 5W-20 and Amsoil filter. Since this was a 2009 Pilot with 180K, I would estimate the annual interval to be around 15K. Driving conditions were a mix of city and highway.

Note: this is a J35Z4 with VCM.
Looks like a material issue - that is not scoring it is spalling. If on the Intake, It could be due to the lost motion springs being weak and the roller not following the cam causing hammering. If the surface hardness/toughness is shallow, its like hammering on thin ice. You can also get roller skating with certain oils - but that would evidence as light scoring if anything.
Interesting the roller followers did not fail - that points to poor cam material also.

I had a "Honda Quality" experience with my wife 1990 Civic 2 door. The Valvtrain on the SOHC motor was "unadjustable" due to worn rocker pivot bores. The Rockers were so sloppy I couldn't get a consistent lash. Then there was the poorly designed Coil in Cap distributor that would crossfire in cold weather that ruined the converter. The Honda Dealer denied all warranty responsibility on that - just because they are terrible, careless, dopes.
Well At least the chassis and steering was good. That's about it.

It was about then when we started our Subaru adventure and loyalty with the Purchase of a Loyale 1.8 4 -door.

- Ken
 
Totally off topic but I've broken the ceramic on plugs but how do you break the 13/16 hex body?
Hey that's on topic!
They are likely 10/16" plug nuts in a Honda pentroof head. The material is somewhat thin where the threads meet the gasket surface at the bottom of the nut.
Given the long thread reach, if the threads are seized, you could possibly apply enough torque to shear the plug at that neck down. I would say the person doing the plug service should have known when to stop apply removal torque, and go to plan B.
ngk sparkplug cross section.jpg
 
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I don't actually believe this. There is NO WAY this was just Amsoil Signature Series and only 15K/yearly changes. Now it is possible they skipped a year or they drove a heck of a lot more than "15K" in a year the last few years. Amsoil Sig does not "chunk" like that in 15K. Sorry no offense to you Mike, and I know VCM is hard on oil, but did you collect an oil sample? I am guessing it was a different oil changed in perhaps.

Pablo IMO you can believe this! The first time I posted the mess under the covers of one of these engines and the full synthetic OCI people were calling me out with comments like that is not possible, the guy lied to you. Fact is it was my brothers and I did or was with him every OC so I know what went in and how long it was in there. I have seen more than a dozen like this and worse and know their history.
5K in these is a long OCI 10K is asking for trouble 15K forget it, it is having deposit/varnish issues at a min.
 
I had a 2010 Pilot sold it to CarMax at 30k, the VCM took the shine off a otherwise nice car, resale at that time was eye popping high, easiest car sale I ever did.
For a short timne, we had a Honda VCM engine. I just disabled the VCM with the VCMuzzler. We got rid of that car for other reasons than the VCM engine.
 
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Would be nice to know what is the MAP sensor value is showing on the scan tool while the engine is running.
 
Pablo IMO you can believe this! The first time I posted the mess under the covers of one of these engines and the full synthetic OCI people were calling me out with comments like that is not possible, the guy lied to you. Fact is it was my brothers and I did or was with him every OC so I know what went in and how long it was in there. I have seen more than a dozen like this and worse and know their history.
5K in these is a long OCI 10K is asking for trouble 15K forget it, it is having deposit/varnish issues at a min.
Nope. Not with hard crusty carbon. No way.
 
Pablo IMO you can believe this! The first time I posted the mess under the covers of one of these engines and the full synthetic OCI people were calling me out with comments like that is not possible, the guy lied to you. Fact is it was my brothers and I did or was with him every OC so I know what went in and how long it was in there. I have seen more than a dozen like this and worse and know their history.
5K in these is a long OCI 10K is asking for trouble 15K forget it, it is having deposit/varnish issues at a min.
I agree, in certain applications bad things can happen if you push even the best of oils too far.
 
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