Neglected coolant and oil changes

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FCD

FCD

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Just bought a beautiful red 1988 Ford Escort MkIV Xr3i 1.6 Cabriolet to use as daily. Single owner car owned by an older lady, with 100k miles. The oil was changed last September, but evidently before that it had not had a change for quite some time. It also looks like it's been run on plain water! They also used a 20W-50 Mineral Motul oil, when the Ford CVH specs 5W/10W/15W-40 oils. It runs well, surprisingly well for an old school Mechanical injection Bosch K-jet engined car. I want reccomendations on what you would do regarding the engine oil and coolant Photos : IMG_20180128_162512 by Balearic Classics, en Flickr IMG_20180128_162355 by Balearic Classics, en Flickr IMG_20180128_162343 by Balearic Classics, en Flickr IMG_20180128_162402 by Balearic Classics, en Flickr
 
Citric acid flush and fill with good antifreeze and distilled. Change the oil and drive on. Nothing really to stress about there.
 
Use a good coolant flush additive and a global antifreeze. Do a motor flush and then run a good High Detergent motor oil at 5,000 mile or so changes.
 
I wouldn’t use a flush. If you are concerned about the sludge, run a couple of short oci with a good conventional oil that will help clean it up a bit. I’m not sure what brands are available in your region but anything would work. After that go with your favorite brand.
 
I was thinking of buying some cheap parts store brand 15W-40 for now and change it within a month or so and then put in a 15W-40 HDEO in it as it burn some oil and the cam cover gasket leaks a bit.
 
+1 on NOT dislodging the old lady's sludge with a severe chemical. Do the cam cover first and clean what you can physically. Then run the engine to warm up then do its first oil and filter change to rid the crankcase of bits which'll fall down the return passages. With a car as old as that you SHOULD remove the stat and do an old fashioned cooling system flush THEN replace the aged stat with a top quality (OEM) new one. How 'bout this? Do a compression check.
 
The compression test can wait for now, i'm going back to work in a few days and despite the not great state of the oil and coolant it runs just fine and i'll be driving it daily to work, other than when it's cold it idles a bit low and runs a little rough, but that is not a surprise from an old Bosch K-Jet injected engine. Since it's a car that was owned by a retired lady my guess is it was used infrequently and short tripped when it was driven, so some frequent highway driving should benefit it. I'll probably flush the radiator next week first with regular water until it comes out clean and then fill it with some 30% green glycol coolant.
 
Originally Posted By: FordCapriDriver
Here it is btw : Cars and Coffee 21-01-2018 by Balearic Classics, en Flickr
Did she add the lights or did you? The oil fill hole doesn't look bad considering the car's PO and history. A 15w40 diet should be all the car needs. The coolant on the other hand, I would do a citrus flush and add a long life coolant of your choice.
 
Aww yeah! Great looking car! Don't over think the oil. I don't think you'll see much sludge at all with the cam cover off. It's just old. Just change it normally.
 
Originally Posted By: dlundblad
Originally Posted By: FordCapriDriver
Here it is btw : Cars and Coffee 21-01-2018 by Balearic Classics, en Flickr
Did she add the lights or did you? The oil fill hole doesn't look bad considering the car's PO and history. A 15w40 diet should be all the car needs. The coolant on the other hand, I would do a citrus flush and add a long life coolant of your choice.
Afaik they are original fitment, or maybe fitted by the dealer when it was new, in Europe during the 70s and 80s it was common for Ford ddealers to install all sorts of accessories to new cars from Foglights to dixie horns.
 
As said: Citric coolant flush Change the cam cover seal and clean there Warm up, drain oil and remove oil pan to inspect oil pickup screen and clean pan 88 models will do with 50 oils. 40 after 89
 
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I did have escort rs turbo, fun little car. I also had 1.6 orion (same engine) with 300tkm. No sludge but it was lacking some compression. Not great engines, but not so bad ether. Its looking good smile
 
Originally Posted By: Superflan
As said: Citric coolant flush Change the cam cover seal and clean there Warm up, drain oil and remove oil pan to inspect oil pickup screen and clean pan 88 models will do with 50 oils. 40 after 89
Ford always reccomended 10W-40 oils for the CVH engine, 5w-30 for some of the newer ones, this one has hydraulic tappets and they do tick a bit now, presumably because of the 20W-50 it has in it.
 
TBH, it looks good. European oils are of a higher-spec than ILSAC oils. Does the Euro arm of XOM/Shell/Castrol have a "high-mileage" oil or one with a healthy dose of esters in it? For coolant, do the Mercedes citric acid flush. Fill it back up with G-05 or G-48, while Ford is using Dex-Cool now to be common between the US and Europe, I wouldn't risk higher doses of 2-EHA on an older car.
 
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