This past weekend, I spent a couple hours "reviving" the Number 3 vehicle in the family stable. It's a 1987 Cadillac Seville which has only 57,xxx miles on the odo. It has been in the family since almost new. About a year ago, my mother-in-law got a wild hair, and bought herself a new BMW 3-series. She had planned to trade the old Caddy, but not too surprisingly, despite its outstanding condition (it has spent the vast bulk of its life in a garage), the trade value was so low, she just gave it to my son instead. Who is still dragging his feet on getting his DL, so when the battery died, into the garage it went, where it has sat for the last year.
On Sunday, I installed a new battery, checked the electric system (seems fine...), sucked out all the old oil (I think it was the GC I installed 18 months ago), put on a new filter (it was still wearing the same M1-206 I had installed).
While warming it up for the oil change, I opened the oil filler out of curiosity, and shined a light inside. What surprised me was the oil flow from that little opening on the other side of where the pushrod pushes on the rocker. In this engine, the hole is maybe a tad larger than a millimeter in diameter. I had always envisioned oil spraying out of that opening, fountain style. What I saw surprised me. The oil was sort of dribbling or trickling from the opening, nothing more. It had no "squirt factor" at all, it just dribbled down the top surface of the rocker arm. Yes, it had warmed some at that point (engine running for about 15 min at that point).
Any thoughts on this? Am I worried about nothing? Is my mental vision of oil showering all over the top of the cylinder head just a delusional fantasy? I thought there'd be more oil flowing.
Oh, just for grins, here's a UOA I did on this same engine about two years ago when the Mother-in-law was still driving it. Click here to see 11/04 UOA.
On Sunday, I installed a new battery, checked the electric system (seems fine...), sucked out all the old oil (I think it was the GC I installed 18 months ago), put on a new filter (it was still wearing the same M1-206 I had installed).
While warming it up for the oil change, I opened the oil filler out of curiosity, and shined a light inside. What surprised me was the oil flow from that little opening on the other side of where the pushrod pushes on the rocker. In this engine, the hole is maybe a tad larger than a millimeter in diameter. I had always envisioned oil spraying out of that opening, fountain style. What I saw surprised me. The oil was sort of dribbling or trickling from the opening, nothing more. It had no "squirt factor" at all, it just dribbled down the top surface of the rocker arm. Yes, it had warmed some at that point (engine running for about 15 min at that point).
Any thoughts on this? Am I worried about nothing? Is my mental vision of oil showering all over the top of the cylinder head just a delusional fantasy? I thought there'd be more oil flowing.
Oh, just for grins, here's a UOA I did on this same engine about two years ago when the Mother-in-law was still driving it. Click here to see 11/04 UOA.
