Post your engine oil fill hole & under valve cover photos

[SubieRubyRoo]

This thread was met with some resistance at first, some people just look to complain I guess, but I really just enjoy seeing engines at different stages of life with different maintenance histories just always seems so intriguing

Some of them are also proof that engines are generally much more durable and tolerant of some maintenance aspects than what people expect. It seems to me that acute issues (detonation, tensioner destruction, HG failure, etc) are much more likely to result in loss of use than oil-related issues.

Thanks for the thread, BigShug, and thanks for the pics everyone!

 

[paulo57509]

That's an interesting valvetrain, I assume it's a 24 valve C27A? Curious how the valves are actuated on the opposite sides (intake/exhaust) given that the cam seems centrally located-- are there rocker arms of some sort underneath that aren't visible in the photo?

Yes, it's a C27A and it uses an odd valve train arrangement. The intake valves use hydraulically adjusted rockers; the exhaust valves use two sets of rockers (mechanically adjusted) and short pushrods between them to get the cam action around to the exhaust valves. Easier to see it than describe it.

The valve trains on these engines get noisy as they age because the hydraulic tappets get sticky due to varnish, etc. Some use Restore (not for me). When I switched to Delo, it got rid of the noise but it took close to 100k miles to do it.

 

[92saturnsl2]

Yes, it's a C27A and it uses an odd valve train arrangement. The intake valves use hydraulically adjusted rockers; the exhaust valves use two sets of rockers (mechanically adjusted) and short pushrods between them to get the cam action around to the exhaust valves. Easier to see it than describe it.

The valve trains on these engines get noisy as they age because the hydraulic tappets get sticky due to varnish, etc. Some use Restore (not for me). When I switched to Delo, it got rid of the noise but it took close to 100k miles to do it.

I think I see how it works now (please correct me if I'm wrong)-- so in the photos, the spark plugs are actually centrally located, and is the cover at the bottom of the photo a rocker cover for the exhaust side of the head? That's what it seems like to me, and would make sense why they have to use pushrods to get valve action over that distance. Very interesting design. Appreciate the explanation, it's fun to see how different manufacturers did things over the years.

 

[jetman]

I've had this Toyota FJ Cruiser w/4.0L 1GR-FE iVVT gasoline engine for almost 14 yrs. It had 207K miles when I took this driver side valve cover off just to see what it looked like. I always do extended 10+k mile oil changes with various synthetic oils.

 

[jetman]

Here's the same engine passenger side w/197k miles.

 

[tig1]

Here is the upper end of my 2007 Ford Fusion 2.3 when I changed the VC gasket. Mileage was 285K I believe. Oil was M1 at 10K OCIs. MC 2017B Cartridge

 

[tig1]

This is from my 2017 Ford Fusion 2.5.. M1 oils at 10K OCI. MC 910S filter

 

[Bullwinkle007]

2015 Acura MDX 3.5L 118k. This is new to me vehicle. I don't know what service interval previous owner did. Carfax report pretty much only shows that dealer did major timing belt service 10k miles earlier than Honda recommends. So either they had the vehicle service at a business that does not report to Carfax or the previous owner did all services themselves. Engine runs like a bat out of hell, typical Honda engineering

 

[N Heat]

Cant see down the fill hole, but heres the dipstick from my 02 Suburban with 292k. It had a steady diet of Havoline, PYB, but mostly Supertech HM. All changed at 4-5k. Shes got some gunk, Im sure but she owes me nothing.

 

[53' Stude]

09’ Camry 2AZ-FE oil burning POS. This was 12,xxx ago. Original factory valve cover came off in pieces, broke apart like a potato chip snapping. Oils used were, Rural King oil PCMO and various HDEO engine oils and lately some SM rated MOPAR Max Pro from like 2005 in 5w20 flavor.

 

[M104]

Looking cleaner and cleaner. No more oil consumption. 3k km into OCI. Total Quartz 5W40.

 

[atikovi]

The Volvo I'm selling soon but only has about 136K.

 

[dumkid]

2001 Montero with 190000 miles, maintained by my grandpa so probably full synthetic and I'm guessing about 5000 mile ocis. rockers are missing from the picture because the lifters disintegrated (the lifters are held together by plastic)

 

[CR94]

There's nothing to see down my fill hole except a baffle, and it still looks new.

 

[JHZR2]

 

[M104]

View attachment 136082

OM602?

 

[JHZR2]

OM602?

Yes

 

[JHZR2]

OM602?

Here’s a 603:

 

[loneryder]

I’ve always thought that the oil filler hole was the dirtiest area of the valve area.

 

[loneryder]

This is a 22 year old MB 4.3 V8 with 100k and a nebulous oci record. It was probably always a 229.5 oil when it was changed. I was shocked how clean it was.
This great running engine ended up being under water with Ian.