Several pics from under valve cover, Accord EX

[Palut]

Here are some pics from under the valve cover of my '95 Accord EX 4 cylinder.

There's a bit of a layer of varnish over most everything.

Above is the very front of the cylinder head, just above the exhaust guard. There's some gritty sludge built up around the front here.

In the picture above, you can see a little sludge on the bolts that hold the rocker arm assembly in place, but there is nothing but varnish on all the moving parts.

Above, notice how much cleaner the back of the engine (right side of the picture) is than the front.

The pic above and below are of the back of the cylinder head. The engine is slanted back toward the driver, so the most of the oil should flow down to this side of the engine. Back here there is no varnish, just a golden, motor oil color.

This car has 159,254 miles on it, I bought it at 90,8xx. I've run 5k or less OCIs on it since then, with either HDEO or Mobil 1 (10W-30 and 5W-40). This car has already had 3 ARX treatments with Chevron Supreme. I followed the instructions to the letter.

These pics can be compared to this car, which has the non-VTEC version of this engine, as opposed to my VTEC.

 

[Pablo]

ewe

3 x AutoRx?

 

[ekpolk]

Palut:

What's your maintenance routine? My 88 Civic at 150k miles on M1 didn't even have any varnish inside. If your routine is reasonable, I'm wondering if you don't have a malfunction of some sort.

 

[Palut]

I've done all the recommended maintenance. Replaced the PCV valve too. It looked varnished through the fill hole when I bought it at 90k. I think that the previous owner did oil changes, but not with the same conviction that a BITOGer would.

 

[Bryanccfshr]

I would hate to have seen it before you got hold of it. Interesting with the carbon like build up on the exhuast side. Probably radaint heat into the head, that and the fact that you said the head slants back towards the driver would mean a cooling pool of oil does not collect there. How hard is it to drop the pan on this car? I would be tempted to do a manual solvent wash and inspect the pickup screen.

 

[CharBaby]

My daughters 1988 Accord w/carb and 340,000 miles looks very clean and we have never done any cleaning methods to this engine. I have owned this car since new before giving it to her a few years ago. I just pulled the valve corer so that I can fix a minor leak and everything looks great and very clean. This engine has only seen dino oil changes between 3-5000 mile OCI. Have used mostly name breand oils but, have used tons of store brand oils as well over the last 17+ years.

 

[Amkeer]

Typical cooked dino oil. I wouldn't worry about it just run it.

My 4-Runner that I picked up at 58000 had the varnish and the start of carbon from bulk dino oil. I ran the first few OCI short then started synthetic regimine from there. The thing runs like a clock and the carbon deposit are gone. Varnish will not go away. If synthetics were used from the start it would not be like that.

Daily Drives:
-2003 Toyota Tacoma PreRunner,2.7 liter, 4 cylinder, Mobil1 5w30 ODO 21800
-1995 Toyota 4-Runner,3.0 liter,6 cylinder, Mobil1 5w40 tsuv ODO 101300
http://community.webshots.com/user/amkeer

 

[Roger]

It would be intersting to see how it looks after another auto-rx treatment now that you know how to take off the valve cover.

 

[Captain Howdy]

Wow. Here's a couple from when I put new cam shafts in my '02 Spec V at about 35K.

Pretty clean overall.

I've been using Mobil 1 5w-30 since the 30K mark, switching from Pennzoil 5w-30 dino.

 

[Al]

quote:

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by Bryanccfshr
How hard is it to drop the pan on this car? I would be tempted to do a manual solvent wash and inspect the pickup screen.

---

Quoted for truth

 

[Matt89]

Both of the older accords I had the opportunity to 'look down the fill hole' on looked a lot like this. FWIW they ran just fine though.

 

[jamesn]

that accors looks like my 94 acura integra.

 

[04SpecV]

Another engine still dirty after AutoRX? 3 treatments even...

 

[Palut]

I never saw sludge through the fill hole, except for when I was running ARX. The sludge went away after the rinse phase. Nevertheless, I'm not terribly impressed with ARX, and won't be using it again.

 

[Audi Junkie]

I'm with the guys who say there is a PCV problem.

 

[vwoom]

I think that the previous owner did oil changes, but not with the same conviction that a BITOGer would.

Yeah..using mostly Coastal, Proline or the like and following the old Hondas 7.5k ocis in it's pre-90k mi life.

 

[glennc]

This definitely doesn't look normal to me with the various maintenance you've done. Could be excessive blowby or improperly functioning PCV system? I would rule those out, possibly try PCV catch tank like some here and run compression test before trying to do anything else with oil.

- Glenn

 

[eljefino]

What is the pcv layout on this thing? You usually get a cleaner portion between the two hoses. That is if the valve is in the middle and the fresh air hose is on one side the side opposite will have more gunk.

Another vote for "don't worry about it".

 

[Palut]

quote:

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Yeah..using mostly Coastal, Proline or the like and following the old Hondas 7.5k ocis in it's pre-90k mi life.

---

I bet you're exactly right!

I've changed the PCV valve twice, just in case, using the OEM part. If there was a PCV problem, there shouldn't be anymore.

 

[Shaman]

More dirty pictures after a few ARX runs. This is the third one this month.