Under the valve cover, 2008 Crown Vic

[Bird's_Garage]

I decided to change the leaking driver side valve cover gasket on my Crown Vic today. I believe it was the original gasket, and after 14 years it had basically turned to plastic. The car is a CVPI that was in service at Travis County Sheriff's Department in the Austin, Texas area for about 150k miles. Then my dad bought it and used it for his "extra job" directing traffic and providing security until about 185k miles when I bought it from him. The car currently has around 193k miles on it. I'm not sure which bulk oil was used for the first 150k but I know my dad exclusively used Valvoline 5w20 full synthetic and a Mobil 1 oil filter. I have been using Valvoline maxlife blend 5w30 and either Fram Ultra or Toughguard filters. Since it's been out of service, the oil has been changed every 3000 to 5000 miles.

All pictures were taken immediately after removing the valve cover. No cleanup was done. I am very impressed. I have personally never seen an engine look this clean with more than 50k miles.

 

[slacktide_bitog]

Looks good

 

[Kjmack]

I'm come to notice most of the clean engine pics have one thing in common . No Turbos.

 

[Blinker]

Looks very clean, which is great. It’s almost too good to be true, police vehicle engines or really any government maintained vehicle engine are usually some of the nastiest engines once open up, especially one that had 150k police duty. I’ll be honest I’m a little skeptical that the engine hasn’t been flushed or there is some other back story, but nonetheless that is very clean.

 

[CharlesInCharge]

Gorgeous. That is a robust chain too. Wow! No wonder those cars are so popular!

 

[TmanP]

I'd feel pretty good about the previous history of the car after seeing that, if I was you. It looks like it was on a pretty good service schedule.

 

[gregk24]

Looks clean. Are those cam lobes pressed on?

 

[Kjmack]

Well they were not using Castrol , no intelligent oil clinging to the part .

 

[OVERKILL]

Looks great. There's a reason the Modular has a reputation for running forever

 

[2EHA]

Looks clean. Are those cam lobes pressed on?

yes

 

[Bird's_Garage]

Looks very clean, which is great. It’s almost too good to be true, police vehicle engines or really any government maintained vehicle engine are usually some of the nastiest engines once open up, especially one that had 150k police duty. I’ll be honest I’m a little skeptical that the engine hasn’t been flushed or there is some other back story, but nonetheless that is very clean.

It was a surprise to me as well. Since it was owned by Travis county for most of its life, I have no idea what may have been done to it. All I can say for certain is what has been done in the last 43k miles and what I see on the Carfax, which basically shows nothing. My dad did find a business card of the deputy who drove the car. I can't remember the rank, but I do know he was a higher rank, so maybe he kept up with the maintenance better than most. The car itself is in better shape than any CVPI I've seen, too.

 

[Bird's_Garage]

I'm come to notice most of the clean engine pics have one thing in common . No Turbos.

My two other vehicles are turbo. It's my goal to have them look clean when the time comes to remove the valve cover. It should be years before I need to, but they get the oil changed religiously, nonetheless.

 

[gregk24]

yes

If this was a VW people would be fussing because of that.

 

[IndyFan]

Very nice! And a nice statement for Valvoline. Maybe it cleaned up some crap in there. But then again, I know of a few police departments that run very good oil. Our local PD runs Mobil 1. Not sure how long their OCI's are but I'm sure it's not more than 10k. Probably 5k or so.

 

[2EHA]

If this was a VW people would be fussing because of that.

i didn’t know composite cams were that old either

 

[OilUzer]

"Since it's been out of service, the oil has been changed every 3000 to 5000 miles."

Maybe that's one reason it looks nice.

 

[Kjmack]

"Since it's been out of service, the oil has been changed every 3000 to 5000 miles."

Maybe that's one reason it looks nice.

I think it would be fun if you went 12k in-between oci and ran a Fram Ultra for 20k . Just so we all can see 5k is hogwash .

 

[loneryder]

I'd feel pretty good about the previous history of the car after seeing that, if I was you. It looks like it was on a pretty good service schedule.

Many PD’s have good service schedules.

 

[CB22]

very clean, but I'd get some ZDDP before your cams are totally wiped out.

 

[emmett442]

^^^Wut? This is a roller valvetrain...