Under the Valve Cover... how's it lookin'?

[TiGeo]

Bottom end to the extent you could see it during a timing chain tensioner repair around the same time as the PCV picture above.

 

[KrisZ]

No oil is going to clean that engine, waste of money, time and good oil trying to chase that monkey.

I would run a dedicated engine cleaner and probably do a piston soak with some good solvent, like mopar combustion chamber cleaner or similar.

If the above helps, great, if it doesn’t just keep driving and topping up the oil. The engine will most likely go a lot longer like that.

 

[OVERKILL]

@FCD I've owned it for the last 7 years. Since about 160k.

If you zoom in, hopefully not too much quality was lost, but there are a couple little hot spots on the cam lobes and scoring. Though nothing was feelable. Car does consume oil (1500mi) and has blowby. I'm the second owner. So I believe the car wasn't as well maintained in it's early years, never had overheated in my ownership and runs pretty good all things considered.

So, oils aren't cleaners, so it's not surprising that switching to Mobil 1 didn't clean-up 160,000 miles of abuse. Their purpose is to keep things clean and once that's no longer taking place, well, this is what that looks like. Once this material is able to plate-out and adhere itself to the surfaces it takes either a solvent or something with high polarity or solvency to remove it.

Mobil has previously claimed that their FS Euro 0W-40 can clean, but I don't believe they make that claim anymore. I experienced it doing just that, but that was back during the period in which the claim was still current.

HPL's oils can clean, this is due to the base oil blend they use, which leverages esters and AN's to perform that function. It's a slow clean, but that's what you'd want when cleaning up varnish, lacquer and carbonaceous grit.

If you intend on using the HPL Engine Cleaner product (probably the most cost effective) I'd personally be inclined to use it with M1 FS 0W-40. You'll want to short change the filter, probably the first one after 1,000 miles and see what it looks like. This will allow you to determine how long you can safely run a filter for with this combo.

 

[OVERKILL]

Does the crimson colour indicate heat wear due to inadequate lubrication?

No, it's just lacquer, which is like a heavier, more contaminated varnish.

 

[147Grain]

Something doesn’t add up with 3,000 mile oil changes on Mobil 1.

 

[dumkid]

I bet the varnish is somewhat caused by the blow by. More blow by=dirty oil, dirty oil=dirty engine

 

[Exhaustgases]

I remember, back around 1963, a 16 year old cousin bought a used Ford with a 312 V8. He removed the valve covers. The sludge was so thick, you could remove it with an ice cream scoop. He did not have that car for long.

And this is why I laugh at all these under the valve cover postings, its just comical. Anyone that is not at least over age 66 has no idea what real sludge looks like.

 

[jetman]

Something doesn’t add up with 3,000 mile oil changes on Mobil 1.

Blow by
Rings or either dead, or stuck?
If stuck do piston/combustion chamber soak(s)

 

[loneryder]

It seems HPL is highly regarded here as of late for cleaning the sludge. I may try that. I have an oil change coming up at 225k. (224.7k now)

If I do proceed with it, I plan on removing the valve cover again for a before/after.

You may have been cleaning that engine up quite a bit since you bought it. It might have been really sludged up.

 

[ARB1977]

90,000 less than you but here’s my 15 Tacoma 4.0L with 136K. OCI range from 5500-6500 miles with Amsoil middle tier oil with biotech.

 

[Donald]

I would be less concerned with the condition of the valve train and more concerned with the engine using oil.
Have you checked the compression?
Piston soak?
Remove the pistons and clean or replace the rings.

 

[RugopsOP]

I would be less concerned with the condition of the valve train and more concerned with the engine using oil.
Have you checked the compression?
Piston soak?
Remove the pistons and clean or replace the rings.

Yea understandable. The car used to burn a quart every 1000mi now it's only burning 0.5qt every 2000.

 

[RugopsOP]

Update Post
It's been almost 22k since my last update. But my valve cover recently cracked and started pouring out a lot of oil. So I had to replace it. Gave me a good opportunity to check underneath the cover I noticed some pretty significant cleaning done. No fancy products used except for HPL Engine Cleaner 22k ago. Just using Mobil1 5w40 Euro.

This is the most noticable cleaning^
(no physical contact made to attempt removal)

 

[buster]

Update Post
It's been almost 22k since my last update. But my valve cover recently cracked and started pouring out a lot of oil. So I had to replace it. Gave me a good opportunity to check underneath the cover I noticed some pretty significant cleaning done. No fancy products used except for HPL Engine Cleaner 22k ago. Just using Mobil1 5w40 Euro.View attachment 220450
This is the most noticable cleaning^
(no physical contact made to attempt removal)

Thanks for sharing. HPL oils clean better than their EC so if you decide to switch it will likely take care of that.

 

[Donald]

Pull the engine and take it to Dave's Auto in Utah so he can make a YT video of him cleaning it. It will come back clean enough to eat off of. Have him put it on the Sim engine tester so we can see that on the YT video also. Love the Dave's Auto YT videos.

 

[RugopsOP]

Pull the engine and take it to Dave's Auto in Utah so he can make a YT video of him cleaning it. It will come back clean enough to eat off of. Have him put it on the Sim engine tester so we can see that on the YT video also. Love the Dave's Auto YT videos.

Why would I do that for some varnish?

 

[burbguy82]

That looks terrible, respective to your claim of Mobil 1 for most of its life, I would have expected more.

 

[RugopsOP]

That looks terrible, respective to your claim of Mobil 1 for most of its life, I would have expected more.

Well not most of its life but for the last 80k.

I've been running EuroForumula for the past 15-20k or so(?) And I updated on post #53 with the improvements that made on one section.

 

[Donald]

Pull the engine and take it to Dave's Auto in Utah so he can make a YT video of him cleaning it. It will come back clean enough to eat off of. Have him put it on the Sim engine tester so we can see that on the YT video also. Love the Dave's Auto YT videos.

It was more of a joke so we could see another Dave's Auto You Tube video.

 

[burbguy82]

Well not most of its life but for the last 80k.

I've been running EuroForumula for the past 15-20k or so(?) And I updated on post #53 with the improvements that made on one section.

Well, it does have a bunch of miles, so there is that. I mean, what are we after here? A clean engine, or a long lasting one? For me it would be lasting, even if in made the engine look terrible. Many here like the Euro Formula, and I am inclined to agree.

One other poster shared with me a picture of their oil pan off, using 0w40M1, in a high dollar engine, and it was spotless, and if I am not mistaken, pretty old engine.

That is some really good results I would say. Better to be slow and steady, than to melt it all off at once.