Valvecover pics: Toyota 1NZFE 295,000 miles.

[bbhero]

Great day in the darn morning…

Hell my Nissan Altima VQ had the looking litttle bit of varnish on the valve cover like this vehicle has. Slightly golden brown… Now the rest of what I could see inside that VQ motor was totally clean of any varnish. None there… And that was true at 360,000 miles plus by the way.

Now I had cut the interval over time from 5k miles or 5,500 miles down to 3k miles in that Nissan Altima VQ.


The varnish in this motor of it only had say 75,000 miles or 120,000 miles… Then I would agree with some of you guys on the varnish color being on there…

Sweet baby Jesus… That vehicle has darn near 300,000 miles on it… This is not a big frieking deal here.

Good news…. I’d bet good money HPL EC in there would clean that light varnish fairly well in that motor. Use that for 2 times back to back and that would clean that motor right up I would think.

And those cam lobes do look really, really quite good. In terms of that… those are in great shape.

And 3/4 in 5,000 miles is not unusual in those motors. These motors are known for oil return holes filling up with carbon and plugging them up. Therefore leading to those motors burning oil.

 

[gfh77665]

Sweet baby Jesus… That vehicle has darn near 300,000 miles on it… This is not a big frieking deal here…

Amen bro.

 

[gfh77665]

In the vast majority of vehicles, PM has a "sweet spot". (Exotics, collectors, etc. are excepted) Over maintenance does not pay off in most cases. Who needs pristine engine internals as a vehicle is towed away to the junkyard with 350K+on it? The body, tech, interior is all likely worn. The vehicles serviceable life is about up. Yes, there are a few exceptions, I get that.

Point is, there is an element of futility and extra cost to trying to maintain a pristine engine north of 300K. Even with pristine engine internals, the lifespan of a 350K+ vehicle is usually about up.

 

[Exhaustgases]

All this constant varnish worry on this site? Actually it can fill a hole that all the now water viscosity oil can't. Rust or corrosion prevention from lack of constant use. The important thing here is the lack of wear on the parts that experience extreme pressure wear.

 

[DemoFly]

You used synthetic and I don't think he did.

the family actually has 2 more of these engines. Both synthetics at random intervals. It would be interesting to borescope them, but they are both low mileage.

 

[ripcord]

I wouldn't consider using 3/4 of a quart between oil changes any problem at all. With that little oil being consumed, I bet any smoke coming out of the tail pipe is quite minor.

 

[Pablo]

OP ran cheapest oil at 5K intervals. 300K and still running... might make 400K... what more do people want?

I think people using good synthetic want to stop reading "it's exactly the same". It's not. Even with extended OCI's synthetic oil engines stay cleaner than this in the areas that really matter.

Yes of course this top side does not look TERRIBLE. And some metal staining is not a big deal at all.

 

[demarpaint]

Considering the miles it looks decent. If it were mine I'd give Rislone or HPL engine cleaner a try for two 2,500 mile OCIs. Maybe even take a couple of before and after shots.

 

[kschachn]

As another point of reference here was my 1NZ-FE at 280,000:

1NZ-FE Under Valve Cover - 280,000 Miles

As part of some other general maintenance I had to do after nearly 20 years, I noticed the valve cover gasket was leaking a bit at the rear. It had never been changed on the ECHO so I changed it out and the inside looked very good after all these miles. This engine is nothing like my 1MZ-FE...

bobistheoilguy.com

 

[sw99]

Looks great! Love those engines.