Varnish on heads and chunky grit in oil filter

[jhellwig]

I posted the two filters I have taken off my suburban here http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubb...er_state#UNREAD

I had one of the valve covers off trying to find a leak and noticed the engine is varished up fairly good but didn't look sludged or overly caked with junk. There was some fairly large size chunks of grit in the filter that was on it when I bought it and some of the pleats were full. The guy that owned it before me only owned it 6 months but looked like the oil change had been since he owned it. I dont know what oil he used by it had a fram ultra filter on it. I am guessing the people he bought it from didn't take good care of it and judging by some of the stuff that was covered up that he didn't tell me about he was cutting his losses.

The motor runs fine and only used a quart in 2000 miles(I have only had it for 3000 miles). I had changed the oil when I got it with penzoil ultra 0w-40. When I cut the filter and found the chunks I changed it again with only having approximately 3000 on the oil. I put Valvoline white bottle 10w-40 in it and plan to do a 2500 mile run a few times to clean the rest of the chunks out.

I wanna clean it up but don't think I need to get to extream. What is the best thing to do?

 

[DoubleWasp]

PYB would be a better choice for some good soft cleaning. I'd run shorter OCI's for the cleaning effect too.

 

[jhellwig]

I don't plan on buying conventional oil for a while. I have a ton of 15w-40 Valvoline and some 10w-40. I have got a few years worth of oil that this vehical can use.

Another question is is a pcv valve supposed to rattle and buz at idle. It is a new pcv valve but it had been a while since I had a vehical with a spring and check in the pcv valve.

 

[bigt61]

I'd stick with 3k OCIs and use the oil you have. When the filters start looking better you can extend the OCI. Pay attention to the oil pressure just to make sure your pick up screen in the oil pan isn't getting clogged. A slow, steady cleaning should help mitigate that happening.

 

[barkingspider]

Use the oil in your stash. Perhaps add some MMO to your oil as well, for the couple hundred miles before OCI?

 

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted By: barkingspider
Use the oil in your stash. Perhaps add some MMO to your oil as well, for the couple hundred miles before OCI?


I'd do that, or use Kreen or Rislone. Oil alone is not going to clean a problem as well as oil tweaked with a cleaner. Kreen will work the fastest of the bunch.

 

[LeakySeals]

I've used kreen, MMO, any kind of additive and almost every oil experimenting over the years and in my opinion nothing beats the cleaning power of Mobil 1 High Mileage 5w30. Note the Camry in my signature. I bought that car really cheap cuz it supposedly had a bad engine it was rapping really bad. That was 150K miles ago. Has extra wear additives extra detergent seal conditioners and it's a full synthetic! Available at Walmart in the jugs. Going to take around 10,000 clean that up. Using m1 HM 5w30 I would do 2 short 3000 mile cleanups then you can go to a standard 6-7k OCI and if you burn oil 7000 will be just fine because of the replenishment.

 

[Doog]

Originally Posted By: bigt61
I'd stick with 3k OCIs and use the oil you have.


^^This^^ add a 1/2 quart of Rislone or MMO to each OCI. Use Fram orange cans. Do 4-5 OCIs then re-assess.

 

[BrocLuno]

First, I'd install oversized filters to catch stuff and allow better cold flow (more media area).

Second I'd run the oil you have and Kreen (or Rislone if more available). For change intervals, every 3K for a while. Then start stretching to 5K

 

[jhellwig]

I can't use an oversized filter nor am I sure one exists. I don't know if I like the idea of leaving a cleaner in it for the whole oil change.

Once I get through what I have I will use max life.

 

[Noey]

Change your air filter! Those oil filters look awful, was the "Chunky grit" hard and sand like, or was it soft and sludge like? If it was hard, I'd bet PO drove this a lot in very dusty conditions.

If it's sludge, the last thing you want to is aggressively clean it, b/c whatever you use won't dissolve it totally, but rather loosen it up just enough so that you've got a semi viscous sludge moving thru the tiny passages of your engine, which usually leads to blockage.

I'd recommend you use the oil you have and just change it out more frequently, it's fine for your purposes here. And change the filter each OCI too.

And one qt. in 2000 miles indicates wear, you might consider using a thicker oil.

 

[bigt61]

NO additives - let the clean oil do it's work slowly. Keep it topped off - that's it.

 

[jhellwig]

The air filter is fine and a quart every 2000 is normal for a small block Chevy this age. I will keep with shorter intervals and the most aggressive I might get with it is using the cylinder cleaner that the oil usage tsb for the amf 5.3 LS engines call for.

I need to do a compression check and see where each cylinder is as I can see which cylinders are burning oil by the plugs.