Varnish/stains

[rclint]

I have noticed on ever Honda engine I have owned you can see a varnish build up/stains, nothing to the order of sludge mind you however I see these pictures floating around this site that look like new cast iron/aluminum with oodles of miles and long OCI's. I wonder what causes engines to either stay clean, or have the varnish look ? Also I'm not worried at all about it, as from reading, and my past experience Honda's are really easy on oil, Dino, synthetic blend, or synthetic ( I tend to prefer the synthetic blends and run manufacture severe service OCI at 7500). Any opinions on this ?

Clint

 

[Steve S]

Usually a real syn oil with some esters will help keep the varnish off but I wouldn't really worry about it

 

[rg200amp]

It will not not cause any issues.

I quality synthetic and a good OCI has kept my cars while I had them in clean condition.

 

[mva]

My father inlaw's 2002 accord looks immaculate under the oil cap. He has been doing spring and fall oil changes with Castrol GTX since new. He puts on about 5000 to 6000 miles in 6 months.

Check out this UOA

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubb...960#Post1347960

 

[Quest]

been running formula shell 5W20/5W30 (depending on which one is on sale) on dad's 7th gen civic. No varnish can be seen the during last summer when I took the valve cover off to replace all the gaskets and spark plug tube seals.

Q.

 

[wgtoys]

I recently had the valve cover off a 1990 Miata with 120k miles (helping a friend change the timing belt, yes you have to remove the valve cover to get to the timing belt!). Very light varnish was evident, but nothing to worry about. I know that he has run conventional oil with 3k mile OCIs forever in the thing. Of course, 1990s vintage conventional motor oil was made to a much lower standard than today's conventional oils.

All in all it didn't look like anything to be even mildly concerned about though.

 

[ARB1977]

My 97 honda i ran 10W30 syntec and a fram x2 filter. Change intervals were 4-5K...90K miles and it was spotless.

 

[Bill in Utah]

Here is a Honda 3.5l V6 in a Vue.

80k on the motor and mostly follows the OLM for OCI.

5w-20 only and ever used in this engine.

Take care, Bill

 

[Nickdfresh]

My 93' Civic "looked like new" Mobil 1 5w30 or 10w30 most of five years I owned it (gone in 2004)...