Varnish

[Matt89]

Methinks we'd all be better off if we couldn't see into the oil fill hole.

My old '92 Cavalier had a combination dipstick / filler tube...kind of nice in hindsight

 

[wavinwayne]

Doesn't Lube Control make the claim of being able to clean varnish?

 

[bkrell]

Uh, I thought in those recently posted pics on the Arx website that the after pics showed a varish-free engine? http://www.rms13.com/imgal/

When I had my valve cover off, I took a rag w/ some chemtool on it and the varnish rubbed off after a few seconds. But that was undiluted and with rubbing. I don't know how even chemtool would do when circulating around in a flush.

 

[reyjay1]

Heck i just bought a v6 honda that has 80k on the engine and it had varnish on the dipstick above the oil fill line and I am sure throughout the engine, changed the oil and brown what looked like 10-40 came out , changed straight to GC, several hundred miles later after checking the dipstick a few times all varnish is almost gone.

 

[pmt]

I bought a used 1980 Impala small block (4.4 L) once upon a time - had 54,000 mi. I learned to my dismay when I did the first oil change that the previous owner had not done many oil changes evidently - hard brown varnish on oil filter head. I used a sharp scraper to clean off about one square inch of the varnish down to the bare metal. After that I always checked the filter head surface every time I changed the oil - Mobil 1 5w30 at 5000 mi OCIs. Unfortunately the varnish never changed, but the square inch of bare metal stayed perfectly clean until I junked the car at 299,000 miles.
However the poor maintenace by the orig owner did cause me to have to replace the valve lifters (flat bottom type in those days) at 155,000 mi - (several got noisy - due to severe wear). The only time I ever had failed lifters on the many Chev small blocks I've owned through the years. And I always run my cars/pickups to at least 250,000 mi before driving them to the junk yard.

 

[pallen]

sorry mispost...

 

[vwoom]

Here's one I found from Passatworld:

And the linky:
Sharky's Sludge Thread

 

[Pablo]

wow - those guys only sound like us. remember - real oil chatter started here.

btw- can you say "potted"...