what is this junk inside my engine?

[Bror Jace]

Hmmm ... you might want to take some time and physically remove as much of that carbon build-up as you can. Just don't be too aggressive and obviously you don't want to scratch or nich any wear surface nor gasket-mating surface. Still, that's time consuming. Also, you don't want to let too many bits and pieces of black stuff get away from you and fall back into the motor. They could plug up an oil passageway, the oil pump pick-up screen and or the oil filter.

I vote that you simply give this thing a few short duration oil changes using the oil you have on hand. And I know you have plenty of older oil on hand.

I know this thing won't be racking up the miles too quickly. So, go no more than 500 miles on each oil and filter change. Add an ounce or two of Neutra during the last 100 miles ... and use some in the fuel as well as a precaution.

You know you're getting somewhere when the fresh oil doesn't turn black immediately.

--- Bror Jace

 

[Bogatyr]

Good morning,
Here's some background. This is a 1970 Land Rover 2.25 liter gas engine. I rebuilt the truck and have recently got it on the road after a lengthy frameover. I didn't rebuild the engine as it only had 40k on it. I've now put 120 miles on the truck and decided to change the oil. There was a cocktail of Shell Rotella 15w40, some MaxLife I had lying around and a bit of Neutra for good measure.

I decided to change the oil and do a better job on the oil pan gasket since I had a bit of a leak from the latter. I drop the pan and just poke around for a bit since the oil was rather black after 120 miles, but this is it's first change in who knows how many years.
I look around and see this:

This is taken from around the oil pump looking forward.

Now, there is what I first thought was paint you can see towards the left of the picture where I was able to clean some off with my finger...it's about as thick as paint, but must be some sort of calcium deposit I'd think...As you might see, it's all over the insides of the block, but not on any of the moving bits...maybe hard water deposits from a previous head gasket leak?

Any ideas would be welcomed as well as ideas on where to go next.

Thanks,
Bogatyr

 

[digitaldrifter91]

i wish i can see the pic

 

[Bogatyr]

Digitaldrifter91,
Ack...strange...it was there the other day...must be something screwey with my ISP...maybe with all the page views I'm over my limit...

Bror,
I don't think it's carbon on the inside as the material is white and flaky...that's why I thought it was paint at first...but I've never heard of anyone painting the INSIDE of a block...seems to me it might be some sort of deposit (maybe calcium?) that is a byproduct of having an engine sit for 20+ years...

In any case, I'm going to do a few quick oil changes with some Neutra in the sump and then drop the pan again to check out how things look in there.

Gotta love old Rovers...dropping the pan is a 15 minute job...

Bogatyr

 

[Propflux01]

I cannot see it either...