Neglected car- Unknown oil '95 Caprice 5.7l LT1

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This is the oil I took out of the car when I bought it. It had a JiffyLube sticker so I'm assuming it was their house oil. Anyone know what it is? I had taken the valve covers off before and there was sludge. Engine was not taken very well care of even though it only has 56k.
Oil: unknown
Miles on interval: 3,900
Miles on vehicle at time of change: 56,200
Oil put in: Havoline 10w-30 (4qts), PP 10w-30 (1 qt)
Miles to put on this interval: ~2,000

Report says- high in Aluminum, chome, iron, and silicon. Wear at pistons, rings, and steal parts such as cylinders.










PCV valve was all clogged up. It was changed.
 
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Dunno, since I'm about 6,000 miles from the nearest JiffyLube, but I don't see it matters much other than for interest. Damage (a surprising amount on that reported mileage whatever the oil was) is done.

Given your reported comments, I'd do a compression check. This will be useful if, at a later date, you have to decide whether the car is worth spending money on.

Looks like a job for a spoon, a sumpectomy, and then maybe a series of HDEO enemas. A (brake fluid?) piston soak might also be worth considering.
 
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Slow and steady will work fine. Whatever conventional is cheap, stock up on and maybe some Tough guard or wix filters and I vote go 1,500-2,000 miles and change and monitor progress.
 
I would wash the head and the sump with diesel, after that a corrective flush, changing the oil and filter letting the good oil do the rest. Too much muck to close and pray.
 
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Originally Posted By: Ducked
Dunno, since I'm about 6,000 miles from the nearest JiffyLube, but I don't see it matters much other than for interest. Damage (a surprising amount on that reported mileage whatever the oil was) is done.

Given your reported comments, I'd do a compression check. This will be useful if, at a later date, you have to decide whether the car is worth spending money on.

Looks like a job for a spoon, a sumpectomy, and then maybe a series of HDEO enemas. A (brake fluid?) piston soak might also be worth considering.


I tried the spoon method once....even though we had a vacuum's tube right next to the area, enough chunks fell in to roast a bearing in short order.

I've since become a fan of the slow and steady method. On a really bad engine I prefer to do 2 ARX treatments, followed by a several short intervals, then on to my oil of choice and gradually extend to normal intervals.
 
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well that is a good find an LT1 is it an old squad car? that could explain the high wear if it idled a lot , I cleaned up a buick with rotella T5 10 w 30 is a a 6 month period for a buddy , once a month oil changes , and the car is still running fine with no head aches ,

watch the famous 100 k tune up with the opti spark unit they are a PITA
 
Originally Posted By: Kuato
Originally Posted By: Ducked
Dunno, since I'm about 6,000 miles from the nearest JiffyLube, but I don't see it matters much other than for interest. Damage (a surprising amount on that reported mileage whatever the oil was) is done.

Given your reported comments, I'd do a compression check. This will be useful if, at a later date, you have to decide whether the car is worth spending money on.

Looks like a job for a spoon, a sumpectomy, and then maybe a series of HDEO enemas. A (brake fluid?) piston soak might also be worth considering.


I tried the spoon method once....even though we had a vacuum's tube right next to the area, enough chunks fell in to roast a bearing in short order.

I've since become a fan of the slow and steady method. On a really bad engine I prefer to do 2 ARX treatments, followed by a several short intervals, then on to my oil of choice and gradually extend to normal intervals.


Spoon, vacuum and solvent wash, then flush...

Run the oil with some Rinslone concentrate.

Or live with that black sand...
 
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Run Quaker State Defy with Liquimoly Mos2 and Liquimoly Motor Oil Saver together. The MOS has tons of boron and cleans well, the mos2 will help with the rings. They sound stuck. A good fuel cleaner like redline si1 or gumout all in one will help. If your considering a crankcase wash try gumout multi-tune as per instructions.
 
Originally Posted By: car51
Slow and steady will work fine. Whatever conventional is cheap, stock up on and maybe some Tough guard or wix filters and I vote go 1,500-2,000 miles and change and monitor progress.

That's what I'm thinking too. An engine flush may kill the engine if it gets a piece of that sludge loose and then it gets stuck on the oil pump screen.

I may do some Chevron Delo 15w-40 since supposidly it has more detergants than gasoline motor oil.
 
Originally Posted By: Kuato
Originally Posted By: Ducked
Dunno, since I'm about 6,000 miles from the nearest JiffyLube, but I don't see it matters much other than for interest. Damage (a surprising amount on that reported mileage whatever the oil was) is done.

Given your reported comments, I'd do a compression check. This will be useful if, at a later date, you have to decide whether the car is worth spending money on.

Looks like a job for a spoon, a sumpectomy, and then maybe a series of HDEO enemas. A (brake fluid?) piston soak might also be worth considering.


I tried the spoon method once....even though we had a vacuum's tube right next to the area, enough chunks fell in to roast a bearing in short order.

I've since become a fan of the slow and steady method. On a really bad engine I prefer to do 2 ARX treatments, followed by a several short intervals, then on to my oil of choice and gradually extend to normal intervals.


Well, I don't have a vacuum tube, so when I've done this sort of thing I've plugged dowmhill orifices with paper towels and/or wadded plastic bags.

Re slow and steady, who knows, but you don't have any control, and with that amount of sludge I doubt you can exclude the possibility that large lumps of it will detatch. Physically removing the worst from the rocker cover and sump doesn't eliminate this risk, but it probably reduces it.

As well as a spoon, coke cans make good scrapers, and can be cut and/or formed to various shapes.
 
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Originally Posted By: car51
Slow and steady will work fine. Whatever conventional is cheap, stock up on and maybe some Tough guard or wix filters and I vote go 1,500-2,000 miles and change and monitor progress.


Look at the pics and think about it, as the UOA results are real bad.

First of all I would see if it is practical to drop the sump (Easy on most old cars but can be difficult on some modern ones) to clean it and the all important oil pump intake screen.
Washing through with diesel might help a bit if you can't drop the sump, BUT the next thing to do is use a major brand idle use only oil flush additive with any cheap 5w30. Amsoil, Lubegard and Liqui Moly flushes that are just used at idle for 10 or 15 mins before changing the oil & filter. If you don't clean the top end (Big messy job), it might need 2 runs flushes before the oil stays clean.

Once the initial clean is done, use any major brand full synthetic 0w30 that has the correct API specs AND keep the OCI short, perhaps 2 or 3000 miles.
 
UOA wasn't that bad considering. That screwdriver may have already done enough damage to kill it. Once you start breaking up that carbon by hand, it usually doesn't end well unless you pull the motor apart and go all the way. In this case, not worth it. I'd just button it up and run cheap dino for 3000 mile OCIs with cheap filters. Keep it topped off and hope for the best, you may get lucky - those motors are pretty tough.
 
Originally Posted By: bigt61
UOA wasn't that bad considering. That screwdriver may have already done enough damage to kill it. Once you start breaking up that carbon by hand, it usually doesn't end well unless you pull the motor apart and go all the way. In this case, not worth it. I'd just button it up and run cheap dino for 3000 mile OCIs with cheap filters. Keep it topped off and hope for the best, you may get lucky - those motors are pretty tough.


How on earth do you think a cheap dino is going to shift what is some serious sludge and varnish, some kind of miracle ??

It will take at least a day for a good car mechanic with the right tools to clean it properly top and bottom. Even if it is fully cleaned there is no guarantee that the engine has not already been damaged. The HG, VVT, turbo and timing chain are all potential weak points for an engine with poor oil flow iisues. Oddly enough when some muppet fails to change the oil the turbo will often fail well before any other parts and that does offer some degree of protection to the block.

For some odd reason some folks think that a major brand idle only use flush can damage an engine during the 10 or 15 mins it is in use, when I've never known of such an issue. If the engine is also a dripper in addition to a black death victim, I would use an engine stop leak additive or switch to a thicker HM oil, depending on how bad the leak is.
 
Originally Posted By: UltrafanUK
Originally Posted By: bigt61
UOA wasn't that bad considering. That screwdriver may have already done enough damage to kill it. Once you start breaking up that carbon by hand, it usually doesn't end well unless you pull the motor apart and go all the way. In this case, not worth it. I'd just button it up and run cheap dino for 3000 mile OCIs with cheap filters. Keep it topped off and hope for the best, you may get lucky - those motors are pretty tough.


How on earth do you think a cheap dino is going to shift what is some serious sludge and varnish, some kind of miracle ??

It will take at least a day for a good car mechanic with the right tools to clean it properly top and bottom. Even if it is fully cleaned there is no guarantee that the engine has not already been damaged. The HG, VVT, turbo and timing chain are all potential weak points for an engine with poor oil flow iisues. Oddly enough when some muppet fails to change the oil the turbo will often fail well before any other parts and that does offer some degree of protection to the block.

For some odd reason some folks think that a major brand idle only use flush can damage an engine during the 10 or 15 mins it is in use, when I've never known of such an issue. If the engine is also a dripper in addition to a black death victim, I would use an engine stop leak additive or switch to a thicker HM oil, depending on how bad the leak is.


This is a 95 Caprice - a beater worth $500 to $1000 at best. Any money spent on trying to desludge it is wasted IMO. Just keep it running on cheap dino and keep it topped off if it leaks. That's it. Save your money for a nicer, newer next car.
 
Originally Posted By: bigt61
That screwdriver may have already done enough damage to kill it.


Well, in that case, you could argue that you're already in to it and have nothing to lose, so you may as well at least clean up the top end manually.

If you can't remove the sump without removing the engine, I'd consider posting my sludge to the manufacturer.

I try and find this out before buying a car, since I don't think the perpetrators of such atrocities should be encouraged.

Class action, anyone?
 
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Originally Posted By: bigt61
Originally Posted By: UltrafanUK
Originally Posted By: bigt61
UOA wasn't that bad considering. That screwdriver may have already done enough damage to kill it. Once you start breaking up that carbon by hand, it usually doesn't end well unless you pull the motor apart and go all the way. In this case, not worth it. I'd just button it up and run cheap dino for 3000 mile OCIs with cheap filters. Keep it topped off and hope for the best, you may get lucky - those motors are pretty tough.


How on earth do you think a cheap dino is going to shift what is some serious sludge and varnish, some kind of miracle ??

It will take at least a day for a good car mechanic with the right tools to clean it properly top and bottom. Even if it is fully cleaned there is no guarantee that the engine has not already been damaged. The HG, VVT, turbo and timing chain are all potential weak points for an engine with poor oil flow iisues. Oddly enough when some muppet fails to change the oil the turbo will often fail well before any other parts and that does offer some degree of protection to the block.

For some odd reason some folks think that a major brand idle only use flush can damage an engine during the 10 or 15 mins it is in use, when I've never known of such an issue. If the engine is also a dripper in addition to a black death victim, I would use an engine stop leak additive or switch to a thicker HM oil, depending on how bad the leak is.


This is a 95 Caprice - a beater worth $500 to $1000 at best. Any money spent on trying to desludge it is wasted IMO. Just keep it running on cheap dino and keep it topped off if it leaks. That's it. Save your money for a nicer, newer next car.


I disagree with part of your statement. It may be a beater car to you but it's a treasure to me. As the saying goes- "one mans trash is another mans treasure." KBB has it worth at $1,500 and change but they go for a lot more on ebay. Even before my TC was totaled, I was searching these Caprices with the lt1. Just so happens when my car was totaled this particular one came up right after. It was meant to be, per say. Could have I afforded to buy a newer car? Sure, not brand new but you get the point. Here's a couple of pics. No cracks in the dash or leather. Original paint.






 
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