What an oily mess!

[Mas (UK)]

I wanted to replace my valve cover gasket this weekend because of some oil which was leaking into the spark plug tubes. How would you react if you saw this mess after removing the cover?

I have owned this car for about 4 years now and replaced the oil and filter regularly (at least every year within 8-10k) myself. After seeing this mess yesterday, I couldn't help removing some big blobs of thick hardened oil from around the valve train. The old hardened oil crumbles easily when you try to remove it and is relatively dry. No-doubt this mess has built up over the life of the car and probably a sign it was neglected to some degree. As for my own recent oil changes, the fresh oil can be seen on the cam lobes and looks ok.

Have any of you seen such a mess like this when you've looked inside your cars? Is it normal? If not, what would you recommend, try to clean it up or better to just leave it alone? I'm thinking of picking as much as I can, then vacuum out any bits from inside before changing the oil and filter. What about those engine flush chemicals, do they work and will they help clean the rest of the engine? Or will they cause more trouble? Anything wrong with trying to clean this mess out, will any bits I can't vac out ruin an otherwise good engine? Anyone who has been-there-done-that I'd be very glad for your advise.

Thanks in advance!

Cheers,

Mas

[Gayle]

http://www.auto-rx.com/

After reading about numerous products, I selected this one as it is a slow solvent rather than a shock solvent which can cause chunks to dislodge and block stuff. I really liked the effect it had on our high milegage 90 525 in terms of performance. Didn't do a visual inspection so no idea what the before and after looked like. Wow How could you keep from hurling at the site of that mess? That is an amazing picture.

I am sure you are going to get a zillion posts about switching to synthetic oil too. Let me be the first to say do it.

[genphreak]

Hmm I wouldn't use synthetic, I'd be wanting to change it too regularly!!!

Seriously I've seen worse. You could clean as best you can the top (blocking any escape routes for the hardened crud down into the engine- this is very hard and would take a day probably. Then I could at least pop the cover without cringing... but I think I'd rather chg the oil every 2-3000miles and run some of that solvent stuff at the end of a few changes than use syntehtic in an engine like that - just to rid the engine of as much as possible. Thing is, oil collects where it sits, so the engine can live with it- it might even help it in some ways- main thing is - don't worry about it- she's gone this long, if the wear looks okay on those cam-lobes you can definately relax a lot. GP

[632 Regal]

That oil buildup is a common thing in a neglected engine with dino oil. I believe it accumulates really fast when the dino oil is broken down and the car was used for short runs in cold weather. Clean it up as much as you can and keep changing your oil, you might want to change the filter maybe 500 miles into the next oil change to help catch any chunks that have slipped by.

[Bill R.]

owner had put 50k miles on without ever changing the oil , it looked only slightly worse than yours. I used to see this all the time in the 70's , almost any engine i tore down at 100k miles looked like this. I would check your crankcase ventilation system to make sure that its functioning and then scraped as much of the buildup off the head that you can get. Make sure that no holes or passages are plugged. STP oil treatment will make an engine look like this quickly also. I would then start changing your oil a lot more often and use a motor flush as some of the others have suggested just before you change your oil. Are you using oil now ?

I wanted to replace my valve cover gasket this weekend because of some oil which was leaking into the spark plug tubes. How would you react if you saw this mess after removing the cover?

I have owned this car for about 4 years now and replaced the oil and filter regularly (at least every year within 8-10k) myself. After seeing this mess yesterday, I couldn't help removing some big blobs of thick hardened oil from around the valve train. The old hardened oil crumbles easily when you try to remove it and is relatively dry. No-doubt this mess has built up over the life of the car and probably a sign it was neglected to some degree. As for my own recent oil changes, the fresh oil can be seen on the cam lobes and looks ok.

Have any of you seen such a mess like this when you've looked inside your cars? Is it normal? If not, what would you recommend, try to clean it up or better to just leave it alone? I'm thinking of picking as much as I can, then vacuum out any bits from inside before changing the oil and filter. What about those engine flush chemicals, do they work and will they help clean the rest of the engine? Or will they cause more trouble? Anything wrong with trying to clean this mess out, will any bits I can't vac out ruin an otherwise good engine? Anyone who has been-there-done-that I'd be very glad for your advise.

Thanks in advance!

Cheers,

Mas

[liquidtiger720]

Mine probly looks like that.

[uscharalph]

I wanted to replace my valve cover gasket this weekend because of some oil which was leaking into the spark plug tubes. How would you react if you saw this mess after removing the cover?

I have owned this car for about 4 years now and replaced the oil and filter regularly (at least every year within 8-10k) myself. After seeing this mess yesterday, I couldn't help removing some big blobs of thick hardened oil from around the valve train. The old hardened oil crumbles easily when you try to remove it and is relatively dry. No-doubt this mess has built up over the life of the car and probably a sign it was neglected to some degree. As for my own recent oil changes, the fresh oil can be seen on the cam lobes and looks ok.

Have any of you seen such a mess like this when you've looked inside your cars? Is it normal? If not, what would you recommend, try to clean it up or better to just leave it alone? I'm thinking of picking as much as I can, then vacuum out any bits from inside before changing the oil and filter. What about those engine flush chemicals, do they work and will they help clean the rest of the engine? Or will they cause more trouble? Anything wrong with trying to clean this mess out, will any bits I can't vac out ruin an otherwise good engine? Anyone who has been-there-done-that I'd be very glad for your advise.

Thanks in advance!

Cheers,

Mas

A better title is "What a Gunky Mess!"

[Mas (UK)]

I am using an assortment of tools to remove as much of this gunky mess as possible (Ralph - yes, I agree gunky mess is a better title!) Given that the valve train area is full of recesses, the most useful tools I'm finding are some loose blades and a couple worn narrow and wide flat screwdrivers. The other vital necessity has been a bucket to collect all this gunk in ... oh, and lots of old t-shirts. I only spent a couple hours degunking yesterday evening and hope to have some pics for you all to see the progress. The weird thing with this gunk is how thick yet dry and crumbly it is where it has accumulated. The whole area seems also to be covered in a varnish-like shiny black laquer - I guess this is just part of the combustion by-products which the oil has not been able to retain after the oil has past it's useful life. Finally, to remove as much of the bits I am using a vacuum cleaner with various sizes of nozzles, even a plastic pen housing, to get down into the awkward little pockets and hopefully suck up as much as possible. The vac works great and I highly recommend it - if even just to reassure yourself that you are collecting as much as possible from where your fingers won't reach.

Thanks Gayle for the auto-rx site - very interesting and will try to get hold of some (or similar stuff) here in UK.

As for oil, I already use semi-synthetic stuff. Would full-synthetic grades be better to keep this gunk build-up under control in the future? In the mean time, I will do a couple oil changes and engine flushes. How long should you run with the engine flush in?

Bill, what's STP oil treatment? Ok, I will check the crankcase ventilation system to ensure the plastic valve and tubes are clear.

Thanks to all.

Cheers,

Mas

[Bill R.]

slowly but manual cleaning is needed for most of it..Unfortunately you have no way of determing how gunked up your rings are other than oil consumption. There are a number of top cylinder cleaners out there that i would use just in case the rings are are gummed up with varnish and laquer also.. STP oil treatment is a thick honey like substance that people pour into their oil to help control smoking,oil burning etc,, some people were raised to believe that its a good thing to add at every oil change... its not, it frequently causes more harm than good on a good engine.. Wynn's , Bardahl and one called motor honey, I'm sure you have similar products.. They frequently will help contribute to this sludgy buildup.. Here's a link from one of the toyota pages regarding the sludging problem that their v6 has.. The one product that seems to work for them is called Kleenz it

I am using an assortment of tools to remove as much of this gunky mess as possible (Ralph - yes, I agree gunky mess is a better title!) Given that the valve train area is full of recesses, the most useful tools I'm finding are some loose blades and a couple worn narrow and wide flat screwdrivers. The other vital necessity has been a bucket to collect all this gunk in ... oh, and lots of old t-shirts. I only spent a couple hours degunking yesterday evening and hope to have some pics for you all to see the progress. The weird thing with this gunk is how thick yet dry and crumbly it is where it has accumulated. The whole area seems also to be covered in a varnish-like shiny black laquer - I guess this is just part of the combustion by-products which the oil has not been able to retain after the oil has past it's useful life. Finally, to remove as much of the bits I am using a vacuum cleaner with various sizes of nozzles, even a plastic pen housing, to get down into the awkward little pockets and hopefully suck up as much as possible. The vac works great and I highly recommend it - if even just to reassure yourself that you are collecting as much as possible from where your fingers won't reach.

Thanks Gayle for the auto-rx site - very interesting and will try to get hold of some (or similar stuff) here in UK.

As for oil, I already use semi-synthetic stuff. Would full-synthetic grades be better to keep this gunk build-up under control in the future? In the mean time, I will do a couple oil changes and engine flushes. How long should you run with the engine flush in?

Bill, what's STP oil treatment? Ok, I will check the crankcase ventilation system to ensure the plastic valve and tubes are clear.

Thanks to all.

Cheers,

Mas