A gentle reminder of why regular oil changes are important.......

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Alaskan_TA

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Inside a 1970 383 I picked up yesterday.

On the bright side, not a speck of rust!

1970 383 sludge 1.JPG


1970 383 sludge 2.JPG


1970 383 sludge 3.JPG


1970 383 sludge 4.JPG
 
Ahhh the memories those pics bring back. The days when I worked in an auto repair shop, we'd get a car in for a tune up, sell the owner a valve cover gasket replacement, cause theirs were leaking like sieves, and upon removing the covers, be met with a sight as appetizing as that. Could only wonder how long before the bearings started to run dry from lack of oil circulation/pressure. Those were the owners who only changed their oil spring and fall, regardless of how many miles or the type of driving conditions.
 
Engine run too cold! A little heat and any regular oil would not make that mess!
 
Makes me really wonder about those who insist on taking their vehicles back to the dealer for absolutely everything. One of my co-workers has been taking his truck back to the dealer since new for every service or oil change, he is fully capable of doing his own, is also a former mechanic. He recently had a check engine light come on, put his code reader on and got a "cylinder bank rich" or something like that. He pulled the air filter out, still original with 50k miles, and fairly plugged. Got a new one and some cleaner for the MAF sensors, cleared the code and problem solved. Contacted the dealer whose response was that yup, next oil change it was due for replacement, according to the manufacturers service schedule.
 
30 yrs ago saw several cars, '68 Mercury, '56 Dodge(which I later owned), a couple GM's. All were using havoline oil , and all were run more than 30 miles one way hauling guys back and forth to Kelly Springfield and Celanese. All were gummed up just like that.
 
Like TMM said, Pennzoil and a cool engine. Pennzoil for sure, high paraffin base...
 
Anyone have candle wick?

If so, I could make home made 383 scented candles.........
 
A guy I work with married a gal with a Neon back in 05ish . He traded in her 50k neon for a new car and the tech discovered she had never checked or changed the oil !
Ex wife now... brought her current car in for brake squeel . Metal to metal !
 
Worked at a dodge dealer for 17 years had a customer come in for his first oil change at 55,000 km second one at75,000 and we did a new long block at 85,000 1999 5.2 liter 1/2 ton pu. He saved a ton of money on service :rolleyes:
 
A friend of mine ran a small garage back in the 70s. We took apart several engines that looked like that inside. One slant six was so bad that the oil pickup was trapped in the pan. We had to really beat and tug at the pan just to break it loose. They all used Pennzoil.
My friend always recommended and used Havoline. For 30 years, I used it in all my vehicles changing at around 3000 miles. I never had any buildup inside. A 1989 Toyota pickup I sold with 201K still ran like new. I switched to full synthetic in my new 05 Ram.
 
I always ran straight 40 Kendal up till restore in 2013. Motor was spotless even after 25 years in storage. Now use Valvoline 40 VR-1 and no rebuild since 85.
 
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That's really not too terrible all things considered. I cleaned out an Olds 350 years ago that was so bad, the intake valley was slam full up to the top. When I removed the intake and valley pan, you would have sworn the valley pan was still there. I cleaned it all out, put a new set of lifters in it, new rocker hold downs, changed the oil and filter, added a can of Engine Restore and it ran better than it had since it was new. That was the worst one I have still ever seen. We put it all on a bathroom scale and it was a tick over 3 pounds of sludge.
 
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Rusty that sounds like one I bought in the mid 80’s. Bought a 68 cutlass from an insurance company for the interior. It was a car they had used just to run and get lunch since new. It had an under hood fire and that is why they were getting rid of it. The pistons were seized in the cylinders from the fire department putting out the fire. When I pulled the valve covers off of it you would have sworn I just pained them black. You could make out where the rockers were moving but otherwise it still looked like the valve covers were still on it.
 
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