Finally got pissed and opened it up in less than 20 minutes including putting it back together and taking pictures. Not the best look but definitely could be worst. What can you experts pitch in regarding the looks and sludge possibilities? I didn't feel anything bad on the parts except for some plastic pieces broken off from something that fell down. Aside from that, very minimal residues in the far corner on the left. Input? Definitely an engine flush will help, or some seafoam. I don't think I need the Auto Rx, but if you think I do, I'll do a bottle.

 

I dont see any sludge in those pictures, but I do see a ****load of varnish. I'd run an Auto-RX treatment or two and then switch to a high-quality oil, perhaps an HDEO or synthetic oil.

 

Yep, what he said. No sludge, but not the cleanest I've seen. I'm not a flush person. I would just switch to synthetic. But that's just me.

 

Well, I prefer syn, but I just purchased this specific vehicle 3 weeks ago. I was thinking of running seafoam in the crank, the do a flush with the oil change and repeat for another oil change for 1000 miles. Or like he said, I can get an RX treatment. I'm sure someone here has had good results with that stuff.

 

Auto-RX can't hurt, and will help clean out your engine regardless of sludge or other maladies. During the treatment, you could use conventional engine oil or conventional diesel oil. After the Auto-RX treatment is complete, you can switch to a synthetic if you like, although I think you'd be better off continuing with an HDEO oil for the best cleaning possible. SeaFoam won't do much at all for varnish although it probably won't hurt either. It takes many, many miles for varnish to dissolve.

 

So 1 treatment of auto rx should be enough?

 

Probably not to remove all the varnish, but you'll have to visually inspect the valvetrain to definitively tell. You may want to run 2 treatment cycles, and you'll probably need to do at least 2 to remove a good deal of the varnish. Running a good HDEO oil throughout the treatment should help speed up the removal of the varnish since HDEO oils have excellent cleaning properties.

 

Hi TampaRX300- I will give you one mans opinion (mine) and that is all it will be (though I have spent my entire life in the automotive field). As I said when you started this journey, I DO NOT like to see that kind of varnish in an engine- but I have seen it before, even in a couple of my own vehicles- and I am meticulous about maintaining my vehicles! I am retired now and in all my years of driving NO ONE has ever pulled a pan plug on a vehicle of mine but me. I used Havoline oil for about 25 years with 0 problems but when I pulled the engine to replace freeze plugs and some other maintainance work and pulled the intake what your looking at is exactly what I saw. I have done my own 3k oil changes all my life and I purchased that car new(this was at 60k). I quit using Havoline then and have never had varnish again (and believe me I check). Very frankly the varnish may bother you as it would me but it will do NO harm. The RX300's seem to have (the earlier vintage anyway) this problem because they run hot in the CRANKCASE. My Daughter-in-laws has been very well maintained and looks exactly like that. (And burns no oil at 120k). I am somewhat personally against flushes because because they knock a lot of stuff loose that can then clog the pick-up screen. (Not that I think the varnish, if dissolved, would do that. I did a flush on a Volks. Rabbit for a friend quit a few years ago that was having NO problem and it immediately oil pressure problems (starvation). When I pulled the pan the screen was almost COMPLETELY blocked with the junk the flush had knocked loose. Admitidly, he had not kept good care of the vehicle. I just don't think there is anything to be gained by it other than the satisfaction of knowing that your engine doesn't look like that inside. It is not likely to affect the life of the engine by one mile and unless you use full synthetic it will eventually return anyway. It's not likely from poor maintainance now matter what anyone says. As I said, It's just one mans opinion. Y/T- Roger

 

When Lexmex posted his engine, I also noticed obvious wear on the spots on the lobes.


Oil can be shear when squeezed in this animation, better oil will have less wear but no one can escape some kind of wear when the engine ages.

 

Code58, Thanks, it's your opinion but definitely one to consider. I have never done the flush on any car and I thought about it on this one because of all the history of these engines. However, after not finding the infamous sludge, I think I will just do a slow/less harmful cleaning process. I now for a fact that the previous owner did not use Synthetic, but at least he did the changes frequently or it would be worst. The oil in it now feels rather thick, so the dealer where I got it from 3 weeks ago probably used 10-30 or similar, that's how thick it is. I've only put about 200 miles since I got it, so I will do a treatment of RX or something similar and re-check with the next oil change at 3k miles. I will let you all know what I used and take more pictures when I do for the record.

 

TunedRX300 is right, there was some wear on my lobes. Let's take another look at mine.

 

And this one.

 

is that before or after you cleaned it?

 

I think was at the midpoint with some oil at the time that I took it off, can't quite remember now.