Your engines internals
Thread Starter
|
Senior User
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 108
Likes: 0
Your engines internals
Can you accurately tell how clean the inside of you engine is by opening the oil fill cap on the valvecover and peering through it. I ask because today I saw the exact same model, year, and engine as my car sitting in the shop. My car has 41,000 miles on it and when you take a nice shop light and look in the valvecover, the pushrods, rockers, springs, everything in sight is sparkling clean. Not one hint of varnish or sludge anywhere. The car that is like mine has 119,000 miles on it and when I opened the oil cap on this one all I saw was a ton of varnish on all of the rockers and pushrods. Varnish everywhere. Anyway so is this a good way to tell the condition of your engine internals?
Senior User
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 354
Likes: 1
From: Memphis, TN USA
Varnish or hard cruds inside the valve cover or on the OIL Cap or "710 Cap" hehe j/k, they are a sign that the engine is not properly maintained.
Probably the owner did not change his OIL at the right intervals and had caused the OIL to suffer "Black Death", cruds begins to form and starts to stick to the engine parts and block oil passage ways.
It might be cleaned up back again by using some engine motor flush. I usually use GUNK Motor Tune Up Flush. Use that right before changing the oil. You just add that oil flush to your existing oil and run the engine for 5 minutes and turn it off and drain all the oil. Put new oil in and do it again around 1,000 or 2,000 miles and hopefully the gunk and cruds have been cleaned by then.
I would test that truck by letting it IDLE for a couple of minutes, check all the gauges. Drive the truck at the highway at Full Throttle. Also, from stop (few traffic) try to accelerate the truck by letting the wheels spin. You can find out if it has a driveability problem. It might bog down, hesitates, knocking noise, etc. Once finished testing, put some newspaper underneath to see how much oil drips you got in there. Anyway, that's how I test a vehicle.
Probably the owner did not change his OIL at the right intervals and had caused the OIL to suffer "Black Death", cruds begins to form and starts to stick to the engine parts and block oil passage ways.
It might be cleaned up back again by using some engine motor flush. I usually use GUNK Motor Tune Up Flush. Use that right before changing the oil. You just add that oil flush to your existing oil and run the engine for 5 minutes and turn it off and drain all the oil. Put new oil in and do it again around 1,000 or 2,000 miles and hopefully the gunk and cruds have been cleaned by then.
I would test that truck by letting it IDLE for a couple of minutes, check all the gauges. Drive the truck at the highway at Full Throttle. Also, from stop (few traffic) try to accelerate the truck by letting the wheels spin. You can find out if it has a driveability problem. It might bog down, hesitates, knocking noise, etc. Once finished testing, put some newspaper underneath to see how much oil drips you got in there. Anyway, that's how I test a vehicle.
Senior User
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 447
Likes: 0
Often by 120,000 miles there is a slightly darkened look to the valve train components. I don’t believe this is a real indication of condition of the engine. If you see gunky slop then you can probably assume the engine has had a hard life.
Thread Starter
|
Senior User
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 108
Likes: 0
Yeah with my vehicle at 41,000 the valvetrain looks brand new while the exact same engine in the exact same model vehicle at 119,000 miles had more than a "slightly darkened" look. The vehicle with 119,000 miles had a very dark brown valvetrain with varnish everywhere. It was totally unexpected when I opened up that oil fill cap. I've never had a vehicle look like that under the valvecover. But then again I change my oil at a maximum of 3 months/3000 miles, most of the time less than that. My oil usually is still golden color when it comes out. 
Senior User
Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 317
Likes: 0
From: WEST TEXAS
gtm245; You may say this guy & his seafoam, but I use it in the oil & on all my mods the valve train looks imaculate & the use of
new use of shell rotella t 5-40 synthetic seems like it will help in
the clean dept also. Try some seafoam in the crank case & tell us
what you think? turbo ted
new use of shell rotella t 5-40 synthetic seems like it will help in
the clean dept also. Try some seafoam in the crank case & tell us
what you think? turbo ted
Trending Topics
Senior User
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 354
Likes: 1
From: Memphis, TN USA
Originally posted by 78fordman
Never heard of the 710 cap thing LOL.
Never heard of the 710 cap thing LOL.
A customer went to an automotive parts store and was asking for a replacement 710 cap. The smartest clerk could not figure out what the customer is talking about. One clerk ask the customer to write it down.
When the customer was writting the word 710 cap, the clerk was looking directly at the opposite side. Looking at the word 710 directly from the opposite side shows the word "OIL".
That's when the clerk knew the customer was asking for a replacement "OIL cap".
FTE Stories
Ford Trucks for Ford Truck Enthusiasts
Top 10 Fords at 2026 Carlisle Ford Nationals
Joe Kucinski
3 Best / 3 Worst Parts of Modern Ford Ownership
Brett Foote
10 Amazing Upgrades That Solve Common Ford Truck Owner Headaches
Pouria Savadkouei
Every 2026 Ford Engine Explained
Brett Foote
10 Ugly Ford Trucks That We Still Kinda Love
Joe Kucinski
10 Things Every Truck Owner NEEDS (2026 Edition)
Michael S. Palmer
Rezvani's Latest Post-Apocalyptic Monster Is a Ford F-150 Raptor Underneath
Verdad Gallardo
Top 10 Most Expensive Ford Trucks Ever Sold on Bring a Trailer
Joe Kucinski
2027 Ford Super Duty Buyer's Guide (Every Model, Engine, & Package)
Brett Foote
Thread Starter
|
Senior User
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 108
Likes: 0
Turbo ted, this valvetrain that is full of varnish is not my car. It is a customers car that is in our shop right now for some power steering problems. I was interested to see how his valvetrain looked compared to mine since it's the exact same vehicle and his has about triple the miles than mine so I took a peek. Anyway if you knew me there is no way I would let my engine accumulate deposits and varnish like that. (I guess I could suggest he put some Seafoam in the pan.)
BTW I have used Seafoam before and it's great stuff. Put some in the gas, put some in the oil, or pour some down a vacuum line to stall the engine and clean out the top end. MMO works pretty good too.
(I guess I could suggest he put some Seafoam in the pan.)BTW I have used Seafoam before and it's great stuff. Put some in the gas, put some in the oil, or pour some down a vacuum line to stall the engine and clean out the top end. MMO works pretty good too.
Last edited by gtm245; Mar 24, 2004 at 08:44 AM.
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
nstueve
1987 - 1996 F150 & Larger F-Series Trucks
62
Jul 20, 2022 08:21 AM
jvmcc
1948 - 1956 F1, F100 & Larger F-Series Trucks
19
Jul 31, 2016 11:21 AM
FossenRacing
Small Block V8 (221, 260, 289, 5.0/302, 5.8/351W)
2
May 31, 2014 01:41 PM
