I think you mean Pennzoil. Way back when, it was paraffin-based (wax)... Slippery as hell but.....waxy.
When I started the motor before I picked up the car I heard squeeks in the valvetrain under the driver side v/c. Found lots of sludge on top of the heads with no oil getting up two of the push rods to two of the rockers, so I suspected it'd be nasty under the valley plate. Cleaned the heads good with seafoam and reamed out the p/r's with safety wire. Oil flowed up all rods good then. After I put the covers back on with new gaskets I found it seeping at the rear of the v/c's. Pulled the covers again to find that ALL oil getting pumped up to the rockers was staying up there because the oil drain back ports were plugged! Reamed that all out as well. Drains back now.
WOW ... I mean WOW ... I have never seen anything like that before. I totally agree with 55Dude, I think I'd be pulling the oil pan.
Look around in the trunk for a gallon can that says "Blue Diamond"... that parifin stuff was the cheapest of the cheap.
Reminds me of my first car. O/T car 69' tore it down in 80', I don't think the original owners ever changed the oil in 11 yrs.. Just kept adding.
Throw in a can of ATF and engine clean, run it for a couple of miles, and watch the oil pressure drop as the parts exit. Quacker State, Pennzoil, ignorance with good quality oil combined with poor practice.
I didn't have a camera when I pulled apart this engine so all I have is what my friend saw and couldn't believe what he saw . I bought a 1984 Mustang engine , trans , rear from a guy who bought the Mustang new . His dad bought it for his graduation gift . His father & him wanted to build a race car so that's how I ended up with the complete drive train . He is running a Cleveland now and runs good . OK so I pulled the intake then I couldn't believe what I saw . The sludge was so thick that you COULDN'T see the lifters , push rods . The crud was about 1/4" out past the push rods ! When I pulled the heads the push rods stayed in the block and wouldn't come out with the heads ! The crud was broken into pieces that were bigger than a golf ball ! So all I can say is you just never know how bad an engine is until you open it up ! This so called drag racer should have been shot for not changing the damn oil ! I still have the engine and it did turn out fine at the machine shop ! Retro Jim
We tore down a caddy motor like that in hs. It was one of the teachers mothers car, looked almost exactly like that, car only had 40k or something low like that. so it probably only had a few oil changes. But she never left town with it... The motor never really heated up to burn off any oil so it just gummed up.
Wax based oil is the culprit........upside? The sucker isn't gunna have any rust in it. =O) Hemi I tore down:
On a similar engine (Olds 455) the heat risers that go through the intake manifold are being blocked off. The heat causes this oil sludge problem. You can plug the intake or buy a metal intake gasket that has the heat riser holes covered. Caddie and Olds have that problem.
i got my first car from my mother (68 firebird) it had regular oil changes allways with valvoline when i tore the engine down i had to scrape the sludge out of it to find all of the head bolts i had a 69 falcon(302) given to me it had sat for about 5 years i got in runiing in a few hours started driving it while driving home on its maiden voyage every lifter in it started tapping so i limped it home and decided to pull the valve covers .... solid block of sludge around everything scraped all that out... then got to thinking if the heads were covered like that whats the rest inside look like? so i pulled the intake ....... once the intake was off i was like whats that? 302's dont have valley pans the sludge was packed so tight under the intake that it formed a perfect mold of the bottom of the intake i used a tablespoon like a shovel and dug it out filled a large bowl full of sludge ......what a fricken mess there is no such thing as a free car unless your gonna part it
In the middle 60's my buddy bought a '57 Fairlane convertible for a parts car to finish the drill on his '57 Fairlane hardtop he was customizing. He needed the new dual exhaust system and the 4 barrel and manifold from the convert and some trim parts. The convertible had a severe skip and laid down a serious trail of smoke. When we pulled the intake and valley cover off the convertible we found sludge packed up to the top. We filled 3 giant 7-11 style "Big Gulp" cups (actually they were Brigham's frappé cups, but Brigham's is vanishing Americana now) You should see some of the late modet Toyota's that roll into our shop that have had ZERO maintenance done and suffer from sludge. The new high engine temperature and current oils make for a dangerous mix when people neglect the car makers recommended service intervals. We oven bake them all day and still some cant be saved!
New meaning of the word, nice job on the caddy getting all the oil flowing etc. But true, not a lot of rust. That should slick back your hair real good. Interesting post, thanx. ~sololobo~
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