Is this normal?

Pulled the oil pan on my new beater to find out why it has low/fluctuating oil pressure. 

I think this might have something to do with it...

Going to go find a trauma counselor. 

Yikes!  Any idea what it all is? 

In reply to Ian F (Forum Supporter) :

The original oil trying to return to a crude state is my guess. 

Is there metal in the sludge or just sludge? 

Oh dear. Looks like an LS?

In reply to John Welsh :

doesn't look glittery yet, so that is the perfect OCI! 

Oy.  I had that in a Ford 302 truck engine except all that schmutz was under the valve cover.  The grit actually blocked the oil return holes making puddles of standing oil that dripped down into the valves on startup making you think all kinds of bad things.

I'm told the grit is carbon deposits all broken up and sinks down into the oil. 

Normal for what? The La Brea tar pits? Is there a mammoth tusk in there?

That's what happens when you don't change the oil and/or have a lot of blowby.  Here's a '73 Ford 351 Cleveland I rebuilt:

I was doing an oil change on a customer's car.  I pulled the drain plug and nothing came out.  Stuck a pencil in the hole and it came out coated with sludge.  Nothing a couple quarts of diesel couldn't fix.

The first engine I ever pulled apart (283 V8) looked like that. My grandfather took very good care of the car and maintenance. He used Pennzoil and I was told, but this could be wrong, it has/had a "paraffin" (a.k.a. waxy) base. I have since avoided oils with that base.

Pretty normal for a car maintained religiously, but a few months and 10,000 miles past the recommended interval every time, while using the very finest  cheapest oil from Walmart.

In reply to bobzilla :

Ha! Thanks for the laugh! 

FWIW, I know this isn't normal. I've been in hundreds of engines and this is by far the worst/most sludge I have ever seen. 

In reply to Crackers :

Any updates on "Uncle Ben" ?

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

I was doing an oil change on a customer's car.  I pulled the drain plug and nothing came out.  Stuck a pencil in the hole and it came out coated with sludge.  Nothing a couple quarts of diesel couldn't fix.

This is exactly what happened. I actually got video of it, it started draining when I walked away to get a piece of wire to poke it out.

The sludge was about 2" deep. 

L5wolvesf said:

The first engine I ever pulled apart (283 V8) looked like that. My grandfather took very good care of the car and maintenance. He used Pennzoil and I was told, but this could be wrong, it has/had a "paraffin" (a.k.a. waxy) base. I have since avoided oils with that base.

That was my first thought when I saw the picture - Pennzoil.

Keith Tanner said:

L5wolvesf said:

The first engine I ever pulled apart (283 V8) looked like that. My grandfather took very good care of the car and maintenance. He used Pennzoil and I was told, but this could be wrong, it has/had a "paraffin" (a.k.a. waxy) base. I have since avoided oils with that base.

That was my first thought when I saw the picture - Pennzoil.

Back in the 70’s, as I was learnin’ car stuff, my grandfather had been a life long Quaker State follower. My friends that swore by penzoil. Said Q. S. Would build sludge because it was parifin based, and penzoil didn’t ‘caus it wasn’t. ‘Course they also swore setting a car battery on concrete would ruin it, so...

Indy "Nub" Guy said:

In reply to Crackers :

Any updates on "Uncle Ben" ?

 

I'd have to see where I left off. But nothing significant. I had just finished building a new blacksmith shop, then got married, then bought my parents house and moved. Although I have found someone that will get it titled for me, so it's 100% getting finished as a street/weekend rally-x car. 

I'm actually going to bump Uncle Ben back to prioritize Sheila since she keeps outliving everything. Going to paint it and source and refresh another 350 for it. 

Then I'm going to dig deeper into my 280zx and decide how far I want to go, or if I just want to move it down the road. Whatever I sell the ZX for will go straight into getting Uncle Ben on the road. 

‘Course they also swore setting a car battery on concrete would ruin it, so...

This was basically written in stone at my grandpa's Tire and Mechanic shop where I grew up. 

 My teenage self got yelled at multiple times until I remembered to set batteries either on the wooden work bench or on top of a piece of wood. 

Crackers said:

Indy "Nub" Guy said:

In reply to Crackers :

Any updates on "Uncle Ben" ?

 

I'd have to see where I left off. But nothing significant. I had just finished building a new blacksmith shop, then got married, then bought my parents house and moved. Although I have found someone that will get it titled for me, so it's 100% getting finished as a street/weekend rally-x car. 

I'm actually going to bump Uncle Ben back to prioritize Sheila since she keeps outliving everything. Going to paint it and source and refresh another 350 for it. 

Then I'm going to dig deeper into my 280zx and decide how far I want to go, or if I just want to move it down the road. Whatever I sell the ZX for will go straight into getting Uncle Ben on the road. 

Well wattaya know here's the Cracker miester answering all posts on all threads wonderin' WTF in 25 werdz or more...good to here all is well........peace out yur neighbor in montgomery county......peace out

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

I was doing an oil change on a customer's car.  I pulled the drain plug and nothing came out.  Stuck a pencil in the hole and it came out coated with sludge.  Nothing a couple quarts of diesel couldn't fix.

I had an Aveo that went 30k on an oil change, oil light would come on when driving but dipstick showed full?  Removed the oil filter and nothing came out, of the block or the filter.  Solid sludge.

My GRM post regarding the article got deleted, probably because I used the word poop a lot.

I was using a screwdriver in the drain plug hole to assist the sludge mayonnaise out, like a knife in a ketchup bottle.

It took a bit of work, the likes of which I have forgotten, but it all cleaned out with a remarkably low amount of work.  I think we started off with two quarts of kerosene and two quarts of ATF, followed by degunking solvent and oil, and then a normal oil change.

03Panther said:

Back in the 70’s, as I was learnin’ car stuff, my grandfather had been a life long Quaker State follower. My friends that swore by penzoil. Said Q. S. Would build sludge because it was parifin based, and penzoil didn’t ‘caus it wasn’t. ‘Course they also swore setting a car battery on concrete would ruin it, so...

Setting a battery on concrete did used to ruin it.  They used to have a kind of tar/hardened rubber coating for the exterior case.  As they aged they'd get little micro-fractures in them, then the cold of the concrete would cause them to sweat and that could cause enough condensation to complete a circuit and slowly discharge.  Modern batteries use plastic and you could store them in water if so long as you don't reach the terminals

Streetwiseguy said:

Pretty normal for a car maintained religiously, but a few months and 10,000 miles past the recommended interval every time, while using the very finest  cheapest oil from Walmart.

 

I joke that "maintained religiously"  means "they only think about it at Christmas and Easter".

Crackers said:

In reply to bobzilla :

Ha! Thanks for the laugh! 

FWIW, I know this isn't normal. I've been in hundreds of engines and this is by far the worst/most sludge I have ever seen. 

That IS normal for Range Rovers.

I have twice scooped enough sludge from a RR oil pan to completely fill a 24oz coffee cup.

This one was running fine when removed, LOL. And no, I didn't remove it and smash the distributor. It arrived at the machine shop like that.

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