Varnished heads

[RJ-92]

I pulled the valve covers on my 3.2 lastnight to begin installing the cams and.. WOAH!! holy varnish! The motor only has about 80K on it but the amount and color of the heads has me a lil concerned. I am replacing the bearings so that's not an issue, but I am a lil worried about the rings. I'm gonna run a compression test on it, but could the acuracy of the test be skewed by carbon build up on a motor that showd this kind of varnish.

I am assuming this type of build-up would be attributed to using cheap oil and not changing it enough. I was going to use the existing 3.2 oil pump but now I'm not sure if that's a good idea.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[AutoSHO]

Is it just stains on the heads or is there actually a considerable amount of buildup? If there is buildup in the motor, chances are its run pretty hot and/or has a very poor oil change history at 80k miles.

 

[RJ-92]

Is it just stains on the heads or is there actually a considerable amount of buildup? If there is buildup in the motor, chances are its run pretty hot and/or has a very poor oil change history at 80k miles.

It was the color that mostly got my attention. There was some build up, not a rediculous ammount I guess.

 

[AutoSHO]

The color is usually just a symptom of using Pennzoil from what I've seen. If it has buildup in it, chances are the oil changes weren't as regular as they should have been. I'd imagine if you pulled the valve covers on your current motor, you would find no buildup and a different carmel color (depending, of course, on what oil you use). Are you planning to pull the heads off or leave them on? If you're going to pull them off, check for a ridge in the cyl. wall right at the top of the bore. If you don't plan to pull the heads, do you plan to do the main bearings? If so - it would probably be a good idea to pull at least one piston out and check the cylinder wall and the rings to see if they have the same buildup.

If you pull the rod bearings and find them with copper showing, I would start questioning the true mileage of the motor.

 

[MotoArts]

Don't worry about carbon affecting a compression check. You are only looking for a "difference" in pressures between cylinders. The piston/chamber carbon won't hurt anything.

As for the colored valve covers, don't fix what ain't broke...

 

[fricker66]

The color is usually just a symptom of using Pennzoil from what I've seen. If it has buildup in it, chances are the oil changes weren't as regular as they should have been. I'd imagine if you pulled the valve covers on your current motor, you would find no buildup and a different carmel color (depending, of course, on what oil you use).

Interesting, when we pulled the covers on my '89 after 88k miles of timely Pennzoil oil changes the heads were as clean as new. Not a bit of coloring or buildup from using the "crappy" oil. My father was the original owner and I helped with many of the oil changes so I know the true history of the car. Can't vouch for using Pennzoil on extended oil change intervals, but with timely changes Pennzoil is no different from any other oil. As always, YMMV.

 

[F-22 Raptor SHO]

Ok, Im not bashing penzoil, nor Imortalizing Castrol here, but if you dont change any oil regularly, you will get the caramel....Castrol too! Oil, no matter how good, has a finite lifetime when running in your auto. What that lifetime is actually is a mystery. Some say 5k others say 3 or even 7. Perhaps the lifetime of Penzoil is a tad close to the oil changing intervals whereas other oils are not...I dont know.

If you change your oil regularly (3k or less, penzoil might not leave the tell tale schlack coating on the motor as some have pointed out....penzoil since day one and looks good when you do the shims). I

I actually know a lady who leased a Durango and didnt think she had to change the oil ....ever....it had 45K on the motor when it seized. Cost her a ton of moola. So.....lesson here: 45K is definitely beyond the life of the factory oil.

 

[NotSoSlowSHO]

So.....lesson here: 45K is definitely beyond the life of the factory oil.

 

[qiksho]

I actually know a lady who leased a Durango and didnt think she had to change the oil ....ever....it had 45K on the motor when it seized. Cost her a ton of moola. So.....lesson here: 45K is definitely beyond the life of the factory oil.

You mean not changing your oil voids your warranty??

 

[HopefulSHO]

Yeah, I wasn't too enthused with the way my heads looked under the VC's either - but this engine burns about a quart every 3000 compared to my old 3.0 that burned a quart every 700. And the 3.0's heads looked like it had alot less varnish too.
It did look like the oil was cleaning it up though (in my new ATX).

 

[shojuan]

If it were me with that 3.2, I would definately replace the rod and main bearings while the engine is out. Also the rear main seal and carrier gasket and front main seal. Rather than replace the oil pump you might just install an oil pressure gauge and if she makes good pressure then don't worry. You might consider running a couple treatments of Auto-RX through that engine to slowly scrub the surfaces clean. One thing I've noticed after two treatments of Auto-RX is that my oil stays clean between 2500 mile oil changes where before it would darken much sooner. I'm currently using Motorcraft 10W/30 (cheap, and others have had good luck with it) until I go back to synthetic after I replace the rear main seal. The oil starts out clear and gets to a light caramel color...about as dark as Mobil Delvac 1300 Super is when it's new. I'm using the supertech ST8A filters.