What I Am Doing Today

[GasGuzzler]

Engine replacement 2010 GMC Acadia that had some maintenance issues. This is a super clean vehicle with only 83K miles. If only it was clean on the inside...

[Ranch Dog]

%@*&$... did they ever change the oil?

[klr]

Dang. I'd like to hear the story of how it got that way. My dad once replaced an engine for a guy and his engine had a lot of sludge like that. The story was that he used a paraffin based oil. This was back in the 80s.

[horseman]

Timing chains look pretty good......

[larryw]

Man that photo brings back lots of memories. The old, cheap parafin based oils of the day,
& not changing it regularly... Miss the old days with real engines.
When they started throwing confusers in the mix, making things small, & setting the
engines sideways,, that's when I went to heavy truck. Then when all that finally caught up to
HD stuff, multiple turbos, cats, etc, etc, I went into the office. Really miss the old stuff.

[mr surveyor]

I don't understand ... looks pretty good to me except there seems to be some parts missing. Did they leave it in the parking lot in one of them bars over at Shrevesport for an hour or so while they were inside and didn't pay the "parking lot guard"?

Might be flash-back memories ....


jd

[GasGuzzler]

Paraffin oil = Penzoil. It has a Penzoil filter on it.

The story is unfortunate. I'll just tell y'all so it doesn't get out. By Carfax report it seems it was a lease vehicle that went 24K before its first oil change 9-10 years ago then it was sold to this customer who took religious care of it. Damage was done. What a shame.

Might be a wives' tale but 29 years in the car business at age 45 I have never used or trusted Penzoil.

[RBHarter]

I knew a guy that ran Pennzoil changed it every 3,000 give or take the next wide spot in the road . The 75' Merc Marquis my Grandmother bought from him had about 30,000 on it in 1980 . It had 0-+150 3000 mile oil changes and was still going strong at 275,000 going to it's 3rd owner it was seen around the area until 98' no smoke , rumoured to be up over 325 .
I took one apart with a nasty rocker cover leak and had to pry the rocker cover off . Faithful Pennzoil fan ...... I don't know how the rockers weren't beating dents in the covers or holding valves open . The "gunky build up" was a solid mass around the rockers . It had regular oil changes but at 6000 miles ish .

Pennzoil and Quacker State don't as a rule get anywhere near my stuff . Although I did use a bunch of 20-50 Aero Penz in a transmission and rearends that I was trying to wash the wear metal and 95-105 from . Worked ok there and didn't hurt the strait 50 that went back in . Isuzrolet LUV @ 165 k .

[horseman]

Ta Da..My opinion is..most any quality oil will do a good job if changed regularly (and not necessarily what your owners manual says) no more than 5000 miles between changes, more often if "hard" use. The KEY is, again my opinion, is use a GOOD oil filter not one of those cheap units you buy at the "discount" store or a Jiffy Lube type place. Fram is the worst, followed by ANY store brand. Saving 5-10 bucks on an oil filter is bad economics if you plan on keeping your vehicle for an extended period. If you don't want to change your own oil buy the products and have whoever that changes your oil use that. I run Donaldson filters in my diesel truck and use (now) Valvoline 5-40 Extreme full synthetic oil. Prior to that I was using Fleetguard filters and Delo 5-40 full synthetic. Just got my latest oil sample test back from Blackstone Labs, 6000 miles on the oil (I usually change at 5,000) 156,000 on the truck and the first sentence said, "Hugh, at 156,000 miles and 6,000 on this oil you have a very healthy diesel motor. You are well below the average numbers which shows your engine is wearing very well. Keep up with what you're doing. You could extend to 8,000 on the oil if wanted". I don't want to, good oil, good filter, good maintenance = good performance.

[GasGuzzler]

Many in the industry would say Penzoil is not a quality name brand. I concur although I realize it's mostly based on myth. When I had race cars and drove race cars for daily transportation we all used conventional Valvoline 10-40 or 20-50 racing oil in the cooler months and straight 40W racing oil the rest of the year. I never saw an oil induced failure. I use Mobil 1 now and have for 15 years. Change it every 6K or so. on my Blazer I changed the filter every 5K and the Mobil 1 every 10K but I sold it with 267K miles so I can't tell if that was a reliable solution.