I took my valve cover off for the first time since ive owned this car to adjust the valves and when I took the cover off the oil was ashy. When you pick it up, it breaks apart like a burnt piece of wood would do. Why would it do this?

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Ronnie
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2714941

Carbon and sludge deposits are quite common especially in older engines that have not been well maintained. Hard carbon deposits are less common than sludge as higher temperatures are required to form hard deposits, but it does happen especially with low grade engine oils.

Dan has used to good effect a flush procedure and flush mixture he outlines here: http://www.slantsix.org/forum/viewtopic ... soup#60007

I have used Rislone myself and had decent results. It takes longer, but spreads the work out over a longer period of time. The thing you need to watch out for when flushing the engine is plugging of the oil pickup screen with trash and starving the engine of oil. A good mechanical oil pressure gauge can alert you to this problem, but a standard low oil light will not. If you plug the oil pickup screen or loose oil pressure for any reason you will have to stop the engine and pull the oil pan for inspection.

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Joshua

Leave it alone! It will plug up the oil pickup! It was running fine? Don't mess with it!

Sounds like Pennzoil or Quaker state to me! I had Pennzgoo in my oil pan on a 32K motor.

Paraifin base oil.

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'72 Duster 198 stock cam, 3:23's Hookers on jack stands for 8 years in the driveway
'79 Maxivan 360 Offy Qjet Comp RV cam/rusting in the driveway.
93 D350 160HP Cummins Auto Dually Clubcab needs a injector pump
2005 Golden Couch Buick

It runs fine. I use Castrol gtx.

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Ronnie
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2714941

It may have had Pennzoil or Quaker State in it some time in it's life creating the problem.

You can clean the valve cover independently by soaking it in a hot tank, etc. and put it back on. But flushing the engine is risky. I always ran Valvoline and never had any build up. After the rebuild I broke in the engine with Kendal diesel motor oil and at 20,000 miles switched to 0-30w Mobil 1. The engine is so clean inside it's incredible at 40,000 miles. So wait to you do a rebuild to really clean it.

Rislone is gentle, and its takes several thousand miles to clean out a motor.

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Aggressive Ted

http://cid-32f1e50ddb40a03c.photos.live ... %20Swinger


74 Swinger, 9.5 comp 254/.435 lift cam, 904, ram air, electric fans, 2.5" HP2 & FM70 ex, 1920 Holley#56jet, 2.76 8 3/4 Sure-Grip, 26" tires, 25+MPG

My Man!!

I took my previous VW Jetta CLI to 400000km on a diet of GTX and sold it for $2000 at that stage Engine never opened compression still in spec

GTX is know as a can of he best over here

Was wondering about MAGNATEC and Rotella as well

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Regards,
Fanie Gerber
It's never junk, it's just a part you're not currently using

http://www.valiant50.co.za
Just say I own a few Mopars