I pulled of the oil cap and took a look at the cams. Wow, it is brown in there! It needs cleaning, but I am too cheap to buy a bottle of AutoRx. Besides, I don't drive this car a lot.

Anyone try a quart of ATF in the white blocks? I am about 3/4 quart low and now would be a good time to add a cleaner.

I know that I will have to do the breather box, my latex glove waved hi to me after I wrapped it around the oil filler hole.

I am currently using dino oil, waiting for funds to do more maintenance. I don't think this car has ever seen synthetic.

Thanks,

Klaus

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My back feels better when I sit in a Volvo seat

I read the same thing some time ago, the other alternative is to use some Sea Foam in the oil. According to the instructions, you can add to the oil. My cars also have a brown color inside the cams.


Since you are doing the PCV it might be a good time to clean the fuel injectors!!

Hi Klaus,

Under the heading of Interesting, But Not Useful, the cleanest internal engine parts I have seen recently were in my neighbor's well used Honda generator. It seems that no one ever shut the fuel off and a lot of it drained into the crankcase. The 'oil' was more fuel than oil when I drained it. Internally, the engine was spotless. The compression was still good and after a carb rebuild and replacing the missing fuel shut off lever, the motor ran fine. Oil pressurwe is good, and it does not have any significant blowby. Even the valve adjustment was spot on.

Based on that, I would say that a quart of ATF in the crankcase would not be a problem. It may not be a great idea to run it up to the redline in each gear, but in normal use, I doubt that it will hurt anything. BTW, generators run wide open all the time.

Your mileage may differ.

Greg

Klaus, never tried the ATF solution, mixed opinions on what would be best. If you are in the mood for interesting reads and constructive opinions (and put downs) visit BITOG, bob is the oil guy website.

Throwing ATF in I'd recon you'd need to change the oil shortly thereafter or within a reasonable timeframe. I had some great success with Mobil 1 and slow cleaning but thats just me. I know you are likely familiar with the old seals vs synthetic argument. For what it's worth I've never really had an issue. It's also worth mentioning that I have a healthy bronze color inside the crankcase of my 07. It's tough to see a whole lot especially with the silly "vent screen" thing they put in but it seems there is some coating on the metal surfaces. My car has seen M1 0w40 for almost three years now and 65k miles later its still that same bronze color, not quite tarnish certainly not sludge but "normal" I suppose.

You'd want to stay clear of any shock treatments or genie in a can solutions. I am a big advocate of OEM filters though, no need to risk it with the cheap stuff ^___^

Steve

My concern is loosening too much gunk and blocking the oil pick up. Not a bad job to pull the pan and clean everything if this happens.

dick

I would agree if I had a nice lift in my garage. Even with a cork gasket, it wouldn't be that bad. But rollering the RTV on to a clean surface is almost impossible while lying upside down and the PS piping in the way.

Doable, yes. Just painful.

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My back feels better when I sit in a Volvo seat

I noticed the same thing (brown inside the filler) when we got our 854T at around 198,000 miles (now at 232,000). The PO did have regular oil changes.

I ran 3/4 - 1 quart of ATF in it for 500 miles 2 or 3 times to hopefully clean it up. At the time, the car was being used 500 miles per week on the highway so it had a good chance to work.

There has not been any negative effects from this treatment as far as I can see. It cleaned up a little, but certainly doesn't sparkle inside. It may have helped the PCV system some, but that's too hard to tell. The car was a pretty good oil burner when we got it and consumption / burning didn't change. It's still a 700 mile per quart car.

I hope to do the valve seals by the fall.

Edit: Come to think of it, I did the same treatment on a B20 years ago. Under the valve cover was awful and though still dirty, there was a remarkable improvement.
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"Differences of opinions should be tolerated, but not if they're too different' - Sharon Craig

I'm too busy planting to be doing much mechanical work...

Greg