Does my engine have a chance of living?

legopnuematic · Oct 14, 2019

shiftpro said:
Thanks I've been trying to source out these large filters.Auto parts store no help... they want to know color the vehicle is...!

Rockauto is a good place to get the wix ones. Just shy of $9 each as opposed to the $18 the local auto parts stores want.
If you do need to tell them what its for, 1981 Chevy C60 C6D042 with a 366 gas engine

Rusty Nail · Oct 14, 2019

No worries.

Paladin said:
Damn, stop using the Pennzoil

Srsly that looks JUST LIKE Pennzoil to me too but if you said it was CASTROL, i'd believe that also lol.
I used a shop vac and an icepick. If you pull the pan, change . Repeat Change the oil pump. There is no reason not to, it's cheap AF too.
I would run 1qt of MMO in the oil until its clean. It won't take long.

Matt69olds · Oct 14, 2019

I have seen far worse gunked up engines, pretty common for anything that isn’t driven frequently, or long enough really get warm.
Use a shop vac to vacuum out the big chunks, make sure the drain holes in the heads are clear. Remove the oil pan, get as much of that crud out. Reassemble, refill the engine with a couple quarts of transmission fluid, the rest with engine oil. Run it for a while, but don’t beat on it. Transmission fluid doesn’t handle the heat nearly as well as engine oil. Drain the oil, change the filter, repeat. Run it a little longer this time, once again don’t work it too hard! Drain the engine, change the filter, refill with a quality oil.

I have used this process on many poorly maintained engines. Assuming no damage was done from clogged oil pump pickups, or starved of oil because the valve covers were full of oil because the drain holes were plugged up, chances are it will be fine. Good luck

Ewhitaker0020 · Oct 14, 2019

PrairieDrifter said:
I’ve seen this buildup on a lot of old motors. It’s probably a tired motor but get it cleaned up as best you can and run it for as long as it’ll go

The crossovers are a VERY common buildup area. Seen it a hundred times easy, as long as the valves and their runners aren’t too bad they should clean up with some solvent.

The valves were actually fairly clean.

PrairieDrifter · Oct 14, 2019

Clean it up some more and run it! The motor that’s running in my suburban right now, I found literal corn kernels in my crossovers lol. It was sitting on a shop floor for at least a year and the rodents moved in lol, had the same carbon buildup as well, not quite as much.

WesN · Oct 14, 2019

From what I can see in the Clean photo the lifters all look almost even hight on the right side of the pic. I would turn it over by hand and make sure you have lift and the cam is not worn out. Just an observation it might look different in real life

shiftpro · Oct 14, 2019

legopnuematic said:
Rockauto is a good place to get the wix ones. Just shy of $9 each as opposed to the $18 the local auto parts stores want.
If you do need to tell them what its for, 1981 Chevy C60 C6D042 with a 366 gas engine

Thanks lego that's good to know. If they cost $18 in the USA then they would be $30 up here.
I've noticed Rock has filters on sale every now and again. I bought a box of filters some years back. They were a few bucks each. With shipping and exchange I still saved 80%...

Ewhitaker0020 · Oct 14, 2019

WesN said:
From what I can see in the Clean photo the lifters all look almost even hight on the right side of the pic. I would turn it over by hand and make sure you have lift and the cam is not worn out. Just an observation it might look different in real life

I had already put the intake on. I studied the photos I have a little closer and they do seem to be at different heights. Maybe it's just the angle. I'm hoping they're okay.

Ewhitaker0020 · Oct 14, 2019

Matt69olds said:
I have seen far worse gunked up engines, pretty common for anything that isn’t driven frequently, or long enough really get warm.
Use a shop vac to vacuum out the big chunks, make sure the drain holes in the heads are clear. Remove the oil pan, get as much of that crud out. Reassemble, refill the engine with a couple quarts of transmission fluid, the rest with engine oil. Run it for a while, but don’t beat on it. Transmission fluid doesn’t handle the heat nearly as well as engine oil. Drain the oil, change the filter, repeat. Run it a little longer this time, once again don’t work it too hard! Drain the engine, change the filter, refill with a quality oil.

I have used this process on many poorly maintained engines. Assuming no damage was done from clogged oil pump pickups, or starved of oil because the valve covers were full of oil because the drain holes were plugged up, chances are it will be fine. Good luck

The valve covers were not full of oil thankfully. Just a couple small puddles where there weren't any drains. I've almost got the engine reassembled. If I drop the oil pan, which I plan on doing, I will probably replace the oil pump and screen because I never want to have to drop the pan again.

Let me run something by you though. Do you think it would be a good idea to run a high volume/high pressure oil pump? I found one on rockauto that's only $33 and it's a melling brand pump. Wouldn't this give my engine every advantage for making sure everything is oiled? Or would this be a bad thing on an older engine? Is there a chance it would start blowing out seals?

If I do the tranny fluid and oil combo method you recommend do I have to worry about tranny fluid remaining after I do the second oil change?

Ewhitaker0020 · Oct 14, 2019

Rusty Nail said:
No worries.

Srsly that looks JUST LIKE Pennzoil to me too but if you said it was CASTROL, i'd believe that also lol.
I used a shop vac and an icepick. If you pull the pan, change . Repeat Change the oil pump. There is no reason not to, it's cheap AF too.
I would run 1qt of MMO in the oil until its clean. It won't take long.

How do you know it's pennzoil? Because you're both right. I use pennzoil platinum full synthetic in all my engines, except this one. But I was planning on filling it back up with Pennzoil as it's always been changed with pennzoil. Should I not use pennzoil anymore?

What should I use instead and why?

Also, I was looking on rockauto and saw a melling high volume/high pressure oil pump for $33. Is there a benefit to installing one of these? Are there any drawbacks? Would the high pressure cause problems in my older engine?

Ewhitaker0020 · Oct 14, 2019

Craig 85 said:
My last truck had a lot of sludge in it when I bought it. It developed a lifter tick at cold starts when the temp was below 60 degrees. I ran 1 quart of Marvelous Mystery Oil for 2 oil changes and the tick went away.

I would maybe run the Chevy 2 -Qt oil filter for a couple of rounds to pick up more gunk.

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Thanks a lot for showing me these oil filters! How long would you recommend these oil change intervals be? I don't drive the truck very much, but I could make sure to drive it a decent amount just to clean out the engine.

Also would you recommend dropping the oil pan before or after doing this?

shiftpro · Oct 14, 2019

Stick with a normal stock pump.

Ewhitaker0020 · Oct 14, 2019

shiftpro said:
Stick with a normal stock pump.

Will do. I looked on the reviews on Amazon for the high flow pump and a lot of people are saying it caused problems on a stock engine.

shiftpro · Oct 14, 2019

Ewhitaker0020 said:
Will do. I looked on the reviews on Amazon for the high flow pump and a lot of people are saying it caused problems on a stock engine.

There are high volume and high pressure pumps. Both use more engine power to spin and both wear out drive sprockets prematurely. I took me years to get off the bandwagon myself. When I was building engines in the late '70s, a HV was mandatory on big block FORDS, and that is still valid. But we don't do Ferds so let's move on and trust the engineering behind millions of engines running stock pumps.

I still am open to getting talked out of running a HV on a 496 with grooved lifter bores...

Ewhitaker0020 · Oct 14, 2019

shiftpro said:
There are high volume and high pressure pumps. Both use more engine power to spin and both wear out drive sprockets prematurely. I took me years to get off the bandwagon myself. When I was building engines in the late '70s, a HV was mandatory on big block FORDS, and that is still valid. But we don't do Ferds so let's move on and trust the engineering behind millions of engines running stock pumps.

I still am open to getting talked out of running a HV on a 496 with grooved lifter bores...

I am going to get the melling normal flow oil pump and a new pickup tube. Do I need anything else? I don't need a bushing or anything for the new pump and tube do I? I've seen where people say to tack weld them I'm place so the pickup won't fall out. I have a flux core wire welder, but can I weld the tube to cast iron with this welder?

Also, how difficult is it to drop the pan and replace on this engine? I'm dreading it because it seems like such a difficult task to do under this truck.

Does my engine have a chance of living?

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