I've nearly owned my 1988 Escort XR3i for two years now.
The previous owner did not maintain the engine very well, the oil was not changed regularly and was run on cheap Dino oils.
I bought the car in January 2018 and have changed the oil 8 times already in 12k miles!
I last changed the oil, but not the filter last week and have begun seeing something i hadn't seen before...
Little chunks of black sludge about the size of a grain of sand on the dipstick, sometimes, not always when i pull the dipstick, not many, only one or two.
I know it is sludge because if i wipe it off on my finger it's soft and leaves a black streak on my fingers if i rub them together.
I have been using 15W-40 HDEO in it since i bought it and Motorcraft filters, mainly because of the higher Detergent and dispersant levels and higher ZDDP ( it is a flat tappet engine )
Should i worry? or is it just the HDEO doing it's thing, i have begun to see visible cleaning in the past months.
A picture just to give you an idea of what it looks like under the rocker cover
Rocker cover gasket change 09-05-2018 by Argentum Enim in Sempiternum, en Flickr
The previous owner did not maintain the engine very well, the oil was not changed regularly and was run on cheap Dino oils.
I bought the car in January 2018 and have changed the oil 8 times already in 12k miles!
I last changed the oil, but not the filter last week and have begun seeing something i hadn't seen before...
Little chunks of black sludge about the size of a grain of sand on the dipstick, sometimes, not always when i pull the dipstick, not many, only one or two.
I know it is sludge because if i wipe it off on my finger it's soft and leaves a black streak on my fingers if i rub them together.
I have been using 15W-40 HDEO in it since i bought it and Motorcraft filters, mainly because of the higher Detergent and dispersant levels and higher ZDDP ( it is a flat tappet engine )
Should i worry? or is it just the HDEO doing it's thing, i have begun to see visible cleaning in the past months.
A picture just to give you an idea of what it looks like under the rocker cover
Rocker cover gasket change 09-05-2018 by Argentum Enim in Sempiternum, en Flickr