40K miles, no oil change, engine seized, Yikes!

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I had a uncle that had a Chevrolet Impala with a 3.4 V6. He bought it brand new in the early 2000's. He drove it a little over 30K miles before it locked up. Dealer told him it was full of sludge and needed a new engine. He says he didn't know it needed an oil change. I really thought he was joking when he told me the whole story but I think he was being serious. Crazy how some think new cars don't require maintenance.
 
In high school I took the valve cover off a Chevy V8 and put it on the bench. I turned around to see the valve cover still on the engine. In fact it was oil that had hardened into a shiny slick black shape of the valve cover, lettering and all. I poked it with a screwdriver and it cracked. The oil have formed into a perfect valve cover shape with the rocker arms operating in the open space below. This was in the day of 2K intervals but I think this owner missed more than a few oil changes. Like Groucho Marx says about cigars, there great but you have to change them every now and then.
 
A lot more people are changing their oil, but they still are neglecting the rest of the fluids. I bet a lot of cars never see a transmission or antifreeze change, unless they have trouble.
 
Originally Posted By: Stelth
Needs MMO.
They sell 55 gallon drums?
smile.gif
 
Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
In high school I took the valve cover off a Chevy V8 and put it on the bench. I turned around to see the valve cover still on the engine. In fact it was oil that had hardened into a shiny slick black shape of the valve cover, lettering and all. I poked it with a screwdriver and it cracked. The oil have formed into a perfect valve cover shape with the rocker arms operating in the open space below. This was in the day of 2K intervals but I think this owner missed more than a few oil changes. Like Groucho Marx says about cigars, there great but you have to change them every now and then.
What he said to the contestant who said he had TEN kids was "I like my cigar, but I take it out once and a while". It got past the network censors.
 
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Those of you who read the Blackstone Labs newsletters may remember this one. Check out the last page of this newsletter from June 2012: http://www.blackstone-labs.com/Newsletters/Gas-Diesel/June-1-2012.php

Here's a guy who doesn't believe in oil changes, and his 1997 Nissan pickup has 122k miles on the factory fill. His son borrows the car, changes the oil, and sends in a sample for UOA. The oil actually held up quite well for the amount of time and miles on it. I think about that whenever I'm concerned about exceeding the factory OCI by a few thousand miles!
 
Originally Posted By: HerrStig
Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
In high school I took the valve cover off a Chevy V8 and put it on the bench. I turned around to see the valve cover still on the engine. In fact it was oil that had hardened into a shiny slick black shape of the valve cover, lettering and all. I poked it with a screwdriver and it cracked. The oil have formed into a perfect valve cover shape with the rocker arms operating in the open space below. This was in the day of 2K intervals but I think this owner missed more than a few oil changes. Like Groucho Marx says about cigars, there great but you have to change them every now and then.
What he said to the contestant who said he had TEN kids was "I like my cigar, but I take it out once and a while". It got past the network censors.


He made both statements but the second one finally got hims kicked off the air.
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
That Cummins has to be a lease. Nobody gunna shell out 50-60k and not change oil. ???

I don't know if that is the case.

I have seen way to many guys with diesel trucks that have more money than sense.
 
I saw an engine from a Suzuki Samurai on a stand,apart. The mechanic showed me what was left of the bearings. The people towed it behind a motor home. It had 40.000 miles and they never ever changed the oil.It was nasty.
 
Originally Posted By: sasilverbullet
Post from reddit.com/r/Justrolledintotheshop...

Dodge engine seized. Only 40,000 miles, the oil had NEVER been changed. It was like pudding.



Stupid engines
 
Not quite an apples to apples comparison, but Detroit now has a 50,000 mile / 1280 hr oil change interval recommendation on it's DD15 engine. A Cummins N-14 I had was taken to 1.4 million miles, getting 30,000 mile OCI's, on Kendall conventional 15w40 with Baldwin filters. Was sold and went right to work for next owner. No bypass filters either.
 
Im betting the engine had a ton of idle hours along with no oil changes. Ive seen worse engines that were still running. Likely it was getting hot rodded and the pickup tube clogged up causing the engine to loose all oil pressure or goop pressure in this case.

Engines can run a surprisingly long time on no oil changes. Some believe it is a waste of money and just top engines off.

About 5 years ago i bought a 2004 F150 with the 5.4l in it. The truck had a mis in it and 118k miles. I got it super cheap. I figured they broke the plugs off and didn't know how to repair it. I got it home, extracted all the plugs with the mac tool plug extractor, installed new plugs changed the oil to motorcraft and it ran beautiful.

I noticed it had a little chain noise when cold so i figured the guides were getting weak. a few days later i was pulling into traffic and had to stand on it. It ran great until about 5k rpm and the engine just cut out, the ecu cut it to and idle and it was rattling and shaking and lost oil pressure. truck was still running so i put it in nuetral and shut it down coasting on the shoulder. I let it sit for 10 mins as i thought it may had been sludged a little as i only found receipts for 3 oil changes in 118k miles from walmart. it was serviced when the brakes were replaced at 35k miles, when the tires were replaced at 68k miles, and when it was taken in to have a tire patched at 115k miles. I started the truck up, it got oil pressure and i drove it home.

I took the front diff out, dropped the pan and found 2 inches of sludge. pulled the valve covers and all you could see was a path where the cam lobes had kept the sludge back from rotation, front cover was the same. only had a path for the chains through the sludge. I cleaned out the pan, replaced the pickup tube, oil pump, chains, guides, guide tensioners, cam phasers, and lifters. the cams and rockers i soaked in chem-tool. I sprayed 3 cans of oven cleaner in the heads on top of the sludge and let it sit over night. came back the next day and pressure washed the heads clean.

I checked the bearings and they were surprisingly still in good shape. i reassembled everything, put fresh oil in it and drove the truck until it had 168k miles on it doing 3-5k mile oil changes. I have a UOA i posted here of that engine when it had a 144k miles on it and it was beating average wear. I sold the truck to someone local who still drives it daily. The last time i spoke with him it had 208k miles on it.

The point in all this is to say that many engines can last a very very long time on and oil change if they are topped off and not hot rodded while sludgy. Im betting you could take a new car with and engine that is easy on oil, change the factory fill in it at 10k miles and put in any good modern synthetic in it, top it off when it needs it and the engine would still run perfectly fine at 75-100k miles. you could change that oil and sell it and no one would ever know. That would be pure evil by BITOG standards, but it would likely be feasible.
 
It's always a shame when someone neglects basic maintenance and destroys an engine.
I don't care whether it's a Dodge Cummins hardly even broken in or a car that you picked up cheaply.
A hundred dollar oil change or two (probably about what it would run to have it done on the Dodge with a proper oil and filter) and this expensive engine would still be happily clattering away.
Why anyone would ruin an expensive manufactured assembly through negligence is beyond me.
 
Originally Posted By: donnyj08
the sad part is most of it is Ignorance.


You have to wonder what these folks think when they drive by an oil change business.
 
Originally Posted By: CT8
It brings in profits for the repair shop it is not all that bad.


Yeah, the modern political method for economic growth.
 
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