2006 Scion xB, 1NZ-FE under the valve cover pics.

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I was visiting my family out of state and was chatting with my BIL about his car. Being a BITOG member, eventually OCI came up.
His trips are are never longer than 10 miles, and sometimes shorter than that. No expressway driving. In the winter, the engine may not get up to temperature for days. He was using bulk mineral oil, changed "about every 5K" at various quickie lube places. Total miles: 85K.

The car had a small weep from the back of the valve cover, so I offered to help by replacing it.
Pictures of what I found:





I'm going to have him do a couple of short changes with Rotella T6 to try to clean some of the gunk out of the engine. I'm not sure about the timing chain, it was a loose between the intake and exhaust cams. I'm not sure it is going to hold on for long.

Any thoughts?
 
The slack in the chain is normal in between the 2 gears. The chain tensioner is not full of oil when the engine is off. When it's running the tensioner pumps up & takes out off the slack.
 
There's no gunk just a little bit of varnish. Normal for that engine. I would just leave it alone and don't fool with it
 
Not bad for all short trips on dino. "About 5k" tells me he goes over a lot. If he tightens up the interval to no more than 5k, it should be fine.
 
Originally Posted By: LeakySeals
There's no gunk just a little bit of varnish. Normal for that engine. I would just leave it alone and don't fool with it


+1
 
a little high on varnish but frankly not a concern. That engine will outlast their interest in it.
 
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I'm not sure about the timing chain,
I'm not sure it is going to hold on for long.


I think otherwise
grin.gif
 
just normal heavy varnish from too long with non-syn in that engine.

If he wants to forget oil changes have him step upto something like m1 EP.

That way when he forgets and his 5k oci becomes 9000miles... oil will hold up good.
 
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