Toyota Starlet (valve cover/filter pics)

Put a new PCV valve in today, the old one was stuck more or less solid. Might have something to do with the varnish in the pictures posted earlier?
New thermostat too, no reason to doubt the old one but had the cooling system apart to flush the heater core out. Still some rusty flakes floating about in the coolant from it's previous days of neglect, but not nearly as much as the first couple of times I flushed it early on in our ownership.
 
That engine has finally fallen into 'good hands'. Nice work.

Why are you using such a thick oil? A thinner oil should clean better as it can get into tighter areas.
 
Yes the filter is pretty filthy, given the car gets short tripped most of the time I'm hoping that might be the reason for the moisture, hopefully not the head gasket...
The solids are presumably being loosened up from within the engine so the filter is doing its job in that sense. The previous couple of filters were nowhere near that bad so having had a few doses of fresh oil over the last 10000km must be what's freeing up all that mess.
The 15w40 Delvac is for a couple of reasons. I was interested to try an HDEO since things were a bit mucky under the valve cover (also have a corolla which is not quite so mucky but is also on Delvac), and am curious to see how much/quickly it cleans the engine up. The Nulon 5w30 that was in it has obviously started to do that already, but there was a good special going on Delvac through a friend so I bought that too. I'm also curious if the slightly thicker oil will make any difference to the oil consumption (which is quite low but consistent) so we'll see what happens. Let's call it a bit of a science experiment.
I notice that a quick look at the oil retailer I usually use here in New Zealand (Supercheap auto) shows only 1 0w40 oil, and no other 0w/anything so I suspect our climate here not getting much colder than -10c pretty much anywhere means less of the thinner oils are used here, and while 15w40 may be thick by Canada/Europe/Northern US standards it's closer to middle of the road over here. Certainly my cars rarely see lower than -5c, and even that is only a very few times per winter. A friend with a late 90s Corolla (4afe) uses a 20w60 as his engine oil but that is a bit thicker than I had considered using!
I've got some valve stem seals ordered for the Starlet as I doubt they have ever been changed. Opinion on the internet varies as to whether lightly worn vss's will produce any smoke (vs the cat hiding it) and I don't know any better but they certainly won't be fresh so will change them.
 
We get 0W-20 from Toyota for the Hi Lux, as a cover our arse because they give trouble and won't warranty the job if the wrong oil is used.

I've shown this one here before. For a 2A Corolla. Vehicle has since died...killed by a bus, not the oil. She now has a nice Demio.

[Linked Image]
 
So did it stop the oil burning?!
I had a similar Corolla several years ago, great car but the lack of airbags eventually started to bother me. Sorry to hear about the bus problem...
 
Yeah, she used to come in for a WoF with nothing on the dipstick, at least we got a reading with the 30-70. A genuine Granny car, just used around town, which is worse case for wear.
 
Did some googling on this engine (4efe) and its head gasket...
Sounds like the normal failure is into the water jacket, so since there are no evidence of bubbles in the coolant/changing coolant level/unstable water temp I'm becoming more inclined to think the moisture in the oil/filter is related to the extreme short running the car does so much of. Will try to remedy this with some longer runs whenever possible and see what happens down the track.
Of course google and me could be wrong too!
 
So, a year or so on and the car has now done 180000km.
The amount of muck in the filter is pretty similar to the earlier pictures, although this run was 10000km vs 5000km for the last lot.
Car has been getting a few longer runs recently so although it has had some milkshake under the oil cap at times that hasn't been the case for a while.
New filter is an Ecogard x4476, oil Delvac mx 15w40 again.
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Would keep doing 5k km short runs, would not run to 10k km for a bit, that is a LOT of muck the filter is picking up!
 
From the look of then cam lobes that engine would benefit from a valve adjustment. Looks like cam over bucket so not a quick job.
 
If you are going to do long runs on the oil, I would suggest changing out the filter half way through. It seems to be trapping quite a bit of stuff. While the oil may still be good for a 10k run, you would probably do a better job of catching the crud with a fresh filter every 5k till it cleans up.
 
Wonder how the inside of the oil pan looks ;) . Thanks for the topic and welcome . Don't see a STARLET often , especially here where little is shunned 🙄 . Subcompacts are dropping like leaves in late fall . Did see them back in the 70s' and 80s' .
 
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Thanks for the words of advice.
I had the oil pan off a year or so ago and was surprised to find it was pretty much clean. Given the look of the top end I had braced myself for a sump full of vegemite/marmite.
On the valve adjustment, I haven't checked the clearances but you may have a point. Getting hold of the vehicle to do it might be awkward, stepdaughter has bought it from us and it was hard enough getting hold of it for an oil and filter change! I'll get my list of other jobs done before tackling that one.
Hadn't considered changing the filter only at 5000km. Will see how I feel when that figure comes up, will probably be a while for a shopping basket type car.
 
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