Originally Posted By: 2015_PSD
Originally Posted By: BlueOvalFitter
Back in 1976 I was not even a teenager yet. Close, but not yet. Anyway, my dad bought a 1972 Gran Torino Sport (429 engine) from my uncle. I remember that engine making some Gawd awful clacking, ticking noise. My dad pulled up on the ramps and pulled the drain plug. I swear, it looked like squeeze bottle type jelly coming from the pan. Every now and then my dad poked a screwdriver into the drain hole to get it flowing again. He then had me sit in the car and as he pushed the car from the ramps I kept pressure on the brake pedal to stop it from rolling.
He then pulled the valve covers. OMG X 100! The rockers looked like they were covered in thick black clay! There was so much sludge you could barely even see the push rods. He got the sprayer and loaded it with diesel, trans. fluid, and kerosene. He sprayed and putty knifed the crud away for what seemed like hours. He then got a high pressure hose fitting on the hose and finished the job. That valve train was like new when he was done. After pouring several qts. of oil over the valve train/through the engine he installed a new MC filter, some kerosene and the rest Valvoline SAE 30 wt. oil. Upon start up it was clackity for a few seconds then was smooth as silk. He took it for a drive, came back and changed the oil and filter, and the engine ran like a Swiss watch. That was an all day procedure. He never told my uncle, and NEVER bought another vehicle from him again!
I had the same car, but with a 351C engine in it and bought with 126,000 miles. Ran on Quaker State all its life, I changed the distributor and did a tune-up to get it running. Sounded like a diesel when it first started and when the valve covers were pulled there was no less and 1/2" of sludge coating everything to the point of no differentiation between the rocker arms. Ten cans of Berryman B-12 Chemtool later and the valve train looked new. Ran Valvoline at 2K OCIs thereafter and it remained clean. It still ran fine at 180K when I passed it down to my brother.
I had a few engines back then that did the same thing-I'm convinced that the combination of carburetors, running rich at lower operating temps, and VII loaded inferior Group I motor oils, along with infrequent oil changes all contributed to some seriously gooped up engines.