Oil for HO swap

[RobertB]

If you're getting metal on the drain plugs, you have very serious issues.

Nah, just a bit of dust. Huge chunks of metal... then I would be worried. As it stands, I'm aiming for the 500,000 mile mark on the engine... which it should get to in 2017.

[DerekTheGreat]

No, not really. Just metal "dust" picked up by the magnetic drain plugs.

The Crown Vic is my daily driver to work (70 highway/country road miles round-trip), and I also use it on my long-distance trips to Las Vegas, S. California, the Bay Area, and the Pacific Northwest.

Y'know, I've never changed the PCV valve. However, since the car goes in every 2 years to be smogged, if they told me to change the PCV valve, I would.

Those nice long drives are good for keeping stuff clean, I sometimes wish I still had a long commute but it now only takes about 10 minutes to get to work or back. Right now, even with a 5 - 10 minute warm up the thing barely hits running temperature by the time I get there. I don't even know where the PCV valve is on these.. Going to drop it off later today to have fluids and things like that changed, can't hurt.

My Mark VII was switched to fake oil at about 180k, and the inside of that engine is the cleanest i've ever seen. I've had the valve covers off and the timing cover, and things are clean and shiny in there. Not even that brown baked-on look that is typical, the iron is grey and the oil pump pickup brightly reflects light through the oil. I've never seen one that wasn't almost black unless it was being put into an engine new.

I've noticed that these Fords are clean compared to the GM's I've grown to know. My '85 was clean, the '88 is and so is Ashley's '89. I have a theory about these cars, I wonder what you guys think. My theory is that underpowered engines like these stay clean because of how "worked" they are to accomplish the same thing an engine with higher power can with less effort. Generates more heat, burns off all of that moisture and whatnot. All of the 2.3 powered Rangers that I've seen in scrap yards had clean internals, well, the ones I walked past that were missing valve covers anyway. Just another example of an underpowered combination yet clean internals. My Firebird's 305 gets dirty after about 800-1000 miles, and that oil gets changed frequently not to mention it only comes out on nice days and hibernates during the winter months. I don't rag on it that much so mostly it never sees RPM's higher than 2k, and I'm barely into the throttle. However, that thing burns oil like nobody's business, about 1qt per 250 miles so perhaps it's the blowby that's causing the darkness. It's got new heads, intake and other stuff so I'm guessing the rings are tired at 115k miles. Anyway, seems these Fords you gotta dig into the go pedal a good 33-50% to get to speed at a decent rate (so others aren't scrambling to get around me) whereas to achieve the same rate of acceleration with the Firebird I'm maybe ~15% into the throttle. So that's the reason for my theory. Every other underpowered combo looks similar, no sludgy mess. Perhaps it's just better engineering?

[gadget73]

its more to do with maintenance. I've seen some really friggin nasty 302's in boxes before. Run them too hot, don't change the oil enough, do all short trips so it never warms up, run them without a thermostat, all of those things make for a really gunky motor. Most engines are that way though.

[DerekTheGreat]

"...run them without a thermostat..."

That's essentially Ashley's car right now, thing is stuck open I think. Going in the shop once mine comes out but I bet they'll sell me a water pumper too. Short trips do wonders for motors thats for sure. The original 318 in my Fury III was NASTY. Only 47k original miles, whatever the hell original means haha.

[Bobcat]

The owner of my coupe last had the oil changed at 41,000 miles. I bought the car with 88,000 on it. From all the spare fluids I found in the trunk, I assume he just believed in the 'keep adding' method. It's like an oil change every week!

When I took that engine out, the rocker arms looked like chocolate cake with all the gunk that was on them. The inside of the valve covers had the same gunk and with the valve covers off, it smelled like farts. My 351 had something around 100k miles and the pan was very clean and no sludge. The 302 with 88k had a quarter inch of sludge at each of the sumps.

**Shudder**

[DerekTheGreat]

...When I took that engine out, the rocker arms looked like chocolate cake with all the gunk that was on them. The inside of the valve covers had the same gunk and with the valve covers off, it smelled like farts...

**Shudder**

Smelled like farts, lol. We can all stand the smell of our own but someone elses, f that man haha.

Always wondered about the "add oil, never change method." Good to see it makes cake. I'm guessing that engine had some very loud lifters?

[Bobcat]

Smelled like farts, lol. We can all stand the smell of our own but someone elses, f that man haha.

Always wondered about the "add oil, never change method." Good to see it makes cake. I'm guessing that engine had some very loud lifters?

Couldn't tell yah, I got the car, put my Foxbody headers and BBK down pipe on it in a 'don give a fuck' manner and drove it around a couple times before ripping it all apart. But. It did sound like a fucking Bi-Plane. I shit you not.

On a side note:

I plan to break in my new engine sometime later this week, I'm going to use Non-Synthetic 10w30 Carquest brand with the cheapest filter I could get (3$) and then drain it and run synthetic Mobil 1, probably. Running my other, better filter aswell.

[gadget73]

I might do the first 2 with cheap oil just to make sure any garbage is flushed out, and go to synthetic once its got 2-3k on it.

[Bobcat]

I might do the first 2 with cheap oil just to make sure any garbage is flushed out, and go to synthetic once its got 2-3k on it.

I'll keep this in mind.

[packman]

Its not directly part of the emissions system, or at least not in a way that would show up on a sniff test. it just helps control oil leakage. Bet you a buck the screen under it is packed solid and the rubber grommet has turned to rock. The valve itself really doesn't go bad, its the other two parts that get messed up. I changed what I believe to be the original on the Mark VII at 225k, and I could stand on the grommet without distorting it. I weigh 260, and the new part will smash flat in your fingers.


If you're getting metal on the drain plugs, you have very serious issues.

Mine was and still is jammed into the lower intake. It's clogged solid as you mentioned. I think that's what's causing the oil to come out the dipstick.

I run NAPA 10W-30 synthetic in yhe CV. No problems other than the standing leak.

Packman