Why I preach dropping oil pans on cars that have sat for years

[John_Mereness]

Model A Gets its First Oil Change in 50 Years, What’s in the Oil Pan will Shock You

 

 

[4Hud]

Excellent advice. Often, you can pull the dipstick and it will be clean oil, that doesn't tell the story of what lies below. I like to pull the pan and clean it every few years on the older cars without oil filters.

[Spinneyhill]

Sludge. Just what happens to oil with no or few additives.

[plymouthcranbrook]

I once bought a 1990 Ford escort from a co worker. I got it cheap and I knew he was not one to take care of cars. He told me that he had done 3 oil changes in about 70,000 miles.  I changed the oil and also took off the cam cover. I found that the oil had solidified around the valve springs and cam. I took a scraper and with a vacumn scraped and cleaned for a couple of hours to clean it up as best I could. The funny thing was the car ran well for a couple of years until my daughter was rear ended turning into her school

[Walt G]

But it's original!!!!!!!! don't ruin an original!!!!  ?

Thanks for posting this, it may wake a few people up and make them appreciate what HAS to be done.

I bought a car at auction in 2016, it immediately went to a friends shop and had all belts , fluids, hoses etc changed, the radiator boiled out, and I took the gas tank home and cleaned it out and sealed it.

Car ran fine before that , when the sellers started it up to prove that. My comment was " if you don't shut it down within the next 20 seconds I won't bid on the car."  It was a great restoration, an  AACA 1st place winner 35 years before; then stored and used very little. It was a trailer queen , now it is not!

Spend the time and $ to make sure your car is well sorted. Once again , thank you for showing this.

[Grimy]

I've posted these before on another thread, but here is visual evidence of what happens when non-detergent oil is used and the car sits a long time.  These are "crank turds" being pushed from crankshaft oil passages during a rebuild.  How much oil was actually going through these oil passages?

 

So cleaning out the oil pan and oil pump is not enough--one must check and clean the oil passages in the crankshaft and its sludge traps if so equipped.

[46 woodie]

Model A Fords didn't come with an air filter on the carb or an oil filter. Most roads across America when your car was built in 1930 were dirt. Can you imagine all the crap that motor inhaled in it's life. Obviously the owner didn't change the oil and all that junk just coagulated in the pan by sitting for 50 years. You owe your friend a beer.

[JamesR]

I bought my '54 Ranch Wagon from a guy who'd bought it from the original owner (an elderly lady who held an estate auction) just a few weeks earlier. The car had last been licensed in '71, I believe, so it had been sitting in a garage for over 30 years by the time he bought it. He'd had the oil changed, among other things, but I decided to change it again, despite the recent oil change. When I did, large chunks of solidified oil and sludge came out. I decided to change the oil and filter every fifty miles or so until the oil changes looked more clean. It took at least two or three more immediate oil changes before the oil looked civilized again.

 

The folks at Hemmings recommend non detergent oil in old cars that don't have rebuilt engines...or at least they used to back when I bought my Ford wagon 15 years ago. The idea is that the detergent will dislodge gunk that might get into the bearings or clog passages or whatever and cause problems.  I don't think I agree with that approach. I'd rather do rapid succession oil and filter changes with modern detergent oil to get the worst of the crud out. There may be some risk involved with this method, but I feel there may be greater risk in allowing all of that stuff to exist in a regularly or moderately used engine that's recently been revived. Dropping the pan is a good idea, too. 

 

 

[PFitz]

I had a 29 Franklin Victoria come in the shop. I removed the drain plug and nothing came out. Flashlight showed dry packed sludge. Poking with a dowel through several inches of sludge and finally a couple of quarts of black goo oozed out (of a 6 quart oil pan).

 

When I dropped the pan, the sludge was up to and had closed off the underside of the oil pump, which happens to be the oil pickup. And the brass screening over the openings had rotted away. Filled a two pound coffee can several times just with putty-knifing the sludge out of the pan. Everything in the underside of the engine was thick with black sludge. Amazed that the engine hadn't seized for the new owner.  

 

Another 29, that had sat for many years in a museum in Canada, the new owner had to find a replacement engine base less than 100 miles into it's first road trip because a football sized hole appeared in the side after a rod broke and punched the hole. When the car was restored years earlier, someone hadn't connected up the rods correctly because it was just going into a museum and not be driven.

 

Anyone who does not want to take the time to drop the pan on their new ride should use that time wisely and go searching for a spare motor.

 

Paul

[zeke01]

I have often thought about all those Model A Fords out in Oklahoma during the dust bowl. No air filter (as if that would have helped)and all that dust and dirt swirling through the air. Get your sleeves bored while you drive! Zeke

[DonMicheletti]

I know of more than one instance where of an owner bought an old car that had been sitting for years, changed the oil and drove it, only to burn out bearings (or worse) after a few miles.

In one instance the new owner didnt even change the oil - he didnt get far. That is how I ended up with my '38 Buick Special - the guy gave up on it.

 

Dropping the pan and a gasket is really cheap insurance.

 

However the definition of old car is important. On my '18, you can almost unbolt the pan without getting under it. On a '67 Pontiac GTO, you'd have to pull the engine.

[JV Puleo]

My 1929 PI RR had the engine taken apart in 1953. I bought it in about 1978. When I cleaned out the sump, I found a thoroughly oil-soaked dead rat...

[Xander Wildeisen]

I was waiting for something to happen hearing that Pulp Fiction music playing in the back ground.

Edited November 15, 2018 by Xander Wildeisen (see edit history)

[John_Mereness]

Glad I spotted the video.  I am always dropping oil pans, but generally do not have my phone with me (do not want to break it) or .. to take pictures. 

 

When I dropped the oil pan from this 1932 Packard Twin Six -  a 17 hour project from start to getting pan remounted with two bolts, I spent probably 14 hours with a hammer and a chisel cleaning solidified oil from the engine pan - the oil pump was just as bad with only one screen hole clear - that is a big engine for a 1/16 x 1/16 inch hole.  It appeared someone had tried to start it but quickly found it had no oil pressure - thank god it had other issues and they stopped (a 1932 Twin Six engine is a chunk of change, mileage was so low, and ....).  And, yes, I pumped oil through it to make sure the crank passages and ... were clear.   

 

[63RedBrier]

I'm a Corvair guy...  On my 32nd birthday (I'm now 52!) I bought a '62 Rampside from a fellow Corvair nut who never did anything with it.  Just to be on the safe side, I pulled the oil pan, which is very easy on a Corvair!  There was at least 2" of thick gray clayey sludge on the bottom of the pan which was probably the remnants of leaded fuel.  Since having this experience I have dropped the pans on many many other Corvairs and have never had this experience again, but knowing you have a clean pan eases the mind... 

[PFitz]

And it's not just the pre-war cars. Newer cars can be prone to hidden oil pan problems, too.

 

Yes, motor oil was better by the late 60s and 70s and many were using detergent oil, but,.... some folks with engines that were oil leakers were also using STP type products to try and stop leaks. A school friend with a 10 year old clunker 60's car, used STP to try and stop engine leaks. And like some guys thinking goes, if it's good than more is better, and too much is just about right. The engine eventually seized. The friend told me that when a repair shop dropped the pan they had to scoop the oil out. It was more like black mayonnaise.  Lucky for him there was no major damage. A good cleaning of the oiling system and it was drivable again.

 

Paul

[60FlatTop]

I bet what you found in the rear end and the transmission looked just like it.

Bernie

[pkhammer]

 If it's an OHV engine pulling the valve cover can reveal the same built up crud. When I was much younger my grandfather had bought a well used mid-60's GMC pickup to use as a fire wood hauler. It made a lot of valve chatter noise and when he pulled the rocker cover off, it looked as though the sludge had literally molded itself around the valvetrain leaving only enough room for the rockers to move. He probably scraped 5 pounds of thick sludge out of the rocker cover!

[PFitz]

68 My first car was a hand-me-down 62 Chevy Biscayne from my sister when she bought a 68 Skylark convertible (that I set the engine on fire, but that's story for another day).  No oil filter on that model and after cleaning  the thick layers of dirt and oil off the outside of the engine it leaked so bad I had to add a quart of oil every week.  Thereafter I rarely needed to change the oil, since it was self changing.

 

But, every few months I'd pull the valve cover and get in there with a putty knife. When I went off to Fort Ord in 71, my Father sold it for what my sister had paid for it used, five years before I got it. Still ran good thanks to that self flushing oil system. ?

 

Paul 

Edited November 17, 2018 by PFitz (see edit history)

[Curti]

"It looked as though the sludge had literally molded itself around the valve train leaving only enough room for the rockers to move."

 

I experienced the same thing with a 1933 American Austin.  When I dropped the pan the only space there was where the crank passed through.  The owner kept adding oil to the point it was a greater height than the edge of the pan.

I don't think the paraffin base oil helped the cause.   

[junkyardjeff]

I bought a 65 country squire off the original owners that sat for a few years,when I got it running it smoked a bunch so off came the valve covers and what a mess I found so I cleaned what I could and almost did not make it home when I drove it to get a out of state inspection. Since it needed all new freeze plugs I found another engine and when I pulled the pan from the original the pick up screen was completely surrounded with sludge and suprised it got any oil,it had plenty of oil pressure when cold but nothing when hot.

[28 Chrysler]

It is not just oil pans.

In 1975 I picked up a 1937 Chevy pickup, inside the rear end there was at more than a quart of chopped up inner tube. No saw dust for a thickening agent.