picked up a roller out of a 96 explorer today for $190. it has gt40 heads on it. ive seen plenty of gt40p heads at the wrecking yard, but that was the first time i had seen gt40's. no valve covers or intake. rockers, valves and springs looked pretty clean. oil was kinda dark though. the coolant in the heads looked really clear. we also found a completely untouched 351w in a bronco. we're gonna go back for it on sunday i think. with your guys' info, i think im off to a decent start. i say "budget" build because im not interested in building something spectacularly amazing, but im also not crafting a piece of poo that i wouldnt want someone to know i built hahahaha ill get some better photos when i get it on the engine stand. yeah whats the number for your machine shop? youre not too far away.
I used to see motors that had a steady diet of Quaker State motor oil that looked like that on the inside.
Sounds like a good catch. Especially with the GT40 heads. Those are worth what you paid for the whole motor. That'll be a 96 or early 97 motor with those heads.
yeah. we were looking for roller motors and then i look down and say, "Dude, are those gt40 heads?" hahaha i will do what i can to keep you guys and this thread updated with pics and progress and stuff.
My Dad always calls that oil "Caker State" and this pic prove it, lol. That stuff likes to "cake" up.
Quaker State hasn't sludged up engines for over 30 years, that engine never saw a oil change or used some of that bargain stuff from the dollar store... BTW Quaker State & Pennzoil are both now owned by SOPUS(Shell Oil Products US), so when you buy either now you're getting Shell oil...
Shell oil may own them, but just as with gasoline, each brand has it's own unique additive package. The base stock may be the same, but the finished product will be different. It has been 30 years since I saw a Quaker State fed motor, but that experience has kept me from everusing their products ever since.
No doubt true but other than the name, the QS of today bears little resemblance to oils of days gone by... Due to warranty requirements, oils have to meet API SN to be used in modern vehicles and limiting sludge is part of the requirement... The QS Defy doesn't list a API classification on the container, but has a extra shot of zinc and not intended to be used in "new" engines...
If there's no API classification on the container, there's no telling what you're getting. it could be no different than what they sold 40 years ago.
Sure there is, the QS website specifically says it has increased Zinc levels and cleaning capacity, of course one can't always believe what they read on the net... The guys over on Bob is the Oil Guy have verified the claims and have run VOA(Virgin Oil Analsys) & UOA(Used), so they know and have posted exactly what's in it... For the time being, I have 10W-40 Defy in my Comet, but I'm gonna pull the 302 Smogger and install a fresh Roller 306 with Pro Comp heads... That's going to wait awhile though, it needs front end and brake work more than a fresh engine...
Thing about that is the oil they tested may not have come from the plant that your oil came from. Quaker State is no different than the other major branded oils, it's not all bottled in one plant. I know of at least three oil bottling plants here in Louisiana that more than likely bottle more than one brand. One does for sure as it's an independent bottler/distributor.
you guys could keep going round and round about that almost forever.. and still end up in the same place that you started. I've run it more than once and millions of others have too through the years without turning their motors in sludge-pots. They're isolated incidents or their would be threads all over the net by now. Even if you did search and find some to back up your theory.. we could probably find some others to discredit them and come up with others to point fingers at while we're at it. IMHO, there are other underlying factors involved to cause those types of issues in the first place and the oil type itself only plays a smaller role in the deal. Case in point. We used to own a farmhouse and the elderly neighbor(must have been in his late 70's) across the street had a late 80's Chevy pickup truck(V6) that had the same major issue that are being blamed on this particular oil. At the time we didn't have kids yet and I was always working on my cars and flipping others when I found a good deal worth the effort.. so he knew me to be a mechanic in a fairly short time after we bought the house and decided to ask me about his engine one day. It had been smoking and blowing oil out the top end for a few weeks and clogging the PCV so his son decided to pull a valve cover one day to inspect things a bit better. They were almost completely clogged with sludge with only small recessions around the spring pockets remaining somewhat clear of buildup. After hearing about it.. he called me over one day to actually look at it.. and his son was pretty quick to blame the oil which had been used since the truck was bought brand new about 3 years earlier. Mobile 1 full synthetic was the suspect. He had read that the detergent package was very weak in those particular oils compared to the others and more than a few people, including pro mechanics, had told him the same thing. I had also heard the same too and IIRC, it was supposedly an issue with particulate suspension or something like that. Funny thing was.. that's what I was currently running in my SCJ Torino ever since the motor had bene freshened up about 2 years earlier. This is pretty much what I told him to be the issue as far as I had seen. "I have no issue with that oil myself.. nor do any of my friends and family who also use it. If anything.. it was due to the way the truck had been driven since he barely even got on the gas when he left his driveway". Took him more than 2 city blocks before he even hit 35! He was so bad that cars would need to quite literally slam on thier brakes when he left his driveway to get on the 45mph county road in front of our houses. It was also so bad that eve my wife and I hurried out of our driveway to get in front of him when we happened to be leaving around the same time. lol And even when we saw him driving further down the way.. he NEVER EVER went the speed limit and often had multiple cars built up impatiently following behind him until the double lines cleared so they could pass with horns a honking. He eventually had his 2 older boys come over and tow the truck to the dealer under warranty work where they ended up replacing the entire motor. They later showed me pictures of the valley where it looked very similar to the pic earlier in this thread. Which I'd already figured it would since the rocker valley in the head was almost completely clogged too. They never did subscribe to my theory and still believed it to be the oil rather than the low rpm duty that the motor had been subjected to. To this day.. I blame the issue on the extremely low rpm duty cycles he exposed that motor to.. rather than the oil itself. Especially since the ones I've pulled down.. including that SCJ motor for one last heavy mod'ing session before I sold it 5 years later... were always extremely clean. But.. I certainly run the piss outta' mine to keep the oil flowing fast.. and they don't idle very often. Point is.. there's always going to be some corner case where people are blaming the wrong suspect without full proof. And as far as I'm concerned.. this is no different. Aside from a high performance engine.. so long as the oil flows sufficiently in a stock motor.. doesn't run low and/or get over heated repeatedly.. gets changed often enough?.. oil is oil.
RPMs have zero to do with sludge, it's the operating temps, apparently that engine never warmed up completely... True puttering along would lengthen the warm up time especially of the oil, but it's short trips or never changing the oil that cause modern day sludge... I have a friend that killed a HiPo 289 due to sludge blocking the oil pickup, oil was changed every season... That engine was mostly run for short intervals in parking lot type auto cross(was not street licensed) and was spun past 6500 RPMs... Was full of sludge because it never ran for more than 10-15 minutes at a time, so oil was never up to temp... Depending on ambient temp, oil temp can lag behind coolant temp another 10, 15 maybe even 20 minutes...
