Oil Failure

   / Oil Failure #1  

TPS

Bronze Member
Joined
Mar 23, 2007
Messages
70
Hey fellas,
There are a lot of good posts here and elsewhere about oil etc. etc. In reality, except for race cars has anyone ever actually seen an oil related failure if oil and filter changes were done anywhere close to right? I was once in a fleet situation where guys were supposed to make sure the oil was changed at 3K miles and they showed it on reports. As we all know that can be faked and one guy had his car in the district shop for an oil change and I am not kidding they came in with a sample of his oil and it looked like molasses! Yet the car was still running and after they did do an oil and filter change as far as I know his car kept on running. This was back in the '70s the newer cars might not do it but anyway I was just wondering anyone ever see a real oil failure in a car/truck/tractor engine?
Take care-TPS
 
   / Oil Failure #2  
Yes and no, but really no :D , the failures I've seen were due to not regularly changing the oil & filter. Saw it twice.
The owners just added when needed and didn't change the filters on either. Both involved dino oil that had a rediculous amount of mileage built up.
One was 70's model Chevy 307 V8 and the other was an 85 Ranger w/2.8L V6. Both were locked up. Pulled the valve covers and you couldn't see the valve train in either due to the sludge buildup. Dropped the oil pan(s) and they were both filled practically to the brim with hard & soft sludge.
Actually got the Ranger running again by cleaning out as much of the sludge as possible, soaking the cylinders w/WD40 through the plug holes, let it sit for a couple days then put a breaker bar on the harmonic balancer bolt. Course it never ran the same again and don't know how long it lasted but it did run again :D
 
   / Oil Failure #3  
I like play toys and one place that I've seen oil break down is the viscostity in higher reving applications with load. I've had several cars that would break it down within a few runs down the track or just going through the gears hard.

I've seen cars that went to far on the grade of oil they were using for oil changes and they were well built up with crud on the inside. I've used tire irons and pipe wrenches to remove a small block chevy engine distributer from an engine that was running only hours before. The whole when I did get it out matched the shaft perfectly! I've removed valve covers and not could not see the rocker arms.

I've seen diesel engines that didn't have a working thermostat and because of the unburnt fuel that went by the rings, the oil which was ready by the hour meter to change was worse then molassass! We pulled the pan, (rank had spun a bearing) to get the oil out.

I guess I've seen oil failure before, and I've seen where owners neglect comes in. A small town police deptartment about two miles if you stretch it from end to end that left a car running 24/7(being prepared) and didn't change it but by the mileage! only made it to the second oil change on the engine!

I can't say I've seen it all, and I can't wait to see some more!
 
   / Oil Failure #4  
Since my dad owned a service station and an auto parts store and we knew every mechanic in town, yes, I've seen some failures, but the reasons were usually obvious.

In the mid-50s, Amalie Motor Oil did a good bit of advertising and apparently it worked and a lot of people used it. I've seen it "gelled" in oil pans so firmly it could hardly be dug out with a putty knife. And the problem? First off, the popular Amalie of that time was a non-detergent oil, when all the major oil companies had gone to detergent oil, cars were being made with hydraulic valve lifters, oil filters were common (most of you probably aren't old enough to remember when cars didn't have oil filters), some folks didn't change their oil as often as needed, and the Texas heat probably didn't help either.

In 1973, I bought a little Winnebago motorhome that had a 2.5 kw Onan single cylinder generator. Not long after I changed the oil the first time, that generator's exhaust started smoking. The motorhome dealer sent me to an Onan dealer. It was in the middle of the summer with very hot temperatures and when I went back the next day, the generator was running, not smoking, and they had left it running overnight. The first thing the guy asked was what kind of oil I had in it (Exxon Uniflow 10W-30 which was what I was using in the car back then), and he said that was the only problem. He showed me a couple of oil pans with gelled oil just as I'd seen nearly 20 years earlier, and told me those generators run too hot to use an oil for gasoline engines, even though it was a gasoline powered generator; said I needed an oil designed for diesels and Exxon at that time had one called Dieselube 40W and never another problem.
 
   / Oil Failure #5  
I'm one of those who has, for many years, changed oil every 3k miles in my vehicles. Even though the vehicle manufacturers recommended every 5k miles, but 3k miles for "severe" service, such as trailer towing, hot, dusty conditions, etc., the dealers in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area said they considered the heat and pollution in the area to be severe service, so they all (all the ones I knew of anyway) recommended the 3k mile interval. But the last time I had the oil changed in my vehicles, they put the little sticker in the upper left corner of the windshield showing when the next oil change would be due and I noticed it showed 5k miles instead of 3k, so I asked about it and the service writer told me they had changed to synthetic oil now and recommended 5k for my vehicles, 7.5k for the new ones. That, of course, if a Ford dealership.
 
   / Oil Failure #7  
The only oil failure I can remember was in the 1970-80 was Quaker State they had omitted an additive and many engines were lost that really cost them$$$$ for the repairs, and during that time you could go into auto part stores and it just sat there no one would buy it.I lucked in one store that wanted to dump Quaker State was selling it for .10 per Qt bought a case used it as sickle bar lube worked OK there.
 
   / Oil Failure #8  
The only oil failure I can remember was in the 1970-80 was Quaker State they had omitted an additive and many engines were lost that really cost them$$$$ for the repairs, and during that time you could go into auto part stores and it just sat there no one would buy it.I lucked in one store that wanted to dump Quaker State was selling it for .10 per Qt bought a case used it as sickle bar lube worked OK there.

Did you know that in the early '80s, Quaker State was one of the oils specifically recommended in the owners manuals of diesel Mercedes cars? A friend bought a new 1981 diesel Mercedes and I bought a new 1982 Isuzu I-Mark diesel sedan. His manual listed oils by brand name while my manual only listed oil specs; i.e., CC/CD, etc. And back then the Quaker State was rated for diesels. So I started using Quaker State in 1982 and used nothing else until after I bought a 1995 Kubota tractor and happened to notice that the Quaker State no longer had the diesel rating, so I used Delo 400 15W-40 in the tractor, but still used the Quaker State in the car and pickup until I moved back to town in November 2002. In other words, I used it for 20 years with no complaints.
 
   / Oil Failure #9  
Did you know that in the early '80s, Quaker State was one of the oils specifically recommended in the owners manuals of diesel Mercedes cars? A friend bought a new 1981 diesel Mercedes and I bought a new 1982 Isuzu I-Mark diesel sedan. His manual listed oils by brand name while my manual only listed oil specs; i.e., CC/CD, etc. And back then the Quaker State was rated for diesels. So I started using Quaker State in 1982 and used nothing else until after I bought a 1995 Kubota tractor and happened to notice that the Quaker State no longer had the diesel rating, so I used Delo 400 15W-40 in the tractor, but still used the Quaker State in the car and pickup until I moved back to town in November 2002. In other words, I used it for 20 years with no complaints.

Yes back then a lot of oils were rated CD then the feds had them take the phosphate out of the oil that was the end of that.
 
   / Oil Failure #10  
Hey fellas,
There are a lot of good posts here and elsewhere about oil etc. etc. In reality, except for race cars has anyone ever actually seen an oil related failure if oil and filter changes were done anywhere close to right? I was once in a fleet situation where guys were supposed to make sure the oil was changed at 3K miles and they showed it on reports. As we all know that can be faked and one guy had his car in the district shop for an oil change and I am not kidding they came in with a sample of his oil and it looked like molasses! Yet the car was still running and after they did do an oil and filter change as far as I know his car kept on running. This was back in the '70s the newer cars might not do it but anyway I was just wondering anyone ever see a real oil failure in a car/truck/tractor engine?
Take care-TPS

There are some and the issues are few and far between if you follow the manual.

#2 is color color, blank-not black, has ZERO to do with what is left on its life.

The 3K oil changes did in the 70's. They are a waste and 99% of them whom did it never pulled a UOA to see what they have left. Heck, I would put my oil with 3X the miles up against a 3K drainer...
 
 
Top