roadhard1960
Veteran Member
The back of my engine has been getting oily the past 200,000 miles or so. Gets to be annoying but not drippy. EGR valve is also messy. So what is annoying is the car only has 700,000 miles on it. Never had the head off. Never had the oil pan off. So folks that have some real experience, how do you tell if it is in need of valve guides and a general valve job, or if the rings and cylinders are poof? I suppose sometime soon I will order a head from Frank and just swap it out when I do the seventh timing belt change. I only need to get another 300,000 miles or more or so before I die. Say I retire in 4 years. That would be another 130,000 miles. I cannot imagine driving another 170,000 miles the next 22 years of life after retirement. When retired as I have no desire to get a retirement job that requires a 44-50 mile one way commute. On the other hand my tiny retirement IRA might force me to work more than I might want to.
Blowby illustrated as oil cap does not even want to pulse but pumps fairly hard when the oil cap is off. I should test to see what the Dodge Cummins with 200,000 miles does or the John Deere with a Yanmar engine and 12,000 hours does.
Fuel mileage is generally 45-50 mpg. I do not tend to drive 75 MPH. More 65-70. Mileage when new was not a whole lot better. I could get 50 mpg when driving country roads to work without a lot of stop and go.
So folks say things like "You need to replace that timing belt gear at 300,000 miles because it will fail. You have to replace the oil pump and chain because it will fail at 400,000 miles." For real long haulers/high mileage folks, what did you discover when you removed the head at 600 or 700,000 miles? If you removed the pistons when you did a high mileage head swap were the cylinders nothing but egg shaped?
Note two things. I live around Atlanta which has no more than 2 weeks of below freezing every year. I drive for an hour mostly highway. Both of those things are easier on engines than a 7 mile commute in 15F weather.
Blowby illustrated as oil cap does not even want to pulse but pumps fairly hard when the oil cap is off. I should test to see what the Dodge Cummins with 200,000 miles does or the John Deere with a Yanmar engine and 12,000 hours does.
Fuel mileage is generally 45-50 mpg. I do not tend to drive 75 MPH. More 65-70. Mileage when new was not a whole lot better. I could get 50 mpg when driving country roads to work without a lot of stop and go.
So folks say things like "You need to replace that timing belt gear at 300,000 miles because it will fail. You have to replace the oil pump and chain because it will fail at 400,000 miles." For real long haulers/high mileage folks, what did you discover when you removed the head at 600 or 700,000 miles? If you removed the pistons when you did a high mileage head swap were the cylinders nothing but egg shaped?
Note two things. I live around Atlanta which has no more than 2 weeks of below freezing every year. I drive for an hour mostly highway. Both of those things are easier on engines than a 7 mile commute in 15F weather.
