Project RS

[ScottyB]

so to celebrate passing 135k miles this weekend i decided to bask in all the inconvenience of doing headwork on a flat engine and replace the valve cover gaskets that were goopin all over my underparts. they seem to deteriorate every 70k miles or so, so i guess i'm right on schedule with this second replacement. i had a Felpro kit on hand that i've been ignoring for like a year, so with a nice breeze cascading through my boxers and a cold malt beverage in hand i went to it.

i was curious to see the valvetrain and how things were looking after the past years of hard use in hot weather with 6-8000 mile oil changes. removal of the intake and battery helped me get at the 5 valve cover bolts per side and everything cracked loose without issue. flat engines require a bit of "pre-cleaning" on the top seal area of the valve cover where all the crud falls onto and lays, so that when you pop the cover off a bunch of sand and dirt doesn't all immediately fall directly into your valvetrain. a toothbrush, simple green, and a wipedown did the trick.

inside cover...this is exactly how i pulled it off. i was expecting at least a little gold varnish but none to speak of.


same story inside. not even a golden hue, just an oil sheen.


all good in the hood. long intervals with high quality synthetic continues to look like it should and the detergent packs in those oils seem to do an amazing job at keeping sludge and varnish to a minimum. we'll celebrate the 200k mark with another peek i guess. :thumbup:

[JPolen01]

That is amazingly clean. I saw a commercial the other day for a new oil with 1 year change intervals. I'm not going to try it but man it seems like oil tech is evolving very nicely.

[ScottyB]

i'll also tell you guys one thing. Electromotive Contact Cleaner cleans plugs really well.


it also BURNS.

i was blasting a grody windshield wiper plug "while i was in there" from disconnecting the washer reservior and the spray reflected off a part of the plug and splashed back in my face. somehow i was able to close my eyes in time. responses as follows:

• (1 sec) whoops *wipe face*
• (3 sec) hmm, tingles, back to work.....
• (10 sec) OWOWOWSHITMOVEOWSHITSHITSHITAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaa

had to wash my face for like 5 minutes and it still stung like an hour later. hit me the worst on my eyelid. if i got that right on the eyeball there's no way i wouldn't be seeing an optimologist right now, probably blind. i'll never EVER use that stuff without glasses again.

[WRXtranceformed]

Whoa dude good to know!

And I am really impressed with how clean everything is. I've only used high quality oil since probably my Subaru days and pics like this helps me justify it.

[.RJ]

The burn means its working

[ScottyB]

And I am really impressed with how clean everything is. I've only used high quality oil since probably my Subaru days and pics like this helps me justify it.

yeah i was surprised. i think good oil isn't the be-all-end-all to keep a car running well, but i'm always going to pay a bit more and drive it hard while being worry free

The burn means its working

:lol: don't be a pussy, its just aggressively telling your old skin to GTFO and make room for the new, tender skin underneath

[WRXtranceformed]

yeah i was surprised. i think good oil isn't the be-all-end-all to keep a car running well, but i'm always going to pay a bit more and drive it hard while being worry free

there's actually a lot of conversation in the Colorado / Canyon community (that I think was fueled by some documentation from GM) that high quality oil is a huge factor in reducing the amount of coking / buildup on the intake valves in GDI motors. Installing a catch can like I did seems to be the best course of action to reduce most of it, but good oil is cheap insurance if you care about your vehicles imo

[Senor_Taylor]

yeah i was surprised. i think good oil isn't the be-all-end-all to keep a car running well, but i'm always going to pay a bit more and drive it hard while being worry free

there's actually a lot of conversation in the Colorado / Canyon community (that I think was fueled by some documentation from GM) that high quality oil is a huge factor in reducing the amount of coking / buildup on the intake valves in GDI motors. Installing a catch can like I did seems to be the best course of action to reduce most of it, but good oil is cheap insurance if you care about your vehicles imo

Just run distilled water instead of oil. Burns clean and leaves no residue.

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

[.RJ]

yeah i was surprised. i think good oil isn't the be-all-end-all to keep a car running well, but i'm always going to pay a bit more and drive it hard while being worry free

there's actually a lot of conversation in the Colorado / Canyon community (that I think was fueled by some documentation from GM) that high quality oil is a huge factor in reducing the amount of coking / buildup on the intake valves in GDI motors. Installing a catch can like I did seems to be the best course of action to reduce most of it, but good oil is cheap insurance if you care about your vehicles imo

How? Oil in the PCV system being deposited on the valves?

[WRXtranceformed]

yeah i was surprised. i think good oil isn't the be-all-end-all to keep a car running well, but i'm always going to pay a bit more and drive it hard while being worry free

there's actually a lot of conversation in the Colorado / Canyon community (that I think was fueled by some documentation from GM) that high quality oil is a huge factor in reducing the amount of coking / buildup on the intake valves in GDI motors. Installing a catch can like I did seems to be the best course of action to reduce most of it, but good oil is cheap insurance if you care about your vehicles imo

How? Oil in the PCV system being deposited on the valves?

Yeah basically. From what I understand in my non-engineering brain in older non-GDI engines there was a little bit of fuel that washed up on the upper parts of the intake runners. This kept them pretty clean and prevented coking from the suspended oil in the air in the PCV system from just baking on. This fuel wash doesn't happen in newer GDI engines (this I think first got identified in the Audi community actually with their first GDI engines) so it bakes on into crazy hard deposits that cause performance issues, worse fuel mileage and at worst has led to bent valves and big chunks of that stuff breaking off and ending up in the engine:



Some shops actually use disassembly and walnut blasting at different mileage intervals to address it. It is supposedly bad news to use solvent based cleaning as it doesnt work well and can lead to the aforementioned abrasives in the engine:




Bad coking has been documented in the GM world in as little as 10-12k miles

[.RJ]

Yeah i've seen that on all the DI engines... I wonder how the quality of oil affects it, at least, with the BMW/VW/Audi stuff the OE oil is already pretty high quality, but those are turbo motors. Maybe its the long change intervals :dunno:

I think both my cars right now are DI.

[WRXtranceformed]

Yeah i've seen that on all the DI engines... I wonder how the quality of oil affects it, at least, with the BMW/VW/Audi stuff the OE oil is already pretty high quality, but those are turbo motors. Maybe its the long change intervals :dunno:

I think both my cars right now are DI.

Yeah that could be too...I mean most people aren't going to own cars for long enough to even notice, or wouldn't notice even if there was a problem. But it was suggested that the GDI coking is one of the main reasons why most manufacturers largely dropped initial purchase powertrain warranties from 100k to 60k (except for Dodge I believe, who was not running GDI engines and still may not be yet?)

[ScottyB]

yeah i'm not sure oil type is going to prevent oil sludging on the valves but it may have the small effect of less buildup by virtue of burning off cleaner or something. i'm still not sure what the proper long term fix is for DI coking.

[.RJ]

yeah i'm not sure oil type is going to prevent oil sludging on the valves but it may have the small effect of less buildup by virtue of burning off cleaner or something. i'm still not sure what the proper long term fix is for DI coking.

Step 1) remove intake manifold

It sucks. I've been lucky not to have any problems with the A4, but it also has an aftermarket PCV setup and the motor gets worked out pretty regularly (italian tuneup?)

[HAULN-SS]

Fake news. It says right on the bottle non flammable.

[ScottyB]

I saw a commercial the other day for a new oil with 1 year change intervals. I'm not going to try it but man it seems like oil tech is evolving very nicely.

yeah 1 year is generally the accepted cutoff due to the oil chemistry becoming acidic or seeing a high percentage (relatively) of moisture or fuel dillution past that point, especially if its a garage queen. if you drive your car regularly i'd run it for a year without hesitation. the nature of your driving habits matters way more than how long the oil's ran IMO. short trips and DI engines just destroy oil.

if you do a lot of easy highway miles or just baby the engine there is almost no wrong oil to choose these days. literally even the low end stuff is better than good stuff from 10 years ago. run OEM or good quality filters and choose an oil viscosity or quality level that matches your driving, and done.

[ScottyB]

i dick around with the Dynolicious app to cure the endless boredom of the roads around here, and every once in a while i get a free and open on-ramp to romp on. i don't mess with the estimated power because i don't care or the 0-60 because i don't want to know. but i do love the g-meter.

just getting the inside tires to talk a little netted .88G the other day. i think .9 is in the bag if i wanted to push. for stock-size all-seasons and an original .80G performance figure, i feel like its come a nice way.

[ScottyB]

just getting the inside tires to talk a little netted .88G the other day.

hit .92g on the way to pick up the kid today. yay me

SEDIV Dixie rallyx regional championship is slated for Labor Day weekend in Alabama. 5 hr drive but the site is incredible and i have a tent + camp gear so i could potentially stay put the whole weekend and run late friday practice too. i really want to make this work although i'll probably get rolled by the talent. i haven't been on dirt in over a year and its killing my soul.


fun starts at 1:25
[youtube]AmV3frh5q7o[/youtube]

i finally got my Hurrburr Freight trans jack together after seeing the news so that's the first progress in the 1.5 yrs my clutch/flywheel has taken towards getting done :lol: i suck....all i want is the temps to drop below 95, is that too much to ask?

needs a detail. need to get the updated Whiteline tophats into the front and regrease the rear struts. might have an exhaust leak. the inside smells like an old gym bag, or maybe i've always smelled like that and didn't realize it until i got back in it after a while.

[*insertusernamehere*]

just getting the inside tires to talk a little netted .88G the other day.

hit .92g on the way to pick up the kid today. yay me

SEDIV Dixie rallyx regional championship is slated for Labor Day weekend in Alabama. 5 hr drive but the site is incredible and i have a tent + camp gear so i could potentially stay put the whole weekend and run late friday practice too. i really want to make this work although i'll probably get rolled by the talent. i haven't been on dirt in over a year and its killing my soul.


fun starts at 1:25
[youtube]AmV3frh5q7o[/youtube]

i finally got my Hurrburr Freight trans jack together after seeing the news so that's the first progress in the 1.5 yrs my clutch/flywheel has taken towards getting done :lol: i suck....all i want is the temps to drop below 95, is that too much to ask?

needs a detail. need to get the updated Whiteline tophats into the front and regrease the rear struts. might have an exhaust leak. the inside smells like an old gym bag, or maybe i've always smelled like that and didn't realize it until i got back in it after a while.

I mean Alabama can't be that far from VA


Sent from my FRD-L04 using Tapatalk

[ScottyB]

its honestly not worth it. you guys up there have the VIR course with the THSCC guys. easily one of the best sites in the mid atlantic and you can run it 4-5 times a year. i plan to get up there soon.