Posted by David Sherman on Thursday, October 18, 2007 at 22:22:19 :
In Reply to: Re: Now it's easy! posted by Ray on Thursday, October 18, 2007 at 21:53:51 :
Good idea to drop the pan. I'm probably not the guy to ask about oil. Some guys have real strong opinions about it. I don't. I figure, when starting up an old engine, all I'm going to do is run it long enough to see how it sounds, and then if it sounds good, warm it up and get all the gunk in circulation before changing the oil. If it was mine, I'd probably put cheap store-brand oil in it and then change it after less than an hour of running.
When I find a lot of gunk in the bottom of an oil pan or gear box, I like to rise it out with gasoline, sort of like I was panning for gold, rather than just scrape all the gunk out and throw it away immediately. There can be a lot of interesting bits of metal in the bottom of the sludge. Fine metallic "flour" represents normal wear, but any identifiable pieces of anything, like ball or roller fragments in the bottom of a gear box, or shavings in something like an engine that has plain bearings, or even sand or dirt that got in via some open vent, missing plug, or malice, is a clue to something that needs to be fixed.
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