Litterally

This is what I found when I took the intake manifold off to do the cam.
7
8


What do you guys think?

also when I first put my finger in and looked at it I threw up :? :shock:

thats from the heads
that looked like this




carbon?

 

Looks like somewhat normal sludge in the coolant passages, and carbon in the exhaust crossover. It could all use a good cleaning, though.

 

if you're feeling up to it, (i'd recommend it), bring in the intake manifold, and heads, to a machine shop, for hot tanking. You'll need new head gaskets, and a bit of time for removal, but the peace of mind is pretty good there. Also it's a good idea to put on new valve seals while you're there.

 

That should turn you into a believer of regular preventive maintenance. That coolant went far longer than it should before a flush and change. The oil looks like what I used to find with the old Pennzoil "GT" oils - lots of sludge and varnish.

 

Yep its pretty discusting, I should go show the guy I bought the car from, considering, I only drove the car about 300 miles in a year.

 

I dont even want to know what my lg4 looks like. I have 190k on it......it smokes like hell on startup...real bad.

 

Yeah normal coolant sludge there....thats what happens when ya dont change it.

And please please don't put Dexcool in it. Dexcool is notorious for that type of sludge, seen it all too many times. It's really quite bad stuff, I always recommend to all my customers that they convert it over to universal coolant, and every time we perform a coolant flush, we do. We never fill Dexcool into a car.

 

I have heard too many stories of Dexcool being used in a generic coolant system, it turns to a gel. I wouldnt use it in the first place, dont know it, dont trust it.

 

looks about normal for a higher mile SBC...

the sludge in the engine is from running crappy oil and not changing it often enough.

the coolent is the same thing.. its from not changing it, and/or running mostly water.