I was expecting piles of gunk and cloggage)? everywhere! This was really surprising that it was this clean, I dont think its the stock lg4 engine, is there any way I can tell what block it is.

The registration on my card says the car has 120,000 miles on it, but by the look of this block i find that hard to be true, plus the timing chain was in great, yes GREAT condition, this leaves me contemplating whether or not this engine is stock or not...

 

well if the previous owners changed the oil every 3000 miles and actully took care of the car then that's what it should look like. The valve train is stock from the looks of it and possibly the timing chain was replaced. If it's killing you to find out stock or not you'll need to look at the cam grind number, head casting number, the pistons and block casting number on the the back lip. Kinda pointless if it's running good and your not going to change this stuff out.

 

That's how my definitely stock engine looked at 92K miles when I pulled it out.
It's amazing that some people actually take care of their cars.

 

Mine at 130K looked clean like that.
Now, my 90 formula parts car with 103K had gunk caked everywhere in the valvetrain.

 

cool, the car sat for a good 10 years, but the person who purchased it after it sat must have done some damn good job keeping it clean

 

There's a lot to be said for using good oil, changing it regularly and changing the pcv valve & pcv filter. A lesson us old timers learned over years and years. My wife's cadillac motor looked that clean thru the oil filler cap. Never had to work on the engine and it still went from one oil change (4000mi) to the next without needing any oil. It had 285K on it when we traded it.
Then again, it was maintained by a professional.

 

looks like a valvoline engine! I tear down engines all the time in the course of my job, and you can usually spot an engine that got good quality oil (valvoline, castrol, etc) and poor oil (PENNZOIL!)

 

you forgot Quaker State non-detergent. Nothing like scraping out sludge from inside a valve cover... I've seen some with it so thick on top of the heads you could see the imprint of the baffles from the valve cover. YUCK! Makes you want to the owner.

 

This is my LG4 after 105K of Castrol.

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/atta...bad-valves.jpg

 

yeah so it turns out that it wasnt a stock engine in there, the timing chain is fresh, the heads are fresh, and even the engine block numbers dont match up to a stock 85 trans am(good old chilton book)... so its a newer motor, im not sure of the size, im gonna do some research into it, hopefully ill find out, i knew it was putting out more than 155 horses