Re: CLEANING PAN OF SEDIMENT UPON PURCHASE

Posted by fredkanter On 2016/10/10 23:38:09

I respect your opinion but I ask that you consider these points.

Senior cars with aluminum oil pans are not driven much these days, in the last 5 years I've never seen one in regular traffic except on tours or at events. Most or nearly all are covered by collectors insurance which limits the number of miles driven and/or the type of driving i.e. collector driving only.

As such the potential for damaging buildup of sludge is just about zero. Such car owners are most likely to change their oil often which flushes out some of the gunk. The "hard" gunk is hard and just stays there not causing any harm unless the owner chooses to use detergent oil without cleaning the pan. Once the pan etc are cleaned, regular use of detergent oil will keep the engine clean.

As I stated, looking in the valve chamber will give you an excellent idea of the condition of the gunk in the pan. I've seen engines with hands full of gunk in the valve chamber and the pan follows.

You are correct about the Twelve valve chamber being difficult to access, so opening the pump access cover will indicate the condition of the sludge problem on all the aluminum pan cars by virtue of removing the oil pump screen.

As to the damage to engines in the early days of collecting, I theorize that many had worn engines that were run at speed and the bearings self destructed, especially the pre-35 babbited rods.

There is room for many opinions. I take offense at your "bucket of boos" awarded to us, people can disagree with grace.