Engine look normal to you?
 

OK OK OK, I know this may make some people cringe but a little backstory:
For the past almost 4 years now I thought that my car held 3.6quarts of oil. I'v always added about 3 1/2 quarts when I do the oil change but LAST time I did it I figure there is a quart between full and low so I just put 3quarts thinking it would fall in the middle. Well little did I know that there was a "quarts" and "US quarts"... In US quarts my car (apparently) holds 3.9quarts, So I shorted it this time around and since it burns just a tiny bit of oil, when i hit 4,800 miles on this oil change I had a check engine light come on and I realize there is about 1.5 quarts of oil in the whole damn car :rolleyes::confused::(:o

So anyways I panicked a little, as I usually do when it comes to my cars. I drove 2 miles to a gas station and put a quart in, then drove home (20 more miles) and did a full oil change. Then I did a compression test the next day and got 225, 220, 219, 225 which is higher than the 213psi that is suppose to be possible with this engine but I read that carbon build-up will raise compression readings so no biggie.

Well today, because I'm really weird, I decided to paint my valve cover the most obnoxious color I could find. I found a shiny metallic hip-hop chain looking gold and thought that was perfect, well it ended up coming out like a really creamy coffee color instead, which I didn't mind. I take the valve cover off and take a look at the inside of the engine to see how bad it is and was pleasantly surprised at how clean it seemed to be, especially for 192,000m on the clock.

But what about this VVT cam shaft sprocket? (I'm pretty sure thats what it's called) It obviously has some burnt look to it, is that normal or what? I've never been inside a DOHC VVT engine before so IDK what they normally look like with wear on them.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1475734324
http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1475734179
http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1475734324

It sounds like the difference is that 3.6 quarts is 'drain and fill' without the oil filter, and 3.9 quarts is with the oil filter.

I grew up with metric and decimal so I associate pre-metric measures with expressing quantities in fractions. So should that be 3 9/10 quarts?

At a glance, the inside of your engine looks normal to me.

For what it's worth, my Insight's engine has ~335k km on it and looks about the same inside. Modern engines that are taken care of are usually not the major point of failure in a car.

As long as you haven't seen the oil light come on, you are fine. If you wan to really be sure, do an oil analysis and see what kind of metals are floating around in it.

A couple of the can lobes show a bit of wear, but that could just be an effect of the camera. But that's why I always use the blue bottles of STP stabilizer (zddp), on top of my 0w-20 syn. Modern oils have very little zinc, although they don't need it all that much.

I've seen Toyota v6's run great on 1/2 quart of oil, and I saw an ecotec run ten miles with no oil, and it ran fine after being filled, you are probably alright.

This is what it would look like if you ran it out of oil!http://i863.photobucket.com/albums/a...s/image_1.jpeg

I once threw a rod bearing in one of my previous cars. I then drove it home 70 miles with one of the pistons bouncing around inside the block. :P

No oil light but I did get a check engine code, i THINK it may have been a P0012 which said that it could be from low/dirty oil so obviously it was low enough to trigger that code but I dont know how bad you got it when you went long enough to get the code, if that makes since.

Like I heard if you actual oil light comes on, well it coming on means that you already knee deep in poo

If the oil light comes on because the car has run out of oil you have a problem.
It really should be a replace engine light!

They really need to re-do all the warning lights cars have these days.
Check Engine: just pop up the actual code instead
Hot coolant: make it look less like a sail boat/ just make it a fire symbol
Oil light: just make it pop up saying "god dammit, im dying"

If you think the sail boat thing is stupid, I literally got a call from my sister one day and she asked what the sail boat light meant in her car. And I didn't that it was a thermometer in water till I was like 16 or so

The engine looks great. What you see is some oxidized oil and also a thin coating of oil over everything. I am a fan of gauges; but not many gauges in cars anymore. Instead of a "symbol" to indicate a problem, there should be a message that says "low oil" or "overheated engine" or something to that effect, and then a followup message to tell what to do.

Yeah the Scion says to hell with gauges, it has the speedo, tack, and gas guage and thats it.
I remember when I first bought it and being really uncomfortable that there wasn't atleast a temp gauge much less a oil pressure or voltage gauge

My mother drove Cadillacs back in the 60s and 70s. I remember one, I think it was the 73, having a light on the dash that said " STOP ENGINE ". It came on for either low oil pressure or overheating. I drove that car a lot, that and my dad's 70 Chrysler wagon. Memories.....

Heck, technology is cheap enough nowadays that the car should probably just speak clear instructions to the driver when something is amiss.

Many girls (and guys) think the oil pressure light demands the same level of urgency as a check engine light, meaning they think they can just keep driving and get it checked out after the weekend on Monday.

If the car just said "pull over now and shut the engine off", that would convey proper urgency to the driver.

That technology would add maybe $5 to the price of the car.

Yeah, but they spend the money instead on tpms monitors and stability control and dumb garbage like that. Nanny state

Never seen an overheating engine kill a person, but stability control or flat tyres at highway speed has saved lots of lives. Grow a brain!

This type of comment is why they call the warning lights "idiot lights". Lexus, Volkswagen and lots of other cars have a text display that warns you to stop the engine. That is, unless you drive an ancient car, in which case you should learn what the dash lights mean and look at them...

Simon

Most of those systems help people who don't know how to really drive a car. I occasionally turn off stabilitrak if i know i want to have some fun. The only ones i think are critical are power brakes and abs.

It looks alright to me, in my limited experience. When I first removed my cover to adjust the valve lash a couple years ago, I was surprised at the golden brown and the black carbon. I asked around. Most thought it normal.

I would think no caron buildup could mask real damage to the piston rings such that poor compression could present as better than factory! That would be something to patent! No, your compression is really good because the engine is in good shape. Maybe carbon is lifting great compression number up over OEM specs.

Wait and see. Look for oil in coolant, and coolant in oil. Maybe do a cheap and easy block test for hydrocarbons in your coolant.

Enjoy. Your. Ride. ... with that snazzy new valve cover. Did you bake it in the oven?

Not so much those that cannot drive, but it aids greatly when conditions are not the best or when inattention intervenes (can happen to all of us!)

Simin

Na, I never put it in the oven. I just let it dry a few hours and stuck it on the car. I wasn't too worried about the paint getting messed up because I will just re-paint it something different when it does because I find that kind of junk fun.

On a side not for all of you who looked at the engine I just found this picture of my 1997 honda accord that at the time had about 20,000 LESS miles on it, check out the difference:

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1477808203

I still dont know if I'm "happy" with the way the xA one looks but compared to the Accord I had it defiantly makes me smile a little