Guess how many miles

[Chief915]

I attached a couple pics of what I found under my valve covers, or more accurately, what I didn't find under the valve covers.

These pics are from the suburban in my sig. I had a couple leaks from the valve cover gaskets and decided to tackle that over the weekend. I am wondering now, how many miles are on the engine? It's a 599 block and everything leads me to believe it's original and hasn't been touched. The truck was very stock when I got it, right down to the fender snorkel still being in place, the factory soot trap and muffler still in place, etc. But it did have the Heath PMD mount and a nicely done OPS relay mod hidden behind the fuel pump relay cover, so that makes me think a 6.5 mafia member must have been involved at some point.

Guess how many miles are on it....

 

[Edzzed]

hard to tell how many miles on the engine when all I see is nice clean rockers and springs. They do indeed look new. my guess is less than 5000 miles

 

[bison]

To clean for a high miler

 

[btfarm]

I don't know how many miles but if it's over 25k then the guy was a fanatic about oil changes. I've had gasser motors that looked that good at 100k+ but that's with 3000 mile oil changes on them.

 

[JiFaire]

Either:

-- less than 25 k since new heads put on
-- synthetic oil since new, frequent changes
-- you washed things down with varsol before taking pics

Those are pretty spanky, allright!

 

[Chief915]

The odometer shows 239,750 miles, which is why I was surprised about how it looked.

The carfax report shows 9 oil changes, all done at the same dealer. The first was at 173,588 and the last at 201,691.... so about 3,100 miles between changes on average. No "maintenance" entries on the carfax before 173,000, but the same person owned it since it was new.


Taking it to a dealer for oil changes with 170,000+ miles on it tells me the owner was anal about taking care of it..... either that or didn't think anyone else could change oil without tearing something up on his truck.

 

[WarWagon]

Lets see pics of the rocker cover undersides. This can tell more about how clean things were as they are not replaced. Cleaned with head replacement maybe.
Less than 30K on the engines I got looked spotless with the military maintenance.

I doubt the heads have that many miles on them w/o cleaning - maintenance aside mine never look that clean over 30K.

 

[Chief915]

Lets see pics of the rocker cover undersides. This can tell more about how clean things were as they are not replaced. Cleaned with head replacement maybe.
Less than 30K on the engines I got looked spotless with the military maintenance.

I doubt the heads have that many miles on them w/o cleaning - maintenance aside mine never look that clean over 30K.

I didn't take pictures of the underside of the valve covers, but they were exceptionally clean too, just like the pics of the heads.

The gaskets seemed original, or at least really old. They were both very hard and brittle, chucks were breaking off and falling as I was lifting the covers off the heads.

 

[3500GMC]

I thought GM used black rtv on the tins?

I was looking at the rocker 'buttons'....The look like they're been in there a while. They get baked from a bright yellow to hockey pucks...

Regular oil changes will keep an engine that clean, for darned near eternity.

How many miles? This many: xx,xxx

 

[Chief915]

I thought GM used black rtv on the tins?

Not sure on that one..... I know the new hummer engines come with cork gaskets.

My oil pan is black rtv'd.......

 

[Edzzed]

The odometer shows 239,750 miles, which is why I was surprised about how it looked.

The carfax report shows 9 oil changes, all done at the same dealer. The first was at 173,588 and the last at 201,691.... so about 3,100 miles between changes on average. No "maintenance" entries on the carfax before 173,000, but the same person owned it since it was new.


Taking it to a dealer for oil changes with 170,000+ miles on it tells me the owner was anal about taking care of it..... either that or didn't think anyone else could change oil without tearing something up on his truck.

No disrespect but dealers make errors. Especially minute lube. They once sent me on my way and about a mile later I thought why is my oil pressure gauge reading zero. I shut the car (Toyota Celica) off and phoned them and the shop manager drove over and put 5 liters in. Gave me a coupon for 3 free oil changes. Never had any other problem with the car and sold it some 3 years later. Ed

 

[Chief915]

No disrespect but dealers make errors. Especially minute lube.

I completely agree....

The point I was making is that most of the car owners, who don't know anything about mechanics or maintenance, probably belive that the dealers provide the "best" maintenance or repairs for their vehicle. Even if that is only an oil change.

 

[DieselSlug]

When i bought my engine of C-list is was "said" to have about 90K miles on the clock. Upon disassembly the tops of the heads, valves, and covers were very clean just like yours. Tell you the truth the rocker buttons looked a lot more yellow than the ones in your picture. When i peeled the heads off there was almost no ridge in the cylinder bore! Besides the engine sitting for 2 years in a damp location resulting in a crusty cooling system it had to be true. Came from a junkyard in Philadelphia in a rear ended 94' dually, guy bought it for 2k for a hummer, then never did the swap and sold it to me for 600. Sounded fishy, but man, it was a young engine...

 

[bison]

I didn't take pictures of the underside of the valve covers, but they were exceptionally clean too, just like the pics of the heads.

The gaskets seemed original, or at least really old. They were both very hard and brittle, chucks were breaking off and falling as I was lifting the covers off the heads.[/QUOTE]

GM didn't use valve cover gaskets.only black RTV,so someone has been in there after.
These aftermarket cork gaskets are junk anyway,it don't take to long for them to get brittle.

 

[DieselSlug]

My engine gasket set came with cork valve cover gaskets, so i used them and RTV, and they still leak.... Prolly a good thing tho, keep the block covered in grease so the salt cant eat it alive...

 

[JMJNet]

I suspect, PO got a new head. That is why it has regular OCI for warranty.

Just a guess.

That is good looking clean engine, though.

 

[Tookie]

I had to pull my valve covers on the 6.5 at 240,000 miles for a broken rocker arm bolt...
everything was just as clean as these pictures are, and I got the truck with 140,000 on it.
After I got it, oil was changed every 5,000 miles. This pic is just like I found it when I pulled
the cover, no cleaning up.

 

[chessie 6.5]

All of my diesels looked like that under the valve covers; Oldsmobiles, Chevys, and GMCs. I've always used Mobil Delvac 1300 series 15W40. 5000 mile oil changes. All but the current one with over 200,000 miles

 

[buddy]

Mine still has the black RTV on it from factory in 1993, not sure if they did use cork at some time but people sell cork gaskets for it, and a local Stanadyne shop technician that maintains many 6.5 engines for customers says he would never use a cork gasket on it.

 

[Chief915]

I agree that a cork is the least desirable material for a gasket.... But on the other hand, as long as the rail on the valve cover is straight and you don't over tighten the bolts to the point of crushing/cutting the gasket, it will be fine.

A couple years ago I was in charge of maintaining a fleet of 70 HMMWV's (military hummers) for a year in Iraq, all of which had the 6.5 in them. They had cork gaskets and didn't have leaks. All 70 were used every day and were driven like rental cars at all times lol. The 6.5 is a lot tougher than we give it credit for most of the time.