The Houston 04 SE

[78F350]

Okay, No Snake Oil...
The engine does not put out smoke until after it has warmed up. I'm pretty sure that its from the oil-water mix in the exhaust heating up on the cats rather than a problem with the engine. I am still not happy with my oil samples. The oil on the dipstick looks clean and clear now, but samples from the filter are cloudy with water and fine debris.


I took the oil from the filter and strained it in a coffee filter, then spread the residue on white paper. There is nothing metallic or gritty. What I found is more like a flaking varnish. I have seen similar stuff in the carburetor of a lawn mower that sat with water in the gas tank. It is soft and can easily be broken up with the tip of a probe. The largest pieces are smaller than a millimeter in diameter. That is still more contamination than I had hoped to see after four oil changes.

Next I'm going to pull off the sump plate and give the bottom of the engine a good cleaning. I'll spray it with fogging oil, brush it, and wipe down the internal parts that I can reach. I would have dropped the pan earlier, but I was in a hurry to get it running and flushed. Now it seems like a good precaution before I run the engine under more of a load.



I did some diagnostics with my Autel MD802. Just some minor codes that are probably related to having an '01 instrument cluster installed instead of the '04. It also sometimes shows a secondary O2 sensor code. No worries there. The ABS/PSM shows code 4276 “Valve relay”. No idea about that yet, but the connector was wet for a long time.

Video:
https://youtu.be/BW-jrg0WdbQ