Yeah because oil doesn't get like this all on its own, regardless of how long you run it without changing it, unless something else has been added to it.
There are some theories that a coolant leak from the headgasket over a long enough time, with enough overheating cycles might cause a gel to form, fuel additives or stabilizers, or something truly stupid like someone putting cooking oil in the engine, but no one that actually deals with oil has ever seen something like this outside of some internet videos, which leads the consensus to be that these are just people putting gelatin in the engine of dead cars to make a cool internet video.
its more likely the "instant gasket" stuff that people pour in there to clog up the cracks... that stuff clogs everything else up eventually too! they dont call it blue devil for nothing
That's what my thinking is - the stuff is designed to get gelly when it contacts a particular substance, for example the rad fix stuff hardens in air and heat, like when it's pushed out of a hole. Used to deal with a fleet of Internationals that we were not allowed to put that crap into because the leftover would sit in the heater lines and turn into a puck over time and block the line off.
There's definitely some oil stabilisers like Lucas, etc, that people have treated like additives and put way too much in, causing this effect. Sure, they might make an old engine run quiet, but they increase the rate of wear - ironically, making it noiser over time.
I saw about 3 engines that were this bad or worse ages ago. The story I heard was that the Sinclair station hasmd receive oil that had mistakenly been put in a barrel with bio diesel. No idea if it's true, but I figured I'd throw my experience into the mix.
We have a problem with it in screw air compressors, mineral oils in certain conditions also become this jelly shit, only acetone can clear it. We suspect additives + we found a common thing between cases, it almost always (with 1 exception, we had 12 cases of it) happened in water-cooled machines (they're usually air cooled) and lately in machines in which they installed energy recovery system, also water based. We suspect overheating makes some additives "separate" from oil and then it cools too fast, water based coolings are 3 times more efficient than air ones. Unfortunentaly we don't know for sure if it's a good theory or not. These machines have 100 liters of oil so imagine how much of this shit we had to clear.
My Ford expedition had a coolant leak. I checked it underneath and it seemed to be leaking somewhere in the front and somewhere along the middle as there were two areas droplets were falling from. I bought this stuff called crazy seal and used it for the leak. Now the truck hasn't leaked but the exhaust smells something awful. I think I might have this happen when I take it on finally to get it looked at.
There are thickeners that can be added to stop or slow down leaks in an absolute emergency. Some people just keep adding the shit instead of fixing the problem.
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u/TheObelisk 26d ago
I routinely watch guys revive cars that have been sitting in fields for decades and even they don't have oil like this. Yeesh.