Well there you go. You do have to change your oil regularly. Nice to see that when you open up isn't it!

I tell people over an over that oil changes are cheap. Some people don't get it. My departed father in law was a wonderful man but I could not convince him that oil changes were important. He had it in his head how often he needed to change oil and it wasn't very often.

Some of the blown engines I saw in our dealership was amazing. Oil pans so sludged up it was a challenge to get the oil to drain out.

Our 25 year old Accord gets an oil change in the fall and in the spring regardless of KM's driven. I don't think the car has gone 1000km this winter as Connie doesn't like driving in the snow since her accident. Typically it goes about 5k in the summer. I remember when I worked at a Chrysler dealer a Ram coming in on the tow truck. The engine was seized. The oil pan was full of sludge. The owner was a farmer who would just top up the oil with used tractor oil! He never changed it. 5 grand later he was back on the road and hopefully learned a lesson. 

Years ago a young woman purchased a used 1979 Malibu sedan with fairly low mileage from a car lot. The car was five years old and she got a really good deal on it. Her first highway trip to see her friends (250 km) she added five litres of oil! I felt bad for her and looked at it. I pulled the valve covers and it was plugged solid with sludge. I cleaned it out the best I could and changed the oil several times in two months to help clean it out. Afterwards the car didnt use any oil and she had it for many years. It was a 229 v6.

Paul

About 5 years ago, our niece dropped by in her leased 1.5 year old Ford Focus. We were sitting on the porch chatting about her car, asking how she liked it and stuff. I asked her about how many kilometers she had on it and she replied about 26000. That a good bit I said. I asked her how many oil changes she'd done so far? Figuring about at least 2 at the bare minimum. 

She replied with " Oh, none. My dad says it's a waste of time and it's not needed, just a rip off, and I'm kind of tight on money right now". 

Immediately, without any other comment, I asked for her keys, she gave them to me puzzled and then watched me walk out to her car, get in, start up and take off with it...

 

I went round the corner to the quick lube and had it changed for her. This was a leased car (facepalm, roll eyes here). I told the lube guy what was up, and sure enough after he had seen it, he said the stuff coming out was really nasty.

It's not needed. Ok...

MC wrote:

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A buddy of mine told me that he once removed a valve cover and saw another valve cover made of sludge on the inside.  I didn't see it and it was before phone cameras so I can't verify.

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 Have a buddy like that. Has owned the same 1990 silverado for 20 years with only a few oil changes. Pulled the covers off and the drain ports in the heads were almost all closed up! Same guy that came over and said his trans wasn't up shifting. Took it for a burn and asked when was the last time you changed your fuel filter...never! Put in a new one and it fixed his trans...