mkgarrison5

hey guys when you take off the oil cap on the 3.4's there is a black piece that shows inside the block right under the cap. i dont know what the piece is but is it common for deposits and grit to accumalate on there?? the truck has 91k miles and i have used mobile 1 syn 5w30 for the past 40k miles.what do you guys think?? my cousin's full size blazer with the 350 has the same thing but more (mainly bc he doesnt take care of it at all! and it has 200k miles on it)

86toysr5

wow never thought a chevy motor would last that long sure it isnt rebuilt or has been replace...but to the point all my toyotas have had that my that black stuff under the cap i assume its carbon

mkgarrison5

those chevy 350's are tough man.. no its orginal 200k miles. he doesnt take care of it at all too. anyway about the yota. i took a flashlight and opened the oil cap to take a look just bc mainly i was bored and took my finger and wiped that black metal piece just inside the fill hole and had a finger tip full of grit and deposit. just curious if that is normal?

Ricer-X

im surious about this too, the 89 i bought in may has the same thing, its got 253k on the clock

progress4m

Yes, this is normal.
That plate is to prevent you from loosing oil to quickly if oil cap is lost, but under normal condition there is no oil flow there so some oil that gets there is getting cooked and that is what you see.

Tark

yea, just did my first oil change on my truck on sunday and saw this same thing....freaked me out!

it's clear it's not a flow area but still bugged me out quite a bit!

i've only had the car a few months since i bought it used so thats why it was my first oil change

did a little seafoam treatment on it to clean things up a bit in there....purrs even more kitten-like than it did before!

crbocaj125

When I took my 4runner to a trusted mechanic before purchase, that was the first thing he looked for. Mine didn't have any sludge there, which was good, but he said that it is normal buildup.

My814x4

That buildup is called lack of oil changes. My 96 has 119000 and there is no build up at all. I change my oil every 3000