[Jake]

This is a picture from a 2010 Ford Crown Victoria with 177K miles. It’s had oil changes every 3K for it’s 15 years of being alive. I’ve worked on cars an adequate bit, but never touched the internals and don’t know much. Opened up the oil fill port and saw this. Anything to be concerned about? Seems to be small scratches or? Thanks for any info or tips.

[Charlie]

I haven’t checked but I’m gonna assume this motor has cam phasers. If it does, they need replaced.

[El Brujo]

Its an issue if you drag your fingernail over it and it catches. If it doesn’t, its ok.

[Michael]

That had some small debris to go thru & scratched it, no big deal, were at an issue it would quickly have got eaten up look like rough concrete or worse,- 99% of that is still smooth, just drive it there are thousands of engines on the road with similar places,- that is what oil is for to lube & carry away debris & most of it is there stuck in the muck when engines are torn down & rebuilt, your nowhere near that from a scratch, Byproducts of combustion are carbon & like coal these particles darken oil with time/miles turns opaque with these sharp particles seen under a microscope that cause engine wear.

[Carson]

Fellow Crown Vic enthusiast here, like everyone said feel it with your fingernail to see how bad it is, just depends how many hours are on your Crown Vic, if it’s a police car then the idle hours are more than likely high.

[Harry]

It’s going in the direction of rotation-with that mileage, all I’d consider that is ‘normal wear & tear’, if no issues with oil pressure, due to similar wear elsewhere in the engine (cam/crank journals-which you’d have to tear down to find), I would consider that normal for age.

If it ain’t broke, DON’T ‘fix it’-

[Ian]

Here is my 2010 Grand Marquis with 156,000 miles. I cha ge every 3000 miles and use Valvoline restore and protect.

[Greg]

Not with that mileage. Keep it full and clean and leave it alone.

[Richard]

It has 177k, not gonna be perfect.
Look at it next time and see if it’s worse.

[Lee]

Remove valve cover and check all the lobes, some minor scoring will be ok not the end of the world but the others might be pitted, chipped or anything, sludge build up in those areas can cause it scoring.

[Jason]

It’s not normal. But if it still runs good then leave it alone.

[Gregory]

I would just leave it alone. Don’t know what weight or type of oil you are using. I had a six cylinder chevy Silverado had over 231,000 miles on it when I sold it and it is still going today.

Drove from Michigan to Florida with a cap on the box and filled to the brim.

Well over the half-ton capacity. It had 213,000 miles on it when I went to Florida.

[Joseph]

Feel it with your fingernail, if it catches it’s bad. Some debris probably got to it and left a very light scratching.

[Author]

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