After a couple hours of cleaning the right side of the engine, I decided to see what was behind the valve covers. The valve springs were covered with thick gummy gel goo. It was everywhere! I couldn't tell what I was looking at in there.

Trust me, crystallized oil is much nastier in person.

Those bolt heads you see were holding the valve covers on. The bolt is about 5 inches long, going in to the block. The bolt had this greasy oil built up on the top side of it. Yuck!

That's the back side of one valve cover, equally as gross.

After draining out a gallon of fairly clean looking oil, I removed the oil pan. When the car was in the barn, my dad would pour a little oil in the spark plug hole every couple years. That stuff drained out easily. The rest of the goo must have been there from the previous owner.

Anyone ready for lunch?

Here's the bottom side of the engine.

And the oil pump. The brown rod is the dipstick.