Any idea what this is?

[Durney]

5.3 low mileage LS. Not in front of me to examine it in person but I just don't remember seeing anything like this. The rockers springs and retainers looked to covered. Don't think its sludge, doesn't look to have been overheated, has been stored in a heated dry environment for several years....your thoughts? Just dried out oil?

[dannobee]

Do you mean the gold tinge? Or the general lack of lube look?

It's probably a pic of the PCV side (usually driver side on an LS) and the engine has plenty of stop and start cycles without warming up. They need to warm up to burn off the water vapor. At least that's what I've seen. YMMV

[Durney]

I'm referring to the coarse gray coating or film evenly distributed all over the rockers, retainers and springs. Note how the head looks clean (other than some orange oil staining). Very odd. You can even see a small amount of surface rust on one of the rockers from storage. Maybe an oil additive was used and it flashes off during long term storage?

[Kevin Johnson]

Could be a lipophilic coating applied during a refresh but never wetted with oil.

[BOOT]

Where was it stored? Was there any chemicals, large deposit of minerals or high voltage? Looks like a form of corrosion or reaction to me, wonder if the rods and crank also look like that, basically any ferrous parts.

[econo racer]

looks sand blasted then put back together

[midnightbluS10]

Doesn't look like anything odd to me. I've seen heads that are much, much worse than that. We're talking rusted springs and rockers, surface rust on the head, etc... Without seeing it in person, you're just guessing.

Side note: looks exactly like my V6 vortec mechanically. Same style rockers & "stands".

[BCjohnny]

I read the first couple of sentences of the post and then looked at the pic ...... immediate thought was been left standing in a warm, arid place

Then I read the rest of the post :

......been stored in a heated dry environment for several years ......

I'm not actually sure it's any more complicated than this

Some of the components of the oil have evaporated off the 'warmer' aluminium head surface and deposited themselves on the relatively 'cooler' ferrous valve gear ......? Alloy valve covers too ......?

[Durney]

Mystery solved. Crank rods etc all spotless, but tinted slightly. The valvetrain was the worst but it wiped off easily.

I'm certain now it was whatever oil was being used and it simply flashed off over time leaving this strange residue.

Engine will be resealed and oil changed in multiples to flush

Ps - It smelled a lot like amsoil.