this material is hard, but its not brittle feeling like regular hard plastic. now that its dry, i can write with it on a piece of paper. feels like i can scrape material off with my fingernails---but its hard to tell how long it has been immersed in oil.
i dont know if oil-soaked soft plastic with heat and age can turn like this, but i have replaced O-rings on boats that were so brittle they felt like graphite, and their replacements were nice pliable rubber. that was how hard they were from age.

supposed to drive it on the interstate tomorrow for about 3 hours....so we'll see. needless to say, the radio will be off and i will be listening!!!