i have sludge buildup with pictures - what to do? (56k iffy?)

[ghettosled]

last night i tackled my slow oil leak by replacing the valve cover gasket. when i removed the cover, this is what i saw. should i seafoam it? is there any chance of knocking a large chunk loose and having problems?

i cleaned the cover and removed the large chunks that pretty much crumbled when i touched them on the valve train, but im afraid of waking the sleeping giant. my car runs great, so should i let it be? its a 96 i4 (obviously) with 114k miles. i bought the car a year ago so i cant vouch for previous maintenance, but ive been using synthetic oils since i got her.











since the valve cover was off, i couldnt resist painting it. though chevy orange was the only color i had on hand.

[RedPhoenix]

wow that is nasty! i would try to get a lot of it off if possible. knock it loose and shop vac it.

[jhbhatia]

You orange looks more redish and i like it. As far as your engine goes, its looks bad. I'd do the best you can do by yourself. But a roll of shop rag napkins or whatever they are called (its blue in color). And then i'd seafoam it. Research it, some oldies always included ATF in engine oil (i've never done it..but research it yourself, i don't vouge for it..just heard it from my pop in law).

[leasaunce]

WOW man! thats really BAD!

im not expert but i think you have to clean it up

[chronoti]

NO! DONT CLEAN IT! thats how i killed my nissan and it wasnt nearly as bad. most likely that sluge is what is holding your engine togeather now, i ran about 1/3 a can of seafoam through that car and found out the sludge is what was keeping the oil from leaking out the valve seals, and holding one of the pistion rings semi in place. i totaly killed that engine by removing it.


if you do remove it start thinking about rebuilding it, even if it's not held togeather by the sludge you know there has to be something worn down inside.



and i like the paint job on the valve cover

[MrJones]

that look bad ... thinkin of rebuilding it?

nice valve cover did you use any special lacquers or spray paints?

[ghettosled]

i know its not good, but i didnt think it looked THAT bad. does it?

i dont have the time, money or knowledge to rebuild it. as i said, it runs very nicely so i dont think there is the immediate need to. i do want the car to last for along time, so i dont know if anything that can be done, and safely. depending on what the majority of people say here, right now its sounding like a good idea to take off the cover and physically remove as much as i can then seafoam it.

chronoti - how old and how many miles wer on your nissan when you seafoamed it? i think (hope) that my motor is in good enough shape to handle a cleaning. im afraid the sludge is blocking some vital breather holes or oil passages and will be worse for the motor than cleaning it. any thoughts?

[ghettosled]

Originally Posted by saybakgung

nice valve cover did you use any special lacquers or spray paints?

i used the high temperature engine enamel rattle can thats sold at any parts store.

[GaryS]

I have issues with keeping that stuff in your engine. I personally don't buy the arguement that the sludge is holding the engine together. What happens if a piece of that crap breaks off and migrates to one of the oil return lines or cavities? Or what would happen if a piece of it got between the valves or a bearing? Then you WILL be rebuilding the engine. I would use mineral spirits, kerosene or any good solvent and clean as much of that off as you can. I would then run your engine around the block until it is warmed up and then do an oil change. I would also stick to a 3000 mile oil change using 5W-30 high quality oil.

[Toysrme]

Look. This is what you need to do...
Clean the thing up the best you can.


Go grab a gallon of diesel fuel & 15 quarts of a descent 5w-30 oil. (3 big jugs of Super-tech from Walmart. Super Tech = rebadged, low cost Mobil1)
Drain the oil that's in there now & refill it with 5 quarts of fresh oil. Add one quart of diesel fuel to it. Crack the engine & let it do nothing but IDLE for 10min. Stop the engine & drain it. Leave the drain bolt out & pour another quart of diesel fuel through it to pull the sediment out.
Refill it with 5 quarts of oil, add another quart of diesel to it & repeate.
Pull the valve cover off once you're done & see how it's doing. It should be much better.



The trick to flushing sludge out is the timing. The ONE sludged 1mz-fe I've ever seen working @ a dealer was because the thing hadn't had an oil change in almost 2 years. We opened the drain bolt on it & got just over 2 quarts of oil out of it. Pulled the pan & valve covers off & told the guy there was no way to save it. Said we could try to flush it out, but there was obvious bearing wear, little oil flow & there wasn't a good shot of making it work.

Myself & the tech that started working on it had it going along just peachy, just letting it idle & drain it. Once we had gone through about $50 worth of 5w-30 Toyota oil, filters & BG to flush it out using short intervals. The guy get's impatient & pissed about the whole process. So the rep got pissed & had us ust throw in another can of BG & let it go.
After 35min it started knocking profusely. 42min later it started billowing smoke & overheating. 45min it completely siezed.






Unless you've already destroyed the bearing surfaces, you can save the engine. It's simply a matter of short intervals.

[Toysrme]

For the record, that's not the worst I've seen by any means, but that is in bad shape.

[88 LE]

Originally Posted by Toysrme

Drain the oil that's in there now & refill it with 5 quarts of fresh oil. Add one quart of diesel fuel to it.

Isn't 6 quarts a little much for a 5S?

It only takes 4 quarts, so you'd be overfilling it by 2 quarts.

[ghettosled]

i dont know if this matters in terms of doing any of these cleaning suggestions, but the slugde here is acutally hard and feels gritty. i always thought sludge was suppose to be like gear oil or even molasses viscosity.

thank you all for your help so far, please keep the suggestions coming.

now im slightly worried to drive the car before i clean it, but in any event im going on a road trip tomorrow and will be back monday with an extra 1200 miles on the clock.

[Toysrme]

Not really 88. "Too much" oil happens when the pistons can't run down the cylinders. The pan itself should hold at, or almost a gallon. 6qts is fine. If it doesn't like it, it'll do nothing more than leak it out an already failed gasket while it's not running. In which case, it'll quit when the oil level drops once it's pumping.


ghettosled - sludge begins very thick as the oil is scalded in the engine & the viscosity runs high. Eventually it finds a surface it can stick on & then simply cooks itself hard. It starts on surfaces that see oil, but don't have a mehanical action to clean it off. (Covers / flat sides etc) Then begins to build up around passage openings, closing & beside mechanical oil contact (beside bearings). Once a passage is clogging on an end, it builds up in the rest of a passage. The sludge has something to cling too.
Eventually you either roast a bearing surface from not enough oil to float the bearing, and/OR the particals run through a bearing so much they score it to death.




Remember there is no oil pressure draining back to the sump. Oil is just pumped & sprayed where it's needed. It falls/drains back into the sump once it's hits whatever it was aimed at. For the most part it doesn't "wash" it'self away from every surface based on oil pressure like many people think. You have to dissolve it, or bust it up to get it to run away into the sump. where you can get rid of it.

[mikesocal]

I have a 96 I4 coupe with 170k on it. I'm using auto-rx right now. I'm just about to finish the first 1500 mile clean phase and move onto the rinse. So far no leaks at all and it seems to be idling fine. Got the car from my dad and I recall him going 10k plus between oil changes so I'm sure my engine looked similiar to yours.