Sludge + Oil Stabilizer?

[Retrospekt]

My mechanic took off my valve cover gasket and cleaned up a ridiculous amount of sludge. Previous owner must have neglected changes.

He told me to add in Lucas heavy duty oil stabilizer every 2 oil changes. Is this good advice or should I just let the engine be?

[Chris Crash]

Definitely good advice.

You can also try doing short interval changes. That can help clean out a lot of shit.

[hill8570]

Personally, I'd just go with a synthetic oil and forget the Lucas.

When he had your motor out, did he pull the pan and clean the sludge out of there? With a sludged motor, it's nice to clean the pan and inspect the oil pickup.

[Chris Crash]

Does synthetic oil REALLY make that much of a difference?

[chronoti]

synthetic, yes alot more detergents

lucas not so great due to it not having antifoam agents in it, the oil tends to fluff up in a big ball of foam,

just do short changes, clean too much and your going to find leaks

[hill8570]

Originally Posted by Chris Crash

Does synthetic oil REALLY make that much of a difference?

For sludging, yes. It's way less susceptible to heat and shear breakdown.

[humanoid]

Another one for using synth rather than the Lucas. Might want to try some SeaFoam too. Below is a link to the discussion about how Lucas doesn't have anti-foaming agents.

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/images/lucas/lucas.htm

[Retrospekt]

Looks like I'll switch to Synth and stick to the 3k interval. He did drop the pan and clean there too.

The engine has all brand new gaskets so I'm not too worried about creating new leaks. But SeaFoam is on my permanently poop list after my rear main ordeal.