how bad does this look?

[crayon143]

http://www.4shared.com/photo/3HHBCYZx/HPIM0205.html

Any suggestions? recommendations?

[crayon143]

sorry the date is wrong on the pics..the pics are as of today 12/18/11 98 avalon xls

[carsrus]

Thats fine. DONT do any aggressive cleaning on that (No seafoam or flushes). Start running some cheap full synthetic and change every 3k miles. In 20k miles it'll clear up.

[crayon143]

for now i closed it back up it's too cold out here to work on anything (no garage)...i'm thinking of running auto-rx on it. And later on drop the oil pan to check/clean.

[carsrus]

Auto RX is snake oil. I have not seen it do anything special. Full synthetic will be cheaper and more effective.

[crayon143]

thanks for the posts carsrus i was gonna switch to synthetic anyways after auto-rx however i did'nt know by just switching to full synthetic it would clean the sludge away on its own without using anything.

[Danno09]

I'd be concerned about rupturing that coolant hose in the top left of the picture - it looks kinked.

[crayon143]

yeah that was an issue, it wouldn't come off by the radiator cap area, i twisted/pulled did whatever was reasonable it seemed as if someone just glued it there so rather then fighting and breaking something off i just opened it from the radiator side.

[artbuc]

Originally Posted by carsrus

Auto RX is snake oil. I have not seen it do anything special. Full synthetic will be cheaper and more effective.

Don't tell that to the folks over on ClubLexus. Many have avoided replacing the problematic (on V6 3.0L) real main seal by using Auto RX. It swells and softens the seal to the point where it stops the oil leak.

[denverdog]

using synthetic helps the car in that it flows like its july, no matter how cold it gets. at -20 degrees that engine will turn over without putting any extra strain on the starter or electrical system. just another benefit to synthetic.