Is this a good plan to get rid of engine sludge?

[jonathag]

Hey Everyone,

I've posted a couple of times about this and got a ton of great advice, saved me from buying another car-if it all works

I didn't know if I should add a post to the thread I was getting advice on since it has been a couple of days since anyone responded to my last question, so I thought I might just post a new thread to get more opinions on this problem.

My 2000 Avalon had the oil light come on about a month ago, my mechanic cleaned the screen-it ran good for 2000 miles and this week the light came on again, so after a lot of good advice from this forum, my mechanic is doing this..

1. Drain oil
2. Clean screen again
3. Change pcv valve
4. take valve cover off and clean valves
5. Change valve cover gaskets
6. Change air filter (that wasn't part of the advice I got-but they had it on sale)
7. fill with Autozone 5w30 oil and a fram filter and Gunk brand engine flush
http://gunk.com/prod_photo.asp
8. run engine for however long the gunk bottle says
9. drain
10. do # 7, 8 and 9
11. fill with Autozone 5w30 oil and fram filter and BG brand engine purge-listed on this page
http://www.bgprod.com/products/engineoil.html
12. run for as long as it says to on the BG bottle
13. drain
14. clean screen again
15. fill with valvoline max life synthetic blend oil, fram tough guard filter and BG MOA product on this page
http://www.bgprod.com/products/engineoil.html

I was talked out of the full synthetic oil by a guy at Autozone-he said since I have 150k miles on my car and it has never had synthetic oil in it to my knowledge, that I should try synthetic blend first before a full synthetic.

So does this sound like a good plan?

Also-should I do all of this again in 1000 miles or so?

I was thinking of just changing the oil in 3000 miles and using the Valvoline synthetic blend oil and fram tough guard filter again and using 1/2 a can of Seafoam. And using 1/2 a can of Seafoam in every 3000 mile oil change from here on out. Is that ok or should I do this whole thing again in 1000 miles?

Also, if I start using seafoam on my next oil change, should I change the oil and spark plugs after a few hundred miles with the SeaFoam in the oil?

Or should I start using auto-rx every oil change?

Should I not be mixing additives like this? Should I just use kerosene and not the Gunk stuff above for a couple of flushes and not even mess with the BG flush product?

Am i being too aggressive trying to remove too much sludge at one time?

Or should I not mess with the Seafoam or Auto-rx every oil change and just do a kerosene flush every other oil change? If I should do that, should I be doing a flush with 4 quarts of cheap oil and 1 quart of kerosene and a cheap filter, run it for 10 minutes, then drain and fill with the synthetic blend of oil and a better filter?

And I should change my pcv valve every year?

Thanks everyone!

[toyomoho]

Suggest a TN search on the sludge, you should find some good info. Do an internet search, lots of info here and lots of opinions. This engine is also used in the Camry (with V6 option) and a few other models. Don't limit your search to Avalon.

Below is link on how the dealer cleaned out sludge, it is not an easy job.

http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq/sludg...ng_sludge.html

Has the mechanic attempted to clean out as much sludge as possible from the heads and valve covers? How about the oil pan and lower end of the block.

Many times sludging leads to stuck oil control cylinder rings. Is the engine burning oil?

The problem with just cleaning screen is the amount of sludge still in the engine may be too great, the result is a plugged screen.