Engine oil sludge

[RATAH]

Hello
whats the best way to remove engine oil sludge ?
i had a pushrod go bad and when i removed the valve cover
to replace it was full of sludge,,
Thanks for your help

 

[sweetk30]

good safe way to remove it is good quality oil changes at correct times.

but to remove it safely with out pluging stuff up and damagine motor is to use atf.

do oil change and sub 1qt oil to 1qt atf. its 5w oil thickness and has the most cleaners of auto oil. will not hurt seals/bearings/or other parts. then change in 1k miles and look out for the black junk.

do this a few times and she will be clean. its a old school trick that works and i have seen it my self work.

 

[4X4HIGH]

Hello
whats the best way to remove engine oil sludge ?
i had a pushrod go bad and when i removed the valve cover
to replace it was full of sludge,,
Thanks for your help

This was just talked about last week. Sludge just laying there does no harm. Once you start to try and clean it or remove it that's when the troubles begin. DO NOT try to clean it otherwise you're facing a rebuild on the engine in short order. What will happen is once you try to clean the sludge and it breaks up and starts floating around the engine and clogs the oil pick-up screen then you have no oil pressure and then the rest is history.

 

[Thunder]

As long as the oil drain holes in the heads/lifter valley are not blocked, preventing oil from draining back to the pan. There is nothing wrong with sludge in an engine.
As 4x4 high said. Breaking sludge up can only harm your engine.
Also the oil filter will clog fast with all that gunk floating around. When it gets clogged it wil bypass all that crap right to the cam, main, and rod bearings causing lots of wear.
If you do treat the motor I would recomend a filter change after the first 100 miles. And continued filter changes. Till you get the treatment/oil out of there. Keep a eye on the oil pressure guage in case the filter screen gets clogged.

The reason there is so much talk about sludge these days on oil commercials is. Many newer engines have small oil drain holes in the heads. That is espically a problem with 1.8 turbo VWs and Toyota 6 cyl. Sludge will clog the drain holes and keep the oil up in the top of the head. Causing the pan to go dry, loss of oil pressure and brring failure.
Drain holes in american V8s are huge. Sludge clogging them is seldom a problem.

 

[RATAH]

Thanks

i added a quart of atf drove it about
50 miles seemed to clean the sludge from the lifters
and replaced valve cover gaskets
and done an oil change
seems to be a bit better running,
Thanks again