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Huge about of sludge under valve covers on SB 350

Zeus33rd

Zeus33rd

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Last weekend I picked up a free, running small block from a club member to slap in my truck and get me goin till the money comes for the big block. Anyways, today I was goin through it cleaning and replacing gaskets. Did the oil pan- 4 bolt main 1970 block! When I pulled the valve covers I found a huge amount of black sludge stuff on the top of the heads. It seems like dirty oil that sat in there forever and sorta congealed. I could wipe it off and rub in between my fingers and it kinda felt like grease. I know the motor runs and runs fairly well cause I drove the truck the motor was in around his property before I pulled it. Was in a '78 K10 shortbed. Anyways, should I worry about this? I kinda figured I'd run it for 10 miles or so, get it nice and hot so as to get that crap to maybe melt and make it to the pan. Then change the oil and filter again. I know it has been rebuilt at some point in it's life cause all the freeze plugs are new, and while I had the oil pan off, I could still see the cross hatch hone marks in the cylinder walls. Club member I got it from said it had something like 160lbs of compression in each cylinder. Seems that the bottom end is good to go. My thought was that the truck sat for a loooong time cause it wouldn't pass smog, so oil sat on the heads, all the dirt and crap in the oil kinda solidified and stayed there. Does that sound right? /forums/images/graemlins/thinking.gif
 
Joe, what you see is typical of Pennzoil. You said you already started to rub it off or tried to clean it. That is the worst thing you could possibly do with that stuff. The best thing would have been to just let it stay there, once you start to clean it what happens is you loosen it up and it starts to break up and ends up clogging the oil pick-up tube and then you can only guess what happens next right? Anyways, since you have disturbed it already the best thing you could do now is exactly like you said and just get the engine up to temp then shut it down and drain the oil and change the filter and it would be best to do this at least twice. Bottom line is, as long as that sludge was just sitting there is wasn't hurting a thing. I'm not trying to pee on your cheerios or anything just trying to give you a little insight as to what would have been best.
 
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I'm not trying to pee on your cheerios

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That's the funniest sheit I have heard all day.. /forums/images/graemlins/peace.gif
/forums/images/graemlins/histerical.gif /forums/images/graemlins/histerical.gif /forums/images/graemlins/histerical.gif

Don't they make engine flush for stuff like that, or is that just going to FUBAR it more?
 
S'all good Scott. I'm glad for your brutal honesty. lol

Wish I would have known about that before. If I have to change out the oil pump too, no worries. There cheap. I'll just run it and see what happens. Thx. /forums/images/graemlins/screwy.gif
 
Yes he's right, plugging the pickup tube and oil flow is your concern,and dont be afraid to pour a small amount of solvent in a passage to help break it loose, (((that would be fine cuz im sure your going to start the engine and immediatly CHANGE THE OIL after it warms up right)))then take an air nozzle and blow that congealed stuff out. also, blow through an oil galley somewhere up high and preferrably remove a rod or maincap below and allow the gooey oil to escape somewhere different while the air pushes it out, it likes to plug up passages that way but the solvent will help. Those lower tiny passages are easier to plug and NOT the ones you want to. hope this makes sense Im 1/2 awake /forums/images/graemlins/thumb.gif
Good luck, Rob
 
Hmmm, What kinda solvent are we talkin? And yes I plan change the oil and filter a couple more times after it's running. Oil and filters are cheap enough. /forums/images/graemlins/pimp1.gif
 
Also make sure to run a good oil pressure gauge on it so you can monitor it in case the sludge does plug the pickup screen. You don't need to rebuild 2 engines /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
 
PENZOIL is cool!!! /forums/images/graemlins/whistling.gif /forums/images/graemlins/whistling.gifNOT!!!!
 
Backwoods redneck thing to do is to clean the sludge out and then run the motor for five minutes with an added quart of ATF. I'd probably just left it alone though. The cam appreciates it when it gets earl.
 
here is my question....WHY is it Penzoil? I always here this kind of stuff, like armor all will crack your tires and dash, penzoil will ruin your engine, etc.....where is the PROOF? /forums/images/graemlins/whistling.gif Honestly, I have always used penzoil and have yet to find the "sludge".... /forums/images/graemlins/weld.gif
 
At the parts counter for 20 years,I've heard people blame certain brands of oil,like Quaker State,Penzoil,Valvoline,etc,for every problem the engine ever had,like noisy lifters,bad cam lobes,worn rings,etc,but the one thing they would not blame was whoever didnt change the oil often enough,or the cheap dime store oil filters they used,or the fact that the engine used some oil and they didnt bother to fill it back up until it was 3 quarts low and the oil light came on around corners--like the bible says,you reap what you sow!.
I've had my share of sludge filled motors,every one I have torn down was full of it under the intake manifold,usually right up to the heat sheild,looks like dirt you could plant potatoes in,and under the valve coers too,so sludged they looked like the covers were still on when I removed them!. /forums/images/graemlins/eek.gif
I use an old shop vac to suck the crud out the best I can,and put it back together and run it,with no engine flush or any other special treatment,just ordinary 10w30 oil,or if I'm feeling brave-15w40 diesel rated oil,I have run theese motors many miles after that with no bearing failures,some had low oil pressure because some damage had been done already,but none ever rapped or blew up--some did blow some smoke at highway speeds,but I am fairly certain if I had used engine flush or kerosene to clean them they would have not lived--. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
here is my question....WHY is it Penzoil? I always here this kind of stuff, like armor all will crack your tires and dash, penzoil will ruin your engine, etc.....where is the PROOF? /forums/images/graemlins/whistling.gif Honestly, I have always used penzoil and have yet to find the "sludge".... /forums/images/graemlins/weld.gif

[/ QUOTE ]Back in the days of hot rodding I built more then a few motors with solid cams. We ran Pennzoil in one. Keep in mind this was a freashly build engine, everything was clean. Well, with a solid cam, you need to adjust the rockers every now and then. So after about 3 weeks of being built, pulled the valve covers to adjust the rockers. Full of sludge thick !!! Looked like a 50,000 miles or more. Needless too say, I haven't used Pennzoil sence.
 
Would something like Marvel Mystery Oil help at all? I have heard the ATF thing, but forgot about this time around. I have an oil pressure gauge, no problems there. Gonna get it running tommorrow hopefully. I'll post back with an update. /forums/images/graemlins/pimp1.gif
 
Joe, i would just simply do as you said and just do a couple back to back oil changes and forget about it. /forums/images/graemlins/thumb.gif

It is unlikely that you will encounter any problems with the cleaning of the sludge but there is always a slight chance. Also the ATF trick is really only for sticky lifters. ATF is high in detergents and helps to clean gum and varnish from lifters pretty good.
 
Yeah, probably just do the oil change thing and like you said, forget about it. As you can see from the other post, I didn't spend much time cleaning the motor up ar anything. I just wanna drive it. /forums/images/graemlins/histerical.gif
 
The cheap and easy thing to do is to get as much of the sludge off of the valvetrain with paper towels then put the covers back on. Now for the redneck part. Drain the oil and put on a new filter then fill the crankcase with diesel fuel (dont worry it wont hurt it) and run it for about 2-3 minutes. Then drain it out and do a normal oil change and run the engine for about 10-15 minutes. Then drain the oil out and check it if it's still dirty then run some more diesel through it.
Another thing is all that sludge could be STP (AKA sludge in a bottel) or some of that stuff that they sell on TV thats supposed to be a rebuilt engine in a bottel /forums/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif /forums/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif
 
My dad has rebuilt engines for anout 50 years.. He has told me stories about pennzoil doing that.. I have never seen it cause I always use valvoline.. /forums/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif
 
HEY, some oil change shops have that new engine oil cleaner, where they hook up a maching to the oil filter and drain plug, (I think), and run a cleaner through it...This works AWESOME. Kind of spendy, but i really cleans out a motor. I had this done to my Furd Exploder, with 210,000 miles, and now, 30,000 miles later, the engine oil still looks practically new...and amazingly as it may sound for a Furd, it still does not smoke.
Eddie
 
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