Best Way To Remove Sludge From Oil Pan?
baj...@yahoo.com
sludge from your engine/oilpan? I've heard good things about a product
called "Seafoam" but quite honestly I've been using regular hi-
detergent trans fluid and don't have any problems with that...anyone
have any success/horror stories realted to that? Thanks in advance!
Jay
Mike Romain
I think a more important question is 'why' are you getting a sludge
buildup in the first place? That is 'not' a normal thing to happen and
is usually related to a bad PCV or CCV system. (crankcase vent)
A buildup of sludge is 'best' removed physically by dropping the pan and
cleaning it out. Dissolving it will block the oil filter almost
instantly which causes the bypass to open so the sludge just pours back
into the pan or gets pumped around. This is not good for the engine and
could take a dozen or more filter changes to get the oil clean.
Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
'New' frame in the works for '08. Some Canadian Bush Trip and Build
Photos: http://mikeromainjeeptrips.shutterfly.com
Daniel
> Has anyone here had any luck with aftermarket additives for removing
> sludge from your engine/oilpan? I've heard good things about a product
> called "Seafoam"
Seafoam originally designed for outboard marine engines, primarily for
valves, head.
Try auto-rx.com for engine sludge, but surely removing and cleaning
the pan is best.
HLS
<baj...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:144f9b44-c714-4f2e...@b29g2000hsa.googlegroups.com...
How often are you changing your oil? You may find that you need to
accelerate the change interval.
Another question, what car and engine is involved? There have been some
engines of certain years that have had unique problems which result in
sludging. F.eks, GMs with leaky gaskets or decomposing plastic plenums,
certain Hondas and Toyotas, etc.
Steve W.
I made up a pan cleaner that circulates solvent (I use an oil/kerosene
mix) through the pan to clear out any crud. It is basically a modified
fuel pump that runs through a chunk of line that slides down in the
dipstick tube. The end is formed into a dual spray nozzle so it sprays
around in the pan pretty good. The pickup tube goes into a large drain
pan with a filter on one side to keep the crud out of the pump. Made it
using one of those plastic drain pans. Seems to do a good job as long as
you turn the tube a couple times so it sprays around the baffle and pan.
I tested it on a few dirty pans and my test stand engine so I could see
what it did.
--
Steve W.
Near Cooperstown, New York
Life is not like a box of chocolates
it's more like a jar of jalapenos-
what you do today could burn your ass tomorrow!
HLS
"Steve W." <csr6...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
Steve,
I have washed out engines with kerosene or Stoddard on a number of occasions
with good results. Those solvents dont attack gaskets or seals to any
reasonable
degree.
I you DISSOLVE the sludge, then it does not cake up on the filter. If you
disperse
a bunch of crap, then you might have an issue with circulation.
To me, frequent oil changes with good quality oil are the best way to avoid
sludge.
If one pulls the pan, then certainly he should clean any filings, magnetic
dust, or
sludge mechanically.
Take care
HLS
idbwill
> HLS wrote:
>
> > <baja...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>
> - Show quoted text -
..."so it sprays around in the pan pretty good."
I can't see that working real well with the crank and rods in the way.
Steve W.
Crank and rods are not that far down in the pan. The sludge/crud is
usually below the baffle.
Plus at 60 PSI the solvent still gets around pretty good.
Stoddard solvent works BUT it can damage some types of bearing material.
So I stick with the Kero/Oil mix. It dissolves the crud and by keeping
it flowing through the pan it also washes out any loose crud.
I have run engines with the mix in them if they are REALLY sludged up.
But if they are that bad I'd rather pull the rocker covers, intake and
pan and clean it manually.
Steve
As others have said, dropping the pan is best. But I have done other
things....
About 6-8 years ago, my father had a 200,000+ mile farm truck (92 Dodge
Dakota, 5.2 Magnum/automatic) that would lose oil pressure at random. We
dropped the pan and found about 2" of gritty, hardened, broken down
sludgy junk in the pan and the entire inside of the engine coated with
more. Yet the thing ran fine and didn't even burn oil. Figuring that we
couldn't lose, we cleaned the pan, put in a new oil pump (the rotors on
the old one were ground down amazingly), re-installed the pan, and then
attacked the rest of the crap by running many gallons of Kerosene down
each oil fill pipe (one on each valve cover) to rinse down the rest of
the engine. 5 gallons down one valvecover, catch it out the bottom of
the pan, filter it through shop rags, and then pour it down the other
valve cover. We repeated the process about 5 times until no more junk
was coming out the pan.
Then to re-coat everything with oil, we filled it with an absurd amount
(about 8 quarts down each valve cover) of the cheapest non-detergent oil
we could find- then drained that (never starting the engine) and kept in
a drum to use as chainsaw bar oil. Re-filled it with a better grade of
oil than he'd been using, and fired it up. Changed the oil filter about
3 times during the first 2 hours of operation, changed the oil again,
and tried to forget what the insides had looked like. We expected to get
maybe another few thousand miles and a year or two out of it... but
being a typically indestructible Mopar 318 it had other ideas and is
*still* running to this day and bumping up against 300,000 miles. I
think Dad still has a lifetime supply of non-detergent chainsaw bar
oil... :-)
John S.
Why do you want to remove the sludge? It will remain benignly in
place unless someone thins it out with a solvent. Seafoam is only the
latest of several commerccial and home "cures" for engine sludge.
Unless you want to remove all of the sludge by disasssembly and
clenaing my recommendation would be to leave it alone.
By chemically loosening up all that solidified gunk you run an
excellent chance of plugging an oil hole somewhere. One of those
cleaners will create the impression of a job well done with lots of
black goo and chunks flowing out. Remaining unseen but of concern is
all the stuff that was loosened but not evacuated.
cuh...@webtv.net
gasoline.It worked for me.
cuhulin
mr.som ting wong
plenium gasket is blown out and you have a internal vacumm leak