run some seafoam in the crankcase?

 

I would be afraid that the mineral spirits would cause it to get clogged up in the oil pick up screen as that looks pretty severe. I would scoop it out as best you can & maybe just simply do a few 1,000 oil changes. If it runs good & holds oil pressure I would leave it be or you could be opening a can of worms. Mobile 1 didn't cause that, I don't think that 99 cent store oil would cause that to happen. Just looks like it's never had an oil change. That is giving me the creeps just looking at it!

 

Giving you the creeps, it is in my garage waiting for me. Creeps me out just thinking it is sitting out there. It is like runny jello. The stuff is so thick that the cam lobes have swept a path through it. They each have their own little path through the goo. If we take it out, he might gain 10 hp from parasitic drag...



I'm concerned about running a solvent in the engine, even at no load. If all of that stuff starts to go back to a more liquid state at once, I think it would blow the motor.

More research to do.

Thanks,

Mike

 

I think he thought that the factory fill of oil was a lifetime supply. Or, he just topped it off whenever it got a little low, never changing it out. There is probably 20 quarts worth of sludge in the heads. It didn't burn oil, just made more sludge over time.

What to do now...

 

I'd be really careful with adding stuff to the oil, cleaners/detergents. Any sludge in the pan or that drains into the pan my block off the oil sump pickup. I'd clean off as much as you carefully can from up top and after you flush it, drop the oil pan and give that a good cleaning as well. If you can, take the valve covers to a shop that can hot tank them to clean them up nice.

 

i would recommend flushing the engine oil every 15k miles with a cheapo oil. that way sludge and dirty oil that's left and has accumulated after changing/draining oil every 5k miles, are removed as well.

 

Run synthetic oil and you won't have this problem any more...

 

He was running Mobile 1 synthetic since new. Maybe though, it was the same Mobile the whole time.

I think that's a danger of extended drain periods with synthetics- I think a lot of people are overconfident an push it way to far.

 

What if you cleaned what you would out by hand, maybe a putty knife and paper towels?

 

The stuff you can see is NOT the problem. That is not affecting anything. The problem lies with what you cannot see. What clogging in the oil passages, journals, etc. This engine is a cancer patient waiting to die. A patient with clogged arteries just waiting for that fatal heart attack.

The previous owner lied to you. He did NOT change the oil at 3k intervals, and IF he used synthetic, it was never/rarely changed.

The only real way to fix this, is to rebuild/replace the engine. Like I said, its not what you CAN see that will cause the problem. You can scrape away all the gunk you can see for hours on end, and it will not stop this engines doom.

 

i've heard this is a common problem on 3.4's and scoope out all; you can, then use brake/carb clean to help flush the rest off it from the head surface. if you notice chunks gather them first.


i wouldn't run the engine while cleaning it.

shances are you have some issues, but taking out what you can see always helps. and rinsing out what you can helps too. i would say try a few gallons of diesel, or 2-stroke premix like 30-50:1 to help clear sludge.

 

Ouch...I would try some auto rx. Once on the rinse cycle i would do 500 mile filter changes till the rinse cycle is over, then repeat. I highly dought Mobil One would cause that even with 5K change intervals...even the cheapest oil wouldnt cause that. Neglect is my guess. Its also possible the PCV has failed or was never changed.

 

Two identical threads...now merged into the appropriate forum section.

 

Sorry about the two threads, I wanted to scare up as much input as fast as I could. I won't do that again.

Just to clear a couple of things up, the PO said that he changed the oil, but that does not appear correct. There were receipts for a timing belt change at 65k miles. My buddy thought that if the guy did the T-belt right at the interval, he cared about the motor, right?

My buddy started putting Mobil 1 in it after he bought it two years ago, at 135k miles. So, I doubt Mobil 1 caused this, it looks to me like the oil was not changed for a very long time. He changes the oil every 5k miles, so it has seen 4x Mobil 1 changes.

My vote is to yank the heads, get to a shop to be cleaned up and gone through. Get the oil pan off and check out the bottom end and the oil screen. If the passage ways all look clogged, it looks like a complete tear down/rebuild or a long block.

I am not familiar with the 3 gen Runners, I own a first gen. Can you get the oil pan off of them with the engine in the bay?

Thanks for the input,

Mike

 

A few good ideas here:

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f2/h...sludge-134123/

 

Here is what mine looks like with oil changes at 3000K with Castrol GTX. This was at 80K miles. I bought it with 59K and unknown previous history.

 

Thats how it SHOULD look. Nice golden hue.

He says he changed the oil. Yea, ONCE maybe. This engine can be saved, but it needs to be yanked out and cleaned/rebuilt

 

anyone seen who framed roger rabbit??? there might be a hint in that movie on how to get rid of all that

 

Sludge like that is usually caused by either cheap oil and no changes or Plugged PCV system.

The 4Runner I just bought with 236K miles had a completely plugged PCV system and has similar sludge like this... Bought it for $1400 with rear locker so even with an engine swap I'd still be cheaper than a better condition runner. It has a blown out suspension which I was going to throw away anyways with new coils & shocks.

Best way to get rid of sludge like this is GRADUALLY. The quick flush products can remove too much crud at once plugging oil passages as others have said.

I use Mobil 1 High mileage to gradually remove this kind of crud and also run about ahalf quart or so of Mobil 1 ATF. This combo will gradually remove the crud by dissolving it and not letting it chunk off and blocking passages. BUT an engine this sludged will probably never be completely clean with this method.

I usually notice in the past that after about 10K to 15K miles after several changes of oil with the Mobil 1 High mileage it the upper engine looks pretty clean. The Mobile 1 High mileage has more ZDP and Calcium than normal oils. Calcium is used as an engine detergent while the phosphorus is a good wear inhibitor. Synthetic oil has less light weight volatiles in it which makes the job of PCV system a bit better. Cheap oil has a lot of light weight volatiles which quickly atomize and they need to be sucked outta the crankcase by the PCV system or else they create SLUDGE.

Anyways, go slow when trying to remove this crud.

 

Keep us posted on how you proceed and update with pics of the results if possible. I recently bought a 3.4 at 96.5K and although I'm confident it doesn't look like this, I don't know much about its history. This is an intriguing thread.