I have a 22RE that blew its head gasket really bad, but now that the motor is rebuilt, I cleaned the valve cover as best I could, but noticed that milkshake keeps slowly coming out of one end of the baffle that is under the valve cover. Is there any way to remove this piece from the valve cover? I assume that any residual bad oil will work its way out of the system in the first couple oil changes anyway?

 

let it sit up on end overnight

most all of that mess should drain down and out


I wouldn't worry about a little bit though

 

Thats how I noticed it, it was standing up on one end and the goo just started coming out. Less and less now though, I'm not too worried.

 

My best friend bought a used '97 Runner a few years back. Long story short, we were doing the timing belt two years after he bought it and decided to pop the valve covers to replace the gaskets. The motor was sludged, previous owner did not change the oil much.

We had the problem of getting all of the sludge out of the valve covers (die cast on the 3.4 V6). We ended up boiling them in a mixture of 75% water, 25% Simple Green. I used my propane turkey fryer. Worked like charm, those valve covers came out super clean, even in behind all of those baffles.

 

wow, that's one of the best Simple Green applications I've ever heard of!
Turkey Fryer's a great idea.
I think Simple Green smells delicious anyway, but not sure how it works in turkey.

 

what? you've never boiled a turkey in Simple Green?



have you been living under a rock?


lol


but seriously, that's a good idea!

 

Be careful with Simple Green. It can discolor aluminum.

My valve cover has crud inside that even carb cleaner won't touch. I'm tempted to buy a McCullough steam cleaner (the $100 kind). Every once in a while I really wish I had one.

 

True, they turned a dark gray color, but, they were nasty, greasy, dirty colored before. Uniform dark gray is better than nasty, greasy, dirty any day.

Plus, it was fun to boil car parts, we were looking for other things to throw in there. Grab the alternator, it could use a good boiling too.....

 

Oven cleaner works ok, just rinse it real good.