Ok so I had a pretty tight time a while back, I only ever had money for gas(90 mile daily commute) and I couldn't ever save money for an oil change, yeah I know its pretty bad. And as you can imagine, I got some nasty sludge build up and now my lifters are sticking and its getting worse.

I tried Seafoaming it out a while ago- didn't work.

And just recently a friend told me to us Marvel Mystery Oil- also didn't work, I actually think it made it worse.

So now what?

I've seen ads for Pennzoil that says that it removes as much as 40% of the sludge from the engine, but who knows. I think I'll at least try it for my next oil change.

But I need to get something in the crank case to eat at the sludge and get it out. I can hear it getting louder and louder the more I drive it, and I'm due for an oil change again.....

 

Frequent oil changes with good oil. I bought a used engine with 60K on it and it was just starting to sludge up, 4500miles and 3 oil changes later (one every 1500miles) when I opened it up for a cam swap the engine was starting to clean up alot... That was about 5000miles ago I bet if I was to open it up now it would be very clean inside. At oil changes my oil is a light to medium brown. I know its probably a waste changing oil so much but I drive pretty hard. I dont know which oil is best but I used Castol GTX 10w40 and one bottle of STP Oiltreatment.

 

I will tell you what I do with engines with high milage and it worked every time to clean the sludge out of the pan and the intake area. You will need at the MIN of three days. First drain all the old oil out, pick yourself up ten gallons of kerosene, put the drain plug back in and fill the motor up with all ten gallons of kerosene keep it in the motor for three days. Now you have three days to go down to the parts store and purchase five quarts of Castrol high milage 10w40 motor oil and a Fram Guard oil filter and start changing your oil every 3,000 mile and you will not have to do this again. Try it this will work!

 

You can also add a quart of mineral spirits to your oil and run it for a couple days, then change with fresh oil. Personally, I can't stand Fram oil filters, but to each their own.

 

Mineral spirits? Isn't that pretty much what the Mystery Oil is supposed to be or is it still a mystery?

 

Seems to me MMO is nothing more than rebottled ATF, possibly without the friction modifiers. Same color and everything.

Speaking of ATF, that's what I would put in the engine. Drain out a quart of oil and put in a quart of ATF. ATF is a lubricant with detergents in it.

And then stay away from Castrol and Pennzoil. I've seen studies that show those 2 to be the worst for sludging the engine, with their higher ash content (the ash is what builds up). I haven't had any problems running Valvoline 10W-30 and an AC/Delco PF47 or 52 filter. Fram, Wix, Kendall, they're all junk. Don't add anything to the oil either if you can help it. If your engine needs more than oil to provide proper lubrication, it needs help.

 

I don't think that my engine needs something more for proper lubrication, just that it needs something else to put in the oil to get rid of the sludge.

I posted my thread "Riding the Hills" because I noticed that something was up when I went on 1mi+ steep climbs on mountains, and thats the only time that it does that. Every other time its fine, even when I hit 6K RPM on flat surfaces.

 

Not sure that I buy into the mystery oil or mineral spirt idea but would instead suggest switching to full synthetic 5-30 (Valvoline, Mobil 1 etc.) and keeping the engine fully lubricated. Might take a few consistant oil changes at 3K to help clean the internals but it will and wont risk freeing up the nastyies to run amuck unlubricated.

Good luck

 

If u have a heavy sludge buildup the kerosene will work..I have done oil changes on older cars added 3 qts of cheap oil 2 qts of kero run the engine about five minutes( Idle only)Then drain and change filter.I usually do this 2 times in a row.Then fill with cheap oil and filter and run it about 500 miles then change it with what u want.This usually gets it pretty clean and the kero has lubricating properties and mixed with the oil it will be fine,