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Engine Sludge Throughout The Motor...How Can I Clean It ?

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16K views 133 replies 24 participants last post by  Scott Danforth  
#1 ·
I have a significant about of sludge throughout my 2000 5.3 Vortec...valvetrain, oil pan, girdle, pickup tube and clogged screen...
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I plan on spraying these down with brake cleaner or stove cleaner and pressure wash them to clean those things...

But what about sludge in the camshaft and crankshaft areas in the engine without removing it and tearing it down ?

What can I use to flush the sludge out of those areas ?

So far I've read Kerosene, Diesel fuel, ATF, and a few other additives work well...
 
C
#2 ·
You can use one of many products available at FLAPS, but they are all basically diesel fuel in a can.

Here's what you do. Put your normal oil in. Add a quart of diesel to the crankcase. Start it and run it for 20 minutes. Just idle. Don't blip the throttle or drive it because your oil pressure will be less than capable of higher pressures on the bearing surfaces.

Drain well, new filter and oil. Drive it for a few heat cycles and change again. If it doesn't get all of the sludge you can repeat the process.

Last I checked you can just get a new pickup tube for less than $20. Cheap insurance.
 
#10 ·
curtis73 said:
You can use one of many products available at FLAPS, but they are all basically diesel fuel in a can.

Here's what you do. Put your normal oil in. Add a quart of diesel to the crankcase. Start it and run it for 20 minutes. Just idle. Don't blip the throttle or drive it because your oil pressure will be less than capable of higher pressures on the bearing surfaces.

Drain well, new filter and oil. Drive it for a few heat cycles and change again. If it doesn't get all of the sludge you can repeat the process.

Last I checked you can just get a new pickup tube for less than $20. Cheap insurance.
Click to expand...
Will definitely do this with diesel gas, thanks !

Pickup tubes are $55+...up to $100.

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C
#3 ·
Oh, and you'll get a lot of responses that say to use a quart of transmission fluid. It won't hurt anything, but it won't help much.

People open up transmissions and marvel at how clean they are even after 100k miles, and they mistakenly assume that it's because transmission fluid has more detergents in it. It doesn't. It has less than motor oil. The reason it looks so clean is because it's not dealing with combustion blow-by. But transmission fluid itself is not a good cleaner because it has fewer detergents in it than motor oil.

Edit to add: I have also done the diesel trick by pouring it over the valvetrain and scrubbing it with a cleaning brush. That jump-starts the cleaning process in that one spot because it tends to get less oil circulation than other parts.
 
E
#5 · (Edited)
Unless you are going to completely tear it down and clean everything......don't even think of trying to flush the long block clean.
All you'll do is loosen stuff that won't fall out when you clean it but will come loose a short time later to plug something up or tear the bearings out of it.

Personally, I'd say go get a better engine.....that one's been treated so poorly I could never trust it without a total teardown and refresh. 5.3"s are cheap and pretty easy to find.
At the very minimum, pull a couple rod caps and main caps and at least get a look at a few bearings.....after that, depending on how they look you may not even want to bother cleaning any of it.

I haven't seen anything that dirty since the 1970's Pennzoil years.....looks like somebody never, ever changed the oil.

EDIT:
I noticed you also have another thread about this same engine having a heavy knock and no oil pressure....and how you think you can just clean the pick-up tube and put a new rod bearing in it and be fine.
Generally, when a rod bearing spins it ruins both the crank and the rod......at the very least it requires re-grinding the crank and re-sizing the rod.
Oil pump is also most likely junk as well.

I think you need to find a better long block, rather than waste any time with this one, ....it's toasted.
 
B
#8 ·
Humm, I see you bought the knocking engine. You need to finish the tear down I wasn’t sure from your original sound track if that was rods, mains, busted piston skirts or pins or any unfortunate combination of any of these. That is a shot unloved engine. Apparently never saw oil changes, my god I’ve got nearly 350,000 miles on my 350 and it’s so clean on the inside you could serve breakfast from its valley.

Oven cleaner attacks aluminum, I wouldn’t use it.

This ain’t your 305, you're going to have to buy the necessary tools to put this back together and a full set of the major head and crank assembly bolts. The fasteners in this engine are Torque To Yield (TTY) that means they are installed with a good torque wrench then a specific additional angle of rotation and they are good for the onetime time of pulling torque after that when removed they go in the recycle barrel.

Unless you’re rich or have one hell of a credit line on your charge card its best to hot rod inside the classic SBC and leave that Gen III stuff alone .

Bogie
 
#9 ·
OP.
When you start a thread, and then start a second, and omit important information, you dilute the usefullness of what members are contributing.
Since you posted in the other thread ( which I havent seen ) that the engine made a knock sound. it is likely damaged and will sooner than later destroy itself from the insde out. Wasting your money and time.
If a thread gets passed by and you feel you need to draw attention to it, "Bump" the thread to bring it back to the front.
Otherwise your wasting your time and ours, but also your money
 
#11 ·
LATECH said:
OP.
When you start a thread, and then start a second, and omit important information, you dilute the usefullness of what members are contributing.
Since you posted in the other thread ( which I havent seen ) that the engine made a knock sound. it is likely damaged and will sooner than later destroy itself from the insde out. Wasting your money and time.
If a thread gets passed by and you feel you need to draw attention to it, "Bump" the thread to bring it back to the front.
Otherwise your wasting your time and ours, but also your money
Click to expand...
It's not that I didn't think people were going to respond still, it's because I thought it was too much info to take in at once, specifically the most important questions I need to know in the next 72 hours.
 
B
#46 · (Edited)
You probably can’t afford to fix this motor, like I said this ain’t like your 305 that was designed in the technology of the late 1940’s to early 1950’s. The design work on things like engines start years before they show up as a product on the dealers show room in the case of the SBC that was September 1954, I was a high school freshman. But the sum total of the design of a new product includes building or remodeling facilities in the case of the SBC it was unlike anything Chevrolet was making this being the era of the Stovebolt in-line 6. Then there is design integration in this case to the chassis, running gear and body product test and evaluations. So when starting at first delivery of the 55 model year in late 54 you have to back up give or take another 5 years when drafting pencil first met a fresh sheet of paper. Plus obviously before that there were tge always painful meetings with reluctant top management and finance people to get the money to finance a new product. So getting things like a new engine that is totally different from your current product takes a lot of time which in large measure is a victim or success of the technologies in place when pencil met paper. And don’t forget that there is the current production needs to be met so you don’t just shut down existing production lines to retool. An advantage that corporations had then that they don’t have today in this regard was a lot of unused factory space developed for the needs of World War 2 which is a situation not existing today. So anyway there you are, a Bogie’s practical history lesson that sure as a pile of dog poop you didn’t get in school. What you got was, (In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue). No mention that he didn’t know where he was nor where he was going and did it all on borrowed money. That was quiet a Spanish queen to fork over a bundle of Pesos to a guy she didn’t know! Makes you wonder what the real story is?

Any way to the point of rod bols on Gen III and up motors these like head and main cap bolts are different from the classic SBC. These require you measure the actual bolt stretch, picture below, not just the torque.

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You got yourself into a whole new world of technology where you belly up to the bar and pay the man or go on a very high risk that the thing will blow up in your face. And of course these engines can’t be run without the computer without spending another ton of doubloons for an engine driven distributor system. This ain’t your grand daddy’s Chevrolet anymore.

Bogie
 
U
#26 ·
I'd look at this as a good opportunity to learn. That's what a poorly maintained motor looks like and you get to deal with the aftermath. If it was knocking from the rip, there's a reason and you just found what lies beneath the surface.

I'd tear the entire thing down, clean it all up and assess from there. You're not the first person to go through anything like this...Keep us posted on developments.
 
#50 ·
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Ya gotta measure the inside of the rod large end man......... Come on

Sure you need to measure the crank journals too, but that will be a micrometer you need
 
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