Dino oil or Synthetic...

I change my oil every 5K miles with Mobil 1. 500 miles before the change I add Seafoam to the oil. It goes from just a hint dark to black in that time. I just started doing this at 75K. Now at 80K I just did it again. It's clearly removing a lot of built up crap. I wish I had started that routine earlier, but I'm pretty sure things will clean up in a few more treatments.

 

Looks like someone attempted to cook something inside that motor.

There are so many things that ate that motor. I've taken apart several toyota motors over the years, several 7MGTE, 2JZ even a SR22 motor that NEVER had the oil changed and i've never seen such a mess internally. One of the 7M motors I redid had run so dry on oil it threw a bearing and the internals were "burned" from the overheating... STILL looked 100x better. Previous owner FAIL.

*yet another reason to do your own maintenance

 

If you have been using Mobil 1 and changing your oil every 5k miles, why would you expect to have "a lot of built up crap" ?

Using Seafoam in the crankcase scares the shit out of me. It is nothing but a super-light 20W non-detergent oil mixed with alcohol. Running it for 1500 miles in your engine is likely more detrimental than anything it is removing. Use a good filter and change your oil more often with Mobil 1 if you want to keep your engine as clean as possible.

Even at 10k between drains with Mobil 1 (with a good oversize filter good for 10k miles such as the Mobil 1 M1-209) my oil barely looks dirty even at over 290k miles of service.

Unless you have sludge from not changing your oil, why do this?

 

I think Seafoam would have been a reasonable treatment for that motor... but only for like 1/2 hour or so at a fast idle, then drop the pan and clean out the sludge; Repeat. I've done something similar using Gunk or Rislone, but that was long long time past.

Still... that stuff looks coked on... like the engine was run long and hard at high temp. Add to that poor maintenance (no oil changes) and I can imagine a scenario as a contractor's fleet vehicle that's run hard on daily hauls to remote job site and then dumped when the job's done. Don't do maintenance because it's just like another tool, the job's only a couple years long and it costs more to maintain and relocate than just take the loss on a resale.

Either that or FO had a bad, bad relationship with a mechanic who dumped in a couple bottles of pancake syrup.

 

Google Toyota engine oil slugging very common problem. They have been doing this for years. No amount of any thing you put in it will clean it out.

 

No not really, if you continuously use crappy oil and crappy filter it will keep building up. Some oils are just bad, worst part is nobody knows until some miles passed and somebody opened engine.
Unfortunately not everybody can afford Mobil 1 so lets hope atleast they go with something like Pennzoil (owned by Shell and gettign specs close to Shell products.
Dropping oil pen is one way but most of good oils will be able to wash gunk from engine adn dump with oil change. Adding 1 qt of Diesel rated oil speeds up the process.

 

Yeah, and the probem is worse if you live in a cold damp climate. I recently saw the inside of a 3.4l with less than 100K and the sludge was just shocking. That was not a case of neglect. The color of the oil is not a good indicator of what is going on in the engine either. The better oils deposit less, but none of them, Mobil 1 included, are very good at removing what has already deposited. That clean color may just indicate that it isn't cleaning very well.

Seeing the inside of that engine prompted me to take steps to mitigate the build up in my 4.0. I'm not crazy about using a cleaner like Seafoam, but I'm not crazy about the alternative either. Even with regular oil changes (Mobil 1 and Toyota filter), I have still gotten deposits in the engine. Seafoam says you can run their product full time, but I don't like that idea. I run it 500 miles or less of easy driving and I watch the color. When it turns good and dark I dump it. It is clearly working. If the darkening tapers off, I'll go to using it every other oil change.

 

I've run Mobile 1 since my truck had 1200 miles on it and I use factory filters.
My oil is always extremely dark every 5K miles when I change it.

Yeah, Toyota might have a sludge problem.....but is it really that much of a problem that you need additives to get rid of it??

And here's my train of thought here....
You don't see very many toyotas (engines) that can't last a typical 10 -15 years without engine problems related to sludge (that was maintained properly). And honestly? When was the last time you saw someone buy a new truck and keep it for 20 years?

Do you (as the owner) really need to put your money into seafoam only to keep the engine nice and pretty for that other guy who will own it when its 15 years old?

And not only that....but the engines on these trucks will last longer than the body & frames.

If engine sludge was such a problem ...Toyota would add an additional maintenance requirement. Toyota would engineer a special product (additive) for you to add to the oils OR they would require a specialized engine flush.

And if you buy a truck used - then you can EXPECT and/or assume poor maintenance from the previous owner. You can do whatever you think you may need to do to remove sludge, but be careful with additives.... 'Too Clean' may cause other problems.

Personally for me...I'll never put additives in my oil.

 

I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything, and I'm not debating it. I'm just telling what I do and why. What you is your business.

 

So in ya'lls opinion whats the 'best' oil to remove sludge/keep the engine clean?

Because on the high mileages penzoil i use it says that it has active cleaning agents that clean a certain % of the sludge out of the engine.

Penzoil was the only common oil manuafacture that i found that has any sort of % of engine cleaning on the bottle

 

changed mine yesterday
1335 miles
Mobile-1 5w30
YZZD3

 

Penzoil is very good oil.
To clean sludge the best and safest route IMHO is to add 1 QT Diesel rated oil like Mobil 1 0w-40.
Also keeping oil level at full mark allows more cleaning action.

How you know you had deposits in engine with Mobil 1?
I have yet to see Mobil 1 engine that had any deposits. It may have yellowish coating but thats pretty much it.

 

Oil sludge is a big problem for Toyota they are being sued over it.

 

Similar to VW. It's less with car company and more with oil/fuel combo in the market. VW had sludge problem when they used Dino oil. Simply engine was not tolerating low quality oil. Their solution was to mandate synthetic only.

 

Got a link about it?

 

There are many people that change their oil too often thinking it's a good thing but it does not give the cleaning agents long enough to really do their thing. I own a VW TDI they use synthetic for 3 reasons cleaning ability, mileage, and low cold viscosity (0-40 or 5-40) to supply the turbo with oil on start up. They have found 10,000 miles changes are the best way keep the diesel clean by allowing the oil to do it's thing.

 

Just google Toyota oil slugging it will keep you busy for quite awhile.

 

I wasn't referring to the sludge...

I was referring to the lawsuit and a link about that.

 

From what I've been able to read 'sludging' is hardly a Toyota unique problem. It's industry wide and has always been there to some extent but became much bigger starting in the 90's with OBDII, reformulated fuels and tightened emissions limits.

The industry recognized it so, along with enhanced fuel economy, it became a driving impetus behind GF-4 and then GF-5, API-SM and then API-SN oil specifications.

Personally, while sludging can certainly be a problem I think it's probably overblown and easily managed if you change oil regularly, appropriate to useage and type. Additives aren't really necessary, but that's a personal choice and the reason there's a marketplace.

 

http://articles.latimes.com/2007/feb/09/business/fi-toyota9