Help Camshaft Casing filled with Baked oil Sledge

177,000 Miles I use Moble 1 full synthetic 5W30 but i've only had the truck for a year 12,000 miles with 3 oil changes.

 

The first thing I would do is stop wasting money on synthetic oil, and do a search on high detergent engine oil, and clean up the top end the best you can, I have read that ATF will clean up oil slug. If you thin down the oil to much the main and rod bearing will suffer.

I would not run a motor flush, I would do compression check if that's with in specs, I would pull the pan if that's do able without a lot of trouble.

If the compression is shit I would run it till it dies.

 

Sounds like you have a pretty decent game plan.

I have seen those spark plugs on the Fords. Not exactly a well thought out design in my opinion. But yes, Seafoam does do wonders to clean things out. Just make sure you get the Seafoam cleaned out really good as well.

 

Thanks for all the input so far so here's an update I've cleaned passenger side camshaft casing. I've attached a picture of the cleaner casing. All the cleaning was done with an air compressor and a plastic scraper tool the tooth brushish tool turned out to be worthless for cleaning.

I then opened the drivers and not surprisingly it wasn't much better (third photo). So sticking to the plan i'm going to put her back together run the engine flushes and open the casings again to see if there's been any improvement. The casing still does look a bit on the nasty side even after cleaning cuz i didn't use any solvents. But when you look at how it was before cleaning this is all kinds of awesome.

 

Damn dude that's a mess. Sub'd!

 

There are small looong brushes available to get those oil passages clean. Especially the oil return gallery from the head to the pan.
-Bill-

 

Ok I got it back together and it started horray! But my excitement was short lived because now the oil warning light is on. So i went from elation at having it start after taking the most gear i've ever taken off and engine to being terrified about letting it idle on the account of the warning light.

I didn't change the valve cover seal after i opened up the valves because i was just going to come back in there after the flush and i was going to do it then. So that may be contributing to the lack in pressure except maybe not because the valve covers are never a perfect seal anyways on account of the PCV valve that will let pressure out. So now that i think about it reusing the seal not likley the problem.

So should i change this oil refill hope the oil pressure light is off and then do the flush?

Or run the flush now with the oil i got in there and hope the flushing clears up the low pressure business?

Some details about this problem.

I haven't move the vehicle it was just idling when the light came on.

The oil is Moble 1 full synth with ~2000 Miles on it

Thanks guys,

Ryan

 

I poured some oil into the casings and it went down the holes so they seam to be open at least somewhat.

 

With that MUCH sludge in the engine only way to do this right is to pull the engine out of the truck.

Your cam in a few pics looks BURNED from no oil pressure or very little. Tho the 5vz is a good engine sludge is common around number 3 valves. Do to poor design.


You cam bearings i bet are TOAST and out of spec. If the top looks like that the bottom of the engine will look twice as worst. Im thinking at this point the screen on your oil pump in the oil pan is plain plunged up from sludge.

Only problem with adding anything to the oil at this point will be in vein. Even if you could break up the sludge your screen on your oil pump and oil pump its self might not make it. I would also bet the oil pump is full of sludge also.

Now is a good time to rebuild it.

That sludge is not from synthetic thats from conv. oil. and and prev. owner with either poor oil changes or using substandard oil( cheap oil)..

 

The screen in the pump...good call. Take the pan off, Man and don't use high $$ oil, just yet.

 

If your oil pressure warning light is on, it would not have anything to do with the upper sealing areas. The oil goes from the pickup, to the pump, through the oil filter, then into the block's oil passages, and finally up into the cylinder head for oiling the cams and lifters. your oil pressure sensor is located around the front of the driver's side cylinder head, on the engine block. The sensor is either clogged, or the passages up to the sensor are clogged, not the cylinder head area. You can remove the sensor, and see if you can clean it with carb cleaner. After that, get a friend to crank the engine with the spark disabled, and see if any oil comes out the opening of the sensor installation hole.

 

Ryan, just my opinion here. Your original post said your coolant was like chocolate milk and you found this residue in your oil passages. That leads me to believe you have a leak between the oil and cooling systems. The "sludge" is really a baked on residue much like soft black potato chips. That is caused by the mixture of oil, water and antifreeze hitting the hotter areas of your engine where the water and glycol cooks off and leaves the residue behind. This isn't a normal sludge from cheap oil, it is a direct result of the leak. If you could wave a magic wand and clean all the crud out of the engine, the problem of the leak would still be there and need to be addressed.
The very minimum I would do here is drop the pan and clean the oil screen as you and others have mentioned in this thread. This would also give you another view of your engine internals. I know it is a very tough job, but with your oil pressure light on that is how serious the problem really is. I wouldn't try any form of flush or cleanout unless I had some reason to think it would be 100% effective.
Good luck and keep us posted. I know it isn't good news. This is a road I've been down.
-Bill-

 

Well i fushed the engine oil twice yesterday and replaced the valve cover gaskets. When i opened up the casing after the 2 flushes I did notice a slight improvement in the reduction of the sludge.

What was most encouraging was that the cam shafts and casing was covered with a light coat of oil so this lets me know that the oil is getting in and out of the cam casings (crank casing? I'm still not sure which term is correct). The drivers side showed a bit more of an improvement because the flushes were dumped in there i figure. I have some pictures that i'll post later.

Unfortunately, i'm still seeing the low oil pressure warning light it's only when idling. So i'm going to need to test that out.

I'm going to go for a little drive pick up some more cleaning supplies maybe that will help work some stuff through.

So taking the sensor out and cleaning the hole sounds easy enough so i'll try that.

I do think i will have to drop the pan but i'm going to take a break for a couple days I'm tired seeing oil and junk everywhere.

Ryan

 

I don't think i have the oil and coolant mixing. I'm not losing any coolant and my coolant doesn't appear to have oil in it. I mentioned the coolant because it was an indication on how this truck was maintained.

Removing the oil pan will be my next step after i do a pressure test.

Having to remove the front diff to get the oil pan out looks like a really crappy job.

 

Well took her for a short drive and after a few blocks the oil pressure light was on continuously.

I'm terrified to drive her now I'm thinking that any second my engine could seize.

So anyone got any tips for how to drop the pan? I've got the FSM but wanted to know if anyone has some tips that weren't included in the manual.

Thanks,
Ryan

 

Yeah I wonder if the oil sump pick up is full of shit.

 

Remember, just because the oil light is on, does not mean you have low pressure. Rent/borrow an oil pressure gauge and install it in your oil switch hole, then run the engine and CHECK the oil pressure. You could have a wire, connection, or sensor problem.

 

Subd

Ive been thinking about pulling the valve cover and cleaning and doing the gasket. How hard was it?

 

It wasn't too hard to get to the valve covers. Toyota did a good job with the connectors it's hard to plug them into the wrong ones. I labeled all my hoses and put all the fasteners in labeled bags. After the labeling prep work it took far less time to take it a part and put it back together again.
But the cleaning sucked hopefully yours won't be in the same terrible shape as mine.
Also, once I cleaned it I immediately had the low oil pressure light on i think it's because some of the particles returned to the pan and plugged up the oil pump.

I'm going to take it in to determine if that's the problem because I don't want to drop the oil pan if I don't need to (it's a big job on the 4X4).

So if you going to clean it on the vehicle plug the drain with something so the particles that bread off don't plug up your pump.

Good luck.

 

Thanks.

Last winter i overheated it when the water pump failed and ive been hoping and praying that the head gasket isnt blown. It still runs like a champ but there is some definite seeping in the valve cover. It was pretty well maintained before i bought it but the engine is getting old. (369,000 kms)

What do you mean "plug the drain"?