Doesn't take much coolant to really degrade the oil. But that looks more like the previous owner never changed the oil, or ran the wrong kind.

 

given how high of detergent is in diesel oil that is something BIGGGGGGGGG doing that- wow...

 

I would have loosened a return line put the valve cover back on and ran it for a few minutes let the diesel clean off the sludge. HAHAHA Just kidding. She is dirty to the max.....See what i did there.

 

Funny you should mention that.. it actually crossed my mind to run a couple quarts of diesel in there to clean it all up, but after some research, it sounds like the bearings don’t like that too much, so some sort of detergent cleaner is the next best option.

 

They dont, I did injectors on my truck so it was making oil which is the same thing basically. My truck was making oil at the tune of two gallons in 1000 miles before i caught it. I have to say, my internals are very spotless.I am able to see wear marks on the metal parts. Its so clean

 

I mean, the LMM doused the cylinder walls with diesel fuel during a regeneration cycle.

 

I think I might actually run some fuel in the oil and see if that cleans it up some. I wouldn't want to run it like that for a couple weeks or anything, but for a little bit wouldn't hurt that much. That is some nasty sludge, for sure.

I know truck that had injector work done at our dealership that had a return fuel leak and was dumping a pretty good amount of fuel in the oil. The tech and manager took it to lunch one day and on the way back to the shop it diluted the oil enough that the engine shut off due to low oil pressure. Drug it back to the shop, found and fixed the leak, changed the oil, and life went on. Never was a big deal

 

It seems like this might actually be a viable option based on the replies I’m getting here. I am replacing all of the lower end bearings, so I guess it couldn’t hurt too much to throw some in there for the next 50-100 miles and see if that loosens all that junk up. Otherwise, I see a lot of hand cleaning in the near future. Lol.

 

A quart of diesel fuel in the crankcase and let it idle. I wouldn’t get much more involved in anything else other than that.

 

Hey Guys,

Bear with me, I want to give a bit of back story on this issue. I bought an 03 recently that I've been doing a bunch of work to, and after an issue with the truck burning some coolant, and getting coolant in the cylinders every now and then, I narrowed it down to injector cups, or head gasket. So I decided to replace the injector cups. When I took off the valve cover, I found the that the entire top of the cylinder head was covered in a 1/4" to a 1/2" of thick slimy sludge. And seeing as I was in a hurry, I cleaned everything I could get to, installed new cups, and reassembled. And after all of that, I'm still dealing with coolant consumption and a slight hydro lock once and a while. So I decided to do head gaskets... I ordered a full kit with ARP studs from Lincoln Diesel Specialties as well as a few other parts - manifolds, up pipes, down pipe, water pump, rebuilt turbo, and a whole lower end bearing kit to freshen up the motor. So I'm going to pull the motor on Friday next week and I really want to get all of that sludge out of there before I reassemble. I may get flamed for this, but I was thinking of using seafoam in the oil this week to break all of that up so it comes out when I drain the oil.. I'm prepared to hand clean a bunch of parts still, but I would like to get the bulk of this stuff broken up..

Does anyone have advice on how to loosen all of this junk up?

Thanks in advance! View attachment 1082096 View attachment 1082097 View attachment 1082098 View attachment 1082099

 

Well....I did the following to an old ford inline 6 with--so far--good result. Here is one of many youTube videos using Totally Awesome. Buy it at Dollar Tree or Big Lots. Cheap.

 

BG makes a good product. It used to be called BG109 but they changed it to BGEPR I use it at the shop for vehicles that have been neglected. In diesels I use 2 cans cause of the oil capacity. You add it and then go beat it up for about 15-20 minutes and then change your oil. It will smell flammable when you drain it and don't worry it definitely is so I dont recommend smoking lol. It seems to work well for the cleaning of the sludge but the fuel is not a horrible idea I never thought of that.

 

Before shutting down old radial airplane engines, in cold climates, a lot of them had fuel dilution valves. When activated they added gasoline to the oil. There was a graph on how long to run them depending on expected temperature at next start up.

 

Hey Guys,

Hey Guys,

Bear with me, I want to give a bit of back story on this issue. I bought an 03 recently that I've been doing a bunch of work to, and after an issue with the truck burning some coolant, and getting coolant in the cylinders every now and then, I narrowed it down to injector cups, or head gasket. So I decided to replace the injector cups. When I took off the valve cover, I found the that the entire top of the cylinder head was covered in a 1/4" to a 1/2" of thick slimy sludge. And seeing as I was in a hurry, I cleaned everything I could get to, installed new cups, and reassembled. And after all of that, I'm still dealing with coolant consumption and a slight hydro lock once and a while. So I decided to do head gaskets... I ordered a full kit with ARP studs from Lincoln Diesel Specialties as well as a few other parts - manifolds, up pipes, down pipe, water pump, rebuilt turbo, and a whole lower end bearing kit to freshen up the motor. So I'm going to pull the motor on Friday next week and I really want to get all of that sludge out of there before I reassemble. I may get flamed for this, but I was thinking of using seafoam in the oil this week to break all of that up so it comes out when I drain the oil.. I'm prepared to hand clean a bunch of parts still, but I would like to get the bulk of this stuff broken up..

Does anyone have advice on how to loosen all of this junk up?

Thanks in advance! View attachment 1082096 View attachment 1082097 View attachment 1082098 View attachment 1082099

WOW that is one dirty engine, amazing how no maintenance for a long time can really do a number on an engine. I am not a fan of seafoam in normal use, but in this case it actually might be your best bet to clean all this gunk off prior to doing any other mechanical work. See attached link for an example that seems credible

Bear with me, I want to give a bit of back story on this issue. I bought an 03 recently that I've been doing a bunch of work to, and after an issue with the truck burning some coolant, and getting coolant in the cylinders every now and then, I narrowed it down to injector cups, or head gasket. So I decided to replace the injector cups. When I took off the valve cover, I found the that the entire top of the cylinder head was covered in a 1/4" to a 1/2" of thick slimy sludge. And seeing as I was in a hurry, I cleaned everything I could get to, installed new cups, and reassembled. And after all of that, I'm still dealing with coolant consumption and a slight hydro lock once and a while. So I decided to do head gaskets... I ordered a full kit with ARP studs from Lincoln Diesel Specialties as well as a few other parts - manifolds, up pipes, down pipe, water pump, rebuilt turbo, and a whole lower end bearing kit to freshen up the motor. So I'm going to pull the motor on Friday next week and I really want to get all of that sludge out of there before I reassemble. I may get flamed for this, but I was thinking of using seafoam in the oil this week to break all of that up so it comes out when I drain the oil.. I'm prepared to hand clean a bunch of parts still, but I would like to get the bulk of this stuff broken up..

Does anyone have advice on how to loosen all of this junk up?

Thanks in advance! View attachment 1082096 View attachment 1082097 View attachment 1082098 View attachment 1082099

 

Hey Guys,

Bear with me, I want to give a bit of back story on this issue. I bought an 03 recently that I've been doing a bunch of work to, and after an issue with the truck burning some coolant, and getting coolant in the cylinders every now and then, I narrowed it down to injector cups, or head gasket. So I decided to replace the injector cups. When I took off the valve cover, I found the that the entire top of the cylinder head was covered in a 1/4" to a 1/2" of thick slimy sludge. And seeing as I was in a hurry, I cleaned everything I could get to, installed new cups, and reassembled. And after all of that, I'm still dealing with coolant consumption and a slight hydro lock once and a while. So I decided to do head gaskets... I ordered a full kit with ARP studs from Lincoln Diesel Specialties as well as a few other parts - manifolds, up pipes, down pipe, water pump, rebuilt turbo, and a whole lower end bearing kit to freshen up the motor. So I'm going to pull the motor on Friday next week and I really want to get all of that sludge out of there before I reassemble. I may get flamed for this, but I was thinking of using seafoam in the oil this week to break all of that up so it comes out when I drain the oil.. I'm prepared to hand clean a bunch of parts still, but I would like to get the bulk of this stuff broken up..

Does anyone have advice on how to loosen all of this junk up?

Thanks in advance! View attachment 1082096 View attachment 1082097 View attachment 1082098 View attachment 1082099

WOW that is one dirty engine, seafoam may actually be of use in this case.

 

I'm not much on diluted oil to clean an engine you are going to tear down. You could damage the crank or cam surfaces. Just tear it down and put everything in a parts washer, safer way to go.

 

Well I finished tearing the engine down today. Sea foam did literally nothing to the oil sludge in this motor, so I’m taking it all the way to a bare block and I’m going to clean the heck out of everything and replace all bearings, gaskets, and piston rings as well. Take a look at the pictures of the valve train sludge... the picture with the red circles shows oil passages that are almost completely blocked on one side.. I’ve never seen anything like this.

 

Are you following some manual or anything to do this this? my 2003 has that sludge coming out of my pcv
Among other issues. I'm sure I'm Going to have to do the same thing.

 

Yeah thats a problem. I'm glad you tore it down thats something bg products would have never touched. Looks like 50k oil changes if any to me. I have known some guys to just change the filter and top off the oil and thats what I run into. Good work in doing it that way and not just doing additives it would have been just a bandaid on a heart attack

 

That thing had a lot of oil contamination to cause that much sludge. Did you save a sample of any of the engine oil that was drained out to see what contamination was in the oil?

 

I do have a bunch of the oil left over. I’m not really sure where to get it analyzed though? Do you have a suggestion?

 

Wow, that's a nasty one, kinda reminds me of my days in the shop when we'd tear down a gas engine that had been running TropArtic.

I tore down a gas engine a few years ago that was leaking coolant into the crankcase and if memory serves me correctly, it had a lot of nasty gunk in it like this one.

If it's just from maintenance neglect, I wonder how long it takes to get that bad? I'd be curious about oil analysis as well.

I wonder if Blackstone is short handed due to the virus or maybe the holiday? They've owed me a sample analysis for a while now.

 

I wonder if Blackstone is short handed due to the virus or maybe the holiday? They've owed me a sample analysis for a while now.

It’s been a few months since I sent one in but my turnaround was approx a week or so. Nothing that raised any alarms on my end.

 

Man those pics are UGLY. Very curious what Blackstone has to say about a sample. I have also used Blackstone for over a decade.

 

Every lobe on the cam had the same type of wear, and every lifter. Didn't look like anything was spared. I have pictures of the rod and main bearings if anyone wants to see those. Looks to be some wear, but the cam was definitely worse.

 

Coolant degrades engine oil horribly. Not surprised to see increased wear in an engine that was mixing it's coolant with it's engine oil at all.

 

@rocket,
Thanks for taking the time to post the pic and so on. It's interesting that it was still running "ok" at that point in time. Lots of scoring on the lobes and rollers.