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Sludged to hell!

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Old 10-23-2018 | 02:19 AM
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dexterbb's Avatar
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Sludged to hell!

Car is a '03 Maxima A33 model, a hand me down. Thought of fixing a nagging VC leak that may have been the cause of me adding a liter of oil every few hundred miles. This is what I found when I cracked open the front VC (you do not want to see the rear valvetrain!).





The tech with me fixed the VC leaks but he did advise me to leave the deposits alone. I don't want to leave this alone! LOL!

Obviously my uncle (who owned it before me) never changed the oil for thousands of miles, or this baby has a bad PCV (which I replaced). The q now is... anything I can pour down the oil fill hole to dissolve this? Please note that I am in Southeast Asia, we don't have Auto-RX here. I can order LiquiMoly Pro flush, if it matters... but is there any other way to clean this out without taking apart the head?
Old 10-23-2018 | 02:58 AM
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Originally Posted by dexterbb
Car is a '03 Maxima A33 model, a hand me down. Thought of fixing a nagging VC leak that may have been the cause of me adding a liter of oil every few hundred miles. This is what I found when I cracked open the front VC (you do not want to see the rear valvetrain!).





The tech with me fixed the VC leaks but he did advise me to leave the deposits alone. I don't want to leave this alone! LOL!

Obviously my uncle (who owned it before me) never changed the oil for thousands of miles, or this baby has a bad PCV (which I replaced). The q now is... anything I can pour down the oil fill hole to dissolve this? Please note that I am in Southeast Asia, we don't have Auto-RX here. I can order LiquiMoly Pro flush, if it matters... but is there any other way to clean this out without taking apart the head?
100 bucks says cats are destroyed and ate up the engine. Trash it. Even if they weren't (they are), it's still trashed.
Old 10-23-2018 | 04:08 AM
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The cats. Hmm haven't thought to check those.

Oddly enough, the car runs smooth and quiet. Only issues I have with it are small leaks and a random intermittent misfire... Still trying to isolate the bad coil there as there's no cel and the shops here aren't exactly swimming in code scanners.
Old 10-23-2018 | 07:45 AM
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I wouldn't do a flush right now. Just keep good oil in it and keep it changed. Let it clean out slowly.

A flush could break it loose too quickly and cause it to move around and clog oil feed passages etc....

It may look bad but it's not going to hurt anything just sitting there. Just drive it and enjoy it. Any damage from poor care is already done. The sludge isn't going to cause the misfire or any other driveability issues. You may want to pull some of the sensors and clean them off but that's it.
Old 10-23-2018 | 10:13 AM
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Originally Posted by Derrick2k2SE
Just keep good oil in it and keep it changed. Let it clean out slowly.
100% agreed ...

If you can find a 5W-40 diesel motor oil, it's use will be beneficial in the ... albeit slow ... breakdown ... of those deposits.

Don't do the flush.

Old 10-23-2018 | 04:07 PM
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Originally Posted by Derrick2k2SE
I wouldn't do a flush right now. Just keep good oil in it and keep it changed. Let it clean out slowly.

A flush could break it loose too quickly and cause it to move around and clog oil feed passages etc....

It may look bad but it's not going to hurt anything just sitting there. Just drive it and enjoy it. Any damage from poor care is already done. The sludge isn't going to cause the misfire or any other driveability issues. You may want to pull some of the sensors and clean them off but that's it.
Noted!

Also, any round hole I see there seems to be stuffed with the deposits. Are those oil supply holes? I almost took a flathead to begin scraping but the tech stopped me lol.Where does the oil come from? Under the cam lobes? Sorry for my ignorance :-(
Old 10-23-2018 | 09:24 PM
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just change your oil when it gets black.
i had a bmw that was pretty dirty, not even close to yours thought, the oil would get black every month and i would change it
the sludge went away about a year later and was back to changing it like normal.

i've read about putting in a qt of atf every change to clean stuff out.
that probably works but i wouldn't do it.
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