Cleaning coolant sludge from engine

to get it hot on a nice long drive and boil off all the water right now with the oil you've got.

I don't think the ATF is going to help much... it's a good solvent for removing oil-soluble junk like varnish from oil breakdown, but I don't think it'll do all that well to remove water-based stuff.

I think the thing to do is get in there right now and drive, and drive the water and glycol out by boiling. Wouldn't hurt to do another oil change after another short drive, though.

--scott

thanks. Yeah, I'm not expecting another 15 years out of the motor, but if I can hold off buying another truck for a year or so, that's money I don't have to spend.

I always cringe at the idea of a $20k (or more) truck being used to haul drywall and going to the dump, but that's what I need a truck for. I like my current truck because it's cheap and ugly, but I also need it to "just work" - I was thinking about a rebuilt motor with a big cam... I am a hotrodder... but realized that's not a very useful truck.

Ray

But a Vortec 5.7 is a mere $300 proposition in the "you pull it" yards in my neck of the woods (west MI).

Not a hard swap...

I know, but with two small kids and a race car, time is hard to come by. Plus, the truck has a bunch of other small issues... the back window is plexiglass, the odometer doesn't work, the posi is shot, the front axle actuator doesn't seem to work anymore, etc... so it's a good beater truck, but I'm at the point where it needs more work than I'm interested in doing to it to keep it on the road. I reused the valve cover gaskets and cleaned the plugs - I wasn't sure the engine was going to run at all so I didn't see the need for new parts. I am keeping it and tuning it up, it's just getting to be old and broken and when you need the truck to just run, that's where I'm having a problem...

Ray

Hi, Ray. If you aren't blowin' smoke at us, you and your racin' buddies surely know by now that you remove both valve covers and use an old speedo chain (internal cable, that is) to run down thru the oil-return holes, and pour solvent on heads to 'brush it up'. Also, drain crankcase and replace oil with carb-cleaner and let it soak over a weekend. On Monday, drain out all the goop, and your internals, even the oil-pump pickup screen, are now clean and goop-free and shiny as new( well, almost! or at least closer!). Replace with clean oil & new filter and drive it around and get it H-O-T. Come back, change oil & filter again while H-O-T, and then drive on! [I really like to change oil/filter again after 1-200 miles.] I've cured high-mileage (and low) that developed lifter noise and oil-light redness soon after getting up to operating temp when it would draw goop onto the oil-pump pickup screen and stop it up--numerous times. NOT a short-term patch to pass off junk to someone else, but an actual cure so long as it wasn't driven forever in that condition/doing that--I've seen 'em run several years and 1000's of miles afterwards. Knowing how hard it is to come by the good old carb-cleaner, I've had to begin using de-greasers (similar to purple power) that a friend brings me from the plant where he works, 5 gallons for $10, and it works about as good; I just don't care for the water-base as compared to the older stuff. Luck to you on the upcoming racing season! s

What I noticed is that inside the valve cover, the springs and rockers were either coated in goop or looked like they had been steam cleaned of all the oil/varnish you'd expect on a 20 year old motor.

I've not actually driven the truck anywhere since fixing it, but I'll be putting insurance back on it this weekend and going for a 100 mile drive and then changing the oil again.

Yum.

Ray

If it was mine and I was *Really* cheap, I would just flush it a few times with super cheap store brand oil (and filter)(flush meaning brought to full operating temp and kept there for a half an hour or so, no lugging or real load on the motor).

You should be ok after a couple of cycles.

IF you can find one of those old style, paint can types of "carb dip", I like HLS's plan of a quickie dip of that pickup screen.

Then again, you maybe, perhaps, should keep your eyes peeled for a donor motor on the cheap. It may even come with spare parts enough to make yours better for cheaper.