That looks like a lot of dirt and a lot of water. Not good. Regular oil changes obviously have not been done. Good oil has detergents to keep that from happening and are switched out as new oil is replaced. What is it with the 4.7 guys and lack of oil routine changes? The evidence tells the story. Ouch/Yuck/Oh my!

IndyD

 

Said it before and I'll say it again............Lack of proper maintenance.

 

Ya, whoever owned the vehicle before me did not take care of it. It's not water as I smelled it to make sure. it's from me spraying seafoam all under the valve cover to try and clean up this mess of carbon. I broke a lot loose and that's what clogged it up completely. After I put back on the oil pan I'm going to go ahead and change the lifters on the passenger side. Then put in 5 quarts of oil with 1 quart of atf fluid and drive it close by the house for about 10 min. Then come home and change the oil and hopefully that will get out any of the other loose pieces of carbon out and catch it in the filter.

Also I checked the water level and it's good, so that also lead me to believe it wasn't a head gasket. If it does have a blown head gasket so be it, I'll change it out to.

 

Carbon is in the cylinder not the crank case?

 

Nope the oil pan itself really wasn't to dirty. It just had the crap that I knocked off from under the valve cover that fell down there. So I think the carbon starts under the valve cover and steadily makes it's way to the pan.

 

IF carbon makes it's way into the crank case then it happens by blow by which would go into the crank case and at your scheduled oil change and with the detergents in the oil would drain out.

The problem here is that the oil changes where never done and what happens is the oil is pumped up to the top if the motor, then it free falls back into the pan through oil jackets. With ho pressure being in this step the deposits fell into place. Then once broken off fall into the pan.


Again, this is caused by tho owner not following proper oil changing maintenance procedures or not using approved oil. Had the owner followed them it wouldn't be there.

 

Well guys, I got the oil pan and pick-up tube back into place. I cranked her up after priming the oil pump, and it didn't miss a beat. Oil pressure went straight to the 3/4 mark and stayed there. Until I seen some oil leaking underneath the car. I looked and found that it was leaking at the back of the valve cover . So I took off the valve cover and found the gasket had a cut in it.

I am installing the gasket tonight and hopefully that will solve all the issues with it. I am getting pretty good at taking the valve cover off now. Only took me about 15min to have it off.

 

Well at least your getting practice it.



Question, how did you prime the oil pump or did you just crank the motor over a few times without spark?

 

I unhooked ever plug connector and turned it over for about 7-8 sec. Then hooked it all back up and the oil pressure came up pretty quickly. I knew that since I drained all the oil and the oil pan was off for a few days. Also the pick up was just cleaned that it was going to be a really dry start. So that's why I primed it.

 

Well you need to prime it and I've seen 3 different ways so I was curious to see which way you chose. There are the 3 ways to prime an oil pump on a Durango:


1. Take the coil wire off and crank the motor over so it only cranks and does not fire for about 7-10 full revolutions.

2. One of the biggest reasons the oil pump fails to prime is because of the filter causing negative pressure because of air. One can loosen the oil filter up just enough to allow the air to escape. Start the truck and then hurry and finish tightening the filter down before all the oil escapes. (I've had to do both 1 and 2 before to prime). (Take 2 people).

3. Close off the crank case breather and apply compressed air metered down to about 20 psi and charge the positive air into the crank case for about 15 seconds. I've never done this but it is an old way to get it done. (Back yard style mechanics).