Did the oil change today. Oddly, only about 2 quarts total came out. Beforehand, I took a drive to warm it up. I even let it drain for about an hour. I believe low oil was my problem despite the dip stick being fine. I put in exactly 5 quarts. The dummy gauge is now at half way mark when driving and it goes down to the line just like the picture I posted above when I sit at a light. Drove it a good bit after this and it didn’t drop low at all. Along with this, I don’t hear any ticking coming from the manifold area.

I did notice anothwr tick tick somewhere else and I actually do not know what this part it. All i know it’s next to the battery. I’ll post a picture of it. If I put my hand on this, I feel the “tick” so to say. Am I making any sense? Lol.

lmao I feel dumb now. I appreciate the feedback and quick response.

Discovered another fun problem. Decided to check my power steering fluid and it was extremely low! I had some laying around so I filled it back up to spec. Once when it got dark I noticed a puddle toward the front. I thought it was oil somehow and I messed up somewhere but no, it’s steering fluid. Since it was dark I didn’t have much light to work with and diagnose. I was able to see it dripping from the pump area where a line connects at. Going to check it out tomorrow. After doing some research it’s either bad lines or bad pump related. So that’s going to be fun. Regardless, haven’t really noticed anything wrong with the steering despite putting 500 miles on her a week.

hard to explain but on the dipstick about 2 inch past the hatched area. To it’s pretty full.

like I said it’s hard to explain but the levels is pretty past the “full” mark lol. I’ll try to send a picture when I get off work. As far as sludge. I know when it was draining it wasn’t coming out in clunks so I guess that’s good?