Trying to decide on a this. I’m wanting to run a Gunk flush through the engine with my next oil change but am afraid to dislodge sludge and brick the engine. I’m already running half a quart of transmission fluid for the past thousand miles as a gentle clean. The thing that sucks is that I have no way of looking down into the crankcase because of the way Dodge designed the oil fill neck. Wish I could shine a light in there. Has anyone ever tried sticking one of those snake inspection cameras into it?

Anyone that says the 4.7L is not a tough engine is fulla ****. Truck is currently at 248K and it’s a wonder it lived through its last owner. I really took a helluva educated guess on it and only purchased when he came down to the price I wanted and I was satisfied it wasn't going to blow up... A rigorous inspection, notwithstanding.

Day before sale... seller showed up with oil below the low mark. Checked his records and he hadn’t changed the oil since February of 2013 and this was now late August, 2013… a total of 17,500 miles later! I could tell he never pulled the dipstick because it was glazed with varnish and everything under the hood was dirty. The fact that it still had any oil in itafter he put a TON of miles on it, waspart of my decision making. That and there was no smoke when I had him gun the motor. In fact, the inside of the tail pipe had little or no soot, like the thing had been running on natural gas. Code scanned it and it was hiding an evap code… nothing else. I sent him to buy two quarts of oil, refusing to test drive it until he did so. Dude came back with three quarts of the the most expensive Mobile-1 Synthetic, lol. I personally put $10 of gas in the tank and told him we were going on a looooong test drive. I bargained the **** out him… believe that.

Anyway…. Back to my original question…. To Gunk or not to gunk? Should I just drop the oil pan and look at the internals?

 

Quite honestly, I wouldn't mess with it. You might be better leaving well enough alone.

Pull the valve cover and see what's going on. It'll give you an idea as to the condition in the pan.

The only real way to clean it is to pull it apart. I'm no fan of any additives (including ATF) to the oil. Do a couple of short oil changes with Pennzoil Yellow Bottle 5w-30. It has a great additive pack and cleans very well. Use a new filter each time too.

 

I don't think I would. I think I'd use the high mileage version of whatever oil you use. Change the oil regularly at about 3000 mile intervals--high detergent oil will clean the engine gradually. My worry about using solvents in a high mileage engine is that it will remove too much of the deposits on the old oil control rings and valve seals--then you'll start burning oil and it's all over for the engine. If it hasn't been fed a diet of synthetic oil at this point, I'd stay with dyno versions, too. Keep up with what he was doing, just do it at more reasonable intervals.

And don't worry about it. Sounds like despite crappy maintenance it's doing alright.

I'd be using Techron fuel additive, too. It will clean out deposits in the tank, fuel level sending units, pump, and injectors. Seems to work well.

 

Thanks, Dan. A little ATF won't hurt nuthin, but I'm tepid on going aggressive. Any idea why Dodge design the fill neck that way? Only thing I can think of is to prevent fools from dropping things into the engine. So far I've only put 2K on it, preferring the mileage of my Honda for everyday commute. Might drop the oil this weekend. Thanks for the advice on the Pennzoil.

 

I have no idea why they put the oil fill where they did. Sure, it's easy to reach but I'm not a fan of the gunk building up there in cold weather.

I agree with Brian. Let the oil do the cleaning.

 

Brian, I'm running high-mileage Valvoline semi-syn. The other day I was at a friend's shop and he showed me an old cherokee with the head pulled off. Upon first glance, I thought the head gasket had petrified on it but on closer inspection and my buddy busting through the "gasket" with a screwdriver handle, it was all hardened sludge! The engine died from oil starvation due to blockage, which intially was created by lack of oil changes.

Anyway, with regards to my truck... he hadn't abused it for it's whole life (even though he had no idea on how to check fluids). He at least had records at various lube shops showing oil changes for the past few years. It seemed that when he decided he was going to sell it in the near future, he just stopped taking care of it.

These trucks are tough!

 

Only additive I've ever tried was seafoam and there was no issues with my engine for 25k after that.

 

I will add in my 2 cents here..I don't know about the Gunk flush, I have never used it. I will agree with 00DakDan on the Pennzoil, it is reported to have good cleaning abilities. It is on sale at Napa this month too, $20.00 for 5 quarts and a Napa Silver filter. Napa Silver is a great filter, made by Wix. I would say at about 200 miles before the next oil change add a pint of Marvel Mystery Oil to your oil. MMO will do a good job cleaning your engine's innards without being too harsh. For even better cleaning substitute a pint of MMO for a pint of oil at your next oil change. Do a couple of short 3000 mile oil changes with MMO and Pennzoil to clean up the engine. Some say you can substitute a full quart of MMO for a quart of oil, but I would not do that. Keep a close eye on the oil level when you have MMO in the crankcase. MMO will burn off quickly. Top off with engine oil.

Jimmy

 

Have use Mobile 1 oil all my 2.5 engine life and its a detergent oil but the Gunk flushed a lot of stuff out of my engine that's why I used it two times.

I was very surprised

If you are scared to use it I say don't especially on a high mileage engine you may want to just say no.

 

Personally, I wouldn't use any kind of oil additive, flush, etc. I think they probably do more harm than good.

BTW, I have a friend who drives a 2004 (I think) Dakota with a 4.7 (his company truck). Last time I saw it, the thing had 416,000 miles on the original engine and was still going strong.