My uncle has a 1996 dodge ram 1500 4x4 and it has the 360 V8. He had me change his oil and he said he hasn't had it changed in 30 to 50 thousand miles. I have to say that the oil was thick as crap. I would like to know what kind of damage the motor could have gotten. What do you guys recommend doing to the motor because of all the sludge build up? The end of the dipstick has a rubber substance at the end if it and the oil filter was pretty ugly. The truck has 139,032 miles on it and it has about 40 psi of oil pressure.
Thanks for all your help![sm=thanx.gif]

 

i don't think the engine would have made it that far IMO, but damn... might as well have put hydraulic grease into the trucks engine

 

engine flush mite help... it can be found in any parts store..

 

i dont think it would make it that far either. and if its been that long im supprised theres anything in there at all.

 

it is true. he purchased the truck with 86,000 miles and now it has 139,000.

 

(stick the garden hose in the oil filler cap and flush it out with high pressure water. if the oil did not blow the engine the water wont). do a good job in flushing the system with engine flush. you might want to get twice the amount of oil needed to flush system again. run new oil in motor for about 1/2 hour than change oil again to see what sludge will come out.. also remove the valve covers . might want to check to see if any oil holes are plugged. but the truck still has 40 psi. thats not bad.

 

we had a guy at work that didn't change his oil for many years. since it was using oil, and he was having to add a quart every couple of weeks, he assumed it always had fresh oil. the problem was that it was also sludging up, and it had 2-3 inches of sludge in the bottom of the oil pan, and even though it showed full on the dipstick, it actually only had about 1 quart of oil in it. then it LOCKED UP.

here are some ideas. i'm not sure which of these i would do if it was mine.

idea #1.
don't do anything special except change the oil frequently and hope for the best.

idea #2.
try to remove most sludge especially in the bottom of the oil pan as it eats up your oil capacity. remove the oil pan and valve covers and clean them with brake cleaner. spray everything inside the engine with carb cleaner, especially the oil drains in the top of the heads, crank, rods, oil pump, etc . DONT spray brake cleaner on gaskets, plastic, or rubber. better to use carb cleaner instead of brake cleaner inside the engine as brake cleaner can damage anything other than iron and steel. maybe replace oil pump. put it back together and change the oil frequently for a while.

idea #3.
i did this a long time ago on both a Mustang and a Duster that was all sludged up. do this at your own risk other opinions ? drain the oil and put in 4 quarts kerosene. crank it up and let it idle for several minutes (up to normal temp). monitor oil pressure and temperature. DONT drive it. DONT rev it up. drain it out, check color and feel to see if you think its 'clean'. discard oil filter. repeat as necessary. because of the high cost of kerosene ($3.50 gal), this can get expensive. diesel fuel will also work and its a little cheaper, but because its already dark and dirty looking, its harder to tell what you've done.

 

just my opinion... i wouldn't do this. water will not dissolve or remove oil sludge, you can't get any significant pressure from a water hose, and even if you could you could not control the direction of the spray. it will just make it worse by adding water into places where water should not be.

 

I agree,That is quite stupid to ever put water into your engine..

 

as opposed to kerosene?