How many miles are on the engine?

Personally, I have used nothing but Mobil 1 for 20 years. It never builds up sludge. But if your engine is already coated internally with sludge due to the previous owner's negligence, switching to a synthetic oil may not help.

Maybe you should drop the oilpan and see what the bottom end looks like. If the pan is coated in sludge you may be screwed long-term /

 

can anyone advise what kind of sludge he's talking about? is is the brownish mayonaise type, that's usually underneath the oil filler cap? or the black stuff?

 

that stuff is usually caused by short trips where moisture builds up and doesn't have a chance to "burn off"...the problem probably lies within the fact that the previous owner did not take care of it and let the sludge build up over time....best bet would be to use some of the engine flush and then pull the pan and see how much sludge build up is on the pan....more then likely it's heavily coated with sludge

 

Is this what jonesy2129 have? in his initial post he indicated that he had sludge, caused by the motor oil he was using.

 

no, it sounds more like the previous owner didn't change the oil very often and allowed the oil to collect "trash" and start building up at the bottom of the pan or oil passages...that milky stuff is caused by not letting the engine get to full operating temp (ex: driving 2 blocks to White Castle or somethin and goin right back home...over time that causes that milky stuff to build up on the bottom of the cap)

 

Is it also possible that there not a good seal on the air intake or a hole somewhere that might be allowing unfiltereddirt into the engine? That would mix with the oil to create sludge, I would think. And if he drives on dirt roads often, which may be a possibility for a truck owner who lives in Ft. Smith, AR, that may increase the amount of dirt the engine is exposed to.Just a shot in the dark, though. He has changed the oil quite often, it seems. And the build up continues to return...I would think engine flushes and lots of oil changes would reduce the amount of build up over time if it were due to poor maintenance by a previous owner.

It is important to know more about the sludge, I guess.

 

the breather for your crankcase which SHOULD be connected to your air intake stock or aftermarket should keep things filtered... if there is an opening or no filter than sure that could be causing issues.... have an oil analysis done... that should help you find whats causing the sludge buildup....

 

MFS212: PM answered...

 

did u buy the truck used? if so u may be battleing the previous owners stupidity, like runnig penzoil and never changing it.

 

Could this PM have important information that could be useful to the rest of us?