Ok, I finely got the oil pan, windage tray and the pickup tube off. I checked the rods
and they seem to have a little play, by moving them back and forth with my fingers. Now
my question is are there suppose to be a little slack on the crankshaft. or is there
no play? What I'm trying to get at is should i change all the rod bearings?

 

Yes there should be a little play in it. Measure how much, Max endplay should be .0112in and no more. I would also carefully pull the bearing caps one at a time and check for anything obvious, Also use some plastigauge and check bearing clearance.

 

Thank you 05RamMan. Are these the specs for the 4.7L?
I need to clean out the sluge from the oil pan, What would be good to use?

 

When I pulled my pan to install my oil temp guage, all I did was wiped it out, and used some brake clean to make sure it was fully clean. wait for it to dry, and wala. I did not have any obvious signs of sludge though. How many miles do you have on your truck?

 

If you really want to clean it well, I've used brake clean like moose before. But the last time I did one that had a lot of crap in it I used a 50/50 mix of purple or simple green (close to the same stuff) and water in a spray bottle. Worked out well and you can use the same mixture to clean the outside at the same time. It'll get rid of all signs of oil and gunk on the inside and out.

 

It has 137,000 miles on it. I did go ahead and used the brake clean. Looks like it worked
real good got a lot of sludge out. Clean the pan real good too. I hope I will get to work
on it tomorrow, suppose to get rain then turning to snow.

 

I used Laquer Thinner to clean the outside. It took off everything, and didnt take off the paint. Something else to consider.

 

Lacquer Thinner, didn't think about that.

 

Yup.

What the others have said will work great to get the sludge out.

 

If you still want the specs to the 4.7 LMK.

I havent heard of anyone using plastigauge in a while now. That brings back memories.