Yup, took out the plastic cap out of my oil filler neck to check out the condition and there was visible sludge. '04 4.7l with only 47,120 miles. Unfortunately I'm her second owner so she never stood a chance (I've had it since 44,000). I'm going to do 4mo/4k OCIs (Was planning on 6mo/6k) to try and maintain it as best as possible now and guess I'll be buying a new truck after school. Someone needs a beer...

 

Why would you be planning on a new truck? If it's got sludge, but still getting oil up out of the pan and there are no low oil pressure issues, there is nothing wrong with it.

A Seafoam treatment may do the trick or in worse case manually clean it out...

 

Not anytime soon I'm talking 3-5 years down the line. Just sucks knowing how badly crapped up it is. I would much rather go through maintaining it and being able to sell it for a good amount in a couple of years then have it seize up out of the blue on me one day while I was not planning on buying a new one and being stuck financially.

 

I'd throw a quart of Marvel Mystery oil in there and drive it for a few hundred miles. Do a filter change and again, use 1qt Marvel Mystery oil in place of 1qt of oil. Drive for 1500-2kmi and change the oil again. You should be in real good shape after that and just keep an eye out for the sludging. You may have to run it every now and again in your oil a few weeks before every oil change so it cleans everything up. I love the stuff. I have never had any issue's with an engine seizing or anything. My oil is crystal clear after I do treatments on used cars I buy. Matter of fact, I just did my neighbors Sebring that was so sludged up that I could barely put my finger into the oil fill cap. It was that caked up. Ran through 2 oil changes with the Mystery oil and it was like brand new.
Just don't go too long on the first time around as the filter may get clogged up pretty quick.
While Seafoam is great stuff, it can actually be too much on a real gunked engine.

 

I think its a far stretch to start looking for a new truck. Take the time to clean your motor out with reputable products. and refill with a high quality oil. give it a change or two i believe you will be satisfied with the results.

 

Dog I think you read my mind. I'm putting the MMO in today after work and dumping at 500mi then replacing a quart of oil with MMO at the fill. I'm going to go ahead and make a thread of it as well with the before pics, after 500mi pics, and then after the following oci pics.

 

I wonder if Sea Foam would help. Certainly worth a try. Kinda scary to put that stuff in the crank case. I just did my Ram, but I only drove it about 15 miles before I drained it. This may take longer.

Good luck.

 

While Seafoam is great at cleaning out your engine, it truly is great at it, I've heard it be a little too great sometimes. I've heard of a couple of vehicles that the seals started leaking after use of it, now I'm sure this could be user error and it is definitely in the minority of Seafoam users I'm just not willing to risk it when I know that MMO won't harm a thing.

 

A little condensation and buildup on the inside of the oil cap is nothing new and hardly anything wrong. We all get it from time to time depending on how much moisture is in the engine and as the engine warms up and evaporates the moisture, where do you think it goes but up?

I dont see the issue here.

 

...Weed I know you already know everything I'm about to say but I figured this would be a good jumping off point to point out the details of the 4.7l issues for those who may not be familiar...

Your absolutely right a little moisture on the cap not a big deal as long as the engine is being run to the proper temp. On the 4.7l the oil feed neck is made out of plastic and extends out of the valve cover about 10'' or so and this was creating the milky white foam that people started complaining about Chrysler's "fix" to this was to come out with a new cap and a plastic baffle that goes into the fill neck. All this did though was cut off the valve from view from the filler hole.

Out of sight out of mind was what Chrysler was going for, well the baffle can be taken out so I took mine out just to get a glimpse of the valves and they are disgusting from what I can see, it isn't the milky white condensation it is actual black sludge build up, hell it even was on the lower of 1/4 of the baffle itself, little sludge ***** all over it. The 5.7l if I'm not mistaken has a direct oil filler that is straight into the valve cover, right? I've actually yet to see the Hemi with the hood up lol.

I want to make it clear that the 4.7l is a fantastic engine, strong as a mother*&*&*&, Chrysler just made a mistake with the oil feed neck which is what caused all of these issues. My theory, now this is just MY PERSONAL THEORY, the 4.7 oil issues didn't start to pop up until the early 2000s, a couple years after the 4.7 had been out so if Chrysler actually admitted that the mistake was theirs and it wasn't the owner not taking care of the vehicle think of all the engines that Chrysler would have had to replace (Ultimately the engines were coming up blown because oil was no longer able to circulate). Instead they came up with this milky white just being an unsightly normal process of modern oils so they said that this baffle would "fix" the problem. They say that the baffle will reduce the amount of foam but all it did was restrict it to the lower half of the feed neck.

Here is the letter that Chrysler sent out on the problem:
ACCUMULATION OF FOAMY OIL EMULSION 4.7L ENGINE OIL FILL HOUSING
Date: 09/11/00 (02/00)

Bulletin # 090100A (supercedes 090100)

Model year(s): 1999-2000

Description:A customer may complain of an oil emulsion accumulation inside the engine oil fill housing. The oil emulsion will normally be foamy and be gray or light brown in color. The emulsion accumulation will often occur on cooler engine surfaces, like the inside of the oil fill housing. Modern engine oils are designed to address the oil emulsion phenomenon. Oil emulsion accumulation is normal and will not damage the engine A new baffle and a revised oil fill housing cap have been released. The baffle and oil cap will help to reduce the amount of oil emulsion accumulation within the oil fill housing.

Details: If the customer has experienced this issue, then perform the Repair Procedure.

Parts required:
53032126AA Baffle, Oil Fill Housing
53032389AC Cap, Oil Fill Housing