I have a 2002 ram 1500 tear wheel drive with a 4.7 Liter. At an oil leak coming from my timing chain cover gasket as well as a valve stem seal that was leaking so today I thought I would take care of that. I get it apart and it's the damnedest thing I've ever seen. Everywhere that the oil goes looks like it's been scorched or caramelized or something. What would cause this. I'm putting a couple pictures up for you to see.

 

What oil do you use?

 

Castrol GTX 5w30 high mileage

 

Looks like the classic 4.7 sludging. Depending on how long you've had it, do you do alot of short trips where it doesn't quite get hot enough?

 

this ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

It's discoloration, probably from previous owner's (or yours if you've had it from new) bad oil habits. Not necessarily a sludge issue if you've been good to it since. Mine is even worse but I run full syn and a motor flush every 3 or so oil changes. Suggest you not run blends when full syn is readily available. This was mine the first time I pulled the cover at 300K or so. Arrow points to a missing rocker.