Mario B.

Hello everyone, I'm new here and I always found very nice information so this time I'm asking for help..

I have got this nice honda civic, but it has big problems with sludge, no oil change was done for few years (!!!)
-I have the low oil pressure sign on and I don't know if I can add other oil to that horrible sludge..
How can I clean that stuff?
Here are some pics:

http://i61.tinypic.com/25kk77d.jpg

http://i57.tinypic.com/2ezs27r.jpg

NotARaCist

iTrader: (1)

That's not a "low oil pressure" light, it's a NO oil pressure light. That motor is literally seconds from detonating. With how fucked up that head looks, you'd be best served completely disassembling the motor, having it professionally hydrosonically cleaned, and then doing a fresh rebuild. If the head looks like that, I can only imagine how bad the oil journals are in the block.

Mario B.

so you would not add other oil to that?

NotARaCist

iTrader: (1)

**** no. Head looking like that, I wouldn't do a damn thing BUT a complete rebuild.

Mario B.

Awesome, so basically I'm fucked!! I was hoping to flush that **** with some products and few oil changes, but in this case there is nothin' to do!

NotARaCist

iTrader: (1)

A full rebuild isn't that hard.

TomCat39

NotARacist's recommendation is best practice.

I am wondering, did you just get this civc or have you been running it awhile?

Was the motor knocking the last time you ran it?

If it's not knocking when you got the light on you could attempt draining the sludged oil from the pan with the valve cover off and start dumping solvent down the oil return passages to flush as much of the crap out of the pan. The whole while draining into a catch pan. Once it's all drained, add fresh oil and a can of engine flush like you get offered at lube shops (http://www.amsoil.com/shop/by-produc...mission-flush/). Run it for about 10 minutes, drain the oil, add fresh oil, another can of flush, run for 10 minutes, drain the oil and add fresh.

Might have to do that like 3-5 times to get the majority of the sludge out.

This is all assuming you motor wasn't knocking to start with. If it's knocking it's pretty worn and most likely wouldn't take the wear of waiting for the flushes to break through everything.

I don't think I've ever seen build up that bad before. That is the most extreme case I've ever seen.

Oh and if you are going to try flushing the motor, don't run the motor without the valve cover on. Removing the valve cover is just to flush the oil pan with solvent before re-assembly and adding oil/flush.

joey1320

Wow what a mess... I would punch the previous owner for being such a moron...

If you don't wanna get into a full rebuild, you can do the following;
Scrape as much as you possibly can from the valve train.

Remove the oil pan and clean properly.

Reinstall all components, replace your oil filter and use Shell's Rotella HDEO and add a half liter of diesel to the oil.

Run at idle for about 30minutes, keep and eye out for the oil pressure light and listen to the engine for any weird noises.

Drain oil. Keep drain plug off and run 1-2 quarts of cheap oil through the engine and catch it on a drain bucket.

Inspect oil for any metal particles. If none found, add more Rotella and a replace your oil filter.

Drive the car normally but don't do any short drives. You want the engine to come to a complete warm stage.

Do another oil service in 500miles, using a known brand synthetic oil and a quality oil filter, also inspect the old oil that comes off and look for any metal particles.

After another 500 miles, remove the valve cover and inspect valve train, if all looks good and engine runs good, then you are good to go. If not, then a rebuild will be needed.

Don't, don't, don't use those engine flush chemicals. They will eat all the seals and *** your engine even worse...

Good luck!

http://www.shell.com/rotella/products.html

eghatch9295

iTrader: (1)

better off with high pressure water than anything else. blast the head, pull the pan, blast everything you can reach. use air to blow out all the water you can, make sure it is totally dry before adding new oil. lubricate everything before starting. oil the rotating assembly before reinstalling the oil pan. pull the plugs and drop a little oil down each cylinder, rotate the motor by hand to re oil the block. fill the motor with the valve cover off so you can oil the entire head. start it, run it for 20 minutes or so, then drain and refill the oil and change the filter again.

NotARaCist

iTrader: (1)

Water? That's a horrible idea. Water doesn't clean oil by itself. Letting the cylinders air dry it also a surefire way to get surface rust on them.

eghatch9295

iTrader: (1)

high pressure water certainly does. water is completely safe to use, provided it is dried promptly and oiled immediately. this is the way i have been cleaning oil/coolant gunk out of heads for years. (head would be off in this example.) chemicals are a bad idea, and short of a tear down and rebuild this method may actually work for the op.

NotARaCist

iTrader: (1)

Head off, yeah, but at that point, you might as well get it hydrosonic'd by a machine shop, and that still doesn't address the issue of the oil galleys in the engine. That's a good eighth inch plus of sludge built up. Oil galleys aren't that big to begin with - reducing their size by another quarter inch is a surefire way to spin bearings.

eghatch9295

iTrader: (1)

i dont disagree about the galleys at all. possibly degunking with my method plus the above diesel method to attempt to dissolve any remaining sludge would help with them. i have never tried diesel in an engine, but have heard of it being used. really, op, anything you do is fine. if you grenade the engine trying to degunk it, no big deal. im shocked that it hasnt spun a bearing/put a rod thru the block yet, and if you do nothing this is what will happen.

eghatch9295

iTrader: (1)

hyrdosonic cleaning is awesome, but i am cheap. head on a milk crate and a good blasting with a pressure washer does the trick. i kind of want to try some of these suggestions on a junk head to see what happens https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/fo...-/35183/page1/

tony_2018

I'm not sure how I feel about using water on the engine. Its not taken apart or out of the car yet. What about the crank, oil pump and passageways? Its better, and probably cheaper, to just buy another used motor.

NotARaCist

iTrader: (1)

Oil pumps are easy to disassemble, fully clean, and reassemble. All you really need is an impact screw driver. Te crank, you can kind of clean if you drop the oil pan. The passages though...yeah, no. Full disassembly.

TomCat39

Almost all oils now a days have additives to deal with small amounts of water. Water gets into the oil all the time from condensation of air.

If you blow out everything thoroughly and then lube everything you can before putting the pan and valve cover back in place it shouldn't be any more water than the oil normally deals with on a day to day basis.

As for diesel I've only heard of soaking parts in it overnight, not actually running an engine with it in the oil. Diesel and the flushes will do basically the same thing and I'm not sure diesel is going to be any less gentle on the seals. One can always run some automatic transmission fluid in with the oil after to keep cleaning and also condition/swell the seals. Automatic transmission fluid is good too but probably not effective enough for that much sludge for a fast clean out to save the journals.

tony_2018

Question now is, can the OP do it?

Good to know about additives to deal with minimal water. I do recall a mechanic working on a car that was sludged to hell and I'm not sure what he did but there was a video of him cleaning it up.

eghatch9295

iTrader: (1)

steam/pressure wash. steam is tricky because aluminum loves to warp. easiest solution here is new (used) engine

collkid

How many miles are on this thing?