Best Way To Desludge This New-To-Me Dodge Dakota w/4.7L V8?

[nthach]

Originally Posted by maxdustington

Originally Posted by kschachn

That Valvoline Premium Blue Restore is marketed to semi truck engines, right? Do they typically look this bad when needing to use the product?

It was originally designed to clean the rings of Cummins ISBs I believe. A bunch of them started getting sludged rings so Valvoline created a mega cleaning oil as an alternative to replacing the piston rings that is approved by Cummins. OP's engine is obviously not the intended purpose but VPBR is an oil designed for cleaning, not just an oil that has cleaning properties as a byproduct of it's formulation like Redline or other group 4 and 5 synthetics.

Cummins and Valvoline worked on this as a last-ditch measure before a rebuild for the ISX engine which is a 12/15L engine but totally different as the 12L ISX/X12 is a OHV engine and the affected engines were the OHC 15L version. Per Cummins, you need 4 cases of VPBR to do a service on a ISX, 3 to do the oil change and 1 for top off during the 10-12K OCI.

 

[kschachn]

Originally Posted by nthach

Cummins and Valvoline worked on this as a last-ditch measure before a rebuild for the ISX engine which is a 12/15L engine but totally different as the 12L ISX/X12 is a OHV engine and the affected engines were the OHC 15L version.

What defect or issue with the ISX engine causes this problem?

 

[nthach]

Originally Posted by kschachn

Originally Posted by nthach

Cummins and Valvoline worked on this as a last-ditch measure before a rebuild for the ISX engine which is a 12/15L engine but totally different as the 12L ISX/X12 is a OHV engine and the affected engines were the OHC 15L version.

What defect or issue with the ISX engine causes this problem?

carbon would build up around the rings - lots of truckers were complaining of high oil consumption with the ISX15. https://www.thetruckersreport.com/t...s/oil-consumption-in-cummins-isx.228119/ http://rawze.com/forums/archive/index.php?thread-3715.html

 

[maxdustington]

Originally Posted by nthach

Per Cummins, you need 4 cases of VPBR to do a service on a ISX, 3 to do the oil change and 1 for top off during the 10-12K OCI.

I'm sure you're not paying $70 a gal retail at that point but yikes! That's an expensive OCI.

 

[nthach]

Well, considering a in-frame rebuild, new engine or ditching Cummins for a different engine(if you have a choice) is exponentially more, $70-80/gallon oil is cheap.

 

[ctechbob]

I didn't see it mentioned here, but if you're already pulling the pan, why not pull the valve covers and scrub the top end with some kerosene and a brush and then rinse it all down through the block with some additional kerosene/diesel. If the pan is off it is just going to drain right down through there and out. Clean up the valve covers, reinstall, and do a short run of some cheap oil. You'll likely make a mess of the engine compartment and need to clean up after, but that is going to work 1000X faster than anything you can dump in there and run. Plus you should be able to get most of the sludge out of there before you'd need to worry about it plugging up the pump intake. Just my $.02, since you're going to be in the motor anyways.

 

[Jarlaxle]

Originally Posted by maxdustington

Originally Posted by nthach

Per Cummins, you need 4 cases of VPBR to do a service on a ISX, 3 to do the oil change and 1 for top off during the 10-12K OCI.

I'm sure you're not paying $70 a gal retail at that point but yikes! That's an expensive OCI.

Of course, the OCI is probably 30,000 miles.

 

[joel95ex]

like others said, just run a good oil with shorter intervals like 3k. also remember that some of the goop in the oil filler neck are due to the design that creates temperature differences and condensation . most 4.7 owners report the nasty fill cap and funnel

 

[Vladiator]

Is it too soon to ask for updates?

 

[Toto]

Originally Posted by CT8

Just change the oil running M1 high mile for a while then inspect.

I know I'm late to the party but I agree this is the best advice! I would consider changing the oil filter a couple times early regardless of its quality.

 

[Vladiator]

Originally Posted by Toto

Originally Posted by CT8

Just change the oil running M1 high mile for a while then inspect.

I know I'm late to the party but I agree this is the best advice! I would consider changing the oil filter a couple times early regardless of its quality.

...you must be not familiar with Valvoline Premium Blue Restore 10w-30, huh?

 

[wpod]

Not bad at all. No real sludge. I'd use mobil 1 high mileage as its claimed to be a cleaning oil. You could run a 10w 40 with kreen for an oci. But really there is not much there, compared to the late 70's 80's sludge. Just good oil changed regularly will do a lot. NO ATF.

The only 60 through 70s sludge was in engines that weren't maintained.

 

[AutoMechanic]

Not the worst that I have seen that’s for sure.