Originally Posted By: Jeffy_D
any of the pennzoil products clean well... if you can order some marvel mystery oil from amazon that would be a good match with penzoil.
Is Rottella or shell helix available in AU? they would do a good job as well.
Unfortunately we don't have penzoil or marvel mystery oil in Australia, but I can buy them from Amazon and get them shipped over here from the US and I'll have to pay an extra non-refundable $50 "Dangerous goods fees" coz they're flammable goods..
But we do have shell though, last time I used shell on this car it felt a bit slower and sluggish and not as free revving as running it on Mobil 1 feels. This was 3 years ago so I'll give it another try when I do my oil change next week.
Originally Posted By: spasm3
Like suggested above, good oil, M1 high mileage is one. Dont use a quickie flush product.
I don't think a flush product would solve the problem, but why shouldn't I use it anyway to help a bit?
Yeah most likely I'll go with Mobil 1 high mileage, If I am correct, I think it's dubbed under a different name in Australia something in the lines of "older engines formula" or something like that.. I just hope it's not too heavy on the engine, those Toyota engines love light oils, if I put anything heavier than 10W-40 (e.g. Castrol GTX 20W-50) I feel the engine isn't as free revving and the car is a bit slower.
Originally Posted By: WMSmotorhead
While the Valve cover is off, why not use some mineral spirits and clean it up manually... then put some good fresh oil it... and change it a bit more frequently. I would avoid diluting your oil with solvents.
I have some outstanding looking valve trains achieves with Mag1 on 1/3rd of 10K mile OCI's.
I wouldn't mind doing that except that I will only clean the top of the engine, I won't be able to reach down everywhere
it' too tight and squishy.. I'd also be scared if some pieces of the scrapped off sludge fell deeper inside the engine and clogged an oil passage or something. What kind of spirits would take this sludge off anyway? it seems so thick and dry, I could barely scrap tiny bit off the valve cover with a screw driver.
Originally Posted By: chiks
Question:
What oil and OCI have you been using on this engine?
I use Mobil 1 Gold 0W-40, my dad buys it for his BMWs, Merc and Jags.. So we always have excess in the garage, and I get it for free
This one:
http://www.supercheapauto.com.au/online-...103#Description
It's doesn't seem to be a bad oil.. engine feels very smooth on it and the car pulls a lot faster and feels very free to rev than running it on other oils. I haven't experienced any oil leaks/burning so far.
My OCI(s) are very bad, last year I had uni exams and was so busy with work.. And I didn't service my car for 30,000km (18,600 miles), When the poor car's lucky day came and I did a full major service I discovered that I had a puncture in my air filter that was leaking all kind of dust and contaminants inside the engine and the oil was pitch black!
So it's my fault.. This car has been in the family for 20 years, my dad bought it brand new in 1992 he used for a bit than gave it to my mum then my older brother then my other older brother then I got in 2008. It's still registered under my dad's name all these years, it used to get serviced at the Toyota dealer till 2008, but as soon as I got it I stopped taking it there, waste of money for a car that old to keep on paying $300-$400 per service. When the time comes to sell it I'll put in the advertisement "one owner for 20 years" lol no one would be believe it though, coz any Camry with that age will have at least 4-6 previous owners. I am not selling it soon though, it's a decent car for this stage of my life.
Originally Posted By: MBS500
Heavy varnish/some sludge. You haven't seen sludge monsters, and they still drive fine. Like Camrys with V6 engines.
You car will go another 130k miles...
Just use reasonable ocis/maybe longer oil filters and some kreen with any brand oil you like/oil on sale(like free G-oil).
UOA is your friend.My previous Camry v6 was badly sludged(prev owner). Kreen in oil/gas/piston soak improved things dramatically. It used to drink oil like alcoholic drinks beer before kreen.But it would still kill any oil in 5-6k miles per UOA.
P.S. I just got bored, and traded it in with 158k miles on odo, and much cleaner engine than it used to have.
Yeah, I've heard a lot of good stuff about Kreen but we don't have in Australia and Kano labs don't ship overseas coz it's flammable.. *sigh*
Originally Posted By: sayjac
Not great, but as far as "sludge" goes I've seen much worse. You've gotten some cleaning oil advice, M1HM, HDEO etc., I won't add to that.
I would shorten the oci's for a while, and definitely change the PCV valve. Likely looks pretty nasty too and needs to be changed.
I can't find the PCV valve on these 3S-FE engines. I've asked on Toyotanation.com forums and got one reply saying those engines don't have a PCV valve, they just have a hose to take away the extra oil when the crankcase is in high pressure, but I am not entirely sure he's correct.
OK, thanks for the help everyone.. I'll get a HEDO and shorten my OCI and see how things will go, if no big improvements, then I'll add MMO to the mix..
Oh and one last thing, can anyone define a short OCI? is 5000km (about 3000 miles) too short? too long? average? All what I do at the moment is city driving.. so how long should I run the oil for to get good clean results?
I'll be following up with pics when it gets clean..
cheers.
