Extremely dirty head

[Micho523]

I was refrenced over here from the forums at streetkiaz.com, they said you guys would love this.

Heres the story, I have an '01 Kia Sephia with 50136 miles on it. I am the second owner, I bought it from the dealer with 42000 miles. My last oil change at 49000, I saw a bit of buildup near the oil fill opening, so I had Jiffy Lube flush it. They used Gumout, and ran that through my engine for about 15 min. I took off my valve cover today to polish it, and this is what I found:

I have ordered a bottle of AutoRx to clean this out. Do you guys think that will do the trick, or should I just pull the head and manually clean it?

 

[Mud]

That gunk is not just in the head - it's probably everywhere the oil is inside the engine.

Your lucky that the oil pump did not clog up with the solvent based product that JL used. It's very easy to knock some of those deposits loose and they can find their way back to the pump or clog smaller passages.

I hate to say it, but it looks like the previous owner changed the oil maybe once or twice. Auto-RX is your best friend at this point. You may need 2 treatments, but it would be worth it. Solvent based flushing is probably the worst thing that can be done to an engine or transmission. A-RX cleans in a very controlled and safe manner. Just be sure to follow the directions completely.

Wonder what shape the oil seals are in - you may experience some leaks with the A-RX as it cleans deposits behind the seals, but with a good oil and frequent OCI's you should hopefully see any leaks stop after treatment.

Use the engine oil and filter forums to find the best oil and filter for that engine as well. Welcome to BITOG!

 

[Dart-Swinger]

I'd take a plastic scraper and shop vacuum and try to get as much out as posible before putting the valve cover back on.I keep and old shop vac around just for doing nasty jobs like this

 

[wavinwayne]

Why?! Why?! Ohhhhhh.....Why?!

 

[Micho523]

I think i am just going to wait for the Auto-Rx and see how well one treatment performs. I do plan on removing the head in the near future, to install performance cams, so I will definetly do a detailed cleaning then. After that I will probably give it another treatment.

 

[Micho523]

Here is how it should look:

Same head, same mileage, one caring owner.

 

[Hirev]

Talk about total lack of maintenance.

Used to see a lot of this kind of stuff in a engine remanufacture machine shop that I worked at in the early 80s.

The sludge will be inside much more than just the head... it will be in the oil galleries restricting oil flow and down in the oil pan. A clogged oil pump screen is a real possibility in the future.

I would be surprised if any oil additive short of a very good rebuild would solve your the problem at this stage. Even if an oil additive did dislodge some of the sludge debris it will end up in the oil pump screen.

 

[wander2039]

Not that recommend doing this... A guy I knew had a engine that was sludged up and what he did was get alot of kerosine and fill it completely. Let it soak for a couple days drained it and repeated a couple times. I don't know how it turned out but as long as you took the right precautions disconnecting battery making sure it was dry and then changing the oil after 100 miles the first time. I wondering just how it would work.. would the seals even hold up?

 

[Moloch]

is that a 1.6? looks lime a mitsubishi 2.0 clone

 

[Micho523]

its a 1.8L T8D from Kia

 

[Chispas]

Micho, here's wishing you some luck....

I remember an old timer, he said in the '30s
they didn't have anything better than Oxydol
washing powder to add to the engines that
looked like yours...

Whatever....

 

[Jim 5]

I'd try ARX 3 or 4 treatments, then I'd follow up with running an HDEO for a whole bunch of OCI's. Running an HDEO does a good job of cleaning, and the viscosity shouldn't be a problem where you live.

 

[Drew99GT]

Everytime I see the title to this thread, I LOL. I'm sure Pablo does to!

 

[Donald]

If you switch to synthetic oil it will also clean your sludge slowly.

 

[GoldenRod]

Micho523,

You're gonna have have to pull the head and wash all that Pennzoil out of there.

 

[rauljimenez]

My *** micho I wonder how u gonna get that engine to last but definitely the best starting point would be the auto-rx and frequent I MEAN FREQUENT OIL CHANGES!!!!!, follow the instructions call frank and try and do your best , I know this engine can be saved but is gonna take some patience, I would recommend running a HDEO as someone above me said.

 

[80caprice]

quote:

---

You're gonna have have to pull the head and wash all that Pennzoil out of there. [Big Grin]

---

again, i hope this is a joke? pennzoil doesn't cause sludge..... idiots who don't use proper maintenance techniques cause it.... (how do we know it wasn't gtx?)
you might like it if you give pennz. a try

 

[wander2039]

Unforunately this was probably caused by someone that thought of the KIA as a throw-away car. I see alot of kia's of the same year in bone yard with perfect bodies so your not alone. KIA's will last as long as any other brand with regular maintenance. Have they decided how they were going to clean er up?

 

[glennc]

If it's running fine now, I see no reason for dramatic pronouncements of impending death. If you just do some short OCIs with any good oil, it will probably clean it out pretty well. A-RX might be better. If it were my engine I'd actually try a flush of some kind, or experiment with MMO in the crankcase and very quick oil/filter changes.

You can clean it up, I'm sure, and I imagine it'll keep running just fine once you do.

- Glenn

 

[DetroitMuscle]

I used ATF(dexron/mercon) in my car when i bought it, mine was worse now 1k miles afterwards the oil is still brand new and the car has never ran better.