LS430 - Sludge advice

D

DV0993

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Nov 18, 2018
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Location
Melbourne, Australia
Bitog brains trust - Impulse purchase over the weekend on a deal too good to pass up.
Lexus LS430 with approx 140k Miles.

Service history:
- Very good up to 70k miles
- Good up to 100k miles
- Patchy between 100k-140k miles where the second owners son did many many hwy miles in a short space of time (assume 20k mile OCIs..)

My intention was to do a bit of fixing and "flip" the car for a profit... I have fallen in love with it and I'm now selling my TSX to keep the LS430.

My concerns:

- Shook out the old dirt from the air filter... not good, K&N panel filter replacement to be installed.

- Engine sludge - Doesn't look ideal from looking down the oil fill hole and watching the fresh oil change colour quite quickly as I have been driving, suspect there is a fair bit of sludge down there...

I know the 3UZ-FE engine is bulletproof - but is worth cleaning up and saving? If so, how?

Thinking a few short OCIs followed by an amsoil engine flush...

Keen on all thoughts!
 
I wouldn't do any flushes, only a couple 2000-2500 oil/filter changes. I know a couple people who did a flush job only to seize their engine when some sludge got loose and blocked an oil passage. If the engine runs good, address the maintenance items and enjoy your new ride or flip it..
 
A little more detail, please....such as MY of vehicle.
How's the vehicle overall? This helps determine if it's, "worth cleaning up and saving".

Go about the car crossing the T's and dotting the I's WHILE UTILIZING IT. You'll soon learn of any flaws.
Assess the age/condition of the battery.
Do a transmission drain & fill. Decide on whether to do fluid analyses or not.
Tires good? Do they exhibit any crookedness-of-wear?
Look at the beast's underbelly. Had sonny boy gone off-roading with it?
How are the dampers?
Can the PCV operation be checked? If the engine is breathing OK then just drive it.

See you in the cabin air filter section!
 
I agree with edyvw. Our 1ZZ has a fairly dirty looking oil fill hole because of the metal lip of the valve cover despite the fact that it is clean to average for an engine with nearly 200K. I'm sure a lot of that is either blowby or PCV issues. Either way the car still runs like a top, averages high 30s mpg, and consumes about a quart every 5K now.
 
Trying to bring the car back to its former glory only to throw a K&N in there is counter productive. As for the cleaning it probably isn’t as bad as you think. A few short OCIs with some long freeway drives should get everything spic and span in there.
 
What's with you guys and your 'do a few short OCI's' advice? What do you think you're accomplishing doing that? It does nothing but waste time, money and materials. Short OCIs do absolutely nothing that changing the oil at normal intervals doesn't already do so you should just leave it in there for a normal OCI and let it do its job.

Of all the old oil and maintenance myths that needs to die, this is at the top of the list.
 
Has the timing belt been replaced? The service interval is 90,000 miles or 9 years.

A dirty air filter actually filters better (up to a point) because the big holes fill up. The K&N is a mistake. Get an OEM filter. That engine is very easy on oil, so unless it didn't get changed at all, it's probably ok.
 
Bottom_Feeder said:
What's with you guys and your 'do a few short OCI's' advice? What do you think you're accomplishing doing that? It does nothing but waste time, money and materials. Short OCIs do absolutely nothing that changing the oil at normal intervals doesn't already do so you should just leave it in there for a normal OCI and let it do its job.

Of all the old oil and maintenance myths that needs to die, this is at the top of the list.
Click to expand...
The idea is that if it’s been neglected and has some old sludged up oil in it right now the next couple oil changes will likely loosen a good bit of muck and you don’t want that plugging things up for 10k miles. Best to change it out quick.
 
The oil that’s in there could very well be a sludgy mess because it’s been in there forever. When he changes it the new clean oil could very well loosen up sludgy deposits and take them to the oil filter causing it to go into bypass. Why then continue to run a long oci with your filter in bypass? Best to do a quick OCI and get that junk out of there.
 
An example. I once bought a neglected little car that hadn‘t had its oil changed since “a couple years anyway” per the previous owner. Down the fill hole and PCV it looked to be an engine full of chocolate pudding. I immediately changed the oil when I got it home. After only a month or so it looked clean again through the hole. A bit shy of 3000kms after buying it (1850 miles) I pulled the valve cover to do the gaskets and the top end was almost totally clean. Only some streaks of soft sludge remained where you could tell the oil flow wasn’t as strong and even that was breaking up and ready to go into suspension. All that goo had been removed from just the top end in under 3000kms so I changed the oil. Why would I leave all that in there for 10 000 plus km as the OLM would have wanted?

For a picture of what I’m talking about look back in my thread history for my saturn thread.
 
Bottom_Feeder said:
What's with you guys and your 'do a few short OCI's' advice? What do you think you're accomplishing doing that? It does nothing but waste time, money and materials. Short OCIs do absolutely nothing that changing the oil at normal intervals doesn't already do so you should just leave it in there for a normal OCI and let it do its job.

Of all the old oil and maintenance myths that needs to die, this is at the top of the list.
Click to expand...
Wrong, and I can prove it. After my mother died, I got her 2000 Forester for my daughter. It had not had an oil change for a few years and before that my father believed in 5000 or so miles with dino oil. I changed the oil with Mobil 1 5w-30. After about 1,000 miles the oil was brown. If you can't figure it out, that was sludge being cleaned up. A good full synthetic has cleaning properties. The oil has never been that dirty since then, but continues to look pretty dirty with the 5 to 6K OCIs. A little better each time.
 
Warlord said:
An example. I once bought a neglected little car that hadn‘t had its oil changed since “a couple years anyway” per the previous owner. Down the fill hole and PCV it looked to be an engine full of chocolate pudding. I immediately changed the oil when I got it home. After only a month or so it looked clean again through the hole. A bit shy of 3000kms after buying it (1850 miles) I pulled the valve cover to do the gaskets and the top end was almost totally clean. Only some streaks of soft sludge remained where you could tell the oil flow wasn’t as strong and even that was breaking up and ready to go into suspension. All that goo had been removed from just the top end in under 3000kms so I changed the oil. Why would I leave all that in there for 10 000 plus km as the OLM would have wanted?

For a picture of what I’m talking about look back in my thread history for my saturn thread.
Click to expand...
Big difference being you bought a car that you were told was neglected and had visual proof of it's poor internal state. That is not the same situation as the OP's. He knows the service history, and highway miles is not a sludge-inducer. He's assuming he needs to do something special to it to fix a problem he assumes it has and already wants to short OCI it and run a flush through it. It's unnecessary but most posters here want to enable that thinking.
 
2005jettatdi said:
Wrong, and I can prove it. After my mother died, I got her 2000 Forester for my daughter. It had not had an oil change for a few years and before that my father believed in 5000 or so miles with dino oil. I changed the oil with Mobil 1 5w-30. After about 1,000 miles the oil was brown. If you can't figure it out, that was sludge being cleaned up. A good full synthetic has cleaning properties. The oil has never been that dirty since then, but continues to look pretty dirty with the 5 to 6K OCIs. A little better each time.
Click to expand...
How am I wrong? I never said good oil doesn't have any cleaning properties. But it's not a cleaning solvent like so many here want to believe. You changed the oil and it did its job mixing with and cleaning up some leftover dirty oil from previous spotty maintenance. So what? That proves nothing.

Dirty oil is not the sign of a problem. It's a sign that it's doing its job. Oil can come out black as coal but still not leave any sludge or crusties behind.
 
Thanks for the advice - Surprised on all the K&N hate!
For those asking, T Belt has been done and the car is in otherwise excellent condition minus:

- One wheel bearing
- Pioneer amplifier

While I'm here - I was planning on doing a transmission drain and fill and I'm tossing up between genuine toyota fluid and Amsoil Multivehicle (I have an unopened jug already)
 
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