Oh No, SLUDGE for sure, your thoughts?

[John Hilmer]

The wifes 96 Camry 3.0 MZ-FE with 120K miles is sludged for sure. I'm a noob but have been learning, slowly, very slowly I'm affraid. On the eleventh of this month I started an A-RX cleaning phase because of what I've learned here and what I saw here:

http://www.pbase.com/358norma/image/45217204

I hope that the image shows or that you can link to it.

I'm monitoring the fuel economy and have taken compression readings on the front bank of the cylinders that I can get to. 1 = 200, 3 = 200 & 5 = 203if I have the cyliders numbered correctly. Not bad, but I have no clue what these numbers should be.

The question I have is regarding the filler port. It seems to me that this area might show exagerated levels of crud because it sees little to no flow of the oil and hence the A-RX. Should I not be concerned about the appearance in this area and trust that the A-RX is working where I need it to?

Any input is much appreciated.

John

[ June 25, 2005, 08:20 AM: Message edited by: Gary Allan ]

 

[JohnBrowning]

THese engines seem to recover really well from sludge as long as compression is still good. THe key is that after they are cleaned you either need to use a synthetic oil with a decent ester content to keep them clean at the recomended interval or you need to reting the interval.

Quality dino oils like Havoline,Chevron Supreme,Delo and the High Milage oils seem to do well up to 3000 miles. If you want to go past 3000 mile oil change you can get 5000 milesout of M1 and about 8000 miles out of Redline. If you use Lube Control you can take the dino oil or synthetic much farther out! Look at Terry Dysons work on his wifes Avolon and other customer cars!

 

[RavenTai]

I had some deposits under the fill cap though not as bad as yours they were close, when I pulled the valve cover it turned out to be the worst area, the rest had varnish but no sludge.

See my post near the bottom, the round lump on the right of the second pic is the oil cap hole,
http://theoildrop.server101.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=45;t=000134

I just started the first of two Arx cycles about ~1k ago

If you are curious and have the time and ability you should pull the valve cover and have a look.

 

[Mystic]

If that Toyota is one of the suspected sludge prone engines that Toyota made, then I think it is best to do 3000 mile oil changes and use Auto-RX to clean the engine. Even synthetic oil can be cooked in a sludge prone engine.

 

[Alan]

I suggest pulling off the valve cover to get a good idea of what's going on.While the pic doesn't look great it doesn't mean the rest of the engine looks the same.Could just be a low flow area.

 

[Rick20]

John, run two cleaning applications with ARX. Follow the directions for heavy sludge. What also works well in these motors is to run a half bottle of ARX on the back end of every third oil change. Or the maintenance dose of 2 oz. with each oil change. Larry D says that its worked very well in his Solara.

Good advice listed above, not exceeding 3K for dino, and 5K for a good synthetic.

 

[guitarrocks]

John, had a v6 camry like yours. I was suspect when looking at the cap. However, what you are looking at is a baffle plate. I took the valve cover off and the area was relatively clean. Just change oil often.

 

[reyjay1]

Yes, what I have read is that the top of that baffle plate just gets a little splash of oil that sits up there and cooks, which is what you see, what is under it could be not so bad to clean, dpending. Sure the ARX will not hurt.

 

[Amkeer]

There is a black coating that is put on that baffle from the factory. The sludge on the cap does indicate that you are getting some deposits.

If you use dino every 4000 oci or 6 months you will be fine. The picks would be Havoline, Chevron Supreme.

Keep the coolant clean and make sure pcv valve is good. Also replace thermostat if it hasn't been done. The air filter should be changed every year or 12000 miles.

Good luck and don't try to overtweak or you WILL CAUSE PROBLEMS. I would avoid synthetics in this motor since you will more than likely open up some leaks.

Daily Drives:
-2003 Toyota Tacoma PreRunner,2.7 liter, 4 cylinder, Mobil1 5w30 ODO 16300
-1995 Toyota 4-Runner,3.0 liter,6 cylinder, Mobil1 10w30 ODO 96200
http://community.webshots.com/user/amkeer

 

[kevz]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Amkeer:
I would avoid synthetics in this motor since you will more than likely open up some leaks.

---

ARX can do the open up leaks also... sure did on both of my cars.

 

[John Hilmer]

I finished the cleaning phase on Saturday 121646 - 120100 =1556 mi on A-RX. Drained the oil and cut the filter open. I will say that the Wix 51348 filter is stout. Nothing startling to report at this point, the filter didn't show anything unusual at all, but this I expected based on seeing other cleaning phase filters here.

http://www.pbase.com/358norma/image/46399858

The darker outside is because it is stll wet while the inside is drier, I thnk. The oil was fairly dark but not all that bad and bit thick. This was done on a fill of Penzoil 5W30 as our ambient temps were still cool.

The milage dropped from 27.7 for the first two tanks to 26.4 for the third tank & 25.5 for the last tank. I'm not sure that this is valid until the next fill-up of course.

No new leaks to report, just an old seaper that I haven't located yet.

After the rinse on GTX 10-40 I'll recheck the compression and perhaps pull the valve cover and pan.

So any and all thoughts are much appreciated.

John

 

[John Hilmer]

PS:

Should I have taken compression readings after the cleaning phase?

Sorry, an after thought as it were.

John