2002 Dodge Ram 4.7 190,000 miles. I have used an assortment of Conventional oils and filters for the life of this truck, and have never gone more that 5 k between oil changes. I will admit that until I became a member of this site, that I had neglected the PVC system, I may have only changed it 2 or 3 times. The story starts like this.....I noticed a "burning oil" smell, looked around under the hood and found that the retaining clip that holds both of the coolant hoses (incoming and return) had came loose and the hoses with the plastic clip were LAYING on my valve cover!! For quiet some time it looks like. The constant vibration of the engine finally wore a hole through the magnesuim valve cover, and oil was splashing out of the opening and running down onto the exhaust manifold!! I know, its hard to believe that magnesium is softer than plastic! Any way ended up buying a new valve cover at the stealership for $107. When I took the old valve cover off, I was a bit shocked at what I saw! I didn't clean any of this sludge off, I was afraid I would not be able to collect all of the small pieces of sludge, and I would end up with "chunks" of sludge clogging oil passages. So I just replaced the valve cover and decided to attack the sludge slowly. My attack plan is to switch to Pennzoil Ultra immediately and do some frequent oil changes, to slowly dissolve the sludge. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!! [img:center]http://img17.imageshack.us/i/valvecoveroff.jpg/[/img]
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