Sludged 2010 Cobalt 2.2 making noises

[slacktide_bitog]

M1AP or Amsoil and a Fram Ultra or Wix XP and he is good to go for another 5 years

 

[AZjeff]

Missed the 70K. It doesn't seem possible it never had an oil/filter change and still runs.

 

[Rat407]

Run 2qts of 0w-20 and 3 qts of kerosene, let it idle for 8hrs and then change the oil. Then run ST 5w-30 for 3k and do a UOA. Would be interesting to see what it comes out like? Just a thought. Most people that would win the lottery would live life grand, I'd find vehicles like this and experiment on them like above to see how things turned out. Would be a cool hobby since I would have the money to support it.

 

[maxdustington]

Originally Posted By: Rat407

Run 2qts of 0w-20 and 3 qts of kerosene, let it idle for 8hrs and then change the oil.

 

[John_K]

Originally Posted By: rideahorse

To get the sludge out of that engine with short oil changes and oil filters. You are going to use the same amount of them if you would have just done it the right way from the start. I think that I would just use some Kerosene in the oil off the start to clean it.

This is what kills me, now as much time and material will be used to fix the mess as would have been used to prevent it in the first place!

 

[WobblyElvis]

I have a 2.2 ecotec with 209,000 miles on it. Original chain and plastic guides. OCI's of around 8,500 miles with cheap oil. Must be some kind of miracle! They don't require frequent chain replacements.

 

[SatinSilver]

Here I felt a little guilty about going 6k miles over 4.5 months with Valvoline white bottle. Probably 50% hwy miles and didn't burn any oil. Color was a medium honey color. The previous two oil changes were with vwb and the run was from 3/1-7/15. 05 Matrix.

 

[ARB1977]

My luck the engine would of been done. People like this are lucky sob. You just him some more time.

 

[CarbonSteel]

Take the valve cover off and drop the oil pan. By a 12 pack of Berryman B-12 Chemtool and use 6 cans on the top end and 6 cans on the bottom. Run 2 short OCIs and you will be a clean as practical under the circumstances. The whole treatment including new gaskets would be less than $100 and the sludge would be gone.

 

[Audios]

Project farm had really good results with running seafoam in the crankcase, this may need a few applications but it should make a difference. Otherwise, stick with cheap conventional and 1000-1500 intervals for a little while, until the filter actually looks like a filter with only 1k on it!

 

[Oil_Flunky]

http://www.kanolabs.com/engCle.html Use it in the oil and gas. As always with any flush type product; when in doubt change it out.

 

[Charlie2015]

VML 10w40 until it dies

 

[jk_636]

Thanks for all of the feedback so far. I know my friend is monitoring this thread and really appreciates all of the feedback from the BITOG community. The plan is to continue monthly oil (and filter) changes along with engine flushes and see how much sludge we can remove chemically and monitor its progress from there. I doubt any oil would clean better than another at this point, so cheapo super tech and marvel will be the monthly fill for the foreseeable future, but please feel free to post your favorite oil / additive recipe for cleaning sludge! The engine calls for Xw30, but perhaps a lighter weight oil would be better for cleaning and lubrication in this situation? He doesn't really have the help or resources to pull the valve cover, and frankly I would discourage him from that anyway just in case he does open it and sees chunks of plastic chain guide hanging out (if that is what this is.) I think the good news is that the oil didn't look like sparkly glitter, as you would expect if that chain was grinding on the inside of the cover, and the engine does have a relatively steady idle so heres to hoping it isn't a timing component that is broken and is just a by product of sludge...well....everywhere, perhaps not getting enough oil to the chain / top of the engine. So hopefully (fingers crossed) we can get some more time out of it through engine flushes and oil changes. This vehicle has already been wrecked once by the previous owner and has a number of other smaller problems so it really isn't worth sinking a whole lot of money into at this point. But hey, this is BITOG and projects like this really...get our motors running

 

[Rmay635703]

Originally Posted By: WobblyElvis

I have a 2.2 ecotec with 209,000 miles on it. Original chain and plastic guides. OCI's of around 8,500 miles with cheap oil. Must be some kind of miracle! They don't require frequent chain replacements.

My chain went at 80k and yes I change the oil often with the proper grade until the last 2 fills

 

[Triple_Se7en]

Originally Posted By: maxdustington

Originally Posted By: Triple_Se7en

Since opening up the engine is going to be avoided for now, remove the oil pan and scrape-clean it. Then do a 1K oil change with 4-1/2 quarts of Yellow Bottle Pennzoil in the correct viscosity and a 16oz of Rislone. Follow that-up with another IK Yellow Bottle oil change, using Liqui Moly Hydraulic Lifter Additive instead of Rislone. The filters needed are nothing special..... a Tough Guard or Wix will work fine. My amateur, backyard wrenching advise anyways. Good luck in quieting / cleaning that thing.

The mill is toast dude, might as well toss those additives and oil down the drain and spend the time working on your stamp collection. Not all de-sludging stories have happy endings.

Me-no-collector of anything dude! Closest I have to a collector item is my Folger coffee can full of quarters, dimes and nickels. Guessing there's about $325 currently. Unfortunate you couldn't offer the OP-here some advise on a cheap band-aid. Probably too busy unclogging your drain.

 

[jk_636]

Originally Posted By: Oil_Flunky

http://www.kanolabs.com/engCle.html Use it in the oil and gas. As always with any flush type product; when in doubt change it out.

$16/Qt?! In the world of chemical engine flushes, that is kind of a steep price point. I wonder how much better does / could it work in relation to a $5 Qt of MotorMedic 5 minute flush?

 

[BufordTJustice]

I owned an 07 Cobalt 2.2 ecotec. I ran syn 5w-30 according to the oil life monitor (wrong decision for long term performance), which usually ended up being close to 9-10k on OCIs with full syn oil and an M1 or Puro Syn filter. Filter always looked like [censored] at the end of an OCI (partially collapsed and filthy). And, no, this wasn't from install (I checked; the crush was not due to the cap being tightened). Sold it at 130k with some top-end clatter. For this motor, ST synthetic 5w-30 at 1k intervals with a FU or M1 filter, with some seafoam added to the crankcase for the last 100 miles of each OCI. Do not go thinner. 10w-30 synthetic would be just fine as well.

 

[clinebarger]

Originally Posted By: 2015_PSD

Take the valve cover off and drop the oil pan. By a 12 pack of Berryman B-12 Chemtool and use 6 cans on the top end and 6 cans on the bottom. Run 2 short OCIs and you will be a clean as practical under the circumstances. The whole treatment including new gaskets would be less than $100 and the sludge would be gone.

You need to calm down. Using that much common sense in one post makes people upset. Much easier to cry & whine about how poorly a engine is engineered because you can't do 50,000 mile OCI's.

 

[4WD]

Originally Posted By: Nick1994

Originally Posted By: supton

Run it until it breaks. Then swap in a junkyard motor. Maybe he will lucky and it will last a while longer. Maybe not. I'm thinking, it's a big job to do a swap, who knows what will break while doing it. Put it off as long as possible. Just rent a car if going on a long trip.

+1 And do 1k mile OCIs with cheap oil and filters for a while.

Think I’d do this … by a package of filters on eBay … rotate a few brands of low cost Dexos oil … don’t push it too hard … don’t go too far from help …

 

[4WD]

Originally Posted By: WobblyElvis

I have a 2.2 ecotec with 209,000 miles on it. Original chain and plastic guides. OCI's of around 8,500 miles with cheap oil. Must be some kind of miracle! They don't require frequent chain replacements.

Please don’t upset these people … I decided to take my (mostly GM) vehicles out of signature … and I felt the tension lower immediately …