Sludgy 1990 F150 5.0

[Merek]

Definitely getting better with each change, anything that filter catches is less floating around in the engine. If you can find it I'd run Chevron Delo xle 10w30 which is a synthetic blend that is a dual rated oil for diesel/gasoline engines, if you can't find that they also have Delo in 5w40 & 15w40 versions. I believe that Chevron is actually one of the best kept secrets, it's such a good oil and for a great price.

You could even try adding a quart of MMO and run that for a few hundred miles as well now that you've gotten most of the junk out of there.

 

[cbrf3]

We have more of the 5w30 Synthetic bend Chevron $7.19 5 quart jugs, so I am thinking that the oil is being wasted a bit and we are going to run the next interval to 1500 miles with a Motorcraft FL-1A change at the 750 mile point.

I know that the oils we have been using do not have any special cleaning abilities as they are just carrying the somewhat loose debris to the pan and the oil filter. Maybe we actually are turning this motor life around and can get some decent life out of it. I suppose the solids are tapering off a bit so latter we can try some more aggressive cleaning.

 

[cbrf3]

We are mid way through a 1500 mile interval with the Chevron 5w30 blend. A lot of the filter pleats were clean.
Here is the filter at 750 miles, seems to have less in it this time so should be safe to try a more aggressive approach.

Not a big believer in additives but had this a while so installed another Motorcraft filter, poured in the bottle of Rislone and topped off with more Chevron oil. Will run this oil and filter to complete the 1500 miles then open the filter and dump the oil.

 

[edyvw]

Get yourself Mobil 1 0W40FS. That thing has so much additives it is ridiculous.

 

[cbrf3]

Get yourself Mobil 1 0W40FS. That thing has so much additives it is ridiculous.

We have some to use soon. Would like to see a bit cleaner filters before we extend the intervals too much.

 

[edyvw]

We have some to use soon. Would like to see a bit cleaner filters before we extend the intervals too much.

I was thinking get Mobil 1 0W40 and run it short. That is probably best oil to clean inside the engine.

 

[cbrf3]

So we just finished a 1500 mile run with $7.19 jug Chevron blend 5w30. First half just oil, then filter replaced topping off with Rislone and more Chevron. The second half of the run was also 750 miles. Not a big difference in the crud coming out but it is still shedding sludge.

It has been about 4000 miles/one year and the junk is still getting captured in the filter with some out the pan.
My son has seen up to 19 mpg out of it and he continues to repair small things as he goes, it is now his daily driver.

I had the custom center caps created at work on a 3D printer. Thank you Dr. P!!

Got some $2 Pennzoil Platinum 5w30 jugs so we are going to run it for 2k miles then another interval to 3k if the Motorcraft filter looks like it will handle the mileage.

 

[53' Stude]

So we just finished a 1500 mile run with $7.19 jug Chevron blend 5w30. First half just oil, then filter replaced topping off with Rislone and more Chevron. The second half of the run was also 750 miles. Not a big difference in the crud coming out but it is still shedding sludge.

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It has been about 4000 miles/one year and the junk is still getting captured in the filter with some out the pan.
My son has seen up to 19 mpg out of it and he continues to repair small things as he goes, it is now his daily driver.

View attachment 77674

View attachment 77676

I had the custom center caps created at work on a 3D printer. Thank you Dr. P!!

Got some $2 Pennzoil Platinum 5w30 jugs so we are going to run it for 2k miles then another interval to 3k if the Motorcraft filter looks like it will handle the mileage.

Great pics and I like the truck as a whole and the look of the wheels and center caps

Keep up the great work guys! Thank You

 

[Ride_Red]

It seems like the oil is pretty clear and the filter is doing its job catching the chunks. I would probably just replace the filter every 1000 miles and top up the oil. No need to dump it every time.

 

[cbrf3]

It seems like the oil is pretty clear and the filter is doing its job catching the chunks. I would probably just replace the filter every 1000 miles and top up the oil. No need to dump it every time.

I agree. We are starting a 5k PP run with a filter change at the 2k mark.
This will be the longest we have gone on the Motorcraft FL-1A filter on this truck.
I suppose there has to be an end to the junk removed at some point. Seems the Rislone was a waste in this experiment.

Most seems to say the oil does not clean. Maybe the sludge is loose enough and it is just the carrier.

 

[JoelB]

Cool truck. Not many of them left like that up here. They all turned to dust.

 

[Merek]

It's definitely looking better and I'd say you can easily go 2500 miles on the filter and then change the oil at 5k. It's clean enough now that I would add a quart of MMO for the last 1k miles.

 

[cbrf3]

Cool truck. Not many of them left like that up here. They all turned to dust.

We think this one has been in GA for 31 years. It is a solid truck.

We see a fair number of this vintage around here. The late 60's and 70's units are not so common and are usually a little crusty.

 

[addyguy]

I’d say the Rislone did quite a bit, I think there is more sludge in the ‘Rislone’ filter than the previous one.

Good job seeing the truck still running along as it gets cleaned out, glad a chunk of something didn’t wipe out a bearing or something!

If the PP lives up to its ‘rep’ it should help clean out a lot of junk. Love to keep seeing updates!

 

[cbrf3]

Got another 2k on the Motorcraft filter with PP oil. Only one side of the filter seems to have collected junk, the pan looks worse than real life.
Just hit 127k and only swapped the filter, put on another and topped off the oil level.

Truck has been running well and seems to get 14-17 MPG on average. This is my son's daily driver and has been doing some hauling on the weekends for house projects of up to 2000 lbs.

I suppose there has to be an end to the sludge coming out. It is good that it is still being removed just wondering where it is coming from.
Bottom end? Timing chain area?

 

[OVERKILL]

Heads and valley would be my guess. The Windsor gets deposits in the valley if it is going to get them.

 

[TodaPower]

Looks good so far ... probably still has a lot gunk in heads and/or timing chain area.
I'd keep it up with 5k oci.
Coworker is restoring that body truck as restorod ... rare bird these days.

 

[cbrf3]

Heads and valley would be my guess. The Windsor gets deposits in the valley if it is going to get them.

But the heads and valley were cleaned about 90% plus...

 

[BigShug681]

Not sure if it’s been mentioned but I’d add a qt of HPL engine cleaner to the next change and let it go to work, off the shelf oils aren’t designed to clean and most likely what is coming out is just whatever works itself loose from operation

 

[cbrf3]

Not sure if it’s been mentioned but I’d add a qt of HPL engine cleaner to the next change and let it go to work, off the shelf oils aren’t designed to clean and most likely what is coming out is just whatever works itself loose from operation

I do understand that an oils job is not to clean but it has been happenin' in this instance.
Looking back at some of the older pictures, the quantity of junk is slowing down but the cleaning process is still occurring.