What to do with a sludger??

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Ok time for an informal pole. My neighbor recently acquired a 2000 Toyota Sienna van with <35,000 miles on it. Unfortunately he has the V6 sludger engine. I basically told him that if it was my Van I'd run a 10W30 HDD and dump it at <5,000 mile intervals. What would you guys do if you owned said sludge motor?
 
Add a quart of Marvel Mystery Oil for the first few oil changes. Then go with a high quality synthetic like PP, M1, Etc....
Yes I said MMO, sorry to go against the grain. But the stuff works.
 
If I owned a true sludger, I would make sure the pcv system was functioning properly, and I would run an HDEO for 5k mile intervals, shorter if the vehicle was a city slicker.
 
10W-30 HDEO summer/0W-30 HDEO winter (Chevron Delo Synthetic is an example) or 5W-30 synthetic year round.

Change at 3,000 to 5,000 miles, or six months, depending on severity of use. Change PCV valves often. Consider Amsoil flushes with each PCV change.
 
My daughter had a 99 Lexis RS 300 and I changed her oil every 10,000 miles and used M1 10-30 till she sold it with 80,000 miles. Engine seemed quite and ran great. No top oil in the 10,000 mile OCI.
 
+1 on verifying the PCV right away and often afterwards.

I like the option of MMO as a quick cleanup - what do you have to loose? Then, ARX in a 10w-30 HDEO.

I'd run 10w-30 HDEO at regular (short) intervals for safety sake long-term.
 
My son had a Toyota 1999 or perhaps a 2000 Sienna Van with the sludge monster V6, and he had no problems whatsoever! They drove it year after years of trouble free abuse, {wife and two young kids slinging food and drinks left to right, front and back}. Earlier, this year he sold it to his mother-in-law; the new proud owner of this vehicle. She took it over with somewhere near 185,000 miles on it….. It must have 200,000 by now. Again, not even a valve cover gasket has been needed.

He used 5W30 Napa or ST 5W-30 oil, {my son is cheap when it comes to oil but he does like a good filter}, and he used a Napa Gold filer, which he changed every 3000-4000 miles. If it started to feel or look dirty he changed it! He never turned a tap on it to include a tune-up. Yeah the cd-player pooped out, the battery once and he replaced a door handle and that was it.!

My neighbor next door, well his mother-in-law, almost never changed her oil in her Lexus which uses basically the same engine Toyota V6 and sure as God makes little green apples she shelled the engine. Toyota replaced the engine, while the owner and my neighbor blamed Quaker-State for the sludge; when it was operator head-space that blew it up….. Of course changing the oil every 20,000 on dino surely had nothing to do with it{haha}?

By the way, my son’s mother-in-law takes the Sienna to Wally-Mart and has the finest ST 5W-30 dino put in with a ST filter and she is styling as we speak with zilch problems….. It sounds and runs great with no rattles, smoke, or leaks. Keep the oil and filter {a good Napa or Purelator} changed and you will be fine. I hope this helps.
 
Originally Posted By: pickled
Ok time for an informal pole. My neighbor recently acquired a 2000 Toyota Sienna van with What would you guys do if you owned said sludge motor?


Thats easy because I own one.I usually run synthetic but never go longer than 4000 miles.And on conventional oil,definitely no longer than 3000 miles.I also RX`d it.
 
Pennzoil Platinum, Q Horsepower (or whatever it's called now), Valvoline SynPower, or any other synthetic every 3,000-4,000 miles or so would be what I'd do.
 
I would run a cleaner, flush, or favorite magic formula and then run PP. actually, I would be tempted to pull a valve cover just to see what it looks like under there. oh, and change the pcv valve
 
Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette
read this.

http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq/sludge/cleaning_sludge.html



I love those pictures. No question that this a real sludgemaker disaster. I especially love the very last picture, where, alas Q-Slim steps in the sludge. The caption reads, "We're done. Qslim thoughtfully puts some oil in the engine." But look carefully at where he has the funnel!!! I reeeeeally hope this was just a photo-op gone bad, and that he really didn't do that.
crazy2.gif
 
I too owned one of the Sludgemaker 1MZ engines (mine appearing in a 2001 Highlander. I found out about this issue about six months IIRC after I got the vehicle. When I confronted the dealership service mgr about it, he seemed not to want to discuss it, but told me to just use M1 and change it every 5k. Seems like sensible advice in retrospect (this would have been more than two years before I found BITOG).
 
A quality syn every 5000 seems to be reasonable. In my Highlander forum, sludge problems pop up about every six months, but always with questionable maintenance history. Be overly cautious, but 5000 miles is overly cautious.

Just to be clear, we're talking about a sludge prone engine, not one that already has sludge problems?
 
I bought a 99 Avalon new. For the first 125,000 miles I had the oil and filter changed every 5,000 miles at a local, independently owned lube shop. I liked the place because you drive your car over the pit, get out, and watch (and talk with) the owner while he services your car. I used Castrol 5W30 dyno and his filter (Wix). I then changed to Castrol 10W30 HM dyno, which I ran until 175,000 miles. I then began changing my own oil regularly, and went to M1 10W30 HM (with a M1 or PureOne filter), which I still use.

At 210,000 miles I replaced the timing belt & water pump. I had developed a leak from both valve covers, so I pulled them to replace gaskets and plugs. The valve train had varnish, but no sludge. In my case, the 5,000 mile OCI's with dyno worked fine. If I had known of the sludge problems in 99, I would have used synthetic from the beginning. Having seen the valve train, I am going to up the OCI's to 7,000 miles using M1 10W30 HM and either a M1 or PureOne filter. If I catch the Mobil 1 oil/filter on sale at Advanced, I buy it. Otherwise I buy a jug at WM and the PurOne filter at Advanced. Either way, it's about $30 and cheap insurance.
 
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