What to use to clean up this sludged up '09 Caddy?

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atikovi

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I picked up this 2009 CTS with 95,000 miles and it needed timing chains. Once the dealer started to take it apart they found the engine sludged up and refused to do the work under warranty so I'm doing it myself. I'm also removing as much sludge as I can mechanically without pulling the heads with a scraper, q-tips, tooth brushes, etc. along with gasoline and a case of brake cleaner. Here are before and after pictures of the front of the engine after a days work.

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I'm doing one of the heads now and it's a pain. I have the cams out but there are so many nooks and crannies it will be impossible to get all the sludge out. What chemical can I add to the oil once I have it put back together that would get at the remaining sludge? I don't have the time to use that product that you leave in for 3000 miles either.
 
We have the same 3.6L motor here in australia and i have seen few cars/engines exactly like in the photograph.
We used nulon engine oil flush at work and all good.
 
Wow, They must have never changed the oil in that thing, thats a shame. The autorx from what I heard takes a couple oil changes and alot of filter changes. I am thinking you are in a hurry to re-sale the car. I think I might go with one of the old fashion oil flush deals, the hardcore solvent, that you dump in, idle the engine and dump the oil. That and run a qt of MMO, every oil change, if you keep it for about the next 5 years. If you are a car dealer though, you may want to just sell it, to clean that motor right, is gonna take alot of oil changes and patience.
 
We pulled the rocker covers, timing cover, and the oil pan and hit them with a 4K PSI pressure washer for the basket cases. Oil pan likely has to come off anyway to get the crud out of it.

Surprisingly effective.

EDIT: And because I know how you feel about dealerships. Our dealership would often get trade-ins that got "0" maintenance, but were often still under warranty. More than a few times we would get trade-ins that wouldn't pass a UCI due to engine problems, slight knocks/slaps/chain slap etc. So, in those cases the above procedure would be used to get an engine "clean" enough to get the other dealer to cover the repairs under warranty.

One dealer screwing over another.
 
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Originally Posted By: Panzerman
Wow, They must have never changed the oil in that thing, thats a shame. The autorx from what I heard takes a couple oil changes and alot of filter changes. I am thinking you are in a hurry to re-sale the car. I think I might go with one of the old fashion oil flush deals, the hardcore solvent, that you dump in, idle the engine and dump the oil. That and run a qt of MMO, every oil change, if you keep it for about the next 5 years. If you are a car dealer though, you may want to just sell it, to clean that motor right, is gonna take alot of oil changes and patience.


Actually the Cadillac dealer said they never used the required Mobil1 which doesn't sludge. I probably changed the oil and filter 4 times in 200 miles before taking it in to the dealer and can now see why the oil got so dark so soon. Once I have it back together I'll try a 15 minute solvent flush.
 
You might want to try this product from Amsoil: Brand new product that is not solvent based and safer to use than the previous.

Engine & Trans Flush: FLSHCN-EA
Its potent, detergent-based formula cleans sludge and deposit build-up, promoting lower operating temperatures and reduced oil consumption. AMSOIL Engine and Transmission Flush is safe on parts and can be easily disposed of with waste oil.
 
Originally Posted By: flacoman
EEK! Shame that it got that trashed... With that mileage it darn near never stopped rolling
Probably why the oil never got changed! What about Pennzoil Ultra? This would be a good engine to test that claim of, what 45% sludge removed after first oil change?
 
Engine Flush by LUBEGARD, it's very good for a 15 minutes flush. It's only $8.99 + $5.00 shipping.

Search for "Engine Flush by LUBEGARD" on Amazon
 
Seafoam each time on 100 mile OCI,do this three times,thats all you need ,it's cheap and effective .Use PYB during this ,then go back to a quality syn.It's way less harsh than the quick flushes and works better long term.
 
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I think this is way beyond any type of chemical crankcase cleaner.

The only way you can fix the problem at this point is to just tear the engine part and manually clean the components.

I guess someone decided to change the oil using conventional oil but at the 15k synthetic intervals.
 
My first car was sludged way worse than that, but it WAS a 1969 car, in 1986, with SE/SF 20W-50, and 7 years since it's last service.

I'm pretty sure that a solvent soak would break the stuff free, I'm not sure that would be desirable.

I think a long ester based dissolve would be in order. A bit of neutra or something ?
 
Originally Posted By: The Critic
I think this is way beyond any type of chemical crankcase cleaner.

The only way you can fix the problem at this point is to just tear the engine part and manually clean the components.

I guess someone decided to change the oil using conventional oil but at the 15k synthetic intervals.

That was 95k on factory fill ,I think he said.Or maybe one additional oil change,something to that effect.
 
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Drastic measures to clean that up, so I would do 3 OCI's of 30 minutes apiece, engine idling with PYB with a few quarts of diesel. Make sure you put on a new oil filter for each oci. Good luck because that engine just about looks like it is going to be trashed if it does not get cleaned up now.
 
Atikovi:

are you the guy in cadillac forums that just but a 100k miles 09 CTS from an auction or something similar and there was a note that there could be a mechanical problem with the engine/transmission from the auction?
 
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