Clean out the engine

[RAM08110719]

Ok. Tech terms not well known here. But the problem is. The I think lifters. Metal straws that deliver oil to top of crank case. My straws are sludged. Most is gone. After using the much needed synthetic oil. Still not clean. I did utube research. Found high miles version of seafoam oil additive. So I take out oil put some in run it for 150 miles. Then change oil. This they say cleans the lifter sludge. Besides popping the top of the engine. Doing this as a break down manual job. Is this an effective route? I also have the can to spray into the engine. I would think that kind of cleaning would be needed after the fact. Is their any other options to make this clean and right again? Or am I on the least invassive path to a clean engine.
Besides those lifter sounds. It runs great at 121k miles.
Side note. Very strong and well built truck. If there is more I can do. Or a better chemical I could use. Please? Want to get more than 4 years out of my truck. Any ideas other than this that include chemicals only. Don't want to open the engine. Thank you.

 

[07Sport Quadcab]

No personal experience with it, but I strongly suspect Seafoam is snake oil. I once looked up its formulation just for the yucks because of so many people using it to supposedly clean out carbon; couldn't tell ya much now, but it didn't impress me then. I'm a chemist (not an oil chemist), and nothing I saw convinced me it would do what it claimed. The one thing that stuck in my mind is that it contains a lot of palm oil. All that said, 150 miles doesn't seem like enough to allow it to work even if it WAS effective to clean out sludge.

If you're going to clean out sludge, you need to do it in a gradual manner so that you dissolve the sludge without breaking out chunks that could clog other oil delivery holes. Back in the old days Rislone was often used to clean up sludged motors. It came in qt cans and was intended to replace one qt of regular motor oil; generally, it was left in the engine for 2000 mi or so before changing oil & filter. Sometimes more than one cycle was performed if the motor was really dirty.
As I said, that was back in the old days. If you want to try it, get product 100QR (just looked it up). And don't expect miracles from any chemical additive. Nothing can totally clean up a motor that's been allowed to get badly sludged up.

 

[RAM08110719]

No personal experience with it, but I strongly suspect Seafoam is snake oil. I once looked up its formulation just for the yucks because of so many people using it to supposedly clean out carbon; couldn't tell ya much now, but it didn't impress me then. I'm a chemist (not an oil chemist), and nothing I saw convinced me it would do what it claimed. The one thing that stuck in my mind is that it contains a lot of palm oil. All that said, 150 miles doesn't seem like enough to allow it to work even if it WAS effective to clean out sludge.

If you're going to clean out sludge, you need to do it in a gradual manner so that you dissolve the sludge without breaking out chunks that could clog other oil delivery holes. Back in the old days Rislone was often used to clean up sludged motors. It came in qt cans and was intended to replace one qt of regular motor oil; generally, it was left in the engine for 2000 mi or so before changing oil & filter. Sometimes more than one cycle was performed if the motor was really dirty.
As I said, that was back in the old days. If you want to try it, get product 100QR (just looked it up). And don't expect miracles from any chemical additive. Nothing can totally clean up a motor that's been allowed to get badly sludged up.

Thank you very much. The synthetic oil I put in has started moving it through. Not completely. It's just so sad that eithier design or lack of care does this to these lifters. Never ran into this. First truck. Had SUV and a ford ranger. Still those aren't trucks. I will be cautious. Probably leave it in a lot longer. Thank you

 

[chri5k]

Project Farm has a good video on Seafoam with a 1 year later follow up video. Decide for yourself on the results.

 

[Travelin Ram]

As previously posted, best to remove sludge gradually to avoid a catastrophic failure. When I purchased a sludged up used Jeep I just started changing the oil every 500 miles or so. Long enough for the new oil to dissolve a load of deposits but not long enough to saturate the holding capacity of the dispersants and began forming new deposits.

I used Shell Rotella diesel oil for the aggressive detergents it’s known for. I don’t know what the oil spec is for your engine so that may or may not suit your 4.7.

Bottom line just use a quality oil and change it often.

 

[Travelin Ram]

PS check your PCV valve to be sure it’s working, or just replace it.

 

[RAM08110719]

PS check your PCV valve to be sure it’s working, or just replace it.

Ok. I will check on that. Thank you .

 

[Brent L]

FWIW...It’s been a long time, but when I was hot rodding and turning wrenches at a dealership, I used Berryman’s Chem Tool on sludged-up engines with great results. I don’t remember the amounts, but would add it to the crankcase, let it run for a few minutes. Then drain and change the oil and filter. I was amazed at how much sludge it would remove. It’s not a slow process like mentioned above, but I never saw any side effects. I used it on family member vehicles that did not have the oil changed regularly (or I think at all). I saw some of those go another 100k after cleaning the crankcase and then have proper maintenance for the remainder of their lives.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[RAM08110719]

FWIW...It’s been a long time, but when I was hot rodding and turning wrenches at a dealership, I used Berryman’s Chem Tool on sludged-up engines with great results. I don’t remember the amounts, but would add it to the crankcase, let it run for a few minutes. Then drain and change the oil and filter. I was amazed at how much sludge it would remove. It’s not a slow process like mentioned above, but I never saw any side effects. I used it on family member vehicles that did not have the oil changed regularly (or I think at all). I saw some of those go another 100k after cleaning the crankcase and then have proper maintenance for the remainder of their lives.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Wow. That sounds incredible. That it moves it that fast. Thank you.

 

[07Sport Quadcab]

Project Farm has a good video on Seafoam with a 1 year later follow up video. Decide for yourself on the results.

Some of Project Farm's stuff is OK, some not. Won't go into that now; instead I'll tell you a long story.
My first car, bought for transportation to/from college, was a '50 Dodge. I only test drove it around the city and it ran great. When I took off for school and hit the highway I found it wouldn't do more than 45 mph, at which point it began bucking and puking out clouds of oil smoke. Well, I couldn't overhaul the engine just then, but I decided the bucking and snorting was probably due to carbon in the combustion chamber and under the valve seats. So I went out to Wild Woody's Bargain Barn and bought a can of some kind of liquid miracle cure that was loosely wrapped in a paper label that was falling off. Following the instructions, I dribbled the liquid through the carburetor while running the engine at a fair clip.
The clouds of smoke that billowed out far exceeded what you see in that YouTube clip. I literally covered a city block with black and grey smoke. Probably most of the smoke was from the petroleum nature of the miracle product, but enough of it was carbon from the combustion chamber and valves that the immediate problem was cured. The car now ran normally at highway speeds up to 70. I just kept it floored for miles while crap gushed out of the tailpipe, and eventually got enough cleared out that she'd run 85, which is faster than you really wanted to go in a 1950 Dodge.
Point of all this-- A cloud of smoke produced by Seafoam down the intake is most likely just the petroleum portion of the Seafoam burning off. Whether any carbon is actually being removed is not proven by a cloud of smoke.
An old mechanics' trick for blasting carbon out of combustion chambers is to slowly pour water into the intake just like you'd do with Seafoam. It works, but takes some finesse so that you don't pour it in too fast and hydrolock the engine.

 

[RAM08110719]

Project Farm has a good video on Seafoam with a 1 year later follow up video. Decide for yourself on the results.

Love that it worked for you. I'm not that bad so this should nail it. Thank you very much.;
That is a great video. He did sea foam plus a locus treatment. Took away the knock from his engine. That sound is just like my sound. It's terrible that people don't understand a truck needs the synthetic oil.

Some of Project Farm's stuff is OK, some not. Won't go into that now; instead I'll tell you a long story.
My first car, bought for transportation to/from college, was a '50 Dodge. I only test drove it around the city and it ran great. When I took off for school and hit the highway I found it wouldn't do more than 45 mph, at which point it began bucking and puking out clouds of oil smoke. Well, I couldn't overhaul the engine just then, but I decided the bucking and snorting was probably due to carbon in the combustion chamber and under the valve seats. So I went out to Wild Woody's Bargain Barn and bought a can of some kind of liquid miracle cure that was loosely wrapped in a paper label that was falling off. Following the instructions, I dribbled the liquid through the carburetor while running the engine at a fair clip.
The clouds of smoke that billowed out far exceeded what you see in that YouTube clip. I literally covered a city block with black and grey smoke. Probably most of the smoke was from the petroleum nature of the miracle product, but enough of it was carbon from the combustion chamber and valves that the immediate problem was cured. The car now ran normally at highway speeds up to 70. I just kept it floored for miles while crap gushed out of the tailpipe, and eventually got enough cleared out that she'd run 85, which is faster than you really wanted to go in a 1950 Dodge.
Point of all this-- A cloud of smoke produced by Seafoam down the intake is most likely just the petroleum portion of the Seafoam burning off. Whether any carbon is actually being removed is not proven by a cloud of smoke.
An old mechanics' trick for blasting carbon out of combustion chambers is to slowly pour water into the intake just like you'd do with Seafoam. It works, but takes some finesse so that you don't pour it in too fast and hydrolock the engine.

 

[07Sport Quadcab]

Love that it worked for you. I'm not that bad so this should nail it. Thank you very much.;
That is a great video. He did sea foam plus a locus treatment. Took away the knock from his engine. That sound is just like my sound. It's terrible that people don't understand a truck needs the synthetic oil.

Disclaimer-- I use synthetic.
There's no magic in a synthetic oil as concerns engine cleanliness. All SN oils, whether dino or synthetic, contain adequate detergents to keep your engine clean if you follow a reasonable change interval.

 

[RAM08110719]

Disclaimer-- I use synthetic.
There's no magic in a synthetic oil as concerns engine cleanliness. All SN oils, whether dino or synthetic, contain adequate detergents to keep your engine clean if you follow a reasonable change interval.

 

[RAM08110719]

Disclaimer-- I use synthetic.
There's no magic in a synthetic oil as concerns engine cleanliness. All SN oils, whether dino or synthetic, contain adequate
detergents to keep your engine clean if you follow a reasonable
change interval.

I was under the impression that synthetic can flow more freely through the engine. Lowering the possibility for my problem to happen. Also staying efficient far longer.

 

[07Sport Quadcab]

I was under the impression that synthetic can flow more freely through the engine. Lowering the possibility for my problem to happen. Also staying efficient far longer.

Generally speaking, synthetics flow better at low temperatures, resist breakdown better at very high temperatures. There are a number of reasons to use a synthetic, and gobs of info on that can be found elsewhere on this site.
All I'm saying is that any good oil, dino or syn, will clean well and keep sludge at bay if changed regularly to renew the additive package. If you have a motor that is extremely susceptible to sludging like the 2.7 Chrysler, certain Toyotas and VW's of days gone past, etc, there's no doubt you would be wise to avail yourself of the added virtues of a good synthetic. As far as I know, though, the 4.7 is not a known "sludger". Did you buy your truck used, and if so, do you know its maintenance record?

 

[Musky Mike]

What exactly is the noise your engine is making? How do you know there is slude in the engine that is causing problems? I have a 2003, 4.7 in a Dakota and it has 170K miles on it. The first 100K was with Dino oil changed every 3K-4K miles, then when Syn oil was a few only more $ than Dino oil I switched and change the oil every 5k. Engine is going strong (I do get some start up tick once in a while that lasts a few seconds).

 

[RAM08110719]

Generally speaking, synthetics flow better at low temperatures, resist breakdown better at very high temperatures. There are a number of reasons to use a synthetic, and gobs of info on that can be found elsewhere on this site.
All I'm saying is that any good oil, dino or syn, will clean well and keep sludge at bay if changed regularly to renew the additive package. If you have a motor that is extremely susceptible to sludging like the 2.7 Chrysler, certain Toyotas and VW's of days gone past, etc, there's no doubt you would be wise to avail yourself of the added virtues of a good synthetic. As far as I know, though, the 4.7 is not a known "sludger". Did you buy your truck used, and if so, do you know its maintenance record?

Don't know the maintenance. I got it on 11/07/19. It was what I could afford. I just didn't know that sound the engine was making was wrong. Someone used and abused it. The shocks on the front end are in bad shape. What has impressed me the most. Is this engine was put through what appears to be hell. Yet it still performs great. Oil was not done well. So yes. I am trying to recover this engine the best I can. I'm trying to make it last longer than the 4 year loan. The strength of this engine speaks volumes. Just high quality in each aspect of it. The oil. I'm going to put the additive in when I change oil next. Going to run it a full oil cycle. See how that helps it. If I do need to replace this one. It will be for another one just like it. I'm sold for life.

 

[RAM08110719]

What exactly is the noise your engine is making? How do you know there is slude in the engine that is causing problems? I have a 2003, 4.7 in a Dakota and it has 170K miles on it. The first 100K was with Dino oil changed every 3K-4K miles, then when Syn oil was a few only more $ than Dino oil I switched and change the oil every 5k. Engine is going strong (I do get some start up tick once in a while that lasts a few seconds).

The sound is almost like a diesel engine. Has a ticking sound that goes away after oil has circulated. My diagnoses of the build up in the lifters that get the oil to the upper part of the engine is based off the project farm truck before he put all that stuff in it to quiet it down. That same sound. So that took me down this path. The synthetic oil has helped a lot. It has improved since when I got it last november. Purchase date in my name. Having that syn oil make it less noticeable. Just adds to it. I at least hope I'm right. It must last till I pay it off. A little less than 4 years now. I want to keep it longer. But still have some resell left in it to put me in another 1.

 

[Musky Mike]

Does it quiet down after a while or does it always sound the same?

 

[RAM08110719]

Does it quiet down after a while or does it always sound the same?

After driving it. The sound is gone. When I first got it. The sound never went away.