Well, crap.

[Jbaker33]

I ordered some spark plugs for my 06 1500 5.7. It's a quad cab 4x4. They are coming via prime tomorrow do I decided to get a head start on it tonight. My back isn't that good and plus the drivers side looked like nightmare with the booster in the way. That being said, I jacked up the truck and removed the drivers tire and wheel well which made it alot easier. The spark plugs we not wanting to come out so I read that you should spray them with like pb blaster and let them soak for a minute so I did just that. They were alot easier to come out after. I planned on doing a few other things while I was under there like taking off the valve covers and inspecting for broken or worn springs sticking lifters, etc. Most are known to cause catostropic engine failure (seats and valves dropping into cylinder) so i wanted try and be proactive about it. Also taking off the fuel injectors to give them cleaning. I did a compression check and the ran my borescope into the combustion chamber after.The pistons are now covered in the pb blaster along with carbon build up i and before I put it all back tomorrow, should I be concerned about it being in the combustion chamber? It's a small coating you can say but I took some pics, hopefully i uploaded the correctly. I am also going to attach a piston pic from a few days ago when i first got the camera and wanted to try ot out.


Also, due to my luck, while trying to take off drivers side valve cover, I noticed one of bolts was already stripped, reinstalled and painted before I bought it. Vise grips won't get it either. Sorry for the long post and it's almost 430 am here so hopefully you guys can understand it lol

 

[xtremewlr]

I really don't think the BP Blaster that got in the cylinders should be a problem. There really isn't much you can do about it anyhow, short of removing the heads. It should burn off pretty quickly and be a non-issue.

Good idea on removing the wheels and wheel well liners. It does make the access a lot easier but many don't do it like that because of the added work. I don't know that it really adds or saves any time though, as I haven't ever done it that way myself.

 

[sbarron]

I would probably hold a rag over the spark plug holes and spin the motor on the starter to pump some of that out before installing new plugs to try to avoid any fouling..

 

[Jbaker33]

I would probably hold a rag over the spark plug holes and spin the motor on the starter to pump some of that out before installing new plugs to try to avoid any fouling..

I don't know why I didn't think of that.. lol. Thanks. And I have a pretty bad back so taking the wheel and wheel well is a little more work at the start but it honestly beats, climbing up in the engine bay. I am able to last alot longer with my back taking wells out because I have one of those creepers that fold Into a little seat. Best investment ever lol. As for the stripped valve cover bolt, I'm going to pick up one of those needle socket things to try and get the bolt out. That way I can finish taking the cover off and make sure nothing is messed up. That's were most of the ticking noise comes from on my truck(drivers side)

 

[xtremewlr]

I would probably hold a rag over the spark plug holes and spin the motor on the starter to pump some of that out before installing new plugs to try to avoid any fouling..

I thought of that, same thing you would do if there was water in the cylinders. It just didn't look like there was enough in there, from the 2 pics, to be of any real concern.

 

[Jbaker33]

Im def going to be running some seafoam through afterwards tho

 

[sbarron]

I thought of that, same thing you would do if there was water in the cylinders. It just didn't look like there was enough in there, from the 2 pics, to be of any real concern.

Probably not.. but an ounce of prevention and all....

 

[chrisp2493]

I can’t count how many times I’ve had my wheel liners removed to work on my truck. There is a lot more room to work, that’s for sure.

 

[justin13703]

That pb blaster won’t hurt anything. You might get a tiny amount of smoke from the exhaust for a second after startup, but it’s nothing at all to worry about.

 

[Jbaker33]

Thanks for the replys guys. So I finally got the both off and just quickly looked inside. It's not horribly dirty like I've seen but it's not that clean either. I only checked the rocker arms and what I found has me a little bit concerned. I've seen and read that rocker arms shouldn't have any play. I would say 3 or 4 of mine have play when I move them by hand. It's not just Intake side or exhaust side. I'm hoping they just need to be tightened up. The motor has 162,000 it but I just bought it last year so don't know much about it or how well it was taken care of. I took a video of the play in arms, hopefully you can hear it. I'm also wondering if this is the cause of the ticking I have. (I hate going through any drive thru because It gets worse bouncing off the walls.) I'm 99.9 sure that play is too much but looking for guidance/input. I don't plan on taking the passenger side off this time around but really debating changing out most of valve train with 6.1 in the summer. Thanks again guys

 

[RonJon '06]

Yeah there shouldn't be any play there at all and that's probably the source of the ticking. I went through this with my rebuilt 5.7L last year. You could inspect the ends of the pushrods and check for wear but more than likely its the lifters. Some people have tried using marvel mystery oil, one guy I know uses 6qts of oil and 1 qt of ATF every other oil change to try and keep those frickin' lifters from sticking.

 

[Jbaker33]

Yeah there shouldn't be any play there at all and that's probably the source of the ticking. I went through this with my rebuilt 5.7L last year. You could inspect the ends of the pushrods and check for wear but more than likely its the lifters. Some people have tried using marvel mystery oil, one guy I know uses 6qts of oil and 1 qt of ATF every other oil change to try and keep those frickin' lifters from sticking.

Ok, thank you. I'll make sure everything is set torque specs. I'm not sure if you watched the video or or not but the inside of the head has what looks like burnt oil. I don't want to remove the heads or spend a bunch of time on it but I also don't want to put the covers back on the way it is. Any suggestions on how to clean that area? Would seaform through the intake help take care of that?

 

[xtremewlr]

Actually, that coloration inside the heads looks perfectly normal for aluminum heads to me. As long as you don't see any sludge build up in there, leave it as is and put it back together after checking the torque values.

 

[Jbaker33]

Actually, that coloration inside the heads looks perfectly normal for aluminum heads to me. As long as you don't see any sludge build up in there, leave it as is and put it back together after checking the torque values.

Ok. What about the black build up under the plug holes?

 

[xtremewlr]

Personally, I would button it back up, put in some cheap dino oil along with a good motor flush treatment and run that for a couple hundred miles or so and then change the oil and filter. Maybe even do it twice. I've used Seafoam as a motor flush on my 5.7 a couple times in the past. Put it in 100 to 150 miles before you plan the oil change to help clean stuff like what you are seeing. Works good.

Basically the discoloration and even the build up is just from the oil getting hot. Not surprising to see with 167k miles on the engine. I have 200k on my 04 5.7 now but haven't pulled the covers ever. I'll bet you it would look the same as yours if I did. I've got all sorts of ticking and tapping noises but the truck runs great still. Try doing the motor flush treatment a couple times before you tear it apart again for the 6.1 update parts and it should clean it up a little.

 

[xtremewlr]

Be happy it doesn't look like this poor, neglected engine!

 

[Jbaker33]

Personally, I would button it back up, put in some cheap dino oil along with a good motor flush treatment and run that for a couple hundred miles or so and then change the oil and filter. Maybe even do it twice. I've used Seafoam as a motor flush on my 5.7 a couple times in the past. Put it in 100 to 150 miles before you plan the oil change to help clean stuff like what you are seeing. Works good.

Basically the discoloration and even the build up is just from the oil getting hot. Not surprising to see with 167k miles on the engine. I have 200k on my 04 5.7 now but haven't pulled the covers ever. I'll bet you it would look the same as yours if I did. I've got all sorts of ticking and tapping noises but the truck runs great still. Try doing the motor flush treatment a couple times before you tear it apart again for the 6.1 update parts and it should clean it up a little.

Ok, awesome. I'm cleaning the valve cover up (letting it soak now) and I'll be putting it all back together later. Then finally installing the plugs lol. I ended up torquing the rocker arm bolts to 16ft pounds. It was showing like 97 in lbs but I don't have a torque wrench that size. A couple of them I was able to get a good 1/2 to 3/4 turn so hopefully that helps with the ticking. I've already replaced broken bolts/exhaust manifolds on both sides a few months ago which made a big difference. I'm almost thinking maybe it's leaking again or the bolts need to be re torqued. Thank you everyone who responded. I love having being on these forums for exactly these types of advice.

 

[xtremewlr]

For the exhaust manifolds, the best advice I can give there is to install new, OEM exhaust gaskets to ensure you have a good seal. I went through the same thing with my truck on both sides and even with one missing bolt on the passenger side (broken bolt, recessed into the head), I had no leaks after replacing the bolts because of the new, OEM gaskets. They are actually that good. I used them when I did the header install on my truck this weekend as well.

 

[Jbaker33]

Be happy it doesn't look like this poor, neglected engine!

View attachment 120193

Lol, yeah I seen the video on YouTube, and ppl were just bashing the hell out of the guy. He was just trying to pass along info. I also forgot to mention, after I tightened the rocker arms, I hooked the battery back up to turn over the motor just make sure everything was doing it's job. It was like 3 in the morning so nobody was around to help me so I rigged up some ground wire around my phone and to my truck by my battery to record it lol. I had to watch it about 8 times in order to watch 2 closely. They looked like they were working good. I am curious and need to look up whay stock springs look like tho. I remember someone saying something about the metal cans on the bottom of the spring but can't remember if they said they were stock or aftermarket that had them.

 

[Jbaker33]

For the exhaust manifolds, the best advice I can give there is to install new, OEM exhaust gaskets to ensure you have a good seal. I went through the same thing with my truck on both sides and even with one missing bolt on the passenger side (broken bolt, recessed into the head), I had no leaks after replacing the bolts because of the new, OEM gaskets. They are actually that good. I used them when I did the header install on my truck this weekend as well.

I think I just got some cheap fel-pros. Thankfully none of my bolts broke completely off so I didn't have to drill them out or anything. Just a pair of view grips on the bolt once the manifold was off and they came off no problem. I couldn't believe they wanted 30 something dollars for the replacement bolts, per side