Post
by cthomasparr » Sun Sep 23, 2018 4:33 am
I called it sludge because it is like grease. dark gray and thick. There is no milky or white color to it
I have not heard that this kind of material can be "melted" away with driving, but I will suggest an occasional trip to make sure it doesn't happen any more.
From what I have been reading, it can be caused by lack of oil changes and short trips or colder weather. If the lack of heat can be a cause, I guess it would be worst where the engine is coldest, which is probably the oil change cap. The cover on the engine does have some minimal insulation on it. Maybe I saw the worst. I can't see past the oil filler well enough to see how the cams look.
I do have an inspection camera and I may attempt to go through the PCV and see if the sludge is not too bad in the rest of the valve cover area. I don't want to take off the cover unless I need to.
For now, I am going to just run with the anti-sludge oil. Not sure if it helps at removing existing sludge... probably not. I would love to clear out the sludge mechanically, but I don't want to cause any other ill effect in doing that