| Author | Message | ||
     Will Cupp (W_cupp) Member Username: W_cupp Post Number: 122 Registered: 07-2003 |
I have started to pull apart my top end to replace the intake gasket. When I pulled off the valve covers I found a black, gritty substance coating everything. It is in there thick. Is this carbon? It is very brittle and feels like sand after mashing it up in you hand. How can I clean this off with out taking the heads off? I do not have any power issues yet and the truck still seems to have full power, so I guess it is not bad on the valves yet. What causes this? | ||
| Geoff 93 RRC (Geoff) Member Username: Geoff Post Number: 138 Registered: 11-2002 |
Yeah, these engines leave a lot of residue especially on top of the heads. Its a combination of carbon from distilled crankcase fumes and oil sludge. You can use carb cleaner and/or engine cleaner from any parts store to dissolve it, but any chunks that wash down the oil drains means you might have to drop the oil pan (not a bad idea anyway), and clean it out too. On the other hand its usually fairly harmless unless it blocks the oil channels and you can just run a high detergent oil to remove it slowly over time. | ||
| Will Cupp (W_cupp) Member Username: W_cupp Post Number: 123 Registered: 07-2003 |
Hmmm, that just got me thinking... Carbon would not be on top of the heads right? This stuff looks like worm dirt after I scraped it from the valve covers. I guess that is just what it is, dirt, right? I wonder if it could be from the POS K&N filter? I change my oil every 3,000 with valvoline 10w30. What would be a high detergent oil? | ||
| Geoff 93 RRC (Geoff) Member Username: Geoff Post Number: 139 Registered: 11-2002 |
You still get carbon from crankcase gases (which is why the valve cover breather is there). On my boat, which I have only used synthetic oil, there is no brown sludge, but there is some black carbon residue on the heads here and there. Looks/feels like black dirt. The other component is the residue from oil that has been cooked (sludge). Also read this: http://yotarepair.com/sludge%20article.html. My RR engine has the black sludge. After about 30K of synthetic oil use the areas that frequently have oil flowing over it have cleaned up to a light brown. The rest of the head is pretty cruddy. I dropped the pan and the bottom was encrusted with the black stuff and had to be scraped out. Mobil 1 or any diesel engine oil like Shell Rotella, Mobil Delvac, Chevron Delo has a lot of detergents. All of these diesel oils are approved for gas engines and are API SL rated. The only downside to the synthetic/diesel oils is if you have a lot of blow-by due to worn rings they will tend to gum up your combustion chambers a bit more than other oils. |
