I just finished doing a intake/head job on my 3.8.. (Intake gasket was leaking so I went all the way.) The sludge build up in this motor is something I expected to see from a 200k + mile motor, not a 120k motor, in other words this car was poorly taken care of. The top end of the motor is sludge free now. Since i put all new lifters in this motor my concern is sludge from the bottom end making its way to the lifter if I did the old ATF, or sea foam trick.

I would just drop the pan and clean the sludge that way, but I'am almost positive you have to drop the K member on these cars to do so.
Does anyone know if I can disconnect motor mounts and hoist the motor up enough to sneak the pan out without dropping the K member??

If hoisting the motor high enough to sneak the pan out is not an option what about running a good synthetic and changing it every 500-1000 miles a couple times.

I'am looking to get the maximum MPG out of this car as it is my dally. I would also like to get maximum life out of this motor.

Any help is very appreciated! Thank you in advance!

 

Get a case of cheap oil and a couple filters. Get a can of seafoam. Add seafoam to the oil as directed by the can. Run the engine about 200 miles, Make sure you get it up to full temp atleat 30 minutes. Do two new oil changes the same way with 200-500 miles each. Then finish off with some mobil1 and a good filter and No seafoam. New filter is critical so none of this dirt ends up in the lifters. Once the seafoam start to work most the sludge will end up in he bottom of the oil pan. Do not drive the first oil change more then the 200 miles ( if you have time just let it idle for any hour then change it as hot as you can stand it.)

I have clean sludge out of a lot of car. I have never seen sludge from the lower end cause any real problem. Most of the time the sludge plugs up the return areas in the head(s) and all the oil get stuck in the top of the motor and the bottom end runs dry at high RPMs. If you have any oil leak or a pressure problem then by all means,,, but baring that I would just flush the motor out.

 

O Wow... I uses some cheap 10 30 from advance, drove the car for two days, and I just got done Sea Foaming my motor this morning... I should have taken pics of all the sludge that came pouring out of my oil pan, and the filter is black.. I put a total of 150 miles on before I Sea Foamed.. I'am going to do it one more time. Sea foam works like a champ gorn. I have heard mixed reviews about Sea Foam added to crank case, but if you do it correctly it works wonders! Thanks for the help bud.

 

In the old days we would use kerosene and just let the car idles. I have seen it where you had to use a screw driver to keep the drain plug hole from getting clogged. I would not do that to a modern engine.

I am not a fan of leaving the Seafoam in the engine during normal operation. Let it clean and get it out.

 

O ya.. I was sure to only idle my motor with the sea foam.. I would never leave something like that in my crank case.