I just got a 1987 2.8 s10 blazer. The oil was leaking out from the valve covers so I bought gaskets and took the right side valve cover off. What a mess.there is sludge that you wouldnt believe.My question is what can be done to wash this engine out? It runs good but I hate to drive it with all that mess in it. I cant afford to overhaul the engine.Is ther a way to clean this up short of a major expense?

 

seafoam

 

They have cans of Engine Flush, that you add before you do an Oil change. Just dump it in, run the engine for 5 mins so it can get circulated through the engine and then drain your oil. They say on real dirty engines 2 cans.

I used it on all my vehicles and havent had any problems, but I also havent been in one to see if there really clean or not.

 

I'd recommend using the engine flush but doing it twice. Fill with nice clean oil and put about 100 miles on it and then flush the engine again. You want to get as much of the crap out of there as quick as you can.

Use your choice as to what to add for the flush. I've only used the stuff made for flushing the engine but Seafoam will probably do the job just fine.

Keep in mind, you may find more oil leaks once you get all the gunk out of the engine. It might also uncover some other problems that the gunk has been hiding, too. But, having that stuff in there is causing more damage that getting it out will uncover.

 

A litre of diesel into the crankcase and run for 10 min works for me. Its got lots of detergents in it to break down all that gunk, and diesel still lubes up the stuff inside ok.

Ive heard that a bottle of ATF will do a nice cleaning too and lubes much better.

 

I had purchased a 66 Chevy Impala with a 283 V8 while I was in the Navy and it was idleing rough and kind of high. I pulled the valve covers and one side was full of sludge. I removed each rocker arm and pushrod and cleaned it off in gasoline. Somehow I cleaned off the valve springs as well and everything under the valve cover. I do not remember exactly how I got it all cleaned up. But I put everthing back together, adjusted the valves set the idle to the correct RPM and the car ran great after that. (I think any solvent that will break it up, lots of rags, shop vac, & compressed air should be able to get all the sludge) Run some motor flush or seafoam afterwards and you should be ok.

 

Rather than Seafoam or one of the harsh engine flushes, this sounds like a job for Auto-Rx. Check it out.

 

Thanks for the help,I will clean it and let you know how it all works out.Anything will be a improvement to what I have now.

 

Ok,here is what I ended up doing.I mixed 4 gts of diesel with 1 gt of cheap trans fluid.I cranked the engine and got it warm.I then drained the oil and put in the mixture.I cranked it and let it run for 5minutes.The valves clicked some but at the end of 5 mionutes it was running quite well.I then drained the oil . Ithen filled the crank case with diesel but did not crank the engine.I then drained that all out and removed the filter.After a refill of mobil1 and a delco filter it is running great.Im going to watch it close for new leaks but ,knock on wood,it is all go for now.I did look into the oil fill hole in the valve cover and it looks really clean. Thanks for all the help from everybody,yuo guys are gust great.

 

I'll have to try that diesel trick one time. I can get free diesel at work, they wont notice a few qts missing from there 1000 gal tank.