Holy Engine Oil Sludge!

[AntleredRuin]

The low oil pressure light should turn off the engine instantly.


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Well, the light itself shouldn't, but the driver should when he/she sees that light.

My wife still laughs about a time a couple years ago. We were watching the show 'Home Improvement', and Jill got the oil pressure light and didn't turn off the car, or even tell Tim until a few days later. By then, it was way too late, so he was forced to rebuild the engine and he was all pissed about it.

I muted the TV and turned to her and said something to the effect of "I know he's usually a jackass in this show, but he's completely right to be mad at her. You see that light, you shut it off immediately, and you call me."
She took those words to heart; now every time she even sees a check engine light, she lets me know immediately. Nearly scared the shit out of her on her new-to-her 2005 Sequoia when the CEL, VSC, and TRAC lights all went off at the same time (was just an O2 sensor).

 

[audiness]

with that much sludge, the motor was neglected, a knocking motor was inevitable anyway. Find a good cheap JDM replacement and move on .

 

[Kanoe]

and got an oil light. I figure it’s was low since I cleaned out all that sludge. (

Sorry about your truck. This post is not aimed at you OP, just general FYI.

The oil light has nothing (directly at least) to do with oil level. It is an oil pressure light. The switch turns off the oil pressure light when oil pressure is above a certain pressure. 4-5 psi I believe, surprisingly low. And lights up when oil pressure is below that value.

Yes, running out of oil would also cause a low pressure when it gets low enough.

 

[Mantilgh]

I wonder if a chunk of sludge (from your cleaning) got stuck somewhere and blocked the flow of the oil.

I guess if there’s still a decent amount of oil in the stick, than that’s the case.

Sorry for your loss.


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[gamefreakgc]

Sorry about your truck. This post is not aimed at you OP, just general FYI.

The oil light has nothing (directly at least) to do with oil level. It is an oil pressure light. The switch turns off the oil pressure light when oil pressure is above a certain pressure. 4-5 psi I believe, surprisingly low. And lights up when oil pressure is below that value.

Yes, running out of oil would also cause a low pressure when it gets low enough.

Yeah that was my thought, it was pumping air and not oil!

 

[BoomerBob]

Well boys I come back to post a sad sad update on this....

I got everything back on and cleaned out. Started it up and was running beautifully and way healthier. I let it idle In the drive way for awhile. I took it for a test drive down the road and got an oil light. I figure it’s was low since I cleaned out all that sludge. I get to the bottom of my hill and the truck just losses all power. ****! Right before it died it started knocking. ****! I knew I was low on oil but I had no idea I was that low after cleaning it. So now she knocks in idle which tells me I done ****ed my engine up. I’m guessing the head gasket is toast amongst other things I’ve been reading on here. So what was suppose to cost me 80$ to replace the valve cover gasket is now going to cost me a new motor and cost of labor. I’m trying to look at positives of this, newer Motor with less miles (mine at 223k, was hoping to keep her going way past this but that’s life).

So feel free to roast me into oblivion

No roasting from me. About 6 weeks after getting mine with just 147k the radiator hose blew off after installing a new radiator cap. I thought it just effed up the head gasket and heads but turns out the lower end is also toast so a new long block was needed. I wasted 2 months (long story) and $800 replacing the HG's and spending $400 to get the heads redone along with getting a bunch of tools I may or may not ever use again

It's running great now though. Still in the break in 500 stage. Thought I had a bad front wheel bearing going out too but just ended up being the inner brake pad was not on the pins. I don't how anyone could screw that up. It was floating and making noise. It couldn't fall out but still... What a bone head move on someone's part. Better than a bad bearing I guess.

 

[joeczabaranek]

The 5VZFE on my '98 looked similar to the OP at about 105k miles. I purchased the vehicle at 95k and changed the oil every 5k with dino oil. The previous owner seemed to have done the same with what invoices were handed over to me. At 105k a tiny (1mm?) oil passage in one of the cams clogged and the forward bearing dried up, burned itself and the rubber seal up, and blew all of the engine oil out in my driveway. The journal isn't replaceable so a new cylinder head in addition to the cam would have been required. For a little more than the price of replacing a cylinder head and a little less than replacing both I got a rebuilt motor put in. I'be be really careful doing anything too aggressive trying to remove sludge. It only takes one little flake to kill your motor. Im not sure why the valve train and valve covers sludge up like they do but running synthetic for the life of the engine and <=5k OCIs seems like cheap insurance.

 

[calimobber]

Dont count it out yet. I know someone who drove a highlander for like an hour after they got an oil change and they forgot to add oil. It was knocking bad but they just put oil back in and it quieted down after a while and its still in use today( this was a few years ago)

 

[JLTD]

You want to do it slow.

...

I think the sea foam might break it up and clog the oil pump inlet screen.

I totally agree here; Solvents and flushes can release large chunks.

If it were mine, I'd just use short intervals with an inexpensive oil which will gradually clean things up.

In fact I once made a purchase on a badly sludged vehicle, did 2500 mile oil&filter changes for about 4 cycles then worked up to my normal interval....never any oil related problems.