Dirty oil

[c10crazy]

Today I drained my oil on level ground but I couldn't get the filter off so I put the truck on jack stands to reach it better. I let the oil drain completely out -I think!. When the filter came out it seemed half full. I put the new filter on and lowered it off the stands. It only took 4 qts oil. Is this because I haven't fired it up yet to fill the filter?. Also when I pull the dipstick it's filthy!. My oil only had about 1000 miles at the most. What would cause it to be black like that?

[shortymac83]

sounds like blowby. and yeah, your oil filter isn't full, so it'll use less oil. fill it with the reccomended 5 quarts, pull the coil wire and crank until you build oil pressure. I'll bet the dipstick will read ok.

[c10crazy]

What causes blowby?. I have noticed the truck smoking lately. The engine was rebuilt before I got it and runs good but hasn't been driven much lately. I've never seen oil this black.

[shortymac83]

blowby is caused usually by bad rings that allow the exhaust gasses to get into the crankcase and dirty the oil and/or pressurize the system. If it's bad enough, you'll find oil in your air cleaner, because the pressure is great enough to force it back through the breather tube in the valve cover and into the air filter housing. If it's been sitting for a while, the rings might be stuck and it could cure itself, then again, if it was a shoddy rebuild or something, it might just stay the same.

[c10crazy]

My air cleaner looks oily!. Maybe I can drive the hell out of it and reseat the rings?

[arkracing]

put a quart of marvel mystry oil in it and drive it/run it for a while - don't beat the snot out of it with the mystry oil though.

the other thing you can do is squirt some down the spark plug holes into the cylinders and let it sit for a few days...don't start it right away you might bend a rod (due to the oil in the cylinder) probably won't happen but don't take the chance...spin it over by hand with a big rachet with the plugs out once you put some marvel in there, then put the plugs back in

a little tranny fluid will do the same thing if you don't want to go out and by marvel.

pull a rocker arm cover and check to see if the "Oil returns" are pluged up...on each end of the head there should be a hole going down into the lifter galley. - if the are pluged the oil doesn't drain back properly and this will cause oil to get up into the air cleaner also.

with it running pull the oil fill cover and the PCV valve...see if it "puffs and huffs" - that is the easiest way to check for blow-by

[Blue Beard]

Could be alot of sludge buildup, but wouldn't suspect it if the engine was rebuilt.

Doesn't sound like the engine was a total rebuild. Some people do the heads and call that a rebuild.

[64fleetside]

Some folks just paint them & call them rebuilt. Rebuild in a can! Brian

[c10crazy]

How do you remove sludge from the engine?

[shortymac83]

run fleet oil with a detergent in it, like Rotella or something. If you have some stones, do the following, but don't sue me if you blow up your motor. I've done it once, and it does the trick, but you never know.

Completely drain your oil, put on a cheap filter and fill it with 4 qts of cheap oil and 1 qt kerosene. put the heater on full blast on the defrost setting and run your motor at idle. DO NOT drive it. THE MINUTE you feel some heat from the defroster, kill the motor. Change the filter and use cheap oil again, but DO NOT use kerosene again, this time is just a standard oil change. your filter will weigh about 15 lbs (or so it seems). Drive it for 100 miles or so, then change your filter and oil again, only this time go with a quality filter (like WIX) and Rotella for a motor oil. Voila, squeaky clean motor. I stuck my filter in a lathe after using the kerosene, and it was literally half full of sludge that the kero cleaned off the motor.

With the truck, I used the kerosene treatment, and it worked fine. no bad effects. with the Olds, I just used Rotella, and when I pulled the oil pan, it was squeaky clean as well, but that took quite a bit longer. Then again, the olds had Quaker State run in it, so there was crap all over when I pulled the top off the motor.

[c10crazy]

I remember a long time ago using Motor Flush but was told it was bad for the motor. . I'll start with 2 oil changes and see if it helps. Thanks for the info.

[shortymac83]

motor flush is essentially kerosene. The friend that told me to do this first did it in 1977 with a ford side-oiler, and it's still running today without being torn down once.

[c10crazy]

Your absolutely right!. I used to use it all the time with no probs years ago. It only runs thru for 5 minutes anyway. I'm going to do it and see what happens. Thanks Shorty!

[53burb]

Any update this. I am due for oil change in my Burb and I want to try this...