Degunking the 351W

[tamalpass]

When you look inside the valve cover of my '83 P43's 351 Windsor, there be some hard black gunk caked everywhere. (must have used Quaker State)

old dude driver syndrome (ODDS)

Here's the question; is there anything NEW out there that I can add to the oil to dissolve this crud without clogging the oil pick up?

or am I gonna have to pull the motor?



120K miles on the engine.

[1990LTD]

Well, Seafoam is advertised to cure exactly that, BUT, the problem you get into (like you mentioned) is clogging the oil pickup and - imagine all of that crap falling onto the rockers and junk inside the valve covers. Not a good scene for anyone involved imo.

[1990LTD]

also i know it's not JUST the valve covers you're worried about but you could just clean the bejesus out of them when they're off.

[tamalpass]

also i know it's not JUST the valve covers you're worried about but you could just clean the bejesus out of them when they're off.

Dead on in both posts.

Question is can I get away with just doing pulling the valve covers and cleaning the top end? maybe drop the pan afterward and clean the bottom and replace the pump at the same time.

Might as well pull the motor in that event, but that's another issue with facilities, etc.

Just thinking out loud.

[tamalpass]

looks like this, BTW

[tamalpass]

Anyone familiar with AutoRx?

http://www.auto-rx.com/index.html

[1990LTD]

Dropping the pan in these cars is tricky, had to get the motor pulled out of mine to put a new pan on. If you gotta pull the motor and don't mind letting the car sit a while I'd rebuild as much as I could

[gadget73]

I'd be really concerned about trying to de-sludge that too fast. Moving too much garbage will clog things up. Usually accelerated oil change intervals with maybe a cup of ATF added per change will loosen things up slow enough to not clog things but still help get the motor un-shitted.

and yeah getting the pan out of these with the motor in is not exactly easy. You'd be better off yanking the motor entirely and then doing a more proper cleaning.

I've heard of AutoRX but I know nothing of it, so no opinion there.

[Brandon]

Dang that looks awful. If I were you I wouldnt touch it. You dont wanna disturb that shit then you'll have a worse problem than caked oil.

If you're good at working on cars then I'd pull the motor, clean it, freshen it up, and install it.

[packman]

Dayum!!!!!


Packman

[sly]

Friend of mine says auto-RX is the best slow working internal engine degunker he's ever used. he used it on a T100 (toyota) and pulled out a LOT of gunk in very fine bits through the oil filter (follow the directions very closely... when they say the first oil change should be in 500 miles, they mean it).

[tamalpass]

Dayum!!!!!


Packman

yeah, that was my reaction. That's not a pic of my motor, but it looks just like that in there.

[tamalpass]

Friend of mine says auto-RX is the best slow working internal engine degunker he's ever used. he used it on a T100 (toyota) and pulled out a LOT of gunk in very fine bits through the oil filter (follow the directions very closely... when they say the first oil change should be in 500 miles, they mean it).

That's good to know. real world experience is always good.

[cld783]

i'd clean the shit out of the top end/valve covers and let regular oil changes do the rest.

i wouldn't risk putting seafoam or any other shit in the oil. period!