In a 1982 F150 I am working on, we pulled the Valve Covers off and saw about a quarter inch of sludge. Engine runs great and the truck was recently purchased by a buddy for cheap so we're fixing it up. How do we correctly clean this crap? And is there anything else I should be worried about?

 

A lot of questions here. You say valve covers, so it must be a V8? 302 or 351? Is the sludge actually stuck under the valve covers or on top of the heads? Is there oil presently getting to the top of the heads? You probably don't know any history of the truck, such as oil changes?

Your best bet would probably be to change the oil with a regular name brand oil and a Motorcraft or Wix filter. Do that about every 500 miles for a while. Probably not a good idea to use a high detergent flush unless you put it in just a short while before an oil change.

 

The truck has a 302 Windsor V8. The sludge is directly under the Valve covers around the valves on both sides, and seems to be somewhat almost dry and chalky. We changed the oil about 500 miles ago, and because of a leak, topped it off when we changed the alternator among other things. We have very little history on the truck other than what we've done to it. We haven't gotten down into the heads yet, but pulling the valve covers was a sight to see.

 

Did a bit of research and talked to a race mechanic buddy of mine. If anybody else is wondering out there, Black Sludge is somewhat good because it means the head gasket isn't blown, and it's mostly from a lack of oil changes in the past. To remedy this gunk, fill all the oil flow ports with a rag, then use a shop vac to vacuum all the clumped up sludge. After that, use brake clean or something similar to clean the rest of it out. Using good oil and changing the oil regularly should prevent this from happening in the future. Also, just take some extra oil and lube everything up so it runs smooth.

 

Personally, I plugged up all the oiling ports and used an ice pick type of scraper and a shop vac. Took a while for sure, but it looked good when I was done. I wasn't near 1/4" though. Its from infrequent oil changes and short trips.

Some guys I know will put ATF in and run that just before they do an oil change or remove valve covers, supposedly the detergents are stronger and makes removing that stuff easier.

 

The question now is, is there any fresh oil getting up to the top of the heads to wash the sludge out? Or I should say to keep the sludge out in the future. I do agree, removing what sludge you can by hand is a great idea.

 

I've seen some nasty stuff come out a drain plug before after adding a half can of seafoam just before an oil change (50-100 miles on it).

 

I once bought an 88 F150 with a 300cid engine. When i pulled the drain plug on this 4k mile engine, the oil was too thick to flow out. I pulled the coil wire and the oil filter and used the starter and oil pump to get that crud out. Next I put 4 quarts of ATF in the engine and started it and let it idle for an hour. I pulled the drain plug again and drained the oil out. It was mega gross.
I repeated this procedure 2 more times and then put 4 quarts of oil in and a quart of ATF. This time I drove the pickup gently for about 50 miles til the oil looked filthy again. I then changed the oil every 500 miles for 1500 miles, adding a quart of ATF just before the oil change. After that the pickup got normal oil changes.
Fast forward to 95K miles and the oil pan gasket started to leak. Pulled the pan and it was SPOTLESS inside! No sign of sludge, crud or crap in the pan. ATF is very high detergent.

Bill