No way are you going to get that out of there slowly . Drop the oil pan put a pan under it start cleaning it with tooth brushes and solvent . I have heard unfortunately that gasoline is the best working solvent so be carefull . . We see this in deep north engines on everyday short runs it gets close to 200 degree f but not long enough to create vapor to be sucked out by pcv . Then it goes to 0 degrees that night over and over repeating . . It may only go 2000 miles in six months no oil change . My guess is its not synthetic .oil .
You should get timing cover off and take vct bodies apart and clean . Clean or new vcts . Flush with cheap oil, scrub everything you can .. An engine flush at this point is going to start clogging stuff . In the end do a new hv melling oil pump . . i'm afraid your phasers are shot too much junk and wear . . you can't get lube thru thru this cake frosting .
I do an engine flush every other oil change , some let it sit overnight to soak . You are going to go thru several cheap oil changes in a quick way in a matter of days . Mine was only varnished at 130k and it still wanted to fail . My complete timing job was $1400 in parts .
Your lashs will be full of junk . ,you can soak them but if over 100k replace .
This is not a very cheery reply . sorry
me I would try to clean it over many hours, dealer will say new engine remab 7500

 

Actually I was curious and did some searching I think I would give liqui moly engine flush a try. It seems to work in Audi and vw turbo engines with sludge issues. I think if you were careful and keep an eye on the oil pressure you could try it. It might take several treatments though... You just put in a bottle and run it for ten minutes before changing the oil.

 

At this point i think that is what I'm going to try. I cant afford to replace the engine, and I'm assuming a dealership would realize the engine is full of sludge if I tried to do a trade in?

 

Maybe you could do this?

 

Shoot it looks like it's never been changed really.Holy molly I can't see oil flow would be very good there bud. That is pretty bad and I'm surprised it didn't fail a little sooner than that. The build up alone wouldn't let oil flow to the phasers.

 

As bad as it is in there and all bud... I would if your able to and it's in your price range would be to do an engine flush with Sea Foam Motor flush (which works wonders on some of the cars I have worked on that was bad like this) then maybe replace your heads with some rebuilt OEM loaded heads (fully assembled). If it was me and I seen that I would definitely rebuild the whole motor. No telling what else you will find in there. I myself am dealing with the 5.4L 3V Gremlin's.

 

I would recommend the auto rx cleaner. I had the same vibration at hot idle, turned out to be a bad phaser (or actuator as the shop manual calls it). I decided to do a full timing set but scoped it through the pcv port on the valve cover and there was alot of sludge. Not as much as yours but it was quite a bit. Followed the directions (change oil, add flush and run for 1000 or 1500 miles. Cant remember). When I disassembled it to do the job the engine looked brand new inside I was shocked. You want 2 bottles btw. I would also recommend a full timing set. At the very minimum change both phasers, vct solenoids and drop oil pan to make sure pickup is clean at the end.

 

FYI you don't have to take the valve covers off to change the vct selonoids but its probably good you did. there are plenty of vids out there concerning the sludge. search them and pick one

 

Access to the VCT solenoids via the valve covers varies in the 04-08’s. Earlier valve covers had a larger grommet, so you could just pop it out them access the torx screw holding the solenoid in. I think in mid 07ish, they changed it and made the port smaller with a smaller grommet, basically forcing you to remove the valve cover for access.