1998 4.2l v6 auto 200k miles.

I think my old oil was holding my engine together. Changed the oil and a few days later I've gotten a nice slurry coming out the throttle body.

I pulled the plenum and this is what I found.

Looks like cylinder #4 and maybe #6 are the most affected.

From what I've read on here, it would seem like it's the lower intake gasket. It's not overheating, just dying and misfiring after it warms up. I don't have a compression tester so didn't test that.

I plan on changing the gasket and slapping it all back together and praying this week.

Here's my dilemma. It seems the sludge has gotten into everything. The line for the brake booster, pretty much every hose there is. How on earth do I clean this all out?

 

Well my first concern would be that if you've got that much moisture in your throttle body and your intake, you've got it in your cylinders. And it doesn't take long for your cylinders to rust. Get it out of there pronto and hope your engine isnt toast. You do not want it to sit in there forveru long while you work on this stuff. Worry about the other stuff after you get your engine clean and lubed. How to do that best i'm not sure without the manifold. I'd be draining the oil pan and checking what it looks like as well.

 

Thanks for the reply

You're right, I'm definitely not thinking straight. This happened Tuesday so hopefully it's not to far gone. The engine needed an overhaul before this so I'm hopefully able to get it running till I can get a reman block. This is the worst I've dealt with so I don't even know where to begin. Can I fill the block with wd40 or ATF fluid to flush the goo while it's sitting up?

 

I don't know how you flush it /crank it without the manifold. You can spray a lot of stuff into intake runners and cylinders and and turn it over by hand. If you actually have moisture in your oil too and it's in your bearings I would really want to get good oil in there and have it moving around and displacing water...but you cant crank it. If you can't crank it you can't make oil pressure and flow good oil.

 

Something tells me this isn't good.


Pretty sure it was a gasket failure around the coolant port

 

What a mess! Did it run like that?
I dont know what you should do besides a complete engine tear down.
But I want to follow as to what you end up doing.

 

It started misfiring on the interstate and I was able to drive it home with one foot on the brake and one on the gas. It wasn't overheating just running ragged so I thought it may have been an injector or something. When I got home I pulled the dipstick and knew it was a goner.

I hate to rebuild it since the trucks not in great shape to begin with but at this point its the cheapest/smartest option. I have a machine shop where I can do the work on it.

I want to bail on this truck so bad but I can't find anything to buy. $10k gets you 200,000miles on a truck these days

 

Im gonna concur.
I don't know what you can do besides change the gaskets fast get it back together get it running and change the oil and get it hot and drive all the moisture out...change oil again .then hope for best

 

A lot of work, take the heads off to clean them up, flush the cylinders, drop the pan, I would guess pull the cam and timing cover.
Basically tear it all down just to clean it all up, I would say that gunk is all over.
Some would use diesel fuel to flush first with the pan on, pour it everywhere, in the cylinders too, drain and do it again.
Then drop the pan.

 

This ^^^

Maybe pull the valve covers and clean those up as well. Valve train and whatever has stuck to the top of the covers...that stuff can cake up in there.