I went to do a spark plug change and then had to replace the valve cover gasket and then stopped in shock. The previous owners (friends of mine who gave me the car) never changed the oil so this was the results. What is the process in cleaning this up? 2009 kia rondo lx 4 cyl
Your post is a little unclear. Is the caked oil on the block or under the valve cover ? What year and how many miles on your car and how can you know the owner never changer the oil?
If the oil is caked on the block, it was probably from the leaking valve cover and I would use first a small putty knife and then an engine de-greaser.
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You’re talking about sludge, imo
please post a picture
Seems you bought a neglected car?
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Does it look like someone barbequed a pig inside the engine?? Black crusty deposits?
I had a similar issue in a 97K mile Suburban I bought. When I did its first oil change with synthetic oil, it started melting that gunk away so quickly I changed again at 1500 miles and then again at 3000 miles. At that point I went to 5000 miles and all was well. When I did a head gasket job on it a few years later, there were still charcoal like deposits under the valve covers.
The post below might shed some light on what to do.
https://knowhow.napaonline.com/what-is-an-oil-flush-are-they-necessary/
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Keep a very close eye out for the low oil pressure (not low level if it has one) red light, if it comes on, turn engine off immediately, that will probably mean that chunks of that goo has broken off and landed in the oil pan and is clogging up the oil pump pick up screen…
Use a shop vac to suck up as much of it as is loose…
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I’d seriously consider selling it before something lets loose.
Tester
Yeah i was gonna do that but i have no means to get another car. So ive gotta work with what i got. Im trying to make it last as long as possible. Ive done power steering pump, alternator, oil change, transmission fluid, new radiator hose, and im about to replace the radiator and radiator fan which is not working.
I’d do as @Mustangman did, repeated changes with synthetic oil, see if that cleans things up some. With a new filter each time, of course.
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Agreed on this approach.
It will be “expensive” to do frequent oil changes…but it’s a lot less expensive than finding out you need a new engine on a Kia at 2:00 in the morning. When it’s raining and you’ve got somewhere to be…
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I’m not a big fan of trying to remove this all at once because large chunks could let loose and plug the oil filter. I’d try to remove it slowly over time. Change oil and filter every 2k miles or once a month. Replace quart of oil at each oil change with a quart of Rislone. And only use a full synthetic motor oil.
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