I have a 1998 2500 4x4 chevy with a 5.7L engine. I want to know if there is anyway to clean gunk from setting a long time without running out of the oil pan without removing it. I seems its a major job to remove the oil pan on this truck.
Without dropping the pan and scraping it out, the only way–in theory-- to get rid of the gunk in the oil pan is to use a solvent/flush.
However, the problems with that approach are twofold:
Whatever you remove from the pan will then circulate through the engine. Can you imagine what happens to the bearings and to the extremely narrow oil galleries at that point?
Oil sludge that has been sitting for many years will be very difficult to remove with a solvent/flush, and only a small part of that accumulation will likely yield to the solvent/flush.
If you really want to remove that sludge, you will have to drop the pan and spend a lot of time and energy scraping it out. And then, after reinstalling the pan, I would recommend a solvent/flush, followed by a couple of oil changes at intervals of 500 miles–or less.
Do you live in Minnesota?
The son just had a Chevy truck come in the other day for an oil change. And when the drain plug was removed the oil wouldn’t drain out. He had to take a screwdriver and poke it in the drain hole to push the sludge out of the way to get the oil to drain. And then when the filter was removed, it was filled with sludge and weighed about two pounds. The only thing that prevented the engine from being starved of oil was the by-pass valve in the oil filter.
Tester
What makes you think the oil gunked up? I’m asking, because ‘fairly’ clean oil can sit in the oil pan for a long, long time before forming gunk. Typically, gunk forms when oil is overworked or not changed at proper intervals. I would just change it with a quality oil. If gunk is in there, some should ooze out of the oil drain hole. Then, I’d use cheap oil and some engine oil flush to dissolve as much as possible, then change with a quality oil after that.
@BustedKnuckles
You don’t want to use an engine oil flush because the sludge can break off in large chunks where it can’t pass thru the drain hole. Then these chunks get suspended in the oil where they get pulled to the oil pump pick-up screen plugging it which starves the engine of oil.
To properly remove the sludge the oil pan has to be removed.
Tester
Did you poke your finger in the oil drain hole and can feel a lot of sludge there? And you think it is due to the truck not being driven much? hmmm … what I do in that situation is try the same experiment on another truck of the same vintage that I know has been driven frequently; maybe you are overly-concerned about the amount of sludge on the bottom of the pan.
If you decide there really is a lot more sludge than there should be, I’m with the others here, avoid an engine flush. That will likely cause more problems than it will solve. And expensive ones. You’ll just have to remove the pan.
On my Ford truck, I think removing the oil pan would be maybe a 60 minute job. An hour to remove it, an hour to clean it, and an hour to put the pan back on. 3 hours. So I’m assuming there are obstacles in the way to removing the pan or your truck, maybe support beams are in the way? What is the reason it is difficult to remove the pan on your truck?
@tester, respectfully, he’s looking for an option other than dropping the pan. Chunks of crud should be caught by the oil pump pick-up screen or the oil filter and not get into the oil passages. Except for the crud that has already formed past the filter. But, short of a tear down and tanking the block, there’s not much else you can do other than try a flush.
If the OP tries a flush, whatever sludge it frees will then risk plugging the pick-up screen of the oil pump.
The bottom line is that the only option is to drop the pan.
Sorry wizard.
If the truck was serviced regularly as Knuckles pointed out, it is unlikely there is any “sludge” in the oil pan…What does the oil look like on the dipstick? If it BLACK and and no maintenance records are available, then there MIGHT be a problem. But if the oil looks reasonably clean there is no reason to assume the engine is sludged up…
I don’t know about anyone else, but when I see a title of a post “Oil Pan Gunk”, I think of sludge.
Tester
I’ll second that.
On the other hand, the OP never did clarify any reason behind the question. Maybe it’s just a hypothetical question. Perhaps Wizard just want a pristine engine.
Wizard? Was there a reason behind the question?
Maybe he uses Quaker State. Many years ago, it was known for sludging up a perfectly good engine. I wonder if it still does.
Seems to me, just because the truck has been sitting, the OP assumes it’s “gunked up”…But sitting unused does not by itself produce sludge. It would be a lot easier to pull a valve cover to determine the degree of “gunk” than to pull the oil pan…If the varnish build-up on the rockers is moderate, I would put the cover back on and put the truck back into service without any further explorations…If it’s not broke, don’t fix it…
During an oil change a small loop can be made on the end of a length of coat hanger, inserted into the oil drain hole, and used to dredge the bottom of the pan a bit.
Depending on what comes out with that loop it may be time to drop the pan and take a look no matter how distasteful the job may be.
There’s also the issue of coked oil clogging up the oil pump pickup screen. That may be a serious problem depending upon how badly the screen is coked up.
Is there any opening that can be provided via easy removal of an exterior component that would allow looking in the pan with a borescope? I was trying to think of one but was unable to.
The drain plug?
I thought of that, and they do have 90 degree heads for fiber optic scopes (I have one), but I’m not sure it’d be possible to get the fiber optic probe in there without getting the optics messed up with oil. Still, it’s probably worth trying.
Wizard, can you get your hands on a fiber optic scope with a 90 degree attachment?
Bite the bullet, drop the pan and clean it right. Everything else could be a guess.
The OP, (who has not returned) is guessing about the need to clean the oil pan to begin with…Do unused vehicles that have been “setting” automatically get gunked up??