Ever since my head gasket failure and subsequent repair, i have had had low oil pressure, not low enough to turn oil light on, but still way lower than it ever has been, around 20 psi max!! and lower at idle.
Oil that was taken out during head gasket replacement, was drained into a large pan so i could examine it, Which i didnt really get around to it just sat in garage (too much other stuff to do) anyways, i am about at the point to get her back on the road and was just fine tuning stuff.
I wanted to double check tension on timing chain for cams, so i took off front access plate and found the screen was almost totally blocked with clumped milky oil. (was cleaned during repair) I already knew i still had some of the contaminated oil in motor and just figured i would cycle through a few oil changes in quick succession.

After seeing the clogged screen, i decided to check out the oil i had never thrown away , as i was pouring it into jugs through an old strainer, it was so clumpy that i could physically pick them up as if they were grease!

Ok that leaves me one option, clean out my oil pan and pickup screen, now, I know in order to drop the pan i have to swing crossmember forward, Lots of work, so....... is there anything that anyone knows of that i can pour in to oil that may break down the remaining goop? so i can just change it out?
Im open to any and all opinons here, i really dotn want to drop crossmember if i can avoid it, ( wife wants to be able to park her car back in garage)

Thanks in advance.

Darren

 

Any time I ever saw milky, chunky oil it was contaminated with coolant. There is nothing I know of to break up the chunks. You need to find where the water is coming from because that's just not normal.

Doubtless not what you wanted to know, and I hope I'm wrong, but that's my experience for what it's worth.
(';')

 

you are correct, as i stated, i had head gasket failure, and now need to get remainder of clumps out as they are plugging pickup. (best i can tell) if possible without pulling pan!
All clumps are old, i no longer have coolant leak, pressure holds steady at 13psi for 2 days! so now its just matter of cleaning up what was leftover!!!

 

If you are a gambling man, you could try idling for an extended period with 25 percent ATF after draining off sufficient oil to allow for the ATF.

Drain hot and change the oil filter afterwards. And possibly repeat the procedure.

 

back in my marine mechanic days,we used to use a product called butyl-cellusolve.pour it in,run motor,drain gunk!

cheers,Jim.

 

I'm with Plums.

Done that many, many times, and as long as you have a good dose of common sense it should do no harm.

Mostly the contamination is on the "venting" side of business, so timing cover, front vent, etc. I have not seen that clumping as bad as you are describing, but I would doubt the oil pick up is clogged with it. Thats where the "gambler" bit comes in.

 

to make up for the risk at the oil pickup strainer i would add the atf and let it sit for a good 48 hours first before starting the idle process ... or start and let run for only a few minutes to mix the atf/oil and then let sit before the real idling process. patience is a virtue here.

 

Yep,

I call it "drinking time", as it clears the head, and makes rational thinking easier.

If the ATF scares you too much, use a simple Diesel oil, as they are very high in detergents.

 

Grant, that is the best part of working on stuff. Apart from a great outcome after a major job.

 

Why not run tests? You have some clumpy oil. split it into sample containers. Add the marine product to one, ATF to another and diesel to the remaining one. see which works best.


Resolve any doubt by "biting the bullet". Low oil pressure is not good, and eventually, you will pay a price.


Not to mention the angst factor preventing real enjoyment of the car.


Odd, product, though???


Way back when, I was skipping along at about 65 on the Golden State Freeway in my vintage 55 Dodge V8 powered pickup. suddenly, the temp guage pegged, the OP guage went to 0, and the engine quit!!!! My boss was with me!!!! We coasted into a service station. Driveway oil change, added water, used their booster to crank the engine, and away we went for home about another 5 miles. Just clear water at the bottom of the sump. I didn't use antifreeze, merely an inhibitor package in that mild climate.


So, it must be the glycol that merges with the oil to make the clumps, I guess???


Oh, the polysphere V8 got an in the frame over haul and returned to service, better than ever.


Carl