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Was getting my oil changed this morning and the tech said that I have a good amount of sludge built up in my engine. I don't really want to pay them the astronomical amount to clean the sludge out. Is there any ways that I can do this myself? I know the reason this happened is because I drive a total of 2 miles to work and my engine never gets warm enough to burn the water vapor off.

Put some sea foam in your oil and gas.

rebelp74 wrote:Put some sea foam in your oil and gas.

Bingo, about 50-60 miles before your next oil change, put some sea foam in your oil, then change it. It may take a couple change cycles to really clean things up though. Also like Reb said, a can in the gas does wonders for your engine and mileage!

That up to 10% ethanol in gas really sucks on an engine. Gums everything up pretty bad.

If you really want to clean it out with seafoam while the car is running disconnect the vacuum line to the brake booster and slowly pour in half a can of sea foam into the line. Not to much or you'll stall the car. When the can is almost half empty cut the car off and let it sit for 30 minutes. Turn the car back on an Rev at a higher RPM. If you have tons of white smoke come come from your exhaust you did it right.

Thanks for the help guys, I'll try the seafoam trick. Hopefully I caught this soon and won't have too many more troubles. Would you suggest I wait the full 3K miles for the next oil change? or maybe do one at 500-1000 miles?

To clean the sludge out of an engine, drain the oil and replace the oil filter. Fill the crankcase with kerosene and run the engine for about 1-3 minutes or until the oil pressure starts to drop. Stop the engine and drain the crankcase and change the oil filter and refill with your regular motor oil. Make sure the engine is at operating temp before you start. If the sludge is real bad, you may need to take a screwdriver to free the oil pan drain plug hole to get all the crap out of the pan.

If you can't find kerosene, use diesel.

3geese4me wrote:Was getting my oil changed this morning and the tech said that I have a good amount of sludge built up in my engine. I don't really want to pay them the astronomical amount to clean the sludge out. Is there any ways that I can do this myself? I know the reason this happened is because I drive a total of 2 miles to work and my engine never gets warm enough to burn the water vapor off.

ask yourself how an oil change tech would know your engine has a sludge build up issue

jehler wrote:

3geese4me wrote:Was getting my oil changed this morning and the tech said that I have a good amount of sludge built up in my engine. I don't really want to pay them the astronomical amount to clean the sludge out. Is there any ways that I can do this myself? I know the reason this happened is because I drive a total of 2 miles to work and my engine never gets warm enough to burn the water vapor off.

ask yourself how an oil change tech would know your engine has a sludge build up issue

x-ray vision glasses

Olly wrote:If you really want to clean it out with seafoam while the car is running disconnect the vacuum line to the brake booster and slowly pour in half a can of sea foam into the line. Not to much or you'll stall the car. When the can is almost half empty cut the car off and let it sit for 30 minutes. Turn the car back on an Rev at a higher RPM. If you have tons of white smoke come come from your exhaust you did it right.

To add to the not too much part, it not only will stall it, it can vapor lock the engine. Seen it happen to a dipshit in the dorm parking lot when I was at college.
I got the whole thing started when i sea foamed my old truck when it had almost 200k on it. it make so much smoke that the campus police came and tift county fire dept was called bc they thought the school was on fire.They told us no more sea foaming on campus shortly after that.

jehler wrote:

3geese4me wrote:Was getting my oil changed this morning and the tech said that I have a good amount of sludge built up in my engine. I don't really want to pay them the astronomical amount to clean the sludge out. Is there any ways that I can do this myself? I know the reason this happened is because I drive a total of 2 miles to work and my engine never gets warm enough to burn the water vapor off.

ask yourself how an oil change tech would know your engine has a sludge build up issue

No fucking shit! Best way to keep sludge out of your engine is to change the oil at the recommended intervals.

Bulldog0156 wrote:

jehler wrote:

3geese4me wrote:Was getting my oil changed this morning and the tech said that I have a good amount of sludge built up in my engine. I don't really want to pay them the astronomical amount to clean the sludge out. Is there any ways that I can do this myself? I know the reason this happened is because I drive a total of 2 miles to work and my engine never gets warm enough to burn the water vapor off.

ask yourself how an oil change tech would know your engine has a sludge build up issue

No fucking shit! Best way to keep sludge out of your engine is to change the oil at the recommended intervals.

And to avoid jiffy lube

jehler wrote:

3geese4me wrote:Was getting my oil changed this morning and the tech said that I have a good amount of sludge built up in my engine. I don't really want to pay them the astronomical amount to clean the sludge out. Is there any ways that I can do this myself? I know the reason this happened is because I drive a total of 2 miles to work and my engine never gets warm enough to burn the water vapor off.

ask yourself how an oil change tech would know your engine has a sludge build up issue

I missed this before.
You're dead right. They just try to bullshit you into paying them to do something that doesn't need to be done. I saw them do this to my friend once at a quick lube place. Dude got down in the pit under the truck and starts shaking his steering components around and then says "uh oh !" real loud. Then gets the manager to come over and look at it, he grabs something and shakes it and announces "that ain't good !"
Then they wanted to charge him 400 bucks to replace tie rod ends and some steering linkage that was completely fine. Mind you he took it in for an oil change...
Took it to a shop at home where he knows the owner and they said the truck was fine.

3geese4me wrote:Thanks for the help guys, I'll try the seafoam trick. Hopefully I caught this soon and won't have too many more troubles. Would you suggest I wait the full 3K miles for the next oil change? or maybe do one at 500-1000 miles?

If your really paranoid, buy a case if the cheap part shop brand oil, and run a couple cycles with that, but if I were you, I'd just wait till your next change. The sea foam in the intake is another good trick, helps to have some shit the engine off for you to save a lot of running before the engine stalls. When you start it back up, rev it up and down several times. It will smoke for a little while afterwards, best thing to do is drive it like you stole it for 10-20 miles. I did the intake trick in my old jeep and the thing made a plume so big I couldn't see the neighbors house

The farm store here sells their brand of fully synthetic oil for only $2.99/quart. I use that and don't worry about sludge.