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Well, got to the valve covers yesterday and found sludge. As an update, bought this cheap. Link to my original post. To date have done lots of stuff as it had been sitting and def had deferred maintenance with the second owner.
Driver side, maybe a bit better than the passenger.
Since buying the car I did an immediate oil change and we have driven nearly 4k trouble free miles. TB, WP, pulleys etc changed at a local Indy.
Did lots of reading last night and seems to be common to Toyota's secondary to the PCM. I was changing the PCV 2 weeks age and notice sludge on it. Didnt figure it would be quite to the level. Anyhow, have a couple options:
1. Aggressive - Engine flush. Mixed reviews. Many report trouble with clogged oil pick ups.
2. Medium aggressive - Clean up valve train. Run some sort of mild solvent detergent such as Rislone. Short OCI.
3. Dont poke a skunk - Finish valve cover job. Dont touch the deposits to risk dropping them into an oil galley. Better to be stuck then free.
I went with dont poke a skunk for now. Certainly there are worse pics of sludge out there on the forums but this is the worst I have seen in person since my 1964 C10 I pulled out of a field and got running. Ill keep this updated, maybe take the valve covers off after a couple of oil changes.
Well, got to the valve covers yesterday and found sludge. As an update, bought this cheap. Link to my original post. To date have done lots of stuff as it had been sitting and def had deferred maintenance with the second owner.
Driver side, maybe a bit better than the passenger.
Since buying the car I did an immediate oil change and we have driven nearly 4k trouble free miles. TB, WP, pulleys etc changed at a local Indy.
Did lots of reading last night and seems to be common to Toyota's secondary to the PCM. I was changing the PCV 2 weeks age and notice sludge on it. Didnt figure it would be quite to the level. Anyhow, have a couple options:
1. Aggressive - Engine flush. Mixed reviews. Many report trouble with clogged oil pick ups.
2. Medium aggressive - Clean up valve train. Run some sort of mild solvent detergent such as Rislone. Short OCI.
3. Dont poke a skunk - Finish valve cover job. Dont touch the deposits to risk dropping them into an oil galley. Better to be stuck then free.
I went with dont poke a skunk for now. Certainly there are worse pics of sludge out there on the forums but this is the worst I have seen in person since my 1964 C10 I pulled out of a field and got running. Ill keep this updated, maybe take the valve covers off after a couple of oil changes.
First, be sure all grit is removed from cylinder head and valve cover mating surfaces before reassembly...better, use compressed air to blow grit away from work area BEFORE disassembly.
Careful using oil treatments that may degrade engine seals.
Use good grade of synthetic oil..Mobil 1 (0W-30), change oil filter every 2,500 (twice/oil change)
Also, change your right and left bank PCV ventilation tubes and clamps, PCV valve and PCV valve grommet..
Would not be wrong to remove oil pan to check if oil pump strainer is clogged
Thanks for posting this! I have a 2010 GS350 with 200K. I 've put on 65-200K myself. I do very regular oil changes almiost exclusively Mobile 1 with a filter every 5000 miles. I've noticed that I'm burning/using 1Q every 1200 miles since 175K. I'm on a fresh new oil change now. I cleaned the throttle body and will change the PVC Valve this weekend. Hoping that it helps.
At 150K I changed the spark plugs and the coils. I noticed oil coming into the spark plug cylinder on one or two passenger side plugs/coils. No external oil leaks. I have yet to change the valve cover gaskets. But, could that be my oil consumption problem? Or if the PVC docent fix the problem, Is it the piston rings? All thought appreciated!
That's not too bad. Change the oil when you are done with the job after making sure everything gets cleaned up properly and you put sealant in the right areas. Don't forget the half moons as well, as stated above it's best to blow off the exterior of the engine before working on it.
When you change the oil add two quarts of transmission fluid (use store brand generics) and let it sit for an hour or so. It will clean it out very well without much risk to the pickup, if you use a more aggressive cleaner it can detach larger varnish bits as well and mess with other seals. Trans fluid avoids this and is way more gentle, add 1-2 cups of diesel fuel if you want to add a little more cleaning power. Be cautious with adding diesel, it won't hurt the engine from a friction standpoint but it can dislodge some pickup endangering bits......ask me how I know.
It's the one time it happened to me and naturally it just had to happen to me on a personal car.
Job was already done when I posted. Mostly wanted to post so people could see the inside of a neglected valve train. Surprisingly it doesn't use any oil. Leaked quite a bit before the valve cover job.
As I mentioned above, I chose to do nothing but finish the job without doing real cleaning other than the gasket surface. I had some penzoil synthetic 10w30 on the shelf and I live in the SW where temps never get to zero. Ill run it 1-2k and change again. Unless she locks up first.
My rx 330 has blocked the oil pick up 3 times and i have had to remove the sump to clean it ***** of a job very bad design in my opinion I have used the best oil since new at the regular times with new filter and it still does it
My rx 330 has blocked the oil pick up 3 times and i have had to remove the sump to clean it ***** of a job very bad design in my opinion I have used the best oil since new at the regular times with new filter and it still does it
So far so good here. I think we have 3-4k miles since i did the VC gasket job. I ran the engine flush for the first 2k. It caused a nice smoke screen with cold start. After changing the oil, cold atart smoke screen slowly went away. I plan to run an engine flush the last few hundred miles before each oil change going forward.
Dreaded engine sludge 2004 LS430
