Thank you for your reply, the valve cover and pushrod covers are off exposing copious sludge. Can i simple back out the screws holding the rockers ? Do i need to worry about any sort of timing issues ? What break in lube would you recommend and should everything be super clean before applying it ? Thank you again !

 

Hrmm.... Just how much sludge? Just wondering if it may be indicative of another problem.

You can get Engine Assembly Lube at most autoparts stores. Last I got some, it was about $10 a tube or so. Comp's works well.

So you have screws/bolts instead of a nut on a stud for your rocker arms? (What year engine?) If so, you have an easy job since there's no adjustment. Just take them out, remove the rocker arms, and then reinstall and torque down to spec. I think it's 25 ft/lbs, but you'll want to look it up. No adjustment is really necessary.

Definitely clean as much as you can out of there. There's lots of small passageways in the engine and you don't want anything plugging them. On that note, make sure all of your push rods are cleaned out. Get a pipe cleaner and run it through them if you need to. Or just replace them all if they're plugged badly. You want the lifters to be able to push oil up through them onto your valve train.

Then, once you have it up and running, run some strong detergents through your engine. Swapping out a quart of oil for ATF works well. Also, there's some that you put in and run for 5 minutes right before you change the oil that will help clean it too.
A good working engine shouldn't have any sludge inside.

 

Pretty good amount of it, its pliable and pitch black. The truck sat for a long time its a 1995 and yes its a nut on top of each rocker.

 

It has EFI,so be careful with the plenum and intake,leaks here will make your lifter problem seem minor.Use new gaskets and make sure to get the plenum support bolt on the drivers side in and tight.I went through a leaking intake to head gasket and it was a pain,all because the plenum support bolt had come out.I would do an early oil change to get rid of the crud scraped off the bottoms of the lifters.Best of luck.

 

If it's a '95, you should have the simple, bolt down type. Just torque them down when you put it back together.

Some of those really high strength cleaners recommend removing the oil pan after you use them to clean the excess sludge out. When I did it on mine, it wasn't sludgy, so I didn't think that was necessary, but I did jack up the whole driver's side of the truck and put it at a 10° angle so that it would all slide down to the drain hole on the oil pan. With a "clean" engine, this made a bunch more stuff come out. I'd recommend trying it.

However, with as much sludge as you have, I'd avoid using some extra strength cleaner for a while. Too much cleaning all at once can plug everything up with junk that's broken free. So, for now, try a quart of AFT in place of a quart of oil, and change it much more regularly for the first few. Maybe every 1000 miles or so until it starts coming out clean. Then, use a jug of extra strength cleaner (the kind you run for five minutes before draining it) and then go to regular oil and changes.
Should clean it out nicely.

 

Perhaps if it is that sludgy, run some Rotella T or some Delo oil in it for a while. Several forums have pointed me toward Rotella as it's a Heavy Duty Engine Oil (HDEO) designed to be run in fleet vehicles both gas and diesel (Delo is as well). The HDEOs seem to all be higher in detergents. Just switched (Rotella T5 10w-30) my '88 150 to it and we will see how it goes. I noticed I seem to have a lifter tick, so I might look at a quart of ATF to help free it up on one of my next oil changes.

I'm thinking the higher detergent levels of Rotella T/Delo might help clean without disturbing too much at once. If it is really full of thick sludge, I might try the AFT thing, but drop the oil pan and check things out. I worry about that oil pump and would be thinking about replacing it after de-sludging the engine.

 

Thank you guys for info and advice, I am going through the rockers a pair at a time - noticed that one of them is very loose and was causing all the clatter. Is there anything I should be looking looking for on that guy besides just swapping the lifter and rod and obviously torqueing the nut back down to 25?

 

Can you tell why it was loose? Pedestal rockers don't have adjustment, so the only reason it would be loose is something wasn't right. Could just be a collapsed lifter, but be sure to check it over to see if something doesn't look right.

Check for broken springs, worn rocker arms, any bent push rods, etc.

 

You sir, you rock - yes I can certainly tell why it was loose:




New rods and lifters are in and covered with break-in grease, de-sludged (holy crap that took a lot of rags and paper towels). Could you recommend anything I should do with existing oil and filter ? I changed the oild 3 days prior to doing this teardown. Should I dump the oil again then start and hope for the best or is there anything else I should do ? I am planning on doing the oil pan gasket next week. Thank you again.

PS. Every lifter I pulled and cussed at being stuck in the block was non-pliable by hand but only one of the rods was bent.

 

Yowch! That'd do it. So, not only bent, but broken too? The sludge buildup probably sunk all your lifters and then the froze that way.

If that's the case, definitely check over all of the others if you plan on reusing them. Lay them on something extremely flat, like a mirror, and roll them back and forth. If they wobble even the slightest, replace them. Although, it sounds like you just bought all new ones? (Which is what I would do).

If I were you, I would hold off on the oil pan gasket. Drain a quart of oil and swap it out for ATF. Drive it a couple hundred miles. Do a full oil change with another quart of AFT. Go another couple hundred. Let it do some mild cleaning first.
THEN run some of that extra strength cleaner right before you do your oil pan gasket.
There are a few you can get that you put in right before you drain it. Pour it in, let it idle for five minutes, and then drain the oil. Do that right before you change your pan gasket so that you can clean all of the sludge out of the bottom of the pan that it kicks lose. You probably won't get another opportunity to do such a deep cleaning.
Definitely plan on replacing your oil pump at that point, too.

I would think that would really clean it out and shine it up inside.

 

Just bent - I had to do the braking to get it out A bit worried what that cam looks like but not willing to take off the head to find out

 

Taking off the head wouldn't do anything toward looking at the cam. You can either A) Take the lifter out and shine a flashlight down the lifter bore while looking through the pushrod cover. Or B) take a look at it from underneath when you have the oil pan off.

 

Got it, will look from the oil pan side. I read that rockers need 17-23 ft/Lbs. (i chose 23) when new parts are put on but now i am reading 25 ft/lbs. I have already bolted everything down - am i screwed ?

 

Did you read 25 ft/lbs from what I wrote above? That was just going from memory. 17 - 23 ft/lbs sounds much more familiar now that you mention it.

 

Most likely that. Well I got everything back together and started the truck - started right away and decided to run like a bat out of hell - guessing 4k rpm since I dont have the RPM gauge. Thought oh boy maybe there is an air leak somewhere - checked the intake gasket alignment - seems fine, checked the throttle body / gasket - fine, not seeing any vacuum lines hanging open - anything I could have missed ?

Forgot to mention I also did the plugs - motorcraft, year appropriate. Noticed the EGR bolt did not want to go in all the way - there is a tiny gap between the intake and the egr, would that cause crazy rpms ?

On the bright side the clatter/noise are all gone - just the roar of the engine