Just pulled the heads of our 1996 f250 5.8 due to a bad head gasket. chocolate milk through out the engine. While the heads are at the machine shop I want to clean the mess out of the block.


I am thinking I need to drop the oil pan and clean the oil pump and pick up out. Also is there a way to clean the roller lifters?

Coolant was all drained, and clean. Looks like it was all in the oil.


Thank you

 

Brake clean is actually a really good cleaner for metal non painted surfaces. Just did some 4.0 Ranger heads and I used brake cleaner, Scotch Brite pads, flat razors and a pick to remove the carbon. Do that or just some soapy water and scrub and dry.

 

Brakleen will work well, but it will strip all the oil off of the bearing journals. It will be best to not turn the motor over at all during the cleaning process, then prime the oil pump with a drill.

Soak the lifters in rubbing alcohol followed by oil.

 

How far do you want to take it apart? The coolant has been in the oil for a while, so you probably can't do any more damage to the bearings, and such. Maybe you could drain the old oil, replace with new, run it for a bit, drain and repeat. Give it a couple of quick oil changes to flush the contaminated oil from all passages and lifters. A dozen litres of cheap oil and a couple of filters will be easier than tearing it down for cleaning and overhaul. Do any of those "engine flush" products work?

 

We took it down to the short block. Dropping the pan is a bitch, but so is having water in your oil. I trained the pan, and pulled the filter. could I fill the oil pan with oil, and ????? engine flush, then prime the oil pump with the filter off. This would get it out of the pump and the passage to the filter correct?


Other wise I am thinking I would need to just do several oil changes, back to to back. Change. Run till warm. Then change again?

 

You will never get it ALL out without doing a FULL tear down.

But a couple 5 min run and change the oil/filter will get the majority out of it

 

Best way to clean the engine without a full teardown is to run it with some sort of cleaning agent. Even a fresh engine oil flush (drain old, fill new, run, drain new, fill new) works wonders. Can throw some diesel, seafoam, or another reputable cleaner in there.

 

Thanks, will give that a try. New issue though, both heads were cracked, they are the e7te heads. concerned about the block.

 

The block is pretty robust, it's pretty rare that they crack unless something crazy happened to it. Heads not so much, cracks are pretty common. Get some gt40 or gt40p heads if you're on a budget.

 

Additionally I have added a quart of regular/MERCON approved ATF to my oil before an oil change and drove about 50 miles the week before. I do this every so often and it does a good job removing existing sludge buildup.

 

So to add to the carnage, #4 rod bent and piston broke. Had the block magged and it came back good. also, block is in great shape and a standard bore. We knew it was a replacement engine but happy about that.


Hopefully will get it back from the machine shop tomorrow then reassemble.


will up date

 

Obviously you have the block out. Choices are rebuild it or replace it with another engine.

 

ended up refreshing the engine. I believe this is a factory replacement engine. The truck has 300K on it. The bores came and crank came back standard so just a hone, new rings and bearings. Beginning to come together.

 

This post will be for next time. I used to run the rivers and creeks, 6-7 feet deep. If i got stuck and sunk a motor I would pull plugs, drain oil, remove filter. put on new filter, add new oil, crank till blew water out of cylinders. put plugs back in, started and left oil cap and oil dipstick off. Let engine IDLE ONLY for a few hours and you can watch the oil change from milky to clean. Once the engine is warm the water will start evaporating out the oil fill hole. Then change oil filter again. It works. Drove home from Lesterville MO about 250 miles after that weekend was over. Engine stayed great, I finally upgraded to a 460. *(this was clean creek water.)
Also had all transmission and transfer case and diff vents ran up into the cab. Drain plugs on both dana 60's. let sit overnight and then crack drain plugs and drip water till oil appears.

Disclaimer: Not sure if this will work on antifreeze/coolant!

 

You have a fitting username with that kind of story!