Got a car 1987 gt with 73k on the clock. what is a slow way of getting rid of the engine sludge?

options.
1. seafoam
2. auto trans fluid
3. switch to full synthetic
4. switch to part synthetic
5. ???

I knwo that option 1 and 3 kills an engine in this state any other ideas?

I believe you can run a higher detergent diesel oil, but others will have to chime in. How bad is it sludged up?

J.

Yep. Rotella T works every time. It has ALOT of detergent in it.

I want something that works over time not a quick un caker. It looks like the engine has not been ran in 11 years and before that is was run kinda ragged. Also this car never had any recalls completed and pontiac said they were completed.

--matt

Rotella T. Don't use engine flush unless you want to have to pull the pan and clean the pickup screen.

How dirty is it internally? Have you looked inside the valve cover? I've pulled apart very high mileage 2.8 engines and there was hardly any sludge. The owner only took it to quickie oil change places. Some engines tend to sludge up a lot. But the 2.8 isn't one of them. Except the carbed models, the egr flow caused oil caking on the bottom of the intake. I've worked around those engines since 1983. Now the 2.5 is another story, I've seen a few of those with decent maintenance have sludge in the valve cover.

My 2 cents.

[This message has been edited by belleaudb (edited 07-28-2010).]

6. Profit!

Run regular motor oil in it and move up your change intervals for awhile.

I use motor flush on my high milage cars. Use it every other oil change and follow the instructions to the letter. Used it in my cavalier after 100k miles. i pulled the valve cover at 176K miles and had no sludge at all. Also change your oil at a decent interval.

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ARCHIES JUNK IS FASTER THAN SHAUNNA'S JUNK
12.3 is faster than a 13.2

Ive removed my rocker covers etc while cleaning up the enigne, and found mine to be very clean inside and found this to be the same on my other cars.
all I do is the regular oil changes (with filter of course) but put engine flusher in first as directed)

jon

I am sure daily driving the car will help move some of that sludge.... right now it is getting restored after sitting for 12 years in a dusty garage. The interior is completly stripped right now for upgrade goodies.

If it's been sitting for years, change all the petrolium fluids a couple of times; brakes, transmission, clutch and engine oil every 500 miles for 3 or 4 times. I'm sure you already know this but brake and clutch fluid is clear and needs to be clear to do what its designed to do. Change the oil filter with every oil change and change the fuel filter soon as well and don't forget to flush, drain, refill and burp your coolant system as well.

brakes were completely flushed when i replaced all brakes
new fuel filter was installed after all old fuel was removed from tank.
coolant system looks good because car was stored in a garage in california. 80 degrees year round. but still looks good and green
oil and oil filter were replaced when i got the car 100 miles ago. so change the oil every 500 miles you think with some automatic trans fluid in the oil?

I wouldn't put transmission oil in the crank case but I would change the oil and filter every 500 miles or so. Each oil and filter change will remove more and more junk and gunk from the engine. Any good oil and filter will do. I changed mine once a week for the first two months and weened it over to a high quality full synthetic oil. Now I change oil and filter every 5000 or so. It worked just fine, for me.