X5 4.4 - Sludge in engine and oil filter housing... help!

[m5james]

Originally Posted by ArNarX5

So I changed the oil for the very first time on the 03 4.4 I just bought two weeks ago and to my surprise.... WOW: wow: talk about sludge everywhere in the in the engine and filter housing! I was disgusted.

How could someone be so careless to leave their oil in the car so long that it turns into sludge!?! There was rock like black crystals in an oil filter that said it was made in India.

Needless to say, I cleaned whatever I could in the oil filter housing and drained ALL of the nasty burnt oil from the car and replaced with OEM Oil Filter and Almost 9 Qts of Mobile 1 5w/30.

The car has 100k on it and the engine runs fine as if you could not tell it has that entire gunk built up inside of it.

My Question....

What can I do to safely remove all the build up from inside the engine components? I am planning on dumping this oil in about 2,000 miles and it's a waste since it's Mobile 1 and cost almost $70. Has anyone ever had a similar situation? If so, how did you deal with it?

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

You can either use an off-the-shelf internal engine cleaner from your local autoparts store, WalMart, etc or you can even use ATF...Google for the ratio as I'm not sure. Just be prepared for all the sludge to dislodge itself and possibly expose leaks that were plugged by the sludge before- valve covers, oil pan, etc.

[JCL]

Originally Posted by m5james

You can either use an off-the-shelf internal engine cleaner from your local autoparts store, WalMart, etc or you can even use ATF...Google for the ratio as I'm not sure. Just be prepared for all the sludge to dislodge itself and possibly expose leaks that were plugged by the sludge before- valve covers, oil pan, etc.

I know you are discussing using ATF in the engine to clean it out (and it works very well for that), but be careful as your caution about moving the particles around is pretty applicable to what happens when you change transmission fluid as well

Yes, I know you recommend changing transmission fluid early, before anything collects there, but the humour struck me.