[pics]Does this mean I got sludge? :S

[mig0s]

Hey y'all

I've searched a little on this matter and some of you said that by opening the engine oil cap, it gives a good idea whether the engine has sludge or not. Here I am, after school, opened up the oil cap, and saw this hard black thing inside. I poked with my keys and it's hard like a rock. I scrapped the very end of the edge and got that sludge-like-thing...

I am now scared of opening up my valve cover. I'll be doing that on thursday.

If ever my engine has sludge, what can I do about it? Keep driving until it's done? Seafoam? Engine flush?

Thanks y'all

[Sasebo]

Damn that sucks. Ya id be interested in knowing what other members think to do about it.

[solara90]

well the hard thing your hitting is the metal splash shield thats in there. From the looks of you you have a good change you might have sludge. Take that valve cover off and you will find out

[mig0s]

Does anyone know if it is OK to have sludge? I mean does it matter if I just keep driving with sludge and change my oil every 3000 miles?

Thanks

[TxBmbleBee]

i doubt that is sludge. i thought the same thing, but they are all black right up there by the oil cap.

[frohboy33]

More than likely you don't have sludge, thats pretty common what you are seeing. Pull the valve cover to be sure. Switch to synthetic oil and change on smaller intervals for awhile to get rid of some of the sludge if you do have it. You could also try Auto-RX, I've heard it has good results with sludge removal.

[TheGreenDutch]

yeah mine has that cruddy stuff too.

[SoSleek]

I am glad that i got my car at 12k miles. I am not sure what was ran previous to me owning it but I have only run mobil 1 synthetic since. My oil looks the same when i drain as the new oil i put in. I change every 3500. When my GF got her Murano it was at 100k and the oil we drained was pretty dark. Since then we have ran mobil 1 it started off being pretty dark every flush, but is continuing to look better and better each time. This tells me that the mobil 1 is doing a pretty good job of breakin up the sludge that was built up over the years. With more synthetic flushes more often it should clear up after a bit for you. I would definitely recommend using seafoam but do not do it through your tank if you havnt done it regularly throughout the time you have owned it. That will lead to the build up clogging your fuel pump and filter. Run it through the vacuum line. With that it should clear up and break most of the sludge build up.

[Jason.MZW20]

I am glad that i got my car at 12k miles. I am not sure what was ran previous to me owning it but I have only run mobil 1 synthetic since. My oil looks the same when i drain as the new oil i put in. I change every 3500. When my GF got her Murano it was at 100k and the oil we drained was pretty dark. Since then we have ran mobil 1 it started off being pretty dark every flush, but is continuing to look better and better each time. This tells me that the mobil 1 is doing a pretty good job of breakin up the sludge that was built up over the years. With more synthetic flushes more often it should clear up after a bit for you. I would definitely recommend using seafoam but do not do it through your tank if you havnt done it regularly throughout the time you have owned it. That will lead to the build up clogging your fuel pump and filter. Run it through the vacuum line. With that it should clear up and break most of the sludge build up.

It's important to note that oil color isn't a good indication of anything. It's a natural chemical reaction. If you really want to know how your oil is doing, have a Used Oil Analysis (UOA) done. Chances are you can use that Mobil 1 for more than 5000 miles, but that'll depend on how well your oil filter is doing at filtering out things like silica.

To the OP, the valve cover PCV baffles/oil splash guards always make any oil left over from filling look like that. The upper portion of that plate is used for the PCV system and the blowby gas will contaminate the oil in that area.

What you should do, though, is replace that PCV hose on the front bank. It's cracking. You should also check the condition of the PCV valve on the rear bank underneath the intake manifold on the passenger side.

[SoSleek]

It's important to note that oil color isn't a good indication of anything. It's a natural chemical reaction.

It is true that oil color is not a indication of weather the oil needs to be changed or not. However, the color of oil changes because of the combustion process and soot in the oil. On deisel engines the discoloration happens almost immediately, but on commercial vehicles running on unleaded gasoline the color generally does not come from the combustion process, but rather the soot in the oil. That is because there is less impurities in gasoline compared to diesel.