whuts up people. Im new here...well ive been around...reading old posts and what not..

anyway, my first post and i hate to start off with a noob question. Tried searchin but no luck...

maybe i cant find the right words.

Here it is went to change oil (at wal-mart, didnt have time to do it myself) and the guy said no oil was in there..wtf

there was a buildup of some oil like paste where you fill up..there are no leaks. and there was some on the very bottom of the dipstick..scared as shit!

I got a 97 2.2 auto. 154,000 miles

The guy also suggested an engine flush...but i dont know. That might do more harm than good..

I need help..thanks in advance!

 

that could be a problem....if all you had was sludge, then you may have issues homie, since there's no telling how long it's been like that. how long have you had the car?? all you can really do is take the oil and wait.

my boy had the same prob with his truck (4qts low) and now he's in the market for a new
engine...feel me??

 

wait, more detalis, if you bought it recently then go bitch out the seller, if you have had it for a while than you need to be beat about the head...

 

it was my mothers and it was "given" to me for $650...she got a 2005 pathfinder and i was able to get rid of the 93 bucket

she changed the oil everytime it was needed but she told me about this was startin to happen..so..i guess the oil tuned into sludge what the hell

should I get it flushed..or replace the head...damn had it for 2 weeks and this?

any suggestions, what are my options, really need the help!

thanks again!

Edit: will get back with more info, on the bright side, she will help me pay...
maybe she feels guilty
me when i saw that sludge

 

Well for $650 you are not doing to bad even if you need a little engine work. Good luck.

 

well i suppose if it still runs ok... you should be alright, just be on the lookout for strange noises and understand that you may have caused some serious internal damage.

you mom told you what was starting to happen?

im confused how would she know there was an oil problem without a leak... or without checking the level, but if she had done that then wouldnt she have added more oil?

 

dude....i wish i could find a 2.2 for $650 i'd swap an h22 right away....esp good since it has engine problems, dedicating me to swap it

oh well, thats a weird problem :X

 

she told me last time she changed the oil there was a small buildup..some gunk

so now i'm stuck with it..but there seems to be no problems (now anyways) still runs smooth and no noises..i used to drive every once and awhile..feels the same...

just worried..i loooove this car as i know most of you do...my prevoius car 93 saturn and it was hell!

again with the engine flush..jus want to know so i could get it done as soon as possible...thanks!

-was thinkning bout the h22 but cant till Dec..

-anyone- cost of f22 and the h22

 

Well, an engine flush might not be a bad idea. Basically they just flush the bad stuff out, and put new stuff in. That wont hurt anything. And if you plan on sticking with the F22, that'd be a good idea. But if not, just leave it and swap in an H22, which has a little more horsepower. For $650, you're good either way.

 

Check your oil on a weekly basis. By the end of this month, if ou notice anything drastic, let me know, and I'll see if I can help you out a bit.

you did mention that the car felt the same though after doing your oil change. Well, if you had no oil to begin with, and now have oil, you MUST have felt some sort of improvement in performance.

As for the engine flush, it wouldn't be a bad idea. Personally, I would have done it the same day I saw that.

 

btw.. shaggz.. is there a lot of smoke coming from your muffler? if so.. your car might be burning it all off.. leaving u with little or no oil when time for oil change..

u either need a new engine.. or get rid of all the carbon deposits in your current one..

 

Dude you need to take this car to a shop. Best case scenario - they take off the oil pan, clean off the sludge off the bottom of the engine, put the pan back on, fill it up, and that's that.

Worst case? You have some serious engine damage. Oil turns to sludge when it's either been A) sitting for years or B) seriously roughed up, over run, etc. This is why you want to change the oil in a diesel when the manufacturer reccomends so, otherwise it'll basically break down and turn to sludge. Since you say your mom drove the car regularly, it probably didn't break down from sitting there in the yard.

Take the car to a reputable shop man. Hopefully they can clean it out and you'll be ok - but you DO NOT want the sludge to stay in your engine!

 

i did feel an inprovement..more power..but i meant that i did not feel like there were problems...

i dont think there is smoke...i dont see any when im driving...might have to let my girl drive by me a couple times..see there is some

then again there is some carbon on the exhaust tips..maybe there is smoke

ill check today and get back at ya....i love this site...soo much help..thanks ...damn late to class..
but its worth it!

 

theres only a 1.5 qt difference between the bottom of the dipstick and full mark.. so it wasent that low. as for being burned i would deffinatley do a flush, and add some good oil in. expect it to have valve chatter for a while after the flush cause all the "good" bad stuff is gone. if the valve guides/ seals are worn ur car will smoke at start up only until it gets warm. i wouldnt worry too much bout it.

 

im not talking about the warm up.. im talking about blue/black smoke coming out when ever your idle, or accelerating.. usually after about 150K miles, the car ends up heating up faster and faster due to mass carbon build up.. till even oil starts to burn... thus releasing all the smoke out the exhaust..

my legend did this, and so is my dad's lincoln towncar

 

You might also want to check out the bottom of the car. This could be a problem of the oil pan sealant, or worse: a leak in the rear main seal. F22 and F23's have been known to have this problem. What you can do is jack the car up and look around the oil pan for any leftover oil. If no, check out the trany case. If there's old oil on that, then you're gonna have a major problem because that's a very expensive fix. I know, I work at Honda as a mechanic, and have charged an arm and a leg for a rear main seal fix on a 1997 accord 4cyl.

 

opyeah my car seems to b burning oil...at 1 point the car was running on practically no oil but ive fixed that...n now wit my magnaflow exhaust the tips get covered with soot n all black n shit...is that normal or no? (sorry to hijack thread =/ )

 

whats your mileage? if your running around 150K or over.. little black soot around your exhaust is normal.. atleast thats my

but considering you fixed the problem.. i dont see why it would continue.. did u clean out the engines carbon build up? or did u dump a bunch of sealant after u did a oil change.. the liquid sealant u buy at autoshops dont work well..

 

yesterday i drove around my girls house and she was watchin me and she said there was no smoke...well a little but not black or blue...very light smoke..but goes away..and only at startup.

my car doesnt heat up very fast..ive never seen it past the halfway mark on the thermo

cltech...today i will most likely jack up and check for leaks

one more thing i opened the oil fill cap...and there was a lot that buildup in the cap im scared..
so my girls dad fixes cars all the time (but doesnt know everything) and he said to wait to flush while he askes around

now i also noticed my VTEC engaged..before it didnt..most likely now cause i gots oil

im at 155k...usin dino oil...want to switch to syn when this is over..

if anyone has more advice...please...thanks

 

These are unburned hydrocarbons (fuel) that are normal during warm-up. What's bad is that thick, blueish smoke that you see coming out of old minivans, etc.

It shouldn't be that high ever. 1/3 is about normal IIRC.

You're right. VTEC is hydraulically activated (oil pressure). Now that you have some, it works. But if I was you, I wouldn't be in the VTEC while you're wondering if you have engine damage...

Also, I wouldn't recommend switching to synthetic so late in the game especially if there may be damage...

 

i wont be using VTEC..just wanted to know if i had it..and i said i want to switch but most likely wont due to this...unless its safe to after i fix this mess..thanks tho

my thermo stays at a third like you said..

im gunna be here at work till 6 central so i will be keepin up..

 

i got 116K on my car...n the soot is quite annoying its coating the whole tip of my exhaust...how would i go about cleaning out the carbon buildup like u suggested ?

 

dang.. u got me with that question... mechanics usually clean carbon buildup all the time..

becuase if u have too much, (in the state of washington atleast) u wont pass the emissions test..

personaly i dont know how much its gonna cost.. or how long it takes.. but i think if your at 116K with regular oil changes.. and u pass all your emissions tests.. your okay

im at 140K right now, and i have no problems..

just keep doing oil changes every 3-5K miles

 

sup mang! thats another san antonio member in about a month!

texas is taking over

 

i was readin around and there are some safe engine flushes that say it will not damage a thing..

so my question is does anyone know of a place or product?

 

they sale something at auto zone for like $3...its called "5 Min Motor Flush" or something..ive used it numerous times

 

but my engine is baaaad! the flush might do more bad than good. The sludge will break up and clog some shit up!

 

youll be fine..my dads astro van was pure sludge....he did a flush and just kept picking at the hole it he got a ton out by just running a quart of fresh oil through and it picked up the rest....

 

why not? I switched to the high mileage stuff and it's part synthetic. I was planning on going full synthetic in the next few changes.

 

yeah i might convert by going blend for awhile..then full syn...

so im still stuck on flushing the engine

some say not to because it will damage and also clog up stuff...

i also want a good product to flush the engine with..not some generic that dont work well.

 

How would a flush wind up clogging it? Trust me man, an engine flush will do a lot more good than harm to your engine. I had mine done at about 75k and no problems. at 112k now.

 

it might clog when the detergents break up chunks of sludge clogging passage ways.
a couple of mechanics told me this and have also looked it up on the net...but others say different

they contradict each other...but im a do it anyway soon...tuesday

 

Make sure it is a FULL FLUSH. If so, then they will continue to pump fluid in the engine untill it comes out completely clean. This is done through a machine, and they usually allow for you to watch. It's pretty cool. I had my engine flushed for about 40min straight. The whole thiing took about 1 hour to do, and I got to watch their every move. So if it were to break up sludge, it would/should come out with the rest of the bad fluid. If what you are stating is that the new fluid in time would break up sludge that wasnt borken up during the process of flushing, then I understand what you are saying. But if that's the case, than you gotta keep in mind it would still do more good than bad. If the fluid is strong enough to break up the sludge, than eventually that sludge will continue to break down to lil pieces and not clog the passage ways. Think about it.

Although I have heard contradicting information about it like you have. But I'll continue to do them. It's like an oil change, it's gotta do you some good.

 

and your #1 right RJ?

 

who said that

 

man...if you need any help or wanna get the shit i use..just hit me up on PM..we could meet up to do it..hell your right down the road from my work...i could do it at work

 

Most times switching to synthetic will cause leaks around seals that are used to seeing a conventional oil. In best cases, you'll just see increased oil consumption--or maybe nothing at all. And since this guy thought his engine was damaged anyway, I'm guessing he probably wouldn't see a best case. I'm not saying definitely don't do it, but just watch it closely.

 

thanx cocoa...i was readin bout this too...will do!



Edit: score one for cocoa

 

sorry for keeping this post alive dont worry it will be over soon :smitty:

instead of the flush....now im getting a mechanic...a good one...to clean all that sludge inside the top of the engine as well as the oil pan.

-not bad for 35 dollas

he will also see if there is any damage done and if not...he will clean the internal parts.. ..but if there is damage... we can rebuild it..we can make it faster, stronger..anyway...hope not

 

i really doubt a mechanic is going to actually go in and clean it himself for 35 dollars, he will probably just use one of those 5 dollar bottles of stuff