[78rangerbronc]

I was messing with my bronco and was annoyed by the obvious noise from the heads. Pulled the valve cover and oh my god it was horrible. There was oil buildup on ever thing and so much sludge. I scraped as much as I could off and pulled a couple of the rocker arms off to get in behind them. Well with the rocker arms off I pulled out the rods and cleaned them up as well as the rocker arms. BTW I put everthing back were I pulled it. Now did I do anything wrong by pulling the rods out? And can I pull them all and clean everything up?

Also can I pull the lifters out and replace them at anytime? And what is the best way to clean the head without pulling it off the motor? Someone told me that I could buy a bottle of this stuff to put in the oil before I change it and run it a little and it would clean everything up. I cant remember the nme of the stuff though. HAs anyone tried this? James

 

[Jayrus]

You can try running motor flush through it to help clean it some.In my experience you might be wasting your time.The sludge you are talking about is usually from lack of oil changes and by the time it builds up like you are saying there is no way to clean it well enough for it to not cause problems further down the road.If you scraped any of it off and it is loose in the head it is eventually going to make its way back into the oil pan and eventually clog the pickup.I was recently going through the same thing with a 2.7L Intrepid at work.After cleaning the cylinder heads we ran it with motor flush for five minutes and removed the oil pan to find the pickup was nearly clogged.We cleaned the pickup and the pan and as much of the sludge off the bottom of the engine as we could.Re installed the pan ran it again with motor flush and removed the pan again to find the pickup clogged.We went through the same process 3 more times before one of the sales man started it and walked away.I came back to an engine that would no longer start because it lost oil pressure to the timing chain tensioner and bent 4 valves in each cylinder head.Needless to say the salesman was fired and we got to replace all the bent valves.I am sure a Ford motor will take more abuse than the POS 2.7,but just giving you a heads up into what trouble might lie ahead.

 

[BoulderBronco]

Yes sludge is not a good thing for the oil system. You just need to clean it the best you can and do an oil change. Then run it and hopefully clean it out. Change the oil again and pray that your pickup does not get clogged. If it does you need to drop the pan and clean it real well. While we are on the topic what is the best way to clean heads off the truck? I was going to get some basic degreaser and let it sit for a few minutes. Then give it a good powerwash and then give it some air pressure to dry it. Am I going to ruin anything this way? S