Hey guys. So when i first bought my jeep i found out that there was quite a bit of sludge.




The pictures dont do it justice. I spent 4 days carefully craping as much out of the rockers as i could with flat blade screw drivers. I did not remove the oil pan which i think im regretting now. I put in a fresh oil filter, valvoline synthetic and a quart of marvel mystery oil hoping to clean up the sludge and brake it down. Was gonna drive about 100 miles and do an oil change and then go 1000 miles and change it again. Well ive driven this jeep 40 miles since ive bought it and been triyng to fix various issues here and there.

Today it was snowing for the first time here. Fun fun. Drove maybe 5 miles from the home to take the lady to an appointment jeep was running great. Start the jeep up and i heard a ticking or clattering from the engine area. Drove a bit and noticed my oil pressure was at 0 or close too it. Pulled over stopped checked my oil. The oil is darker than it should be for oil that was just changed which i expecte but still has a bit of the golden color too it and it was right where it should be. So went and started it up the ticking and clattering stopped it was at 35-40psi and all was golden from there. It dips back down to 0 after awhile but if i turn it off and back on again the pressure is fine and the ticking and clattering is intermittent it would seem.

Since there is oil pressure at times is it safe to say my oil pump is ok but my oil filter is probably clogged since i didnt remove and clean the oil pan or the oil pump filter?

 

One way to find out... Change the oil and see what happens

 

Think thats the best thing to start with? Oil and filter?

 

easy way to find out is to change filter. Pump screen may be clogged. Drain that oil and refresh with new Rotella and don't put ANY additives in it. In time Rotella will GENTLY clean your engine. Rotella has a hell of a detergent package b/c it is a diesel oil and formulated to clean up nasty diesels. Also you need to make sure your CCV is working.

 

That would be a good idea. Also pull the oil pressure sending unit and clean out the hole, some crud may have plugged the sender hole. The sending units aren't that reliable either and failures are common, if none of the above works you may want to replace the sender and/or use a mechanical gauge.

 

^agree with the above mentioned posts.
Despite all the cleaning, there is plenty of crud still flowing around (also due to the oil pan not being removed) that will same some time to clear.

In case of your oil pressure dropping to 0 and not coming back up, be careful not to drive it until you verified you actually do have pressure (which would indicate faulty sender). Driving with 0 oil pressure is a no.

 

If you used some gippo oil filter without a bypass in it, it could be restricting the flow.

What brand did you use?

FWIW, I'm not a big fan of scraping the sludge off and getting chunks loose in the engine. I think it's more prudent to assess the sludge, change the oil using Rotella T3 and a quart of MMO. Napa Silver or Gold filter. Monitor the sludge removal through the oil filler hole as you drive it..

 

I have been having similar 0 pressure indications on my '99 4.0l at idle once I drive for about 20-30 minutes, but never any clicking or valvetrain noise. Engine has 110K, no troubles otherwise. Only bought it about 3 months ago. I have read a lot of posts about bad senders and the sender passage in the block getting clogged, but this is the first time I have seen Rotella recommended. I know that I have seen it, but is it available in all brands of oil? any recommendations? Also, is the OEM sender better than aftermarket? Getting ready to change the oil for the first time since I bought this, so want to do it right the first time.

 

Be careful not to start another oil war on here...

In regards to the sending unit (wether or not it is actually in need of replacement) : they're not overly expensive. Aftermarket good brand should do imo, it's the engine management sensors like CPS, TPS etc that mostly need to be OEM to get good reliable result.
With the oil pressure sending unit, you could try a decent brand aftermartket first, I'd say. Fork out a bit more $$ to get a dealer one.

 

I used the napa gold oil filter. Part number fil 1626. Can you tell if that is part of the problem? Right now theres alot of snow on the road and people here are freaking out ont he roads like its armageddon. We dont get snow very often... Freezing rain on top of more snow tomorrow is predicted. I need to wait for things to thaw before i can head out and go get stuff. Im planning to do an oil change and filter and drop the oil pan and clean it out and put in a nice felpro gasket. Cannot believe the difference the felpro rubber gasket made with my valve cover so im sold with them. While im down there i plan to examine the oil pump. I will also get an oil pressure sender as theyre only 7 dollars.

So with all this said cruiser i trust your advice. I currently used valvoline high mileage full synthetic 10w-30. And 1 qt of marvel mystery oil. So 5 quarts of rotella t3 and 1 qt marvel mystery oil. I cannot make it to a napa right now. The nearest napa is about 10 miles away. So what would be a good autozone equivelant?

As far as rotella offerings from autozone. They have Shell T6 Rotella 5w-40 and they have Shell T Rotella. 15w-40. And for oil filters they have a cheapo stp one that doesnt look good and theyve got a fram one that has a bypass valve. So whats the vote here?

 

Crap in pan clogging pick up tube . After its shut off it falls back down . The process repeats it self. Remove pan and clean replace rearmain seal and install felpro pan gasket. No cork unles you like doing repeat work.

 

"scrapings" floating in the pan and getting sucked into the pickup tube screen.

 

Morning sir....

 

Mornin. Woulda slept in this morning but my Doberman decided she needed to go patrol the grounds. Argh.

 

Loud noises from girlfriend got me ...though there were moose in my bedroom...lmao....going to help install some springs and a lokka locker..pays a free Lincoln wire feed ...Im there ,