ScottyBoy
Full Access Member
I purchased the truck in 2005 with 51k miles on it. Since then I have ALWAYS ran either Mobil1 full synthetic, or Amsoil XL series synthetic. No high mileage formulations. Longest I've ever gone was 7500 miles on an oil change, but when I saw how bad the oil looked I stopped doing that and changed it about every 5k miles ever since. It currently has 160k miles on it. I don't put a lot of miles on it, so a few times I've gone a year on the same oil because I didn't even put 5k miles on it. I wonder if sheer age of the oil is causing sludge?It's possible that all that sludge was already there in 2017, and it finally broke loose and fell into the oil pan with new oil and consistent oil change intervals.
Are you using high mileage oil? My understanding is the HM oil will contain detergents that will break up sludge and cause it to fall into the oil pan. If the PO only ever used conventional oil, and had extended oil change intervals, it could have caused the buildup you're seeing.
When did you purchase the truck, and how many miles have you put on it since you bought it? How many miles are on it now?
Oh, and I've probably put about 40k miles on it since I last had this oil pan off in 2017. I also replaced the valve cover gaskets around the same time, and the top end of the engine appeared to be pretty clean.