Just got the crankcase clean after 40 years, not for the sissy......

I started off by reading the old forum posting about cleaning the insides of a d4400, I was not impressed by the ones about using antifreeze or paint thinner. I would think that would be the end of your engine without a complete tear down. The paint thinner will remove every drop of oil from the pistons rings , bearings, cam and everything else... not good. What I done was pull both side covers on the engine ,drain the oil and scrape all the sludge from the inside of the block and pan, a sob of a job.....There was some postings about using a spray gun and parts cleaner, I didn't like that due to fire or explosion,( 15% air/ fuel mixture is all you need for a really good explosion) also it would be very tough on your lungs..... When I pulled number 3 liner a lot of rust dust and dirt fell into the engine, the crank was red from the gunk so I had to clean it. The next step was to put a gal. of marvel mystery oil mixed with a gal of diesel fuel, and a qt of 10 wt oil into the pan, using a brush I scrubbed every thing in side. Then I put a large rare earth magnet into the sump of the pan clamped to a visegrip (the visegrip is so you can retrieve the magnet later.... they are quite strong) I made up a air tube with a valve, went down number 3 hole and set the valve to bubble air into the cleaning fluid in the pan, just to mix the fluid, took about a day and all of the gunk was washed out of the pan and the rust dust was all stuck to the magnet. I flushed the pan clean and redone it 2 more times until it washed out with clean drainings. Now I used a spray-gun and washed everything down with 30 wt oil that I could reach. the next step was to use a air pressure pot hooked to the oil gauge port and pump 2 gals of oil into the crankcase thru the oil passages . I then used a new paintbrush and washed the oil all over the inside of the engine and drained the oil. (it was black but not as bad as what I started with). I feel that it is clean enough to put the liner and piston back into the engine. When I get the engine to run it will have 1 or 2 more oil changes in short order. I was surprised how mush sludge was in the pan. It had a by-pass type oil filter ( will be changed to a full flow) anyway that's I cleaned the engine....WA7OPY

Nice Job!
Lots of good Ideas and Reasoning to your process!
Especially liked the "pressurized wash" of the galleries!

how thick was the sludge in bottom of pan? as i remember, when i did my 70 year old 13000 the sludge was half way up the sides of the suction bell but dished around the bell with about 1/4" opening for oil to enter screen area. at that area of the pan i think it was around 2" thick. when running the egine b4 this time i had low oil pressure and concerned me. afterwards when running pressure came up reel good. good luck with ur project.

Sludge was 2 inches deep with a little rust dust mixed in. There was no Chanel around the oil pick up after sitting 40 years. I remember in high school when the detergent oils came out, there was a lot of burnt up engines from the sludge jamming the oil screens in the kids cars, something the young guys will never see....WA7OPY

I like your cleanout process - safe yet effective.👍 Your sludge story reminds me of what I found in my little Cat Ten last summer, although this tractor had been previously restored before I took ownership of it I was shocked at how dirty the crankcase still was. I thought I was only in for a routine oil change but after seeing what started oozing out of the oil drain hole after the bulk of the liquid had ran out I decided I needed to remove the entire pan to do a good clean out, since there are no side access covers on that one. Fortunately I was not able to find any real damage to any of the bearings despite the buildup, and it always had good oil pressure so I don't think anything was harmed.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErGq65lBb9I[/video]

I had the same sludge on my cousin's Twenty-Two 1J3976W (1934) and I thought it had gone through a river because the sludge seemed to be very gritty and gravelly, but it appears it's the same as yours Toby, so presumably this is what's left when all the "fines" are removed with the oil in suspension, but it can't hold the real solids up. Same as you, I dropped the pan and cleaned it thoroughly, and for good measure did a couple of twenty-minute oil changes to satisfy myself I'd cleaned all the movable gludge out of the galleries. Oil pressure is slow to come up but does get into the "green" eventually (just)