so the motor I pulled from my RX has about 208k on it. Its been pretty abused in its lifetime but now its time to get her going good once again. So I pulled the engine what seems like years ago (actually a couple months) and when I pulled the oil pan off, it had a lot of sludge build up inside of it. Its also got some on the pickup screen for the oil pump which I can't get off as well. So how do I go along and clean this crap out of my motor? I decided that this motor is going to go back into the car and my other one will be the one that gets built to hell and back.

 

I don't have any speciality tools to pull the block apart and stuff like that. Just looking for the best way to do it with the shortblock still together...

Go down to the wyotech parts center (I know they stock it, but other parts stores should have it as well, just might be more expensive) and get a bottle of the MotorVac detergent for the carbon clean machine. Get a spray bottle that will withstand gasoline (There is a MotorVac spray bottle, but you have to pressurize it with an air compressor or a bike pump) and mix 1 part cleaner with 3 parts gasoline, spray it on and let it soak, it will dissolve hard carbon deposits, sludge, etc..

 

You could also scrape out as much as you can and hose it out with stove oil, or some other detergent...

so just spray that stuff into the bottom end of the motor to clean it out? Would that effect the bottom end in any way?

Have plenty of kitty litter on hand if you dont have a parts wash'n bin

it shouldn't, just make sure you get most of it out of there before you run the motor as I imagine it would break down the oil, but a little residue won't hurt anything, just don't leave large amounts of liquid solvent in there. You could also get some "deep creep" which is seafoam in a spray can, works great.