For those of you who use Castrol....

[DanDombrowski]

GAH! That sounds like something I want to avoid.

I actually found that yotarepair site and read his sludge article, but I don't remember it saying anything about the rings or why it was consuming oil. For now, I'm going to pray that it doesn't get worse, but I might PM you in a month or two and ask some specifics on this procedure. With any luck, this should be covered under Toyotas secret warranty, right? RIGHT?

[ryan roopnarine]

if the sludge is as bad as the pictures on that site suggest, the PITA of doing the ring cleaning procedure is small beans if it keeps the oil from coming up into your head past your rings. i think if i had means of getting more of the backwash fluid out of the spark plug holes (like with an air compressor), it would have started up quicker. i don't think that pulling the oilpan will be nearly as easy as that to do....i will likely do it again at christmas until the combustion area is cleaned to my satisfaction, but with an aircompressor ....AND more importantly, with a longer soak time. the soak might even be the reason why my syn. oil consumption is down SOOO much, never even considered that.

[Bill R.]

off the combustion chamber and valves, only off the top of the pistons, which you should be able to see with a bright light and the spark plugs out.
A bore scope won't be needed for yours. You might be better off to buy some of the better quality combustion chamber deposit and valve deposit cleaners out there and use them in the gas. Your deposits may be on the edge of a valve or on the combustion chamber surface itself... And bits of carbon like that , that can heat up and glow will cause preignition or ping, or a sharp edge anywhere in the chamber or on the spark plug itself can cause pinging.. If the sparkplugs are poorly made and have a sharp edge on the outer electrode or a thread that screws too far into the combustion chamber which will heat up and glow then ping will take place, etc etc

if the sludge is as bad as the pictures on that site suggest, the PITA of doing the ring cleaning procedure is small beans if it keeps the oil from coming up into your head past your rings. i think if i had means of getting more of the backwash fluid out of the spark plug holes (like with an air compressor), it would have started up quicker. i don't think that pulling the oilpan will be nearly as easy as that to do....i will likely do it again at christmas until the combustion area is cleaned to my satisfaction, but with an aircompressor ....AND more importantly, with a longer soak time. the soak might even be the reason why my syn. oil consumption is down SOOO much, never even considered that.