Today has been a crazy day. I decide to replace my 3vzfe's front valve cover gasket, as it was leaking oil onto the hot exhaust manifold. Noticed a crapload of sludge on the underside of the valve cover. This was also true of the area at the top of the engine underneath the valve cover. I think to myself "im gonna clean all that s*** out of there. So, 2 hours and 30 shop-towels later, I had a very clean valve cover and engine top. I bolted it all back up, started it, ran at idle for a minute... no problem. I shut it off and checked the oil. There i found a few little bubbles in the oil on the dipstick, thought "that's odd", then replaced dipstick and forgot about it. I then drove 5 miles, and suddenly i lost power completely. I pulled off the road, worried myself sick, then after it had cooled, i tentatively cranked it again. Much to my surprise, it ran normally and gave me no more trouble... for another mile or so. Then the low oil light came on. I shut engine off, waited, then drove another mile. The light again. I shut it off again. I limped home in this way and changed the oil. I drove around a little after doing this... 3 miles or so and it worked fine. I haven't touched it since, mainly out of fear for my engine. Any ideas what is caused this earlier? Is the sludge somehow clogging the oil system?

P.S. the oil breather hose was kind of loose when I reinstalled it... this couldn't be a problem could it.

Is my camry a sludge bomb?