Engine Flush

[WackyWRZ]

Hey a couple guys here at the local service station were talking about putting 2 qts of ATF fluid in the oil and driving for like an hour in order to loosen up some of the sludge, etc then change the oil. Anyone ever heard of that or anything similar?? I know the standard "engine flushes" out there from walmart, etc... are like death for a motor, but ATF seems milder.

 

[Topcat]

You must be careful loosening up sludge on old motors it gets caught up in oil pick up screen and you loose oil preasure.... most times you need then to replace screen and pump .....Most times its better to just leave it alone and rebuild , when it gets really tired...Also if the car has had regular oil changes sludge should be at a minimum anyway...

 

[driller]

This has to be the second biggest reason for timely oil changes and quality motor oil. Proper lubrication is obviously the first, but once oil starts to break down sludge is formed and deposited in low velocity areas.

Think of it like high chlolesterol in engines.

 

[WackyWRZ]

Well, sense I bought the car at 98K miles I have used a Motorcraft or Bosch filter with Motorcraft 5w-20 semi synthetic. Changing whenever the msg. center told me to. I plan on changing to Mobil1 0w30 and Mobil1 filter soon. Just wondered if I should "clean" the engine out, but this pretty much answers it.

 

[Topcat]

Well, sense I bought the car at 98K miles I have used a Motorcraft or Bosch filter with Motorcraft 5w-20 semi synthetic. Changing whenever the msg. center told me to. I plan on changing to Mobil1 0w30 and Mobil1 filter soon. Just wondered if I should "clean" the engine out, but this pretty much answers it.

To answer your question directly , synthetic oil is highly detergent , so you already have been cleaning the engine , further cleaning probably not necessary...and I would stay with the semi synthetic oil and change to 10w30 if you wish , unless there are other reasons for changing to non synthetic..Timely changes is the most important thing , no matter what oil you use...

 

[Joeychgo]

Yeah, thats an old timers trick...... But doesnt really work..... causes more troubles, as several have explained already.

 

[OldSchool1]

I use Jiffy Lube and their flush has worked well for me with new (to me) cars for their first oil change. After that, once every 3000 miles with a synthetic oil (Philly weather) ought to do the trick.

 

[purelux]

As I have said before synthetic is not a brand and all are not alike. It's not as much that they have alot stonger cleaning agents than conventional it's that. Then in general leave much less "crud" in an engine and oil pan than conventional. And overtime will actually if used after conventional clean the gunk out of an engine. In fact mobil1 used to advertise their tri-synthetic by dropping a pan on 2 identical cars and showing the amount of sludge from dyno/vs their oil. What convinced my though was nascar garage doing a similar though unbiased by brand demonstration and showing internal engine parts. The wear and sludge difference was extremely noticable. Syntetics don't normally break down as soon nor contain all the viscosity modifyers and other addatives that conventionals need to and thus last longer and run cleaner and flow better as well.

 

[bigdog1279]

i

i have a 95 continetal i got it with 115,000 miles on it
i think the person befor me just got oil changes every 7000 miles with regular oil
well i start yousing a full syntheic from Mibil one 5w30 and iv don that every 3 to 4000 miles and now i have 144,000 miles and i love it

 

[Calabrio]

If you're really worried about sludge and grime in your engine, consider checking out a product called AUTO-RX.

 

[Jesda]

Do not use a chemical flush. If you flush your motor, have it hooked up to a Bilstein or Envirolution machine that runs a heated cleaning agent through your motor and removes the loose deposits and buildup. A chemical flush runs the risk of loosening the wrong bits at the wrong time and blocking the oil passages.

In general, synthetic oils have FEWER detergents because they're less likely to cause varnish and buildup. Contrastingly, your typical "high mileage" oil is a common dino oil with more detergents.

 

[Dominus]

I have used AutoRX for engine cleaning with very good results.