Red Line/Ester based oils for engine cleaning?

[RDY4WAR]

I have a feeling that people on this site have the cleanest engines no matter what.

Scientifically speaking, cleaner engine has more to do with the presence of the OCD chemicals (as oppose to chemical compounds AN) resulting in shorter than average OCI.

Since Moly prolongs the engine life by reducing the friction and heat, some may argue:
Moly + Short OCI = Very Clean Engine

I know both Red Line and Amsoil have a good chunk of moly but if you are chasing moly, Valvoline EP has a good chunk of it with a much more reasonable price.

Note though that there are many different types of moly-based friction modifiers with varying range of effectiveness. The type used in Valvoline EP likely isn't the same type as used by Amsoil, Red Line, Driven, and HPL. Those brands tend to use multiple different types in synergy to achieve a target friction coefficient. Then you have synergy with other AW and EP additives that play a factor, making it where an oil with less Mo, of the same type, could have a lower CoF due to being "boosted" by synergy with other additives. You can make the CoF worse with increasing concentration if it causes a loss of synergy. It's not black and white, unfortunately, and is why oil formulating is a careful balancing act and often involves a great deal of trial and error to find the right combination.

Higher amounts of moly tends show higher amounts of piston deposits in Teost 33c and MST. While not directly correlative, it is a data point for consideration. With oils high in ester, any deposits like such would be dissolved back into solution and filtered out. If an oil is highly volatile, you can get more ring coking and piston deposits regardless of the OCI. The light ends of the oil evaporate off the first time they encounter that high heat, in the first drive cycle on the new oil, so it doesn't matter if the oil change goes for 3,000 miles or 15,000 miles, the "damage" from high volatility is already done. Moly plays little role in cleaning an engine aside from slight preventive standpoint as an anti-oxidant for some types.

 

[OilUzer]

I was just having a little fun since I like moly. lol

However, I prefer the non Tri version of the moly or the one that shows up in UOA. Seems like most if not all Japanese car manufacturers specify good chunk of that in their oils. I can't argue with them! Also found in other good oils like Amsoil and Red Line. My Tundra seems to like moly.

Doesn't stop me from buying other oils like M1 EP 10W-30 but if the oil has low Noack, narrow spread (or low vm) and high amounts of moly, it will get my attention.