Engine flush?

[firemachine69]

Hello folks, nice forum going on here. Tried searching all the forums, no luck.


I'm looking to see if anyone recommends engine flushes with an oil change. I used to have every second oil change at Wal-Mart (friends work there) flushed out first with the Pennzoil Commercial grade flush. I also had them religiously use Pennzoil Platinum 5w-30 (once was Castrol Syntec, counter person told me they were out of PP ***after*** they had drained it, of course the only time neither of my friends were working

), which I've heard is a fairly decent oil (the PP). This was in my 2200 OHV of my '02 Sunfire, I was trying to make her last forever.


Anyhow, I now also have a Yaris, but now using basic SM-Service oil (currently Shell 5W-30, next on my shelf is Motomaster Formula 1 5W-30), as I personally believe more frequent oil changes (every 3k miles) with decent oil are better than long changes with fantastic oil - just IMO folks, lots of people believe otherwise.

To flush or not flush, that is the true question!

 

[addyguy]

I worked last year in a W-M TLE, and I 'personally' belive that the Penz. Flush is a good one. Don't need it with every oil change, but it wouldn't hurt to use it...W-M 'recommends' it once a year.

I ted to agree with you on the oil change question - more frequest dino changes would be better than a sup-long syn interval...but these days, 5k miles (8k km) is a 'short' dino interval...might want to extend your changes just a bit and save yourself some $$$.....

 

[Spitty]

What happened to the Sunfire? Did it not last forever? my point being, What did YOU gain from those engine flushes?
With reasonable OCI's alone the engine will proberbly out-last your needs.
At a 3k OCI there is nothing wrong with the oil left in the engine after the drain, so why put something in the engine (that's possibly worse than the old oil) to get the last dregs out?

 

[BarkerMan]

Spitty your comment is well taken about getting the last of the flush out before you add the new oil. Engine flushes do not make for good lubrication and that last little bit no matter how small the amount is, will be around for 3k miles. In fact that solvent will get into places and displace the oil and the amount in some cases could be a bit more than you'd think. I've drained all the oil that will go through the drain plug on engines an upon turning the engine over to remove the pan made quite a mess on the floor with the oil that stayed behind.

 

[Quest]

I for one, against the use of solvent in "10 min flush", no matter how fancy the name it's going to throw at you (e.g. "industrial/professional quality 10min flush", etc.)

Also: you do not need to run an engine flush for every oil change. There's no such thing called "annual flush" or "engine flush on every oil change", this pretty much goes against a lot of old-tymers who believed in flushing the daylight out of the engine, citing:

(a) modern engine oils (current API SM/ILSAC GF-4) are very good in keeping the engine clean over a very long period of time.

(b)frequent solvent flush to an engine will do more harm than good. Solvent will attack (swell) the engine seals and various elastomeric seals, which caused further damage over time. Don't believe me? Go find a used seal and dunk it in paint thinner for 15 mins and see how the lip swells up?


To maintain decent cleanliness on engines and such, consider AutoRx.

p.s. I have no business affiliation with AutoRx but an extremely satisfied customer.

Q.

 

[firemachine69]

Thanks for the replies folks.


I still have my Sunfire - it's simply become my project car, however I was slightly set back by the taxes I owe (don't have $1500 on top of the funds set aside for the engine swap).

I don't flush the new Yaris, definitely not until warranty is up at least (and I don't think I will afterwards).

Oil changes are cheap. $8 for SM-rated dino stuff, $7 for an OE filter... I'll pay the fifteen bucks for peace of mind. If I was running Synthetic, then I'd probably go for 5k OCI as per Toyota... Don't trust dino-oil that much yet.

 

[Steve S]

Originally Posted By: firemachine69
Don't trust dino-oil that much yet.
Why?

 

[Quest]

Originally Posted By: firemachine69
Don't trust dino-oil that much yet.


Advancements in motor oil technologies (parallel to that of automotive technological advancements) have you left out and left behind? No worries then.

I'll stay with my "dino oil" (almost 90%+ of them are already on GpII+ blend in order to meet ILSAC GF-4 specs.), thank you.

Q.

BTW: most national-brand OTC so-called "full synthetic" motor oils are actually a GpII+ blend, believe it or not. For more info on PP, M-1, etc. and their suspected compositions, do a search.

 

[JohnBrowning]

At the most I would not recomend a solvent flush any more then every 30,000-50,000 mileson a well maintained engine. If you used dino every 30,000 miles with the quality synthetics youa re useing not more then every 50,000 miles. In fact your money would be better spent on quality fuel treatments like Regain,Techron,Redline,Synergen etc......

In fact I would probably say wait until you have 50,000 miles on your engine then do an auto-rx treatment on it and leave the solvent flush's alone for the most part.

 

[qwertydude]

My uncle had a kia and used gunk brand oil flush every oil change, that engine only lasted 70,000 miles, lost lots of compression, consumed oil, and had a noisy valvetrain. Afterward he tore the engine down and found out he had bad engine wear, worn bearings and other such extreme wear like it wasn't getting proper lubrication. He made some inquiries as to what oil flush was and found out it was just kerosene, naptha, and mineral spirits mixed with motor oil. [censored] you could smell the gas in it fresh. He later switched oil change techniques on the new engine. He changed the dino oil and filter every 3000 by draining, filling, idling for 10 minutes then draining and filling again. Every 50,000 miles the second fill was with synthetic mobil 1 to clean out any junk built up. He's going on 300,000 miles and the engine is still going strong.

 

[Rolf]

Originally Posted By: qwertydude
.... He made some inquiries as to what oil flush was and found out it was just kerosene, naptha, and mineral spirits mixed with motor oil. ....


Bingo.

If you'd like to add kerosene to your motor oil, you can buy it by the gallon cheaper than a can of "Magico Motor Elixir" or whatever they're peddling.

Use good motor oil, change it and the filter at appropriate intervals, and you shouldn't need anything else.



.

 

[daves66nova]

Originally Posted By: Rolf

just curious. What are "bad" oils?