QSUD and cleaning?

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irv

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I just purchased a 5 Lt jug of 5W-30 for my son's girlfriends car (2005 3.5 L Malibu with 74,000 kms) because it was on sale. The car, surprisingly, only takes 4 Lts but what I am curious about is the cleaning properties of this oil?

Is it just as good as others or is it known not to be as good? I did a small bit of reading after the fact but didn't see anything mentioned about its cleaning capabilities?

I would assume some oils are better than others in this dept, but has any of it ever been proven beyond a reasonable doubt?
 
Whats the service category and ILSAC rating? that gives you minimum requirements.

I found it to be fair to good in the pre GTL form and Valvoline superior in Subaru.
I'm sure it will be fine.

Why are you thinking about this especially in low performance engines?
 
It will perform well. Our 10' escape has used QSUD 5w20 since 120k miles @ 5-7k intervals and it is very clean under the valve cover.

I can't say if it's better or worse than M1 or PP/PUP. I can say in an already moderately clean engine (our escape previously was dealer serviced every 5k up to 120k) it will keep the engine clean and do some light cleaning.

Rather or not it will clean a "dirty" engine I'm unsure about. If I had to guess I would say given a reasonable interval it would do some cleaning since QSUD has a decent additive package.
 
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Originally Posted by ARCOgraphite
Whats the service category and ILSAC rating? that gives you minimum requirements.

I found it to be fair to good in the pre GTL form and Valvoline superior in Subaru.
I'm sure it will be fine.

Why are you thinking about this especially in low performance engines?


When I did an oil/filter change the other day, judging by the looks of the oil pan drain bolt and the "Luber Finer" filter that was on it, I assumed this car hadn't had too many oil changes done?
The drain plug was rusty and it was difficult getting a 13 mm wrench on it. The filter didn't look like it had been changed in quite sometime either and was a royal pia removing it. I needed a strap wrench to loosen it and I've never heard of a "Luber Finer" filter before.

So, with all that being said, I assume the internal engine components aren't likely in the best/cleanest condition they can be?

I'll be running this oil until spring so it doesn't matter much now, but I just was curious if there was any info out there on how good this oil cleaned or didn't clean?
 
oils with the same SPECS are VERY similar by law except the costly real synthetic PAO + Ester types
 
Originally Posted by benjy
oils with the same SPECS are VERY similar by law except the costly real synthetic PAO + Ester types

By law?
 
Originally Posted by jbutch
Here is an under valve cover picture from one of my earlier posts.

Engine was Suzuki SX4 and I used QSUD all it's life (230k km). It was the previous QSUD version (brown/gold bottle) though. OCI was every 8k km (5k miles)

Some varnish but no sludge.



I would have expected less varnish using a name brand synthetic (QSUD) every 5K....I've seen engines ran 10K OCIs on Mobil 1 (Tig 1's come to mind) with virtually no varnish..
 
*Curious if a faulty or old PCV valve could contribute to the varnish ? ... You would think a 5K mile OCI with oil filter change using QSUD the engine would be cleaner ?
Today's QSUD is D1 /Gen 2 rated , so I would think an even better cleaning formula than the prior brown jug QSUD ?
 
Originally Posted by pbm
Originally Posted by jbutch
Here is an under valve cover picture from one of my earlier posts.

Engine was Suzuki SX4 and I used QSUD all it's life (230k km). It was the previous QSUD version (brown/gold bottle) though. OCI was every 8k km (5k miles)

Some varnish but no sludge.



I would have expected less varnish using a name brand synthetic (QSUD) every 5K....I've seen engines ran 10K OCIs on Mobil 1 (Tig 1's come to mind) with virtually no varnish..

I could be wrong on this one but there's really no way to predict when, where and how varnish will lay down and that what's going on inside of the engine and the oci has more to do with varnish formation than the lube itself. That said, some oils like a PAO have better solvency than others but I don't believe that's any guarantee you're not going to see any varnish.
 
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Originally Posted by ChrisD46
*Curious if a faulty or old PCV valve could contribute to the varnish ? ... You would think a 5K mile OCI with oil filter change using QSUD the engine would be cleaner ?
Today's QSUD is D1 /Gen 2 rated , so I would think an even better cleaning formula than the prior brown jug QSUD ?

A faulty pcv valve can back up oil laden crankcase gasses..an example is if you you took off the non pcv side valve cover, it's likely you'd see more varnish on that one than you'd find under the VC on the PCV side.
 
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I think it's engine dependent. I've seen varnished up engines that ran M1 exclusively,and engines so clean you could literally eat off of them that were run only on dino.
 
Originally Posted by aquariuscsm
I think it's engine dependent. I've seen varnished up engines that ran M1 exclusively,and engines so clean you could literally eat off of them that were run only on dino.


I would tend to agree with that, my SX4's 2.0 might be an engine that was more prone to varnish. Solid little engine though, 230k km and didn't burn oil enough that I would have to top off.
 
Originally Posted by buster
What you could do is switch to an oil that is above average at cleaning and for that I would use Mobil 1 0w40. I'd do a few OCI's on that then switch to whatever oil you want.

https://www.mobil.com/English-US/Passenger-Vehicle-Lube/pds/GLXXMobil-1-FS-0W40

"Provides exceptional cleaning power for dirty engines."


Is there any "real proof" that some oils are better than others at cleaning? Some make claims but I don't recall seeing some before and after pics, and even if those existed, are they real, documented, and done by an independent company?
 
Originally Posted by Mad_Hatter

I could be wrong on this one .... some oils like a PAO have better solvency than others but I don't believe that's any guarantee you're not going to see any varnish.



Thats incorrect Mad.

Maybe some fully formulated synthetics using PAO in the blend have a good DP ,

But PAO exhibit low solvency and require other bases to carry the DP.
The PAO base may be less prone to forming varnish than Alkanes.
 
Originally Posted by ARCOgraphite
Originally Posted by Mad_Hatter

I could be wrong on this one .... some oils like a PAO have better solvency than others but I don't believe that's any guarantee you're not going to see any varnish.

But PAO exhibit low solvency

wasn't sure but good to know, tx. Maybe it was POE ester???
 
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