What motor oil does the best job of cleaning?

[Slow Car Sport Mode]

I'm going with the one changed regularly Alex for $1000 please.

That's the Daily Double.

What is, "Esters have desirable cleaning properties as well."

 

[Johnmpb]

Quaker State Synthetic is really the only commercial oil brand that cleans and protects the best 🐿🐿🐿

Is that so?

 

[CleanSump]

Quaker State Synthetic is really the only commercial oil brand that cleans and protects the best 🐿🐿🐿

Can you document this? Common BITOG wisdom used to be PYB was the best cleaner with some turn towards Mobil 1 EP these days.
Never seen anything about QS being an exceptional cleaner (maybe it is because it is just another Pennz by Shell now).

 

[OVERKILL]

Can you document this? Common BITOG wisdom used to be PYB was the best cleaner with some turn towards Mobil 1 EP these days.
Never seen anything about QS being an exceptional cleaner (maybe it is because it is just another Pennz by Shell now).

No oils are good cleaners, full stop. The PYB lore was just that, drummed up hype and never supported by Pennzoil. I think this guy is making that comment tongue-in-cheek. The only oil I've ever seen advertised as doing any sort of cleaning was M1 0w-40. Not their whole product line, not any other oil in fact, just that one.

Oils are formulated to keep things clean. While they may do a bit of work on existing deposits, that's not the intention of the product, which is to prevent deposits in the first place, that's why they have detergents and dispersants in them.

Dedicated cleaner products, like HPL's engine cleaner and Auto-RX, which used to be popular on here, are formulated, specifically, with esters that will clean up existing deposits.

 

[CheezWhiz]

i once flooded a carburetor and filled the crankcase up with enough gasoline to drop the oil pressure by 20 psi, which i did not notice until after about 30 minutes of driving.

i bet that sumbitch was pretty clean inside after that!

 

[Drew7a]

No oils are good cleaners, full stop. The PYB lore was just that, drummed up hype and never supported by Pennzoil. I think this guy is making that comment tongue-in-cheek. The only oil I've ever seen advertised as doing any sort of cleaning was M1 0w-40. Not their whole product line, not any other oil in fact, just that one.

Oils are formulated to keep things clean. While they may do a bit of work on existing deposits, that's not the intention of the product, which is to prevent deposits in the first place, that's why they have detergents and dispersants in them.

Dedicated cleaner products, like HPL's engine cleaner and Auto-RX, which used to be popular on here, are formulated, specifically, with esters that will clean up existing deposits.

Mobil 1 10w-30 HM, states right on the jug, will clean your engine in one OCI.

 

[OVERKILL]

Mobil 1 10w-30 HM, states right on the jug, will clean your engine in one OCI.

Uh huh. Again, oils are not good cleaners.

Mobil does however state, under their high mileage line:

If your engine has excessive sludge deposits due to less-than-adequate maintenance practices, Mobil 1 High Mileage can help by reducing the sludge left behind in your engine. For severe cases of sludge, short oil change intervals (3000 - 5000 miles) are recommended by ExxonMobil for the first 2-3 oil changes as reduction of the sludge takes place. In cases of engine damage that may have resulted from poor maintenance, even Mobil 1™, synthetic engine oil technology, cannot remedy years of neglect.

Note the word "reducing", not eliminate. This isn't Mr. Clean.

 

[Slow Car Sport Mode]

High Performance Lubricants!

 

[Lubener]

No oil is going to undo years of neglect.

 

[FCD]

Shell Rimula R4X 15W-40 HDEO did an ok job with cleaning on my 1988 Escort, doing 3000 mile or less intervals, that plus some manual scrubbing with some stainless steel wire brushes and diesel fuel and i managed to do this :

From now on i'll just run full synthetic in it and 4500 mile intervals with an oversize OEM Motorcraft filter.

From what i have read over the years on here, the oils with the best solvency are actually contrary to what you would think, Group 1 conventional oils.

 

[partspro]

"They say" and I've experienced Mobil 1 full synthetic take a lot of crud out with it in 1,000 miles. This is my experience with a used engine with 86k miles on it I installed in a vehicle. I've never had an oil come out that dirty that quick. Maybe anecdotal and maybe any good synthetic would have done it.

Mobil one fan here

 

[sk_pete]

if u are meaning this seriously, then only a flush product is the right choice.

 

[userfriendly]

Suppose you had an engine with a bit of deposits in the top end and you wanted to use an oil that would help clean it up. Or maybe you bought a used car with unknown history and you wanted to clear out any crud that may have built up from missed maintenance.

Are some motor oils better for cleaning up an engine than others? If you suggest one, please give a reasoning as to why it cleans well.

Read what Userfriendly says about SAE 40. Why does it clean so well? Some say it's at the molecular level.

 

[Bill_W]

Mind if I ask some of the more intelligent posters what is the purpose of detergents and dispersants in motor oil? I am still learning and appreciate a helpful comment for enlightenment. So I posted this for you to get a picture where I am.

Lubricant Additives - A Practical Guide

A practical overview of oil and lubricant additives without all the chemistry.

www.machinerylubrication.com

 

[nomas]

And yet , so many people judge the quality of an oil by how clean it looks when they drain it .

 

[Drew7a]

Uh huh. Again, oils are not good cleaners.

Mobil does however state, under their high mileage line:


Note the word "reducing", not eliminate. This isn't Mr. Clean.

You had mentioned in your previous post that you know of no other oil that claims to clean other than Mobil 0w-40.

The exact wording on the Mobil 1 10w-30 HM states " Clean up virtually all engine sludge in just one oil change."

So I guess it is Mr. Clean according to them.

 

[Drew7a]

Here is a picture of the cleaning statement on the Mobil Hm 10w-30 Jug.

 

[OVERKILL]

Here is a picture of the cleaning statement on the Mobil Hm 10w-30 Jug.

I would love to see that! But thanks for finding another Mobil 1 product they claim can clean.

For reference, this is the sludge clean-up claim for M1 0w-40:

Decent results, but definitely not "near new" as claimed in the outcome section.

 

[Bill_W]

You had mentioned in your previous post that you know of no other oil that claims to clean other than Mobil 0w-40.

The exact wording on the Mobil 1 10w-30 HM states " Clean up virtually all engine sludge in just one oil change."

So I guess it is Mr. Clean according to them.

Somewhere in this thread I read POE is used to whatever you want to call it to the engine. Something is done to the particles one micron and smaller from sticking to the metal. (polar charged carbon particles to polar charged metal?)

 

[OVERKILL]

Mind if I ask some of the more intelligent posters what is the purpose of detergents and dispersants in motor oil? I am still learning and appreciate a helpful comment for enlightenment. So I posted this for you to get a picture where I am.

Lubricant Additives - A Practical Guide

A practical overview of oil and lubricant additives without all the chemistry.

www.machinerylubrication.com

To put in suspension (detergents) and prevent from agglomerating (dispersants) both combustion byproducts as well as the contaminants produced by the lubricant breaking down.