Rislone Appears to Have Fixed High Oil Consumption

[1sttruck]

Our 188k mile Taurus started suffering cascading failures during a short holiday trip, and I didn't know if it'd pull thru. It's been getting hard to start, and it got worse on the trip. Oil consumption has been getting high, a qt every 300 to 500 miles in the city, every 1k or more on the highway, which is confounded by the hill that we live on as consumption driving up and down the hill seems to be a lot higher than when on road trips. I used some Mobil 5000 10W30 at the last change as I was intending to use some Auto RX, I usually add a couple of qts of Mobil 1 T&S but didn't this time, and oil consumption went up a lot. I went ahead and started adding Rislone instead of make up oil before the trip as it was advertised as an additive that you can keep in the oil instead of being a flush, and I didn't find any nasty complaints about the stuff. Some BMW mechanics suggested 3 1500 mile oil changes with a qt of Rislone for treating sludge. I suspected stuck oil control rings as I don't get blue smoke at start up, which is often a sign of worn valve seals.

On the trip oil consumption went up, I ended up adding the whole qt in less 300 miles. The check engine light came on after 2 hrs, which it has on previous trips. When I got back I checked codes, replaced the O2 sensor, and have been making slow success on the cold start problem, cleaning throttle plates and such. What's neat is that about 300 miles later there is no oil consumption. I'll leave the stuff in for another 1k miles or so, and will probably change to Mobil 1 T&S. I'll plan on using some AutoRx in the tranny.

Some snake oil articles stated that Rislone and MMO were products for the 50s and 60s, but with the superior engine and lubrication technology that we have now they're not needed. Now we seem to need AutoRX AND LC :^)

I'll consider using Rislone from time to time.

 

[Quest]

If you have sticky oil rings, don't just "plan on it", just do 2 rounds of AutoRx to free them.

Rislone?! to me it is more like oil thickeners/VI improvers and nothing more.

 

[1maniac]

Yep I've seen Risolene quiet things and stop oil consumption but you probably could have gotten the same results adding some straight 40 weight or 50 weight oil.

 

[JohnBrowning]

I would not play around with sticking rings and oil consuption! I would go with proven winners. I would Do and AUto-Rx on the engine ASAP. After the rinse phase was over but before Idrained the dirty oil I would do a piston soak over night. Then run it and change the oil! IF you do not feel comfortable doing a piston soak then I would so a treatment of Amsoil Power Foam with the engine running of course just prior to changeing the Auto-RX rinse oil!!!

You want to get those rings clean then keep them clean. After you get them clean up a bit I think you would be wise to run Redline or Synergen for 2-3 OCI. THe high ester content is going to continue to clean the ring area of anyting that was not removed and will keep the rings clean for the 2-3 OCI you are useing Redline or Synergen. Redline has the most esters and would be my choice. You can also use some of Motul's oils as well with high ester content/

Sticking ring and deposits in engines can become intrinsic. You have to keep them clean for a long enough period of time to break the cycle! IF you do not then the deposits will build up in the same area's really quickly. It is kind of like coffee or tea stain on teeth. After the Hygenist cleans them you will quickly develop stains in the exact same places andin the exact same patern very quickly/ The surface has been etched or prepared to recieve the same deposits as before. The only way around this is to break the cycle long enough for the surface to modify it's self or to modify the surface with a sealant or something else.

After you move most of the carbon from the rings the "glue" that was holding the carbon to the rings is still their in the form of a very thin tacky adhesive surface. So as soon as you are done with your cleaning the build up begins at a rate that was much faster then the initial build up because the substrate is already their. The only way around this is to continue to clean that material off of the parts with a very polar high solvent compound. The only highly polar,high temp, high solvent compound I can think of that is also a lubricant is ester base stocks.

I also think that even though I favor thicker oils then most in these types of cases we want to maximize flow of high ester flids through the rings. So I would use a 3W30,5W30 or 10W30. This is assumeing that oil consumption can be kept in check with these thinner oils. If consuption is an issue then 10W40 would be my choice Redline 10W40 is VII free in terms of polymer's.

Once the rings are free of the tacky substrate then your regular oil would be fine to use again. Then in theory the ring sticking would take as long as it took to origanaly happen to return. Often I have found that ring sticking once cured obten seems to rebound. This has been the case with a lot of Saturn and N. Star owners useing GM upper CC cleaning proccess. It fix's the problem for a short time but the problem returns often in less then 20,000-30,000 miles.

The only thing better then my method is to actualy remove the pistons and clean the ring lands! I do not consider that a practical option for most!

 

[1sttruck]

I used the 'Engine Treatment', which is evidently a light multi-viscosity oil with some detergent, anti-wear additives, and evidently some sort of solvent. Some people that use it add a quart at every oil change and report no problems at 200k miles, so it doesn't seem to be a harsh flush type of additive. It does seem to get recommended for cleaning high mileage engines, and is definately more than a 20W PCMO oil. I got my $4 out of it, but will look at some of the other cleaning techniques that are recommended.

I am considering giving up on PCMOs, as this is the 2nd time that I've had some sort sticking issue. At around 100k miles the car was running poorly, making old car 'chuffing noises', and after using some synthetic oil something unstuck and the car started running decently again. I've been using synthetic blends since then, but have come to believe that long term anti-wear and cleaning performance in PCMOs has been sacrificed for some petty mileage improvements. It appears that LOTS of people have similar problems, some worse. One person said that they too had a heavy oil consumption problem at around 200k miles, they used some Rislone for a few oil changes, switched to Delo 15W40, and the car has been running well with over 300k miles on it. I'll probably use Mobil 1 T&S.

 

[unDummy]

$4 for quart of Rislone - $2 for oil quart not used=only $2 expense
I've recommended Rislone and Marvel for customers with oil consumption problems as the topoff. Oil consumption is reduced and engines run better after a couple of uses/OCIs.

I'm a big fan of 5w40 RotellaT which is ~$14 at wallworld for a gallon jug.

 

[Gary Allan]

Well, FWIW, I did the double Auto-Rx on my daughters Taurus (3.0 Vulcan) and apparent consumption has been reduced. I'm aware of it since I buy the oil and she, when so tuned in, adds it. When her trunk quart is gone, I replace it. I naturally bug the crap out of her to check her oil. It used to use oil "by the hour of operation" ..or so it appeared. It may take a week of short trips ..or a round trip to college. So far, no consumption from the trip home and two weeks of short tripping here at home.

btw-Regane® appeared to have a decent impact on starting and cold idle issues that it had.

 

[Ironduke4]

Well if risolene works for you great but most of these oil additives will do nothing but lighten you pocket a bit.
But i suggest you try this get a 4 quarts of oil and a quart of marvel mystery oil change you oil and use a good quality oil filter and substitute 1 quart oil for the 1 quart of MMO.
The MMO will thin out the oil so you must use an oil that is thicker than the normal 5w30 something like 10w40 then run that for for a couple of weeks change your oil again and use your normal 5w30.
I did this to one of my cars and it worked great it might work great for you too.
If this doesn't work good enough then you might want to use autorx i have not used this stuff yet but i have heard nothing but good stuff about it.

 

[MolaKule]

Which Rislone product did you use? It would be useful to identify the specific product.

In our area we have the Rislone oil thickener and the yellow bottled Rislone CCase cleaner.

If it is the Yellow bottled CCase cleaner then you most likely thinned the oil significantly (since it's a 20 weight) so it could have done some minor cleaning.

http://theoildrop.server101.com/cgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=11;t=000081

If you used the Rislone Oil Thickener or "No Smoke" then you simply thickened the oil and it's volatility was reduced somewhat.

[ June 04, 2005, 01:08 PM: Message edited by: MolaKule ]

 

[ediamiam]

What do your plugs look like ?

 

[daves66nova]

www.tauruscarclub.com

 

[1sttruck]

Rislone update... Oil consumption is still dramatically reduced, I've added about a cup of oil now in a span where I may have added up to two qts. I replaced a PCV valve as per the symptoms it was suspect even even it rattled when shook, but it does run better so the rattle test isn't reliable. So far I've replaced an O2 sensor, fuel filter and PCV valve, I'm on the 2nd bottle of Techron, and later on I'll see if it has fixed the cold start problem. I'll be replacing the plugs later, and if they look bad I'll try some MMO in the fuel.

I'll leave the Rislone in a bit longer and will do another 1k to 1.5k treatment.

 

[tenderloin]

Sounds like Rislone worked for you. Good deal.

It is not one of the "in" brands around here, but big deal. I have used it in the past and had success with it.

Are there other products that might do a better job? Yeah, but so what? It did it's job for you with no hassle. so that is what counts

 

[Triple_Se7en]

1sttruck

What brand of dino oil was in there for the first 100K & how often were your OCIs back then?

 

[1sttruck]

Missed a reply.... I did oil changes at the dealer, about every 3k miles for quite ashile. I started using different garages or fast lube places, and then over 100k miles started using a synthtic blend, typically Havoline dino wit ha qt of Havoline synthetic. In the last year or so switched to using a qt or two of Mobil 1 T&S with Mobil dino. Oil consumption really picked up when I used straight Mobil 5000.

I'm on my 2nd 1k to 1.5k mile Rislone treatment and oil consumption is still much lower. I'll do another and then switch to Mobil 1 T&S.

I also just passed an emissions test, but just barely on the HC. If the oil consumption had been as bad as before I'll guess that I would have failed, so thank you Rislone. I had bought some citrus cleaner for the catalytic converters in case I failed; I was going to soak with B12 Chemtool first and then soak with the citrus cleaner.