"Valvoline Restore" vs "Redline" in a Lexus

[Graham Piccinini]

I have a 1999 Lexus GS400 with 212k miles and very sludged up neglected engine. Purrs like a kitten though, after new plugs, ignition coils, and few tanks of highly concentrated mix of gas plus various injector and fuel system cleaners.
I am planning to keep it forever, do not want to rebuild yet though.

What would be the best course of action to clean this engine up? How would Redline 10w30 compare to Valvoline Restore 10w30? I do have a Cummins repair shop nearby where I can access the Valvoline Restore for $75 per gallon. Or I could order the Redline 10w30 for $45 per gallon, if the Restore 10w30 is not any better.

Thanks for the feedback, positive and/or negative. Make sure to explain the reason though. Thanks again.

 

[d00df00d]

If I had to pick one of those oils to try to clean the engine up, I'd pick Valvoline Premium Blue Restore.

I wouldn't expect much, though.

 

[ctechbob]

If you do the Valvoline try to get some before and after. I'm sure a lot of people are really curious as to what it would do in a gas engine, myself included.

My vote is for the Valvoline BTW. The Redline is a fine oil, but nothing terribly special about it as far as cleaning, whereas the Valvoline was build for that. Albeit for decarboning rings on Cummins Diesels, but from what people have been posting, it is indeed made of some special stuff.

 

[Mainia]

Originally Posted By: ctechbob
If you do the Valvoline try to get some before and after. I'm sure a lot of people are really curious as to what it would do in a gas engine, myself included.

My vote is for the Valvoline BTW. The Redline is a fine oil, but nothing terribly special about it as far as cleaning, whereas the Valvoline was build for that. Albeit for decarboning rings on Cummins Diesels, but from what people have been posting, it is indeed made of some special stuff.


What?...?, Redline is a group 5 Ester oil, which inherently is a cleaner, that’s why the OP posted the Redline oil.

 

[maxdustington]

Please use the restore! Edge Supercar and this $75/gallon legendary cleaning oil have to be the top two grail oils on BITOG!

 

[d00df00d]

Originally Posted By: Mainia
Originally Posted By: ctechbob
If you do the Valvoline try to get some before and after. I'm sure a lot of people are really curious as to what it would do in a gas engine, myself included.

My vote is for the Valvoline BTW. The Redline is a fine oil, but nothing terribly special about it as far as cleaning, whereas the Valvoline was build for that. Albeit for decarboning rings on Cummins Diesels, but from what people have been posting, it is indeed made of some special stuff.


What?...?, Redline is a group 5 Ester oil, which inherently is a cleaner, that’s why the OP posted the Redline oil.

The ester component itself is a cleaner, yes. That doesn't mean the overall formulation is good at sludge removal.

Valvoline Premium Blue Restore was designed to be used every once in a while to clean the carbon out of the ring packs of Cummins ISX engines. Red Line oils are designed to be be used all the time as engine oils. The fact that they have one kind of ingredient in common doesn't mean they do the same job.

 

[CT8]

Originally Posted By: Mainia
Originally Posted By: ctechbob
If you do the Valvoline try to get some before and after. I'm sure a lot of people are really curious as to what it would do in a gas engine, myself included.

My vote is for the Valvoline BTW. The Redline is a fine oil, but nothing terribly special about it as far as cleaning, whereas the Valvoline was build for that. Albeit for decarboning rings on Cummins Diesels, but from what people have been posting, it is indeed made of some special stuff.


What?...?, Redline is a group 5 Ester oil, which inherently is a cleaner, that’s why the OP posted the Redline oil.
Positive about the ester?

 

[sloinker]

Originally Posted By: CT8
Originally Posted By: Mainia
Originally Posted By: ctechbob
If you do the Valvoline try to get some before and after. I'm sure a lot of people are really curious as to what it would do in a gas engine, myself included.

My vote is for the Valvoline BTW. The Redline is a fine oil, but nothing terribly special about it as far as cleaning, whereas the Valvoline was build for that. Albeit for decarboning rings on Cummins Diesels, but from what people have been posting, it is indeed made of some special stuff.


What?...?, Redline is a group 5 Ester oil, which inherently is a cleaner, that’s why the OP posted the Redline oil.
Positive about the ester?


It says ester based formula on the label. Do you know differently?

 

[Garak]

I don't believe it's primarily ester. Ester is part of the formulation, but primarily PAO would be more accurate.

 

[sloinker]

By looking at the sds it is 25%-60% PAO
2% add package
up tp 75% non-hazardous material makes up the rest of it.
I imagine that is the ester. I agree that the ester component is probably equal or less than the PAO but that is a trade secret.
I would use a product especially designed for cleaning sludge over the Red Line in this case.

 

[Gokhan]

Code:
20% PAO

50% polyol ester (POE)

10% alkylated naphthalene (AN)

0% viscosity-index improver (VII)

20% additive package

(Likely formulation according to the patent)

Polyol ester (POE) and alkylated naphthalene (AN) are base stocks with high solvency, which perform the engine cleaning.

The additive package is the standard used in other Valvoline oils.

Note the absence of viscosity-index improver (VII). It's technically a monograde oil.

It's a SAE 10W-30 HDEO with KV100 = 12.0 cSt and HTHSV = 3.9 cP. However, since it has no VII, it can also be legally labeled as a SAE 30.

NOACK = 5.4%

If you think you need it, give it a try. It should work. Don't neglect to get an oversized (if possible), high-capacity fully synthetic oil filter.

Valvoline US patent US20170029734A1: Lub...bustion engines

 

[Gokhan]

Formulation #4 is the one likely used.

 

[JAG]

I agree with Gokhan that Formulation 4 is what they went with, because it’s what they did the oil consumption testing with. I’m using this oil right now in my bought-used, 4-cylinder 2010 Ford Ranger. It has greatly reduced noise and to a lesser extent, vibration. That is compared to M1 0W-20 EP and a blend of Amsoil SS 5W20 and 10W-30. The Valvoline oil has not darkened quickly like Amsoil Signature Series did last OCI, but that may be because that oil did some cleaning. Also before changing that oil, I added a few ounces of Amsoil Engine Flush and ran errands.

Red Line has ester content but I think it’s considerably less than the 50% that’s in the Valvoline oil. The Valvoline oil also has 10% alkylated napthalene that adds some additional polarity and solvency.

 

[Virtus_Probi]

Originally Posted By: maxdustington
Please use the restore! Edge Supercar and this $75/gallon legendary cleaning oil have to be the top two grail oils on BITOG!

IDK, Ravenol 5W30 DXG d1G2 also has to be up there...

 

[69Torino]

Wouldn’t it be cheaper and possibly as effective to do several short oil change intervals with a cheap off the shelf oil and a quart of MMO? Plus Synthetic wire backed filters too I guess.

 

[Tom NJ]

Priolube 1973 is NPG Diisostearate, one of the lowest polarity polyol esters available. It has a Non Polarity Index (NPI) of 130 compared to the more commonly used POE, TMP C8C10, which has an NPI of 58. It will still offer some cleaning power, is more seal friendly, and has high lubricity, but is not nearly as polar as the more commonly used POEs. It is a good choice at that dosage.

 

[oil_film_movies]

Originally Posted By: Gokhan
If you think you need it, give it [Valvoline Premium Blue Restore 10w30] a try. It should work. Don't neglect to get an oversized (if possible), high-capacity fully synthetic oil filter.
Normal sized is Fram Ultra XG3614, and the XG3600 (the one I use) is 1.6" longer, fits in 3614 applications usually if there is enough room down there. No other filter will hold as much gunk. Wire backed too. http://www.fram.com/parts-search/XG3600/
Originally Posted By: 69Torino
Wouldn’t it be cheaper and possibly as effective to do several short oil change intervals with a cheap off the shelf oil and a quart of MMO? Plus Synthetic wire backed filters too I guess.
Hard to judge what would work better. The Valvoline Premium Blue Restore has some aggressive carbon-cleaning ingredients to be sure. However, one could just change the oil every 4,000 miles or 4 months with any cheap conventional oil and run the last 200 miles of the oil change using a few ounces of SeaFoam or Kreen in there. Gradually dissolves deposits over time.

 

[oil_film_movies]

Originally Posted By: Tom NJ
Priolube 1973 is NPG Diisostearate, one of the lowest polarity polyol esters available. It has a Non Polarity Index (NPI) of 130 compared to the more commonly used POE, TMP C8C10, which has an NPI of 58. It will still offer some cleaning power, is more seal friendly, and has high lubricity, but is not nearly as polar as the more commonly used POEs. It is a good choice at that dosage.


And Valvoline says their "Restore" oil has the same additive package as their Premium Blue line oil, which is SN, so no problem using it here in a Lexus (non-Cummins, non-diesel) engine. https://volvo.cummins.com/file/1380.pdf Valvoline must have preserved the same seal-swell characteristics as their Premium Blue non-Restore oil.

 

[Onetor]

Valvoline was designed to clean!

 

[JamesBond]

Have you removed the valve covers, or the oil pan? How do you know that it's sludged up?

I've had a carboned up Toyota motor, and if your engine is like mine, I can tell you that doing $100 oil changes are not likely to do anything more than clean your wallet. (That stuff was hard and burnt on). If magic oil does clean anything be prepared to remove the oil pan and clean your oil pump pick up, at which point you might be better off with a $10 engine flush if you're removing the pan anyway.

If it were mine, I'd run regular conventional and hope that the "sludge" stays where it is.