Rotella used as gas engine cleaner?

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read somewhere that heavy duty oil such as rotella or delvac has such high additive content that u can use it as a gas engine cleaner if u leave it in for 500 miles or so then drain it.

anybody have any experience with this?

sounds like a good alternative compared with others.
 
What others?

Cheaper than Auto RX, but not as effective. Puts you right back into the additive discussion, catalyst effects, and running a vis you shouldn't. But for 500 miles, why not?

I don't really know how you'd verify, except by pulling the valve cover before and after. We're gonna be pretty cold shortly, Damon (I'm out by Dulles). I'd run Mobil 1 for an OCI or two, it would be just as effective as Rotella I bet.
 
Engine oils lubricate, cool and suspend contaminates in solution..they do not clean. An HDEO is designed to suspend more soot(than a PCMO) so that it does not settle onto engine parts. This is how detergent motor oil keep engines clean..but do not clean. To Clean requires solvency or the break up of solids tha have settled onto engine parts. That is why Auto RX works but also requires flush /clean cycles to remove all the solids that are being suspended. Breaking up these solids too quickly with a severe solvent would be potentialy harmfull to the engine as well. Clean with care.
 
I got an old Honda and I'm using 10w30 HDEO in it for 6000 miles and I will post before/after pics to see if the HDEO I'm using removed any of the crud that was baked on after 145K miles. Stay tuned.
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The first time I put Rotella T 5w-40 in my LT1 after a few hundred miles the valvetrain got a bit clattery a filter change quieted it down. The engine was not neglected as I had owned it for several years prior and had done some internal modifications and always found it reasonably clean. The only conclusion I can draw is that it did indeed do some cleaning of something and changing the filter that had filled with crud allowed better flow again and the noise went away.
 
LT4 deserves kudos for trying this for himself, as I have. HDEO does zip for cleaning. Detergents/dispersants are for keeping clean, not cleaning up a pre-existing mess. Not for 500 miles...not for 5,000 miles. Before/after pics furnished on request.
 
Furthermore, I think the whole 1 OCI of this or that (not picking on you, toocrazy) is another passed along, hardly ever questioned load of bovine feces. There's no shortcut to proper maintenance.
 
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Furthermore, I think the whole 1 OCI of this or that (not picking on you, toocrazy) is another passed along, hardly ever questioned load of bovine feces.




well, would u question a load of canine feces then? how about feline feces?
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Bottomline - pick an oil for its lube qualities . pick a cleaner like ARX or other if you need a cleaner.
 
Well, I;m not advocating it, I'm questioning it. If an OCI of Rotella floats the boat, go ahead, but there's no verifying it without you pull the valve cover. I'm for regular OCI, there's never been even the slightest dot of sludge in any of my engines, and THAT goes back to when oil was built to sludge.
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There has been in mine. In my 9-5 at least. 2 3k OCIs and 1 2k OCI with Castrol Tection did nothing. Every change since then I have used SLOB, which should be bringing up my oil to at least HDEO levels of zddp and calcium..and still no big difference.
 
Myth! They will keep an already clean engine clean with reasonable OCI. ATF won't clean a dirty engine either. If you want to clean an already dirty engine you need to use one of the following listed in their prefered order: Auto-Rx,Nuetra 131, or Lube Control. The few oils that will do significant cleaning are not cost effective for that purpose and pale in comparison. The only oils that will do significant cleaning are ester based oil. The problem is they cost a lot and you will use up some of their life trying to clean a dirty engine. To add insult to injury you would need to run these oils for 3-4 oil changes to see any significant cleaning.

How dirty is the engine so we can better tailor or recomendations? WHat type of deposits are we talking about sludge,varnish, carbon deposits?
 
sorry 4 tha delay. was trying to fugure out the deposit question. its kinda hard to tell. i mean how would u know what the deposits are without taking off the valve cover?
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I remember hearing some say that Red Line might be a good choice if you want to clean up a little, without going the auto-rx route. Any thoughts on this? I believe it was because its ester content.
 
sxg6,
It is not a cost effective way to clean. The esters in Redline are not as potent in regards to solvency compared to the natural ester that is Auto Rx.
1 The redline will not clean nearly as well.
2 You would have to change the Redline very often(because the cleaning would reduce the oils ability to lubricate and overload it's ability to suspend insolubles) which is not economical compared to a bottle or two of Auto Rx and a couple of OCI's worth of inexpensive conventional oil.
 
5 qts of Redline cost me $53 shipped. And that was from the cheap place. I ran 1 OCI for 5,500 miles (the longest I've dared run oil in my 9-5). Before/after pics showed absolutely no difference. At least 2 arx's did show a LITTLE difference for the same price.
 
Well, it may not clean ..but I think that HDEO is pretty good at deposit control. I took a look in the oil filler hole today @ around 60k (over 4 years) and there's no varnish on my visible rockers on my 2.5 jeep. I even had RTS in there for over a year. I'll take an pic or two.
 
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