Engine Oil Flush

[Stevebrookman]

What are peoples views on adding a tin of flush before changing the oil?

 

I used to do it years ago-but these days I have heard tales of doom and gloom-oil ways gunging up with dislodged muck etc.

 

Steve

 

 

[Aston Martin]

I've also heard that they can clean too much.

[sierraman]

Reality is it can't do any harm. Wouldn't bother though unless there's been a history of 20k services.

[clayts450]

I suppose it depends on the age of the car.

 

Me, I'm a "swap out cruddy oil with Wilko/own brand oil, run it for a week or so, swap out with posh stuff from Castrol or Mobil"

[sierraman]

Oil is oil so long as the spec is right. Castrol is no better than Wilko if the spec is the same.

[Honey Badger]

I suppose it depends on the age of the car.

 

Me, I'm a "swap out cruddy oil with Wilko/own brand oil, run it for a week or so, swap out with posh stuff from Castrol or Mobil"

 

Aye thats the approach I'd take to be honest, you could use diesel engine oil of the right spec in it if you want to clean it a bit more than standard oil due to the higher detergent levels.

[Uncle Jimmy]

Personally I wouldn't, especially if it's an older engine which may not have had regular tlc. I used it once on the Ovlov 164, the old oil was very thin when removed and I was a bit concerned about rope/rubber seals getting dried up.

[Stevebrookman]

Thanks all,

 

I've found a few cans in the garage-I'll get a couple of gallons of Wilko's 20w-50 and use that instead.

 

Regadrs

 

Steve

[PiperCub]

I suppose it depends on the age of the car.

 

Me, I'm a "swap out cruddy oil with Wilko/own brand oil, run it for a week or so, swap out with posh stuff from Castrol or Mobil"

 

That's more my approach too, it's going to be gentler on something that has the crap of ages stuck to it's internals. Don't really like the idea of a combination of these modern flushes, long service intervals and small oil-ways. Maybe I'm just paranoid though. 

[plasticvandan]

Better off running some cheap oil through then changing for your preferred,I used it once on a Reliant,it sounded like a bag of nails afterwards.

[rainagain]

I thought about chucking a tin in the OH's Tucson before the next oil change as despite it having the oil changed every 7,000 miles (books says 10,000) and using full synthetic, it has developed a noisy tappet on startup now it has reached 100,000 miles. It was either that or a tin of upper cylinder head lubricant. I still don't know what to do!

[DodgeRover]

Engine flush, I chuck one though everything I have, never done any harm.

[castros_bro]

Depends on the engine and it's history,  not a good idea to shove that stuff in Triumph bike engine which has sludge trap so the cleaning chems shift the sludge into the oil-ways,     here's a bit  of prose stolen from a "rebuild your Trumpet" webshite.....

 

When  rebuilding a Triumph motorcycle engine it is imperative that you clean the sludge trap, which is a centrifugal filter that is inside the crank shaft. This collects all the impurities and 'sludge' from the motor,  This can be a total pain to remove if you don't know how to do it,

[Datsuncog]

Generally I throw a can of Wynn's flush down every car I've owned before each service, and have been doing so for the past 20yrs+. Never had any issues arising. I can certainly see the benefits of using cheap oil to float out any gack before refilling with quality stuff, but as I'm a lazy bugger with no garage to work in, once I've done an oil change I expect it to stay changed...

[Guest Hooli]

Depends on the engine and it's history,  not a good idea to shove that stuff in Triumph bike engine which has sludge trap so the cleaning chems shift the sludge into the oil-ways,     here's a bit  of prose stolen from a "rebuild your Trumpet" webshite.....

 

When  rebuilding a Triumph motorcycle engine it is imperative that you clean the sludge trap, which is a centrifugal filter that is inside the crank shaft. This collects all the impurities and 'sludge' from the motor,  This can be a total pain to remove if you don't know how to do it,

 

The last sentence is why the 'professional'* rebuild my Bonnie's engine had before I got it didn't include the sludge trap.

 

*I have receipts from an 'Brit bike specialist' for the rebuild...

[DodgeRover]

Likewise small hondas

[Guest Hooli]

Small Hondas are on the end of the crank aren't they? nice n easy via the side panel. At least the CG125 I did was like that.

 

Triumphs need a total strip down & crank removal to get to theirs.

[dollywobbler]

I just stick to 3000 intervals on the smaller engines on the fleet (as they get most hammer) and 6000 miles on the bigger stuff. I've never used a flush and never will. They seem rather pointless to me. Just regular changes.

[Junkman]

Thou shalt not poure ye beelzebube's snake oile into thine engine.

 

(Junkman 18:38)

[tommytwo]

Some engines seem very prone to oil sludge. My experience:

 

I had a 1986 Escort 1.4 CVH engine Lovely little car with 139k on the clock. One day, it blew out the camshaft seal. Replaced the seal and was running the engine when I heard a tinkle in the road behind me. It was the oil filler cap, the internal pressure had blown it right off, must have just missed me.

 

I drained the oil and put in one pint of oil, then filled it up to dipstick level with paraffin. I ran the engine on a fast tick over for a half hour, then drained the sump, changed the filter, along with fresh oil. Never had any further problems after that. Did another 10k miles then sold it locally. Fifteen years later, I still see it in daily use.use.

 

My present Rover with the T series engine has never shown any sign of oil sludge.  Clean as a whistle inside and I do a lot of short runs.

[mercrocker]

I have never done it to a running user.   I did flush my Cowley after an 8 year lay up which didn't stop the engine from being knackered once I started using it.   I tend to change the oil on anything I buy as soon as I can but once I have them in my service regime I never bother with flushing.   Minor gets a 1500 mile oil change anyway because of its daily short runs.  

I think most modern stuff is plenty cleansing enough on tired A and B series lumps anyway. 

[MikeKnight]

Always, but only if you do it at REGULAR SERVICE INTERVALS.

 

If you plan on doing it once and never doing it again, don't bother.

 

If you plan on doing it to a poor running leaky engine, don't bother. Fix the bloody thing first.

 

Done properly and at regular service intervals it will prolong the life of a well maintained engine.

 

Forte is best. The rest are absolute shit.

 

 

As an aside, I also use Forte Bio Degreaser in blocks that have suffered HGF and it's fantastic. Like new afterwards. Wynn's is like a poor mans Forte. Better poured down the drain.

 

Disclaimer: I don't work for Forte.

[Isaac Hunt]

Never used the flush stuff so never had a problem with it or without it.   

 

My chosen method is an Oil and Filter change with the correct spec oil followed by another change a few hundred miles later.  Then keep it changed regularly, every 10k max.

 

If it is Petrol the oil should still look clean ish to 'dip' but if it is a dirty diesel, that goes black in a few hundred miles irrespective of how often you change.