Ask a Shiter

[doobietoo]

Isn't SFQ some sort of barbecue sauce?

 

I've got a question, possibly stupid, possibly even mad: I'm sure I remember reading a long, long time ago, in a manual (possibly Renault) of an exhaust assembly grease that contained tiny beads of glass, the idea being that the grease burned off but left the glass behind in order to ease disassembly. Nobody else seems to have heard of it so I'm beginning to suspect I dreamt it.

 

Did anybody else ever hear of such a thing? Would it even work? Maybe the reason why nobody else ever heard if it is that it didn't...

Not exactly glass but a glass like substance called Sodium silicate so partly right...as it is called liquid glass

[Albert Ross]

Ref: Morrison's door. The rotating type in the Doncaster branch, on the car park side, not the road side, rotates anti-clockwise, and the hand baskets are to the left of the door. Meaning that anyone entering the store, and wishing to have a basket, needs to cross over the path of people waiting to leave the store, who are delayed by the bloody door. Great. Yeah. Plus the car park slopes. Do the trolleys have brakes on them? Do they bollocks.

[DSdriver]

... Do the trolleys have brakes on them? Do they bollocks.

 

That's why the trolleys all end up in the river - you never get a river up hill from a supermarket.

[DS20]

Does anyone use oil-flush treatments when doing oil changes (obvs)? Are they worth it? Is there any reason I shouldn't use such a thing on the Volvo (it's been a loooong time since the last oil change)?

[sheffcortinacentre]

not a revolving door normal swing door.

 

used them & do seem to help clean the crap out looking at the stuff we've found in rocker covers etc & in the bowl after.

[DS20]

As the owner of a Rover V8-powered car, I'm used to thinking anxiously about sludge build-up and clogged oil galleries - IMHO it's better out than in, but there's the danger of leaving some / lots of newly-loosened crud circulating around the engine.

[mat_the_cat]

Never heard any direct story of problems occurring after a flush...

 

FWIW, I've used it on a couple of RV8s and a D24 engine, with no ill effects on any of them 20-30k miles afterwards. I don't do it routinely though - on one of the V8s it was to (successfully) cure a stuck valve lifter, and on the van it was to try and cure a suspected lifter which turned out to be the brake vacuum pump.

[Honey Badger]

Does anyone use oil-flush treatments when doing oil changes (obvs)? Are they worth it? Is there any reason I shouldn't use such a thing on the Volvo (it's been a loooong time since the last oil change)?

Just changing the oil more often has the same effect doesn't it, without the "did I get all the flush out" worries?

[mat_the_cat]

Changing the oil often will keep the engine cleaner, but won't really do anything to dissolve sludge that is already present...

[NorfolkNWeigh]

I've only flushed a couple of times,both RV8s and each time I refilled with cheap oil and changed it after a couple of hundred miles,just in case.

[saucedoctor]

I've only flushed a couple of times,both RV8s and each time I refilled with cheap oil and changed it after a couple of hundred miles,just in case.

 

I did a cheapo oil change on my mate's TDCi Focarse which was minging. Gave it 200 odd pretty hard miles and changed it again. Made a great difference to the "proper" oil change, as it remained clean for a long time.

[Lacquer Peel]

How does diesel engine oil remain clean? It's black with soot deposits within a few miles.

[saucedoctor]

I used the term "clean" in a relative sense.

[Rusty_Rocket]

I used to change the oil every 6k on the 106 I sold to Castro on here.  It was the only diesel I've ever had that didn't immediately make its oil black..

[spike60]

I had a  15 year old Tranny with an early Di engine and when I put Valvoline oil in it took several thousand miles to go black, I couldn't decide if this was a good thing or not! I had it years and every other brand discoloured almost straight away. It wasn't a one off, I got 25L of the stuff.

[Lacquer Peel]

I thought running on veg oil might make a difference to the sooting of engine oil, but it doesn't seem to.

[DS20]

I'll try the oil flush, followed by a couple of short-service oil changes.  At the moment it looks like I have some of the tar sands of Alberta in the sump.  

[MrDuke]

I thought running on veg oil might make a difference to the sooting of engine oil, but it doesn't seem to.

 

Surely the veg oil wouldn't produce as much soot as diesel? I've heard that veg acts as a mild cleaning agent, so the first couple of changes after switching fuel might be grubbier, but I'd expect it to run cleaner after that.

[saucedoctor]

I think I need to flush my bloodstream. I wakened up in the early hours of this morning, and sneezed about 4 times. Some of what flew out of my nose hit the bedside drawer thing. I know this. However, I've now noticed that some of the varnish-stuff is coming off it. WT actual F?

[DS20]

Have you been drinking engine flush or paint-stripper?

[saucedoctor]

That's the funny thing - I had nothing stronger than coffee yesterday. Weird.

 

Years ago, me and a mate got this knockoff vodka from a taxi driver. £5 for a 10 glass bottle, or 5 bottles for a score. It was called AK47. Needless to say, he and me got really mashed. MUCH later, we noticed that where my mate had spilled his drink on the wooden internal window sill, the vod had done a Nitromors on it.

 

We got other stuff called St Petersburg on another occasion. It was simply labelled as "Mixed Spirit", and was used, successfully, to start a mk3 Fiesta when poured down the carb. We never drank any of that!

[Luckythirteen]

Nasal DPF regen, SD?

[DS20]

Are there any useful uses for the fairly pure water that is expelled by a dehumidifier?  I've just sent 20 litres of it down the drain because I was in a hurry (it was getting dark), but there'll be more where it came from and it seems a waste chuck it like that.  

[HH-R]

I just put it in a watering can until the plants need watering.

[Asimo]

Dehumidifier water is distilled water so use it for topping up car battery if it is old enough to be top-uppable.

Also useful for watering those Orchid things that don't want any nutrient in their water.

[steve_earwig]

And for ironing (if you're that way etc.). Just make sure there's no dust in it.

 

Would there be anything to be gained by filling your cooling system up with it? I mean, as well as antifreeze...

[DS20]

I'll keep it for coolant changes, although it might be an idea to get hold of a water butt or two and save it for the next drought (at the moment t'garden is waterlogged, rather than dry)

[DVee8]

Has anyone set up a direct debit for their car tax?

Does it work for you?

[andy18s]

yep,and works just fine so far

[320touring]

Worked fine for the 320 too:)