Anyone ever used an Engine Flush

The other day at the auto store i came across some Valvoline Engine Flush, said that it would clean the junk out while running it in with the oil about 5 min before changing to oil. Anyone know if this really does anything beneficial i have a 2001 jetta tdi with 140,000 miles on it and have just been thinking lately about things i might need to start thinking about to ensure my engine runs long and hard for many miles to come.

If you really need to flush there is a slow acting product on the net many say works very well - do not flush unless its really neccessary - better do a break in 2 5k changes and see if it cleans up. ToSlick knows the name, it escapes me, I like the slow frequent change cleanup.

If you've changed your oil on time and used synthetic, there shouldn't be anything for the engine flush to clean out.

I did use it before on a used car which had 150k miles and I had no idea of the maintenance history. Seemed to run smoother afterwords however.

Basically if you're good about oil changes don't bother.

BTW you can get the same effect by using a quart or so of kerosene which is basically what an engine flush is.

Stop thinking so hard. If it is not Baroque don't fix it. In this case you could do more damage than good.

Most normal "engine flush" products are basically kerosene - something lighter than motor oil that will act as a solvent. Not sure you'd want to put what is essentially a fuel into your crankcase. Run a couple of short change intervals with synthetic, it should degunk you if you think you need it. As the motor gets older, switch to thicker oil.

What greenskeeper said.

If you really want to have a good look-see, pop off the valve cover and see if there's any gunk hiding there in the top of the head. There's plenty of area for gunk to settle out and collect if your engine has any such problems.

Otherwise, the usual advice applies. I like to redline my engine at least once or twice per hour of operation, after it is fully warmed up of course. That keeps excess gunk out of the rings.

My last TB change at 203k miles showed an absolutely clean head and perfect cam lobes and like-new lifter surfaces.

Engine flush? No, thank you.

Str9012 said:

The other day at the auto store i came across some Valvoline Engine Flush, said that it would clean the junk out while running it in with the oil about 5 min before changing to oil. Anyone know if this really does anything beneficial i have a 2001 jetta tdi with 140,000 miles on it and have just been thinking lately about things i might need to start thinking about to ensure my engine runs long and hard for many miles to come.

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If you've been running synthetic diesel oil that at least meets 505.00 or CF-4/CI-4/CI-4+, for normal drain intervals for your car (10K/1 year stock, maybe shorter if modded), than you shouldn't have any significant crud to clean.

Here's an example of what happens fairly regularly with petroleum oil - especially lower quality petroleum oil. In this example, it's comparing an API SL/ILSAC GF-3 petroleum to an old non-detergent API SA petroleum oil. But I've seen the same level of crud in 1.8T engines running modern petroleum oil.



It will take more than a 5 or 10 minute flush to clean this, however.

Oil has detergents and dispersants to control contaminants. Petroleum oil can leave more deposits and contaminants than the oil can control. Continuous use of 3000 mile oil in an already dirty engine can make things worse over time, because the additives in the new oil are quickly depleted trying to clean up the mess - and there's nothing left to handle the deposits created during that drain interval.

This is the main reason for the early engine flushes - like AMSOIL's product - that goes back to the early 70s. Nobody used synthetic back then, oil quality was lower, there were a lot of dirty engines. There's wear metal and other abrasives trapped in the crud. Installing a long-drain synthetic in a dirty engine can liberate the abrasives and cause increased wear and seal damage.

Here's an image from an engine that I will use at least one round of an engine flush on. I'm working on a friend's Dodge minivan with a bad head gasket. The oil is full of water. There hasn't been any coolant in the system for awhile, so this isn't a glycol issue. Here's the oil fill cap:



Chances are, your engine looks more like this engine that had 225,000 miles of synthetic use. If that's the case, you can skip the flush - your engine's clean.

Thanks, i think thats all i need to know

A problem with using a flush agent in a dirty engine is not all of the "gunk" will break free of the nooks and crannies before the next oil change. However after the engine gets hot a few times, the gunk will eventually drop to the pan and some of it will get sucked onto the pump pick up screen. Once that happens, the engine will starve for oil.

ninedee_golf_tdi said:

A problem with using a flush agent in a dirty engine is not all of the "gunk" will break free of the nooks and crannies before the next oil change. However after the engine gets hot a few times, the gunk will eventually drop to the pan and some of it will get sucked onto the pump pick up screen. Once that happens, the engine will starve for oil.

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It's possible. I've never seen it happen after an engine flush. If the engine's so dirty that this is possible/probable, this isn't a candidate for synthetic oil until the engine is physically cleaned.

The worst plugged oil strainer I've ever seen was my '88 Jetta gasser. I had to drop the oil pan at around 80K, then twice more in the low and high 90K mile range. The low oil pressure warning popped up at idle. I pulled the pan to find a layer of carbon granules about the size of Grape Nuts cereal or aquarium gravel. The oil pickup was about 2/3rds blocked. This was from an engine that got regular oil changes between 2950 and 3050 miles with petroleum oil (Castrol GTX). There was no sign of sludge, and only the typical 'caramel' colored engine coating typical for petroleum oil. There was enough of the 'gravel' in the pan at around 80K that there was an imprint of the oil pickup in the gravel when I dropped the pan.

Those early engines ran high oil temps. Crappy oils didn't help either.

As much as I don't think Amsoil is a great idea for the consumer at times I cannot see why every fleet doesn't use it or something similar. The benefits are enormous rather then paying the local Petboys every 3k.

That PDF layed it out pretty well.

I thought about using Motul's Engine Flush mostly because if I company makes a good product like Diesel Purge, they can't go wrong there.

I would not ever recommend any engine flush for a diesel engine. The chance of getting the oil too thin or overfilling could both result in a runaway condition (don't ask how I know!). You'd be better off using a high quality oil and more frequent oil & filter changes for any internal engine cleaning. JOHN

jjblbi said:

I would not ever recommend any engine flush for a diesel engine. The chance of getting the oil too thin or overfilling could both result in a runaway condition (don't ask how I know!). You'd be better off using a high quality oil and more frequent oil & filter changes for any internal engine cleaning. JOHN

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It be pretty hard to overfill with an 8 oz bottle and thinning I'll agree but you should make sure you are using a flush that isn't 100% kerosene.

Auto-RX is also what previous posters were talking about, it is ester based and gradually dissolves deposits over time. Works quite well but is expensive and takes a longer time to get results. They are fabulous results though.

Also it takes a lot more to get into a runaway condition...it was not JUST the flush.

jjblbi said:

I would not ever recommend any engine flush for a diesel engine. The chance of getting the oil too thin or overfilling could both result in a runaway condition (don't ask how I know!). You'd be better off using a high quality oil and more frequent oil & filter changes for any internal engine cleaning. JOHN

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I haven't read the bottle for all the flush products available. The few I've read while visiting quick-lube customers say just to add the bottle to old oil, idle for 5 or 10 minutes, and drain.

The process I use when I flush an engine is to get the engine up to normal temperature, change the oil filter to an el-cheapo, add the pint of flush, and idle for about 20 minutes. Absolutely do not drive the vehicle with the flush installed, and don't rev higher than a fast idle. Then drain, change the filter, and get as much remaining oil out as possible. If it has a remote oil cooler, pull the hose and drain it.

When converting from petroleum to synthetic, it's a good idea to shorten the drain interval after a flush. The flush won't clean everything - the new oil will continue to clean - and it's life will be shorter than normal.

One real-world example backed by oil analysis - Cat C15, 460,000 miles of petroleum use. Filter change; 10% engine flush installed; idled 40 minutes. First interval with synthetic ran 69,500 miles. Next interval was 120,000 miles.

I can't imagine these products would be good for the turbo?!

story--guy came to the shop--95 bird---4.6---low oil pressure--friend brought in some amsoil flush---did by directions---oil pressure went way up--could only have presumed that previous owner didnt change oil regular--and pump screen was part plugged---changed the oil few times after that--still had good oil pressure--