Best engine oil to use to "CLEAN THE CRUD OUT OF THE INSIDE OF ENGINE?"

[Jeff B]

What brand/grade of oil would work well to clean out the nasty dirty crud out of my 302? I know I can run some Seafoam or B-12 Chemtool in it but for the long haul what would the best oil be to get the engine cleaned out and keep it running clean?

Thanks.

 

[ElJefe]

Use any diesel oil. You can get Chevron Delo in 10w30 or 15w40. The diesel oils are loaded with detergents. Run a couple of quick changes with the Delo, if it still looks bad in there, you can try running an extra quart of ATF in the crankcase which has even more detergents than the engine oil. You will be amazed at what the Delo alone will desolve in 500 miles though.

Chris

 

[TJK74]

I would say run and engine flush then swap over to a synthetic oil. Overtime it will clean out and break loose the crud. But if you have tons on crud build up I suggest changing your filter frequently to properly filter the junk out of your oil otherwise when the filter gets restricted it just by passes unfiltered oil back into you engine doing more harm than good!

 

[Steve]

First, what leads you to believe that your engine is full of "nasty dirty crud?" If you have been using any decent brand of motor oil you should be fine.

Personally, I would never use anything, expecially ATF, to "clean it" out inside. Why? Because some of the varnish that builds up in an engine over time helps keep it sealed from oil leaks. I had a buddy with a high miles engine try the ATF trick. He ended up having to pull the engine because it cleaned it out so well it leaked oil from just about everywhere after that. %)

 

[Tgure]

Marvel mystery oil works also, but like the above post if it gets too clean oil can leak and you can start having a cloud of smoke out the exhaust.

 

[Rustytruck]

It is really best to leave well enough alone. If you do things to loosen the crud it will likly start breaking off large chunks plugging the oil pick-up screen. For the most part the newer engines dont do this because the oil isnt parafin based anymore and the engines run much higher engine temperatures.

 

[SaddleUp]

Like a few have mentioned above. Be careful trying to clean out the engine. Especially if you have a large build up of crud. Once it starts breaking loose it will start plugging things up in the motor and you'll be worse off then before.

 

[76Broncofromhell]

If you change your oil a lot you shouldn't have a problem. As long as it has new oil in it I wouldn't worry about sludge build-up. Do not only change the filter any time and assume that it helps. Filters cannot catch most of the crap in the oil that wears engines out. If they could, your oil would not be black when you drain it.

Best bet is to run quality oil like Valvoline, Castrol or some other good oil and change it frequently. Stay away from Pennzoil and Quakerstate.

 

[mtkawboy]

As an ex Ford mechanic I strongly advise you to leave it alone unlesss you plan on pulling the intake & dropping the pan and cleaning all the crap out. All you will accomplish is ruining the lifters and pumping crap thru the engine or plugging up the oil pump pickup. You will do more harm then good

 

[BoltBuster]

This topic has been out for years to clean your engine with what without harming it. I'm not sure of the answer and wont reccomend anything with out try at your own risk or last leg of the motor.

I have had guys that said to use 1/2 a qt of transmission fluid and a oil change and filter (filter is the key) after the every 100 miles until oil comes back super clean. The only thing I worry about any cleaner, that is on a shelf, be it a detergent base or magic or tranny fluid, is that it doesnt wipe away the starting lubricants on the crank and cam shaft bearings.

 

[Buckshot]

Marvel Mystery Oil,
Seafoam
both work great from what i've seen, even with a well maintained engine some deposits will form, and laquer will collect on the inside surfaces. Lucas oil also puts out some sort of similar product.

 

[roundhouse]

Any of these will result in a nice clean engine that looks new inside and out.

Thats because it will be new inside and out after you run that stuff,
it will looses up all that gunk and the small particles will be in your bearings and the big globs will clog your oil pump pickup screen.

That gunk isnt hurting anything as long as it stays attatched to whereever its at.