Originally Posted By: Artem
Originally Posted By: Kuato
Originally Posted By: Artem
The thing is, if you have a dirty engine and need to clean it out a bit, it doesn't make sense to do a cleaning regimen with flushes that will take many months and thousands of miles to make a difference. That's like going to the shower every day but only wash one leg. Then tomorrow wash another leg, then an arm the next day, so on and so forth until you wash all body parts. Seems like a silly way to get clean.
Of course it makes sense to dive in and shower all at once. So in this case, a powerful cleaner poured into the engine and idle it in the driveway for 5-10 mins to quickly clean up the engine internals seems more logical to me. The engine is instantly cleaner and hopefully running better with the piston rings sealing things better and a fresh, clean coat of oil covering all moving parts.
Seems like it would be less stressful for the engine as well. Idling for 10-15 mins and seeing improvements vs driving around for months with a whole bottle of cleaning additives scrubbing the internals all while having the removed gunk splash around for thousands of miles. I'd personally want to get that stuff outta there quickly.
And is running the risk of clogging your oil pickup worth that? Perhaps OP should read the threads where someone did exactly as you suggest and ended up hashing their engine.
Might you also suggest that he perform a high pressure flush of the transmission? Another quick fix on a high mileage vehicle that has been shown to be detrimental.
Although I agree that getting fresh oil throughout the engine is a good thing, a slow clean which will allow the filter to do its job -- and NOT clog the pickup (or any small passage) with globs of sludge that sluff off rapidly - is much safer.
Sorry but your shower analogy doesn't...hold water
Please allow me to retort: Your method is like taking a water cannon loaded with lye to your grandma because she smells funny. She could have had a nice easy shower, taken her time to get clean with some gentle moisturizing soap, but NO you had to send her flying with a 55000 psi blast of corrosive liquid.
LOL. I don't see how idling the engine in the driveway for 10-15 mins while the cleaner does it's job can possibly ruin the block. The same can happen with ANY long term cleaner or even a high mileage oil alone without anything added. If there's chunks of sludge and crud in there, there's a possibility that it will break off and block an oil passage even on its own, with regular oil.
If the engine is that far gone and that dirty, why even bother cleaning anything? Just drive it as is and with normal maintenance, that sucker has the possibility to last another 100k easy even with the carbon build up inside the block.
Unless you have plans to keep the car for another 10-15 years and have the time and patience to do a slow clean up (hopefully) over the course of many many months and thousands of miles, why bother? Most run down cars only last a few years as beaters before something breaks that is worth more to fix then the rust bucket is worth and off to the junk yard it goes...
x2.
If you want to use AutoRX, you don't want to use Maxlife as the oil.
Just used the cheapest possible good plain (not High mileage) Dino oil like Supertech or sometimes they have $2/quart oil sale.