Best cleaning oils for short OCIs

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Sep 9, 2020
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6
Hi everyone,

I have a 2013 Volvo S60 T5 with slight oil burning - around 1qt/3k. Seems like the issue is badly designed low tension piston rings with small grooves, where carbon can plug up the drain holes. I want to clean them out without pulling the pistons and changing the rings.

Sure, a flush could work - I'm considering that. But I think its safer to use high quality cleaning oils with short OCIs to slowly remove the gunk.

So, I have two questions:

1. Could high-detergent oils over short OCIs clean up carbon buildup on piston rings?
2. Any suggestions of oils with high-detergent compositions for this sort of situation?
 
Motor oils are lubricants, not cleaning solvents. Any modern oil has detergents in it and will slowly work to slowly clean things up.

It was floated around here a few years ago that using products like yellow-bottle Pennzoil scrubbed the insides of your engine and that you could only leave it in for very short OCIs or it would clog filters and oil pump pickups or your engine would explode. Well that thinking needs to die because it's ridiculous.

Choose a quality oil in the right spec for your engine, do regular OCIs and keep track if consumption changes. That's it.
 
What did Pennzoil have in it that other similar rated oils didn't ? We have trouble with tolerances and clearances .
 
How much time do you have? It could take years and tens of thousands of miles to use oil to clean up an engine. Good synthetic oil, short OCIs and all. If the engine truly needs to be cleaned save yourself a lot of time, money, and miles and get something like a good engine cleaning product, not a fast flush. I'm going to refrain from naming products, and causing problems today. ;) You can search the archives, or PM me and I'll give you some products that I had success with over the years.
 
A few questions for the OP:
1) Are you the original owner of this vehicle? If not what was the mileage when you purchased?
2) How many miles on this vehicle?
3) What is you oil change interval and which oil do you use?
4) Have you ever had a PCV service performed on this engine?
 
It's not popular here but why not use a flush product? That is what they have been designed to do and the concerns with them are over-hyped.
 
Hi everyone,

I have a 2013 Volvo S60 T5 with slight oil burning - around 1qt/3k. Seems like the issue is badly designed low tension piston rings with small grooves, where carbon can plug up the drain holes. I want to clean them out without pulling the pistons and changing the rings.

Sure, a flush could work - I'm considering that. But I think its safer to use high quality cleaning oils with short OCIs to slowly remove the gunk.

So, I have two questions:

1. Could high-detergent oils over short OCIs clean up carbon buildup on piston rings?
2. Any suggestions of oils with high-detergent compositions for this sort of situation?


I have read posts on Honda/Toyota/Saturn with the same issues and i have yet to see anyone with success. I think some guys even pulled the pistons and soaked them and the carbon remained until manual cleaning.

Since the problem is ongoing i doubt that any oil will reverse the process.


My personal Hail Mary would be to do a Kreen regimen.. then if that did not work a Chem Dip soak..
 
We obsess over this stuff but I get it.
If there is just a bit of varnish, just shorten the oci or switch oils. A bit varnish is not going to hurt anything as long as the process does not continue.

If it bothers you, you can go a grade heavier in oil and use kreen for a few thousand miles.
I'd rather use kreen as a gradual process.

Mobil states their high mileage oils are for cleaning.
 
On any B5xxx Volvo engine I would look at the PCV first. The trap under the inlet, onto the block
 
Hi everyone,

I have a 2013 Volvo S60 T5 with slight oil burning - around 1qt/3k. Seems like the issue is badly designed low tension piston rings with small grooves, where carbon can plug up the drain holes. I want to clean them out without pulling the pistons and changing the rings.

Sure, a flush could work - I'm considering that. But I think its safer to use high quality cleaning oils with short OCIs to slowly remove the gunk.

So, I have two questions:

1. Could high-detergent oils over short OCIs clean up carbon buildup on piston rings?
2. Any suggestions of oils with high-detergent compositions for this sort of situation?

I have an Audi Q5 with the 2.0 liter DI turbo that has a similar issue and I'm considering using that Valvoline Blue Restore 10w-30 oil that was developed for Cummins engines. It supposedly has a lot of esters or something to clean the piston rings. It's expensive (approx. $75 for 5 quarts). I have not yet been able to find a source for it yet though. Thanks for the reminder for me to get searching for it!
 
my condolences to you 🙁
Much appreciated :). I bought it about a year ago at an excellent price, knowing what work had to be done ...though I definitely underestimated it with all these stupid lifetime fluids and now the oil burning.

The upside is that I've learned an immense amount about how cars can fail and how to take care of one!
 
A few questions for the OP:
1) Are you the original owner of this vehicle? If not what was the mileage when you purchased?
2) How many miles on this vehicle?
3) What is you oil change interval and which oil do you use?
4) Have you ever had a PCV service performed on this engine?

1) No - at 55k. Oil was changed at 52k and was a quart down at that time, so I did buy it knowing it burnt oil - just didn’t think much of it until I looked into it more. The previous owner followed long OCIs and most of the miles were work commutes so, I’m assuming, stop and go on a highway.

2) 70k. Consumption hasn’t increased.

3) 5k miles. Using Castrol Edge. I’m currently using Castrol Edge Extended Performance which cut down the consumption a bit - I’d say .7q/3k miles.

4) No but on the T5 the PCV should have to be serviced closer to 90k from what I’ve seen.When I asked some mechanics and dealers about it, they all pointed to the badly designed piston rings and said that it shouldn’t be the PCV at this mileage.
 
I have an Audi Q5 with the 2.0 liter DI turbo that has a similar issue and I'm considering using that Valvoline Blue Restore 10w-30 oil that was developed for Cummins engines. It supposedly has a lot of esters or something to clean the piston rings. It's expensive (approx. $75 for 5 quarts). I have not yet been able to find a source for it yet though. Thanks for the reminder for me to get searching for it!

I'd also like to know a source for the VPBR.

A buddy at work has an Accord V6 that is using some oil and recently fouled a plug. I suggested VPBR from reading about it here, but a quick search online didn't reveal any sources. I even e-mailed Cummins via the "contact us" on their page, and the person who replied the next day said they'd never heard of it ( I read that VPBR was specifically developed to remedy oil consumption on a particular large Cummins diesel engine).

Only thing I could tell my buddy was to check with local tractor-trailer dealerships to see if any of them had it or could get it.
 
I’ve had good luck with Mobil 1 0w40 on my wife’s Volvo S60.

I started doing her oil changes while we dated about 7 years ago. The pleats had sludge in them.. I started seeing better results after the first year of use.
 
Valvoline Blue Restore would be my first choice. But here is how I would I would do it. First I would run 5w-30 Redline Euro for 3,000 miles to take out the low hanging carbon fruit with it's high Ester. Then hit it with the Valvoline Blue Restore, so that oil that is design to clean carbon can go at with full force on the harder deposits and not waste it use on low hanging easy to clean off carbon.


.
 
BITOG be like...
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