How many quarts for a flush

[Finklejag]

I will be using Lubro Moly Engine Flush at the end of my girlfriends 03 Jetta's OCI. Her car will have 125,000 miles on. It has had a diet of dealer bulk oil for the life of the car. I do see some sludge around the filler neck. This car does burn oil, and she has admitted that the car has been driven around with 1-2 quarts low.

The car has Castrol High Mileage 5w30 in the crankcase right now. It has burned 1/2 quart in 1800 miles. I could just pour the 500ml can in at the OC and let the car idle for 10 minutes. I was planning to drain the Castrol, then pour in fresh oil and the engine flush, then let it idle for 10 minutes. I want to see how dark the fresh oil gets with the engine flush.

I have 2 quarts of Pennzoil Gold 15w40 in my garage. I can i just use those two quarts and the can of engine flush, or should I have the full 4 quarts + engine flush for the 10 minute idle? The car has a 4.5 quart sump.

Thanks

 

[ahoier]

Not too familiar with the flush product, but if the oil level is low enough, I'd say just go ahead and add the flush to the "current fill" - no need to drain the oil, then replace with good oil PLUS the flush additive....that's just ruining good oil

Obviously, may want to change out the filter before you crank over the engine with the flush in there so it doesn't go into bypass...


I've done this similar instance with MMO when I first bought my car. Checked the oil, saw it was low, topped it off with a PINT of MMO, to take the dipstick to full, drove the car for 500 miles or so (not knowing how long that oil had actually been in the car, but the lady said she hadn't drove the car in 2+ YEARS....sooo.....ehhh lol), then drained it, plugged the drain, added another PINT of MMO, filled the rest of the sump with ~4 qts of 5-30, and off I went, for a regular scheduled 3000 mile OCI. Next OCI, the oil was extremely dark

 

[Josh48065]

Ive read that BITOG strongly advises on engine flushes..Why not try short OCI with Pennzoil Conventional and some MMO?

 

[HTSS_TR]

I used Lubegard Engine Flush in '00 E430 with 120k+ miles, the dosage was 2-3oz in the 8.5qt sump and drove the car for a day at about 50 miles, the oil color was dark amber before adding the Lubegard Engine Flush and became black after the 50 miles drive.

I would do 2 flushes in your girlfriend's Jetta. First, add 2-3oz Engine Flush and drive for a day or 40-50 miles, then drain it. After 2-3k miles add another 2-3oz Engine Flush then drain after a good drive.

 

[Finklejag]

I don't believe you're suppose to drive around with this product in the engine.

Lubro Moly Pro-Line

 

[danster]

No, I would not drive around with that.

I understand your curiosity about how black that cleaner might make the fresh oil, but you don't really have a baseline for judging that. If you just put in fresh oil without the flush additive and drained it after 10 minutes I think you would be surprised at how dark the fresh oil was! I had this experience when I accidentally overfilled and then drained out a quart.

Also, this is rather wasteful of the fresh oil running it only 10 minutes. That fresh oil has an add pack that will do significant cleaning but it is intended to work over a longer period than the LubroMoly stuff.

I have used this product and it did a lot of cleaning in the 10 minutes. It also increased the oil consumption in my motor. The oil use did drop after a while but I think I might have been better off with the MMO flush that has already been suggested above.

If you still want to use this, I would add it to the oil that is in there (especially if it has only 1800 miles) and then add more oil if necessary to get the level to at least the full line on the dipstick. In fact, slightly overfilling the crankcase might get some of this cleaner to wash areas that might not get cleaned otherwise. Don't try to do your cleaning with the level low.

 

[HTSS_TR]

Don't drive around if you use the full can, but I used only 2-3oz out of 15oz bottle Lubegard Engine Flush.

 

[ltslimjim]

^Still, why not try using the product as directed first?

It may work for you, but how much experience does the OP have using flushes to be given instructions otherwise? He may mis-read your post when he could simply follow the instructions first. Especially since he doesn't know what the oils condition is running nearly at HALF capacity for HOW long?

It's not worth it to drive with any engine flush in right now at the very least. Perhaps at the end of the NEXT OCI, if you were driving it.

I see your idea and it may work, but it's risky, IMO.

.02 cents...