LS Jr. Titled: The TRUTH About Valvoline's BOLD Engine Cleaning Claims

[fantastic]

Of course it's YT clicky titles but getting beyond that Lake Jr dives into further info about how Restore & Protect claims it's cleaning additive chemistry. Put's it into his wife's Toyota's 180,000 mile engine as a "perfect candidate" for testing this oil. Test's the oil & see's if it cleans the dipstick.

Uses a testing device that measures particles larger than 10 Um. The Fe-Eazy did not detect any particles 10 microns or larger. Looks at Manganese level on UOA that shows cleaning being done across the piston grooves. UOA Wear contaminates at least on par w/Toyota OEM oil.

Granted, this is the first run he's done & appears to be documenting the use case. I do think it's informative in the sense of delivering his thought process & evidence of cleaning in a video format. Also, since he has access to compare other results he shows how his sample compares to other R&P samples he's received from others. It will be interesting to see the x4 runs & what is, or not, found out about this product (from his perspective).

 

[cptbarkey]

TLDR:
He used it in his wifes van, it didnt explode.
He wants to use it in his daughter's new Corolla, just because.

 

[SimpleSyrup]

This feels way more like an advertisement than even the first R&P video. Hard to take people seriously when they do stuff like this.

Here's a summary:
Despite never looking into the engine, Lake jr shows how the dipstick has less crud on it, and thus uses this as conclusive proof R&P lives up to its name.
Based on a UOA of 5000 miles for R&P and a 10k UOA for TGMO 0w-20, which are almost identical wear, Lake Jr claims R&P absolutely "protects". I just saved you 9 minutes.

The only thing conclusive about this oil from the video: It is non inferior in "protection" to 0w-20 Toyota oil. In a sample size of 1.

All the hype over this really makes me think twice about this oil. And I've used two jugs of it myself.

Example of what I mean by the marketing. From valvolines own website. One of dozens of reviews exactly like this. Now videos? LSJ went on a crusade against marketing hype in some of his other videos. What happened?

 

[buster]

Stuff works. Only 1 change too.

Before:

After:

 

[buster]

 

[FowVay]

I had seen on a older YT video something that I found very fascinating. I never posted here because I just never saw the opportunity but this is perfect. Here is a shot of four dipstick pictures. The vehicle had over 345,000 miles (hybrid Toyota) and was previously operated on Mobil-1. I have no other details. This picture is after three intervals using one of HPL's products. Notice how clean the dipstick became after those three intervals. It truly is impressive.

I personally am impressed with the Valvoline product but I also know that it's not alone with the capability to clean an engine. The strong suite is that it's available from WalMart and affordable.

 

[gman2304]

Test's the oil & see's if it cleans the dipstick.

A ‘test’ that appears on BITOG almost daily. He failed to check the oil cap for varnish so this ‘test’ is inconclusive and means nothing!

 

[buster]

Lot of skeptics will continue to be butthurt by the fact Valvoline did create an oil that can clean very well when used as directed. Get your Klenex ready.

 

[Astro14]

View attachment 251749

View attachment 251750

Are those your pistons?

Or pictures from Valvoline promotional material?

 

[buster]

Are those your pistons?

Or pictures from Valvoline promotional material?

From Lake's video in the Lab where they tore down engines multiple times and took photos.

 

[buster]

BTW, I've yet to see anyone share piston photos.

The photos above are from an accredited lab that can run actual engine tests.

 

[SC Maintenance]

The oil ring picture is weird.

The oil appears to have 100% cleaned the oil ring. But it also 100% cleaned the channel directly above the oil ring, but did not clean the piston between the two compression rings much, but again cleans the top of the piston.

Seems strange. If it has cleaning ability above the oil control ring, you would think there would be more cleaning at the lower compression ring.

?

 

[buster]

I had seen on a older YT video something that I found very fascinating. I never posted here because I just never saw the opportunity but this is perfect. Here is a shot of four dipstick pictures. The vehicle had over 345,000 miles (hybrid Toyota) and was previously operated on Mobil-1. I have no other details. This picture is after three intervals using one of HPL's products. Notice how clean the dipstick became after those three intervals. It truly is impressive.

I personally am impressed with the Valvoline product but I also know that it's not alone with the capability to clean an engine. The strong suite is that it's available from WalMart and affordable.

View attachment 251751

Looks good. HPL cleaned up the varnish. Took 3 intervals.

 

[buster]

The oil ring picture is weird.

The oil appears to have 100% cleaned the oil ring. But it also 100% cleaned the channel directly above the oil ring, but did not clean the piston between the two compression rings much, but again cleans the top of the piston.

Seems strange. If it has cleaning ability above the oil control ring, you would think there would be more cleaning at the lower compression ring.

?

I noticed that too. The part between two compression rings is still struggling. I wonder if that will ever be able to be cleaned. Most important though was the noticeable cleaning within the ring grooves.

This was on the 1st run of it too per LSJ. Takes at least 4 OCI's. Most people can't wait that long

 

[nascarnation]

The only real value this product can provide to "normal" users is less oil consumption or longer engine life. The life is really difficult to test for but the oil consumption should be measurable.

 

[OVERKILL]

Perfect application for this stuff would be one of the old Toyota's or Saturn cars with the rings that caked up. Oh, or a Honda VCM 3.5L V6 in an Odyssey.

 

[oilfan99]

With his resources and knowledge he should've removed a spark plug and stuck a camera up in there before the first R&P run

 

[buster]

With his resources and knowledge he should've removed a spark plug and stuck a camera up in there before the first R&P run

I think he said he is after a few OCI's.

 

[buster]

The only real value this product can provide to "normal" users is less oil consumption or longer engine life. The life is really difficult to test for but the oil consumption should be measurable.

Most people are reporting lower oil consumption, which will be the primary way people can notice any changes, if at all. I think this oil is great at what it's supposed to do, which is clean piston ring grooves. Beyond that it seems average. It's not going to be more long drain capable than HPL, Amsoil SS or Mobil 1 EP etc. It's kind of a niche oil.

But there should be no doubt at this point that it does work, albeit in a slow controlled manner.

 

[FowVay]

Perfect application for this stuff would be one of the old Toyota's or Saturn cars with the rings that caked up. Oh, or a Honda VCM 3.5L V6 in an Odyssey.

I have a friend who is doing the experiment on his 2009 Camry. He has/had an oil burner that had about 200,000 miles on it. It's the 2.4 or 2.5 liter engine that is so common for oil consumption.

I talked him into using the Valvoline just to see if it made any difference over the Castrol that he had been using. He had been using a higher viscosity grade than recommended (5W-30 vs 0W-20) and he continued with the 5W-30 in the Valvoline. He stated that he immediately noticed a smoother running engine and after the first drain interval his oil consumption had dropped to nearly nothing. He is on his second run and I dissected the oil filter after the first run and found absolutely nothing in the filter. Either the Castrol did a decent job of keeping things clean (excepting the piston rings) or the Valvoline simply dissolves the debris, but the filter was clean.

He's due for an oil drain before Christmas so I'll have another filter to look at. I think he's going over the 5,000 mile interval because his wife complains about him spending money on vehicle maintenance. If I ever find anything of interest I'll take pics and post them on here in the future.