OCIs for sludge monsters

[BrianWC]

Oops, quoted the wrong post. I was referring to the Car and Driver advertisement.

 

[rainman49]

Wow! Opened a can of worms, didn't I. After re-reading the posts, the conclusion I've reached is the additives get depleted quickly because of the limited PCV capacity, therefore a strong add pack with plenty of anti-oxidants are needed to prevent sludge in a reasonable OCI (5K). That said, would it be better to dose the PP with LC20 per instructions or add a maintenance dose of ARX at every oil change?
This ought to keep the thread going a while longer.
Rainman

 

[rainman49]

Add SLOB, VSOT, CD-2 75,000 mile additive to the replenishing list, as well.

 

[ericthepig]

Almost rainman.

1.) PAO should be a priority - part or whole of base stock. 2.) Dipstick sample UOA at 6k to forward estimate OCI.
3.) Maint. dose Neutra131 200 miles pre-OC (every OC).

Repeat 6k UOA every two years.

 

[BrianWC]

Well, that depends on the ultimate goal. If you can fix the problem that's causing the sludge, just run arx and forget it. Arx also cleaned in my car before I got the PCV fixed. I would think if you had a clean engine and your goal was JUST stronger anti-oxidant capability, LC20 would go into the same toolkit as the CD-2 products and VSOT. But if you're starting with deposits then I vote arx. Neutra's use in engines is specifically flush-like, although it's gentler than say Seafoam and even probably MMO. I never had good results with it but some folks have.

BTW, since SLOB is just basically an HDEO additive concentrate, there shouldn't be any issue using it with arx. The whole reason I bought up so much SLOB was to sauce up my PCMO synths I was putting in my SAABs. The fact that it's in a dino base didn't seem to cause any issues. Since I ran a crazy arx cycle last OCI, right now I'm running Tection 15W40 with SLOB for a short "rinse" interval. If my engine doesn't calcify, my the dino might be okay a few thousand miles.

 

[rainman49]

I feel fairly confident the 1MZ-FE is relatively clean after two ARX cycles (Filter I cut open had only a few specks of carbon). I just need to make sure I avoid the sludge issues for the next 100K after I just spent $1,000 for A/C repairs and new timing belt and water pump. I'm still on the first rinse cycle on the 97 Camry, but the 5SFE engine is not as bad to sludge as the 1MZ-FE AFAIK. I'll cut open this rinse cycle filter and see what I find.
Thanks for the input,
Rainman

 

[SWS]

I have a '97 Camry 4-Cyl that I bought new. It has 88K miles on it now, most of it in-town driving. After changing the oil myself every 3K miles or 3 months with Valvoline All Climate for 55K miles, I switched to Mobil 1 5w30 3 years ago on the suggestion of this board and a Toyota mechanic. At that time I had an oil pan leak and had Toyota drop the pan to fix it. No sludge at the bottom of the engine, but I switched to Mobil 1 because I wanted to extend the OCI to 6 months since my son would be driving the car from that time forward. I did several short OCIs with Mobil 1 (3 months) and observed that it turned dark very quickly. The 3rd batch stayed clear for the entire 6 months. Now that my son is in college, he drives 400 mile one-way trips to/from school and brief in-town trips in between. I now use Mobil 1 Extended Performance 5w30 and change it once per year. It is still amber colored after 1 year.

My opinion is that summer in-town driving was greatly stressing the Conventional oil and that I was on the verge of sludge based on the rapid color change of the Conventional oil in the summer, but not the winter. Mobil 1 claims that their oil can withstand 400F and I believe that it provide thermal margin for this hot-headed engine.

After 20K miles with Mobil 1, the semi-circular plugs under the valve gasket started leaking, so I had the valve cover removed to fix it. The head was clean, but I could see some crud in the corners and in the top of the valve cover that did not get much oil splash.

Since you have stated that you want some margin and peace-of-mind, I suggest that you consider Synthetic oil, especially in Alabama. I am in Tennessee, so you are hotter.

BTW, I have kept the cooling system kept in top condition, so that potential variable was never an issue.

I have read that there are 3 design issues with these engines:
1) Small oil ports to the head
2) Oil ports channel right over the hottest part of the combustion chamber
3) PCV system is marginal and clogs, which makes the other problems magnified. Remember to maintain that PCV system!

Best Wishes as you motor along!