Please settle this once and for all!!

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K

k2xj

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I was having a discussion with a buddy about synthetics the other day. He has an old POS car that is full of crud. He said that all he needs to do is run synthetic for awhile and it will clean it all out. I said that synthetics are mostly for KEEPING an engine clean...NOT cleaning it.

Am i right?? I have heard that a synthetic may clean only a little bit but not too noticeable.

Please help end this once and for all

Synthetics...to clean..or to keep clean??

Cheers,
K
 
Some synthetics seem to clean better than others. I had a 2000 BMW K1200LT that I had run the BMW and Mobil1 synthetics in. At 60,000 miles, the sight glass had gotten so dirty it was useless. A very common occurance for these bikes with these synthetic oils. I switched to the AMSOIL synthetic motorcycle oil and it cleaned up the sight glass very gradually and cleaned it up to where I could use it again. Generally, I think the group III and some group IV do not do much in cleaning. But if the synthetic has some group V, it will do some cleaning.
 
I tried to find the info on the MSDS and they no longer list CAS numbers on the motorcycle oils. But AMSOIL does have esters in some of their compressor oils and transmission fluids, so since they have ready access to them, I would not be suprised if they had a little.
 
Synthetic motor oil is a "lubricating oil". Not a cleaner. If he wants to clean the crud from inside the engine he needs to run a metal cleaner. Synthetic in a dirty engine is a waste of money.
 
Quote:

I was having a discussion with a buddy about synthetics the other day. He has an old POS car that is full of crud. He said that all he needs to do is run synthetic for awhile and it will clean it all out. I said that synthetics are mostly for KEEPING an engine clean...NOT cleaning it.

Am i right?? I have heard that a synthetic may clean only a little bit but not too noticeable.

Please help end this once and for all

Synthetics...to clean..or to keep clean??

Cheers,
K

Click to expand...


You are thinking of TIDE, CHEER, ALL and OXYCLEAN... not synthetic motor oil......
laugh.gif
 
Synthetics is better in keeping itself clean but not to such point of cleaning foreign matter off of an already sludged/crud encrusted engine.

There are only 2 main means of cleaning up a severely sludged/crud encrusted engine: (a) mechanical method: get a scraper , take apart an engine and start scraping it, or (b) using chemicals to dissolve it (my vote goes for AutoRx).

Lastly, if the engine to be rebuild, it should be hot-tanked to rid of any encrusted crud.
 
Synthetics can unstick/free sludge & the traveling debris may make matters worse inside your engine.

Where that debris lands that's outside of your filter could create more seal leaks, engine ticks/clatter... etc.

Don;t switch from dino to synthetics in dirty engines. Use Auto-Rx first. Severe cases may require two treatments.
 
When does this happen? We never see it. I wanna see some big juicy clogged filters from someone switching to synth. This is almost as bad as the "HDEO's will clean your engine" myth.
 
It really depends on what the subject of the alleged cleaning is.

I don't think some synthetic oils clean hard carbon crud very well.
I don't think synthetic cleans brown varnish quickly but will begin to remove the top layers with many miles/hours.
I think some synthetics get the gloppy gels/beginnings of sludge out - but multiple short OCI's with any oil will do this.

Bottom line - you can't depend on any oil to do cleaning for you in an engine that has been sludged/carbon killed. Be the crud from infrequent oil changes with conventional oil (even as specified by auto mfr) or just poor engine design.
 
Some add packs appear aggressive (oggressif - crock hunter RIP) enough to disrupt existing film formations. So ..you could say that something like RL "cleans". It may take a decade for a truly sludged engine to show the results. Oil can only suspend so much "stuff". Now if you put on a bypass filter system ..probably tp would be best just due to the cheapness of the media, you may be able to avoid running so much oil through the engine ..and keep it economically feasible.

That is, I pretty much agree with Pablo. Newer oils ..not just synthetics, are better at deposit control. Synthetics tend to do it longer and under more stressful conditions.
 
You all crack me up !!! If the engine is dirty why bother with Syn oil ??? Has to be rebuilt, the only sure way to clean it out properly.

NEVER, EVER had a crude engine with dino oil. Take care of the engine with what ever oil you use and forgetaboutit !!!

I started using Mobil 1 in a 230K mile CLEAN engine with great results............
 
This assumes that you get your engine in clean condition, Pro3qtr. Suppose you get a functional engine, used, that's dirty and you desire to keep it a very long time ..or are in a severe enough environment or service to warrant synthetics??

Are you going to rebuild a perfectly functional engine? Are you going to not use synthetics if your car spec's 10w-30 but you're in a -30 environment (or whatever)??
 
Any volunteers to e-mail this question to several different motor oil companies and see what there response is? I would be most interested in what Mobil would say? Posting the e-mail replies would make a most interesting thread.

I wouldn't waste money on syn if he wants a cleaning effect. Just go to an OCI of about 2500 to 3000 miles for a while and it should get the "loose" stuff. Sludge and crud will not kill the engine. I have taken many engines apart that ran fine with gobs of buildup in them.
 
My understanding is that dinos clean more effectively than syns because they have more aeromatics. This is also why dinos suffer more from high temperature operation than do syns. Please feel free to correct me if I am mistaken.
In any event, if the engine is really dirty, I would try a HDEO, like Rotella or Delvac, with frequent changes. I once bought a car which showed a great deal of accumulation under the valve cover. With nothing more than 2K oil changes, the c--p cleaned up. Auto Rx would have likely done better, more quickly, but I did not know of it at the time.
 
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