Red Line/Ester based oils for engine cleaning?

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A prior post of mine had numerous comments about detergents not actually meant to clean but keep engines from getting dirty. Ester oils were mentioned as the true stars of cleaning. So would that mAke Red Line or another Ester oil based brand the go to oils for cleaning up a neglected engine?
 
Esters and alkylated naphthalenes have a great deal of solvent power. This allows them to dissolve sludge, varnish, and other carbonous deposits slowly and safely at the right concentrations. If you're looking for good cleaning, you'll want an oil with either one but preferably both.

@High Performance Lubricants oils most all contain blends of ester and AN. They also have an engine cleaner that's a fully formulated HDMO oil that's heavily ester based.

Red Line's oils contain a good bit of ester though I'm unsure if they contain AN. They'll have a good cleaning effect as well.

Detergents in engine oils aren't quite like the detergents you think of for laundry or dishes. They have some light surface cleaning ability, but their main role is acid neutralization. They are commonly in the form of overbased calcium and magnesium sulfonates, the root of which is a Ca/Mg carbonate salt. This is found in OTC medications under the names Tums and Milk of Magnesia. The same way they neutralize acids in your gut that cause heartburn and indigestion, they neutralize acids in the oil that cause oxidation and corrosion. They are there to keep the oil clean, not clean the engine.
 
Give a high ester oil a try. Remove a valve cover before and after 2 or 3 oil change intervals then report back. At work My service van had a gas powered compressor that the sight glass in both the compressor and the gas engine were so cruded up youn couldn't tell the oil level. I saved the oil from a 1 year oil change interval of Redline [this was back in the early 1990s] and after a while of use the sight glasses were spotless.
 
Checked out the price on the Redline Oil, if I was looking for an oil to do some cleaning I would try 1 of the HPL oils.
 
Yeah this is a great easy to obtain option as well.

Per M1 PDS:
"Mobil 1 FS 0W-40 motor oil provides exceptional cleaning power and wear protection to keep your engine running like new in most driving conditions, from mild to extreme."

Likely due to the AN/POE they use in this grade.
AN?
 
New thick/thin debate but instead, it's now Redline v. HPL?
I don't think it's an argument between either of these two products as there are more than just them that use group 5. I think when he posted that he was using the two most known on the forum. I would also say that motul and Amsoil and a few others could also be in this discussion
 
I don't think it's an argument between either of these two products as there are more than just them that use group 5. I think when he posted that he was using the two most known on the forum. I would also say that motul and Amsoil and a few others could also be in this discussion
It's tongue-in-cheek due to how many people we have hyping up HPL now.
 
Any idea if HPL has more or less Ester than Redline?
No, idea, guess you could look at a SDS Sheet on Redline Oil and as far as HPL, you could always PM them. There might be a grey area in this Ester amount in both of these oils. If 1 oil has like 30% of its makeup in Esters and the other oil has like 40% in its makeup of Esters, that might not mean 1 is better than the other. I think it all comes down to the finished product.

We know from what HPL has stated that there oils have AN's, but do we know if Redline has AN's in there oils.
 
I actually noticed that if you type in hpl oil there are two different companies. Digging deeper I see it's the second one with the greenish colored label not the red. But I find it hard to see how you order their products from their website.
 
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