Should I flush?

[Tobygot]

I have a 2004 Ford Expedition w/ 70,000 miles on it. I've been using AMSOIL since it had 3,000 miles. I used 5w30 until they came out with their 0w-30. I typically drive 10 to 12 thousand miles between oil changes and my typical drive is 6 to 7 miles. I never drive less than 5 miles before turning off my car. I drive a 600 mile round trip a couple of times a year so I would figure the trip would clean up my waste.

AMSOIL is supposed to clean out your engine, right?
Should I run a bottle of AMSOIL engine flush before my next oil change or would that most likely have no benifit?


Anyone here run AMSOIL exclusively who's done an engine flush and seen any results.

Thanks

 

[Ken2]

The main benefit of any of the solvent flush products, including Amsoil's, is to thin the oil so more drains out before switching products. Save your money.

 

[JHZR2]

That is a bit long to go between changes without UOA to show what is going on, given your driving/use profile.

That said, unless there is a specific known issue, there is no reason to do a flush.

 

[momomeister]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2
That is a bit long to go between changes without UOA to show what is going on, given your driving/use profile.

That said, unless there is a specific known issue, there is no reason to do a flush.


+1 on all counts. An UOA if one has never been done would be a good start. If there are no known issues, no need to spend money.

 

[mechtech2]

Can you take a look in the oil fill hole to see what's under the valve cover? Any sludge or varnish?
If it looks like the day it was made, I would not flush it.

A little varnish? I would not flush it.

Deposits or sludge? One or two carefully instituted and monitored flushes with various products could help, for sure.

 

[Pablo]

I would say no you don't need a flush.

I will also say Amsoil's new flush is not solvent based. It's pretty oily, has a smell nothing like solvent. Pours like an SAE 10 or so.

Maybe wait to 100K and do it.

I have used Amsoil flush on customer's cars who are switching over from petro oil, it seems to get sploogie sludge out pretty well and starts to soften the the more affixed crud. If I had an engine with extreme deposits I would do a treatment per instructions. Then screw on a Fram filter, THEN fill the engine with a low cost dino, drive a few miles and repeat the Amsoil flush treatment. Drain. After a decently long drip period, fill with synthetic diesel oil like ACD or HDD, fresh filter, and go 5K max. That would be a large step toward a clean engine.

 

[Tobygot]

At 65k I changed my PCV valve for the first time along w/ my oil change. It looked really clean and the ball still rattled.
Also at 65k, I also wiped out the inside of my oil fill cap for the first time since I bought the car new. There was a good amount of flaky/ crusted up oil inside. I was a little shocked to see this since I always used AMSOIL, but I never cleaned the inside of the fill cap on any of my other vehicles so I'm not sure if this is normal.
Also, for 2.5 summers now, I've lived in AZ where it's over 110 degrees for at least 4 months of the year. I IDLE ALOT. Every time I get a soda or run into the grocery store for milk, my car idles the whole time. I have around 10 minutes of idle time per 20 miles of driving.
Does any of this change anything?

 

[Steve S]

There shouldn't be any reason to do a flush unless there is a problem!!!. Idleing is really no biggie remember the context of idleing in freezing weather there will be lots of condensation and fuel dilution in hot weather hardly as much. What is the rpms with the A/C cycleing?

 

[Spyder7]

While idling for 10 minutes with the A/C on in 27C heat while eating lunch, I watched my water temp get up to 97C (3 degrees below boiling for the metric challenged) while intake temp creeped up to 50C. It might have continued to climb but by then I was done lunch, and had no reason to loiter.

I don't do this often. Maybe twice since I bought the car in May (previous car had no A/C, its optional here but nice to have a few days a year).

-Spyder

 

[Durango]

Tobygot,

Save your money dude! Since your using Amsoil it's noted to be an excellent synthetic. Just change it out when you want without any worrying.

Durango