Using Top Tier Fuel , adding Redline Sl-1 in the gas and using VR&P oil could address a few engine cleaning topics .
Valvoline R&P Oil Burner Test Results
- Thread starter Glenda W.
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Nice results. I have it in my wife's 2.4L Equinox which are notorious for oil consumption. Just switched about two weeks ago. Will provide an update on that as well.
Also have it in my DD Impala with the 3.4L. Bought this car with 40k miles on it and it really picked up a small oil consumption around 70K miles or so. It uses about 1qt per 5K miles. I have around 2100 miles on the oil so far with no consumption but it normally didnt start consuming until around 3k, so the jury is still out.
I have ran nothing but Vanilla M1 in it and my wife's car we bought new in 2015 and it has always had m1 vanilla. If this VRP can slow consumption or rid of it all together on either vehicle, that will tell me all I need to know about regular M1. And as a mobil man it hurts me to come to this conclusion, if this ends up being the case.
Also have it in my DD Impala with the 3.4L. Bought this car with 40k miles on it and it really picked up a small oil consumption around 70K miles or so. It uses about 1qt per 5K miles. I have around 2100 miles on the oil so far with no consumption but it normally didnt start consuming until around 3k, so the jury is still out.
I have ran nothing but Vanilla M1 in it and my wife's car we bought new in 2015 and it has always had m1 vanilla. If this VRP can slow consumption or rid of it all together on either vehicle, that will tell me all I need to know about regular M1. And as a mobil man it hurts me to come to this conclusion, if this ends up being the case.
The kicker (as you stated) was using VR&P to remove piston deposits “even after using other too brand synthetics” . There is a belief that because I mostly used M1 5W30 EP oils (also some QSUD , PPPP and Valvoline Advanced) for <5K miles / 6 month OCI’s, top tier regular 87 octane gas and a bottle of PEA gas additive before an oil change that I’m doing everything right for total engine cleanliness . Now VR&P casts a shadow on one or more of my practices to keep pistons clean . I currently am using M1 5W30 ESP thinking surely Euro MB , VW , Porche specs are a bump up from SP rated oils in terms of detergent / engine cleanliness ?
ESP 0w30 is my next test in the Outback. Also run it in all my other vehicles and the ones I maintain with great results. I have a separate test going on with ESP to see if it will clean up a varnished Forester that lived it’s life on QS synthetic, also burns about 2 quarts in 5k miles. Results will be posted by the end of the year.
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I ran all top brands on my Hyundai and even ran Mobil 1 5w-30 ESP for about 2 years and that was my last run of oil brand until I ran Redline Performance 5w-30 Euro. Halfway through my first run of RL Euro my oil dilution stopped. My problem was massive fuel dilution, I saw a 1.25 a qt to my most 1 time of 1.5qt of fuel in a 3,000 mile oil change regiment. I did all my testing for wear, so I just lived with it since no wear was seen in UOA. Until the RL cleaned my rings. I figured I had a jambed top or second ring vs an oil ring. ESP, Amsoil SS, did not to a thing for me, they only kept my fuel dilution happening. I keep my rings free now ( during the summer) when I run my run of the mill Motul 5w-40 8100 Clean Gen 2 mid SAPS with a bottle of HPL EC 40w every other change. I now run VR&P during our Minnesota winters where I am not thrashing my car as much.
Interesting, thanks. I’m not dealing with fuel dilution thankfully. The ESP 0w30 still uses the ester formula unlike the 5w30. It’s kept my daughter’s Acura RDX squeaky clean. Just did her oil change on Saturday at 126k miles.
VRP seems to be the exception being it's not relying on ester for cleaning. Had VRP not existed I would say look for oils that do contain group V. While group V encompasses a wide range of chemicals, esters are beneficial for cleaning and keeping engines clean.
The engine teardowns I've seen of engines ran on oils contain group V do tend to look cleaner. We saw a 10k mile tear down video with Valvoline EP and it had that typical yellow/varnish color to it. While still acceptable, not ideal.
"Synthetic esters reduce varnish and other deposits because they have outstanding oxidative stability and do not form many radical decomposition products. Furthermore, they are good high-temperature solvents and tend to dissolve the varnish back into the liquid phase so it can be filtered out."
The engine teardowns I've seen of engines ran on oils contain group V do tend to look cleaner. We saw a 10k mile tear down video with Valvoline EP and it had that typical yellow/varnish color to it. While still acceptable, not ideal.
"Synthetic esters reduce varnish and other deposits because they have outstanding oxidative stability and do not form many radical decomposition products. Furthermore, they are good high-temperature solvents and tend to dissolve the varnish back into the liquid phase so it can be filtered out."
I think R&P really does clean overtime and not a gimmick. However I was really disappointed in that 500k mile tear down synthetic EP vs Conventional video Valvoline did on YouTube. The synthetic engine wasn’t really clean at all. Mobil 1 would have been clean as a whistle. That’s why I ended up just ignoring the whole Valvoline craze this past year and ignored the urge to switch to Valvoline products. However I do believe R&P is doing a fine job cleaning engines due to the amounts of results posted online in various forums and videos.
They're making them oxidation resistant just enough to get by. If you look at the Mobil 1 line, you can tell which have group V or not based oxidation value. However it's also important to note that they're using other things to keep engines clean - cleaning boosters etc.
VRP is said to be the highest performing product in the Valvoline line. It's the only oil of theirs I like.
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To be fair, they extended the OCI near the end to force an end to the 4 year long test. But I would have loved to see VRP run in those engines after they were assembled again.
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If you have oil consumption problems, you have nothing to lose by trying VRP. Who cares if it doesn’t work for others, try it and judge for yourself. It’s less expensive than the regular top tier synthetics that I normally use on top of that.
Even if it doesn’t solve your oil consumption issues, you will have the cleanest dipstick in town and you have nothing to lose plus it’s fun to experiment.
Too bad it’s not available in Canada ( stores ).
Edit: If it solves your problems, maybe smart to use it every oil change but I am going back to my regular two top tier oils if the oil consumption doesn’t improve at least.
Even if it doesn’t solve your oil consumption issues, you will have the cleanest dipstick in town and you have nothing to lose plus it’s fun to experiment.
Too bad it’s not available in Canada ( stores ).
Edit: If it solves your problems, maybe smart to use it every oil change but I am going back to my regular two top tier oils if the oil consumption doesn’t improve at least.
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I put it in my formerly sludged up 5.4L engine. I had to pull a head off due to an oil leak and discovered the engine was sludged pretty bad. Cleaned / vaccumed out what I did, ran some diesel through it and put it back together. Even after fixing the oil leak, I noticed I was still putting a quart in before 1000 miles. Was hoping that Valvoline RP would help clean up and with the consumption.
Unfortunately for me, I found the head is leaking oil past the gasket again. So I'll be testing the cleaning ability of it but not clearing up consumption.
The 4.6L in my grand marquis is at 145000 and I never have to add oil in a 5000-7500 mile oil change. I'm running 0w-20 in it .
Great post. I’ll add that we have been even seeing M1 users with varnish recently here. These have been with api oils not using the ester formula.
Patman
Staff member
This is exactly why I have been saying that the basic vanilla M1 isn’t as good as it used to be. One needs to step up to EP or ESP or Euro to get the better results (in terms of cleanliness) Thankfully the price difference between vanilla M1 and the better versions is such a small difference that it’s a no brainer which one to choose these days.
And those two are? Apologies if you mentioned them earlier in the thread, but I didn't want to go back and reread 5+ pages.
Just to repeat, this is because EP, ESP and Euro contain esters or synthetic esters, correct?
This is just my opinion but I think Valvoline uses great add packs(above typical api oils and dexos cookie cutter oils) but mediocre base oils. Thus no extended drain intervals and high volatility, but shows low wear numbers.
I really don’t understand why folks wait inline to save 10 cents for a gallon of gas. Most Costco gas lines I have seen have huge lines. I guess folks are very price sensitive?
Patman
Staff member
That is correct
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My point about going back to my other two regular oils is if I don't see ANY improvement in oil consumption. If I see an improvement it means VRP works in my situation and I will end up having the same oil comsumption issues down the road if I don't keep using it or periodically.
I have a big stash ( I drive far more than the average and had HPL shipped to a UPS store just south of the border to save on shipping charges and picked it up last U.S road trip vacation ) because I do so much driving ( 40 quarts per year, minimum...imagine if I changed my oil every 3K LOL ).
If VRP works, I would use it every oil change but I have other oil to use up too.
I never envisioned a product like VRP coming along.
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