Which average priced synthetic oil would you run to tackle varnish?

I don’t think any oil is going to clean varnish. I used to run my Toyota 4 Runner on every single synthetic oil I could find on sale. M1 Turbodiesel truck, M1, Pennzoil Platinum, Castrol, all of them. 5,000 mile intervals.

Still had varnish.

You’re looking for a miracle in a can, and it doesn’t exist.

The only products that might clear it up are the Valvoline and the HPL.

But the bigger question is this - does it need to be cleaned up?

If you have stopped the deposit formation, and the engine is running good oil, I would forget about the varnish and move on to the myriad of other issues with your 200,000 mile SUV.
The correct answer.
 
I don’t think any oil is going to clean varnish. I used to run my Toyota 4 Runner on every single synthetic oil I could find on sale. M1 Turbodiesel truck, M1, Pennzoil Platinum, Castrol, all of them. 5,000 mile intervals.

Still had varnish.

You’re looking for a miracle in a can, and it doesn’t exist.

The only products that might clear it up are the Valvoline and the HPL.

But the bigger question is this - does it need to be cleaned up?

If you have stopped the deposit formation, and the engine is running good oil, I would forget about the varnish and move on to the myriad of other issues with your 200,000 mile SUV.

You hit the nail on the head ty

Engine runs great I don’t think it needs cleaning as just going to do a low quality test and provide my results to bitog if I did notice any in 5k-10k miles
 
As far as Restore & Protect goes, it advertises cleaning deposits and while carbon deposits and varnish deposits are both deposits, oil advertising in general usually separates varnish as its own thing. Restore & Protect's advertising focuses solely on piston and ring carbon deposits. I think it's wishful thinking it affects varnish.

If there's an oil that could definitively clean varnish it would probably be pretty famous here. It's like the first route up Everest. After the first person does it everyone else will probably know about it and do the same thing.
 
Here’s a couple data points for you from my 2005 Honda Odyssey. 212k on the clock. The engine is *heavily varnished. Or should I say— was.

I switched to VRP last summer.


Last August after about 1000 miles on VRP:
1738542996280.webp



A month later:

1738543076656.webp



Changed the oil just before Christmas. This is now the second fill of VRP:

1738543148207.webp



So after just one drain of VRP and about 1000 miles into the 2nd drain, I’m already seeing considerable cleaning in an area of the engine that see very little oil flow and is notoriously hard to clean— the rocker arms. The external surface is not directly oil-wetted, yet VRP is removing some VERY heavy varnish.
 
As far as Restore & Protect goes, it advertises cleaning deposits and while carbon deposits and varnish deposits are both deposits, oil advertising in general usually separates varnish as its own thing. Restore & Protect's advertising focuses solely on piston and ring carbon deposits. I think it's wishful thinking it affects varnish.

See my pics above. VRP is removing some of the thickest heaviest varnish I’ve ever seen on my 2005 Odyssey.
 
Here’s a couple data points for you from my 2005 Honda Odyssey. 212k on the clock. The engine is *heavily varnished. Or should I say— was.

I switched to VRP last summer.


Last August after about 1000 miles on VRP:
View attachment 261824


A month later:

View attachment 261825


Changed the oil just before Christmas. This is now the second fill of VRP:

View attachment 261826


So after just one drain of VRP and about 1000 miles into the 2nd drain, I’m already seeing considerable cleaning in an area of the engine that see very little oil flow and is notoriously hard to clean— the rocker arms. The external surface is not directly oil-wetted, yet VRP is removing some VERY heavy varnish.
another solid piece of evidence for vrp! Thank you for sharing.
 
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I used Castrol DX 5w40 diesel oil (it's SN rated) in my gas engine to clean it. Inside of my engine looked like new when I removed the valve cover, timing cover and sump.
 
Put some VRP in my brother's 2009 versa with 249k miles. They've since decided to get rid of it (still have it but not sure how much longer) so no update but might get some looks soon.

it definitely started off hard and crusty sludge and varnish. Over 2 months it softened up and I was able to EASILY wipe it off/ up avoiding it falling into the engine.

this may have happened with any synthetic, but idk. Also, the dipstick (metal) had a significant amount of varnish and most of it was gone.
Screenshot_20250203_155627_Gallery.webp
Screenshot_20250203_155637_Gallery.webp
Screenshot_20250203_155957_Gallery.webp
 
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