Internal Engine Cleaners

a quart of ATF will do just as good. and cheaper.

Well Marvel makes a pretty good one, or you could use a quart of diesel fuel. Although the best thing to do is change your oil religously at 3,000mi intervals and your engine will never need the cleaning, unless it's grossly overheated.

Ford Tech

If they were required and needed, Ford would say so in there owner's manual. They don't, so I don't!! I'd rather have another Big Mac.

Tom J

I agree, if you use good oil and change it often there is nothing to flush out. My son once thied to flush a car engine in a used car he got that had seen poor maintainance. He blew the motor in less than

100 miles when the sludge cut loose all at once and plugged up the oiling system.

----------------- TheSnoMan.com

Best thing to do usually is to drive the vehicle until it's up to normal operating temp. then drain the oil so that most any settlement and sludge will be in solution and will run oil with the oil. I do use

1 qt of LUCAS oil treatment when I change the oil, just gives you a better oil film on the parts

Good advise to drain it while it is warm and stirred up, I always do :)

----------------- TheSnoMan.com

If you regularly change the oil, and the engine is able to typically warm up completely before you are shutting it off, there should be no reason to use any additive. Yes, those products probably do something. But they aren't required. As others said, Diesel fuel or ATF can work just as well.

If the care of the vehicle is unknown, and you have reasons to believe there is significant sludge build up, you're best to just leave it. If you were to cause the sludge to start flowing through the oil system again, it can easily get stuck in the oil pickup screen and restrict oil flow. I certainly wouldn't do a flush job on the oil system without having an oil pressure sensor so I could shut down if things become plugged.

Speaking of oil pressure sensors... My '95 Ranger has an oil pressure gage, but the sensor is just an oil pressure switch. If I have oil pressure, the needle comes up, no oil pressure... bottom peg. No more useful than an idiot light. Now why bother putting in a gage? Is it an attempt to fool the consumer? (don't get me wrong, I love my Ranger!)

That's exactly what it is. And they've been like that for over 20 years. I remember putting in a special resistor on the late 80's / early 90's aerostars to make the gauge read a bit higher than they were.

It's a Ford feature across all models with a gauge.

people wanted gauges but manufactures didn't want to risk the problems which occur with the tubing and a real pressure gauge. There is no solid state device reliable enough for a truely accurate reading for pressure reading , YET. imho

This is clearly not true. There are many critical applications that use electronic devices for monitoring oil pressure. I'll agree that many of the oil pressure transducers used by the automotive industry are not particularly accurate. This is not because the technology doesn't exist. For instance here is a PDF for a pressure transducer that promises +/- 0.5% accuracy -

. Ed

Ah that's nothing, Accuracy of +/- 0.05% span maintained over the full span turndown range of 80:1

:-)

did you happen to look at the cost of a 105a yes , i should have added cost in my opinion

On Tue, 06 Feb 2007 12:38:16 +0000, samstone rearranged some electrons to form:

What are you talking about? There are lots of highly accurate, solid-state pressure sensors.

Look here:

It's all about cost/benefit... Ford chooses not to use a real transducer because of cost, and the perception that the customer would not know the difference anyway. My 1994 Jeep Cherokee has a variable resistance transducer on the oil pressure gauge that works well enough.

Sorry for the delay in reply guys..... I was gone for a few days, but yeah, thanks for all the replies though! I bought an old F150 Used, and I was pulling the valve covers to reseat new gaskets, and noticed the oil journals were pretty gunked up. I wanted to clean it up a bit to restore flow, but as it sounds, I should leave well enough alone! Appreciate the advice guys, but I'll keep the high detergent trick on the back burner...

Another question though...: Would tranny fluid be good to clean other parts in though, rather than a solvent wash?? Like the valve covers for instance? Soak them in it overnight and then brush them off? The availability of solvent is here, but somewhat expensive for no more than I would use it.

Thanks,

Doug

I made it clear >>> no solid state device because of cost, and the perception that the customer would not know the

• yawn*

• yawn*

*yawn* >

On Wed, 07 Mar 2007 02:24:41 +0000, samstone rearranged some electrons to form:

On Wed, 07 Mar 2007 02:24:41 +0000, samstone rearranged some electrons to form: