oil additive may have toasted my engine

I toasted something adding in Bardahl's for a smoking engine, I do believe. You have my sympathies. I don' tknow about RISLONE. I forget what I toasted. The catalytic convertor, is that possible? The car really went downhill after some of that anti-smoking sludge. So I did the opposite of what you did. I sludged mine up. A big Olds I had, probably similar in engine type, a big 80's V-8 back then, about same mileage as yours.

I don't think you had lifter noise at all. I think you probably had the beginning of gudgeon pin (piston pin) knock, which is very common on earlier 2.2 and 2.5 litre engines. Those cam followers scarcely ever make noise.

Adding anything other than the specified oil to your crankcase is risky business on an engine an unknown or known-to-be-poor maintenance history. Even on an engine in fundamentally sound condition, flushing operations are fraught with exactly the hazard you encountered.

And unless I miss my guess, you just poured it right on in, probably on top of a crankcase full of dirty oil and an old filter, figuring you'd let it do its thing for awhile and then change the oil sometime in the future...right? This is practically guaranteed to result in exactly what happened to you. An engine dirty enough to require flushing really needs to be opened and cleaned (at least the oil pan and cam cover removed and manually cleaned), but if you're determined to try a flush, you start by buying several oil filters and a lot of new oil.

Its entirely possible to accumulate fatal amounts of sludge in far less than 80k miles if low quality oil and filters are used and/or if the oil is not changed often enough.

Certainly seems so.

Er...huh? It says it dissolves gum and sludge. Where did you think the gum and sludge would go? It doesn't just de-materialize or otherwise disappear, y'know...

Well, let's have the rest of the story. You added the Rislone, you ran the engine, and then...what happened, exactly?

Pulling the head is the only way if it is not running and brushing out the ports. I have used a product called Marvel Mystery oil it comes in a red can and most places carry it. Drain out all oil, fill 1 quart shy and add 1 quart of MMO fun engine for about 30 minutes at idle, drain oil, change filter and refill with oil, run another 30 minutes check oil condition if dirty change oil and filter. This stuff really cleans your engines innards.

AND INSTALL NEW FILTER!

fast idle

Was this the type of Rislone that you put in for a quick 15 minute cleanout, or something you put in an leave in?

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my adddress with the letter 'x')

Just change the oil at least twice in short order. Dan's suggestions are sound. Good detergent oil will get out any solids in short order with far less risk of too much too soon. Additives are not needed.

Richard.

Not sure about this, but in the past I've run diesel fuel in the crank case for about a minute to flush it. I don't recommend it by any means because I always thought it was dangerous. B

What I call "sudden flushes" like that are not advisable if there is significant sludge. People who do those are taking a big risk with the engine. A gentle, controlled cleanout is less likely to cause catastrophic engine faliure.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my adddress with the letter 'x')

Deisel, or Kerosene, is MUCH better than harsher solvents like varsol, as it does not dry up the sludge turning it into "clinkers". The only sludged engines I have had fail (after me working on them) were my brothers old Vauxhaul (which we did nothing to, other than change the oil and drive) and his '65 valiant slant 6, which we did not flush - but we DID chip out a lot of crud to get to the valve adjusters. We though we got most of it out, but obviously enough crap stayed loose in the engine to block the oil pump pickup screen (dead in less than 10 miles). I have used Kero (and deisel, and stove oil), ATF, rislone, various engine flush products, and never had a problem with any of them in over 35 years.

That's the first I ever heard of anyone killing the venerable, a moment of silence here, for the great, tank-like, slant 6. Kudos!

I tried, 300,000 miles. Nothing could kill that engine for me. The body would rot away. Leaving the engine still going but hard to drive a car when the body and other necessary parts start to rot. The odometer would just keep turning over,

100,000 miles here and there, starts to add up after a while.

Me too, I thought they'd run without oil pressure. Eventually you just have to give up trying to wear them out, or maybe get in a wreck.

I don't think the previous owner had ever changed the oil - and after a bit better than a year of driving with noisy valves brother decided he wanted me to adjust the valves. Could hardly find the rocker arms. Didn't have any flush fluids around, so we decided to drive it back to town and flush it the next day. Didn't get back to town before the oil light came on and a main bearing spun. Pulled the engine and the pickup screen was totally plugged. Big brother bought a new car, and little brother "inherited" the Valiant and rebuilt it while he was going to high-school. He put on a

2 barrel, split exhaust manifold, and a bunch of other toys trying to make it go better than my old Dart and Valiant had gone. I was out of the country when he got it back on the road, and he had sold it by the time I returned - so I only have hearsay evidence that says it was perhaps a little faster than mine - and had a lot more bottom end. Used to have burnout contests with his buddies with 304 gremlins, and apparently did quite well. I personally never got rid of one with less than 100,000 miles on the clock (usually bought them just shy of the 100,000 and drove them another 3 or 4 years) The "leaning tower of power" was a great engine and responded well to tuning (204HP @ 6250 RPM 170 cu inch)