Add diesel to oil for change?

260,000 miles on a modern car is a pretty low hurdle these days. My son will not give up his Camry with 260,000 miles and one daughter has a Volvo with 250,000 miles. Both engines are running strong because all maintenance has been kept up and the oil changed every 3,000 miles.

A solution like the one proposed might loosen some crud at point a and fill an orofice in point b. If you feel the need to flush the engine, be sure to do it early in the life of the car and regularly by someone with the proper equipment. I would not start flushing the lubricating system of a car as an antidote for years of deferred maintenance.

quart of diesel. Run the engine (in place) for 3 minutes. Do NOT drive the car with the diluted oil in it. The diesel will help clean out passages in the head and will make the oil the thinner, so more comes out quicker when draining, bringing with it any dirt and grime. We have done this on our farm for over 50 years. My dad showed me how to do this growing up, and we now have 260,000 miles on our 94 Ford Crown Victoria with no engine wear (burning oil) and the engine has never been taken apart. Particulates that get trapped in passageways break free sooner or later!

I personally wouldn't do it. However - it doesn't seem that much different than commercially available kerosene-based engine flushes. I'm kind of wary about this simply because there's going to be some residual fuel left in the oil.

only problem I have with this is how do you insure that you get all of this thinned out liquid before putting in new oil? Will it dry up before you put in the new oil, or what? Sludge reduction is a good thing but I guess there would be no sludge if oil got changed regularly. (regular oil we're talking here)

I just warm the engine and drain the old stuff when its good and runny then use an extra quart of new oil to wash things out before putting in all new. Just my preference.

just me talking..... .

This begs the question: "why?" If regular oil changes are done, modern engines go 300,000 miles and more. Usually by that time enough other problems take the car off the road. Even if the flushing extended the life, in most situations the life would never be used.

-David

diesel. Run the engine (in place) for 3 minutes. Do NOT drive the car with the diluted oil in it. The diesel will help clean out passages in the head and will make the oil the thinner, so more comes out quicker when draining, bringing with it any dirt and grime. We have done this on our farm for over 50 years. My dad showed me how to do this growing up, and we now have 260,000 miles on our 94 Ford Crown Victoria with no engine wear (burning oil) and the engine has never been taken apart. Particulates that get trapped in passageways break free sooner or later!

...

Lets see - What are the lubricating properties of diesel? Good luck!

It's actually a fairly good lubricant, but doesn't have the viscosity of motor oil so won't protect an engine as well under load. I don't see an issue with doing what the OP suggests (running at idle,) as long as the engine is in good condition. Of course, if it were in good condition, you wouldn't be considering flushing it now would you? Catch-22!

nate

There's better options that are made for that, why take a chance on something that could be the beginning of the end for this car! You can get an engine flush for a heack of a lot less that what it would cost to redo an engine that still sounds good. If you're not going to change over to synthetic, why bother even with the diesel flush?

It would have to be, considering that high pressure diesel fuel pumps are lubricated by it!

I usually use something like rislone engine flush every few oil changes

On occasion, I just add a quart of kerosene instead. Run the engine to get it warm, add the kerosene and idle for 5 minutes before draining. Be sure to change the filter. Seems to keep it nicely clean.

changes

A lot of posters over at bobistheoilguy seem to like a product called Auto-RX, personally I've never tried it, but they rave about it. Their web site looks mildly snake-oily, but on the other hand I've never seen a bad review of it. I may try it myself in my '55 as it is fairly clean inside but I would like it to be cleaner.

nate

I agree.

And by "modern" you mean 1960 and later. What has really improved are the oils- you couldn't run a 1966 engine 9000 miles between changes on

1966 motor oil, but you sure can do that with the same engine on modern oils. And it'll last as long as any 2005 engine given the same care too.

The only thing that should ever be put in the crankcase is OIL, in my opinion. As a last resort to save a badly sludged engine, I have carefully flushed the crankcase with kerosene (NOT with the engine running!), refilled with cheap oil and a new filter, run it for 10 minutes, and then changed the oil and filter and replaced with good oil. But I'd never do that on an engine that wasn't doomed if I did nothing.

FWIW- the "doomed" engine survived and has run another 30,000 miles or so and now has 210,000 miles.

Mentioning "on the farm" does remind me of the things we've done in the past on my dad, grandpa, and uncles farms. Using kerosene or diesel fuel (either one) was a regular practice. Running it very long at all really wasn't, but you can flush out quite bit of varnish, particulates, etc. doing just that. Combined with regular maintenance, it works out quite well. Running straight 30 weight for a short time afterwards (50 in big engines) provided for the removal of what was left (flush and waste product alike.) The technique is old, tried, and true! AND, recommended by companies such as Cummins, Detroit, and Volvo in their engines for many years. We ran our turbo diesels with the governors wide open for years; providing regular maintenance and flushes as part of this. On a gasoline engine, it may be better recommended to use something like mineral oil or a drain through of mineral spirits while the engine is still warm. Possibly let it run for a couple of minutes. But, be warned! Passenger vehicle engines are flimsy, when compared to big diesels. Don't overdo it!

I'd personaly be affraid to "wash" out as much oil as I could from my engine.

It's well known that most engine wear happens durring start up because the oil has settled at the bottom of the pan and then takes a few moments to get to where it's needed.

Even after the engine is shut down and the oil has drained, there is still an oil film on the engine internals. WITH this film wear happens on start up. Why would anyone want to strip this protective coating away and then start the car?

Forget the kerosene and the motor flush, ignore the high priced oils (unless you car was designed to use them) and Slick 50's, turn off the infomercials pouring sand into engines.

Just change yout oil and filter often.

It's that simple.

Really, I'm not suggesting you start it. Just warm it up a little bit first, then let the thinner/clearer liquid run through it top to bottom and out of the pan. The straight weight oil then is used as the clean out, washing away the unwanted fluids and nasty stuff. Running your engine on anything that can be used to clean paint brushes....yeah, that's obviously bad. This process dissolves the sludge build up in the lines, heads, and pan for the most part. Rings, seals, bearings, and high friction zones are better left alone. And, as for high priced oils (synthetics;) They work well in pretty much any engine, so long as you have cared for it well before making the change and have let it break in properly. Otherwise, you may risk opening up places in you engine for oil to seep through that you never would of discovered otherwise. (Not a high mileage decision)

Even with pouring "something" into a warm engine only to let it drain right out, I just dont see the point.

If you have a "V" type engine block, unless you have a filler cap on either valve cover, you're only getting one cyl. bank. Even on an in-line set up you have no way of getting a fluid dispersed into the engine. Gravity will take it down the path of least resistance.

With the oil bath you mentioned, ("The straight weight oil then is used as the clean out, washing away the unwanted fluids and nasty stuff.") The cleaning fluid should be so diluted by then that any cleaning properties would be greatly diminished. If not, you're talking about dangerously decreased lubrication.

All possible damage questions aside, I just dont see the point of all the extra effort. Changing your oil like you should seems the only solution.

A side note, from what I've read about synth. oil, there doesnt seem to be a need for the extra cost of using it. Unless your car sees extreme driving conditions, ie racing or severe towing, the new dino oils fit the bill completely. And at a much more reasonable price.

recomends synth oil is the Corvete. Thats because many people WILL race them. The synth oil can take the high heat.

For your Chevette, the dino oils out now are much better then they were when your car was new.

Ahhh - the Chevette...How long before Chevy "re-introduces" that name on a new line? :) As a teen, we used to have a ball with Chevettes. I had one friend who changed out the engine mounts and put a Buick V-6 in it, Then, not to be outdone, his friend modified the whole front end (suspension, and extended it) to accommodate a 350 V-8. The V-6 won in a race as the 350 was just too difficult to control, but it was fun to play around...the good ol days....

Yeah, I had an 81' Chevette-litte ugly yellow one. Ran the 'living hell' out of it. Replaced the engine @ 180K miles with a slightly beefed up 2.5 out of a Fiero and an S-10 tranny. Was actually pretty quick. Friend of mine made use of a 2.8 Fiero GT motor in his and ran some good numbers at the strip, but I never made it that far. The good ole days! If only Detroit could make RWD small cars again; how much fun they would be with an Ecotec!

Yeah, but then we'd have the "hump" again in the middle!! Didn't care up front, but as a teen in a car full of teens, you never wanted to end up in the middle in the back... :)

My sister had a '80 auto and I remember she used to bring it up to school and back (upstate NY from Long Island) twice a year, and she'd have to get it up to about 75-80 going down the hills on route 17, so she'd only slow down to about 45 with it floored making it up the next one... :)

It's probably okay, but with today's detergent gasolines it provides no advantage. It's no better or worse than a commercial oil or gasoline additive, which are also unnecessary.