Detergent / Non Detergent Oil

David G · Mar 1, 2009

I am cleaning up my dads H farmall. There was about a 1/2" of sludge in the pan. I run Rotella 15x40 in my diesels and they stay clean.

Would the Rotella clean up the engine, and if so what would be the harm in running a detergent oil like that?

Thanks,

mattofvinings · Mar 1, 2009

My thoughts are that a detergent oil is more efficient at "moving" the contaminants to the filter.

I worked with a guy who used only SAE30 non det in his 350 chevy V8 and what one could see of the rocker arms thru the fill cap looked great...almost like new despite 100k+ on the engine. However my thoughts are that stuff builds up in the pan as a result.

Engines run with normal detergent oils look more "uniformly dirty" but that IMHO is a result of the first paragraph...the oil is trying to "dissolve" and move crud around.

Long story short, I personally would advise that you should clean as much as you can mechanically, then put it back together and run it for a few hours before changing the filter again.

Classic application for a non-detergent is something like a geared-head lathe where you want contaminants to settle out to a nice quiet corner and then possibly get removed 20 years later when some enterprising person decides to rebuild the headstock. But...if they never got removed...no harm would be done. An IC engine is a more dynamic and different situation because contaminants are constantly being "generated".

CNKS · Mar 1, 2009

What matto says. But all tractors that old that have never had the pan cleaned will have that crud in the bottom, perhaps less with detergent -- but years of neglect will do that. Clean the pan, the area under the valve cover, and also remove the pushrod cover on the right side of the engine. Reinstall, put new oil in, run it a while and change the oil and filter again.

David G · Mar 1, 2009

The pan was off the tractor 10 years ago. He bought the tractor and it was stuck. It runs good but leaks everywhere. I am working on fixing the leaks. I was not planning on pulling the pan, but put in a new rear main seal. I am keeping it in a heated shop now.

Anonymous-0 · Mar 1, 2009

In the late '60's, Dad bought a '61 International shortbed half-ton pickup with a 266 V8 engine. The guy who sold it to him was a trucker. He bought the truck used,and evidently the previous owner allowed the engine to sludge up heavily. So when the trucker bought the pickup,the switched it over to Rotella. Apparently the Rotella cut a lot of this sludge loose, and it plugged up the oil pump pickup and took out the bearings...rods, mains,and cams.

Dad bought the truck as a basket case and built it, and it ran for a lot of years afterwards after the rebuild. But I'd surely do as the other guys said,and drop the pan and covers and clean out any obvious sludge before running Rotella. And after switching, I'd change oil and filter on short hours afterwards, just for a bit of insurance.

David G · Mar 1, 2009

I have cleaned the pan up good, and will pull the valve and tappet cover just to see how much sludge is in there.

An oil change after a few hours sounds like a good idea.

Detergent / Non Detergent Oil

David G

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mattofvinings

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CNKS

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David G

Well-known Member

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member

David G

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