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Engine internal cleaning.

B

Bill from Scotland

Member
Ive heard of people cleaning out old engine oil/water/sludge from a dirty engine crankcase by draining them down as much as possible then putting in a mixture of cheap engine oil and diesel. They then run engine at idle for a short time keeping a close eye on oil pressure gauge then drianing out the dirty stuff again. Whole exercise repeated if necessary with oil filters changed at each refill. Have any of you guys done this to clean engine internals, Im thinking of maybe an old diesel that sat for a number of years where some water may have got into the oil pan and an accumulation of sludge has formed. Sounds a bit risky but was told it works okay if engine is monitored and only idled at low speed.
 
Flushing with cheap oil would be OK.

The danger of diluting with diesel is if it has a flat tappet cam. The cam is still getting a workout at any RPM, even worse at idle with little or no splash lubrication.

Then, once drained, there will be residual oil trapped up top and in the gallies. If there is anything but oil in there, it will dilute the new oil. Although it will eventually boil away, as will water when run at operating temperature.
 
Probably no harm but I wouldn't recommend doing that. To the extent there's sludge it will be lying at the bottom of the oil pan and it's not likely you'll dislodge it. If you're concerned about sludge build-up about the only thing to do is remove and clean out the pan. After doing that, then you could go after it the way you suggest if the cleanliness is that important.
 
Never understood the logic, bunch of crap suspected to be sitting in the pan, let's circulate it around thru the oil pump, filter may catch it, or may plug and go thru bypass relief. If it is that bad drop the pan and clean it. A lot less work than a rebuild
 

Better way would be to drop the oil pan, clean it thoroughly, reinstall and fill with fresh, clean oil. Change the filter also. Run the engine, change the oil and filter, and then run it again. Repeat if needed.
 
Agreed. Pull the pan and valve cover - usually the side inspection plate too. Wash it down with gas, diesel or your favorite solvent and let it drain out of the engine. Clean the oil pan and put it together with fresh gaskets. Gives you a chance to check out the rod bearings and to adjust the valve lash while your working on it.
 

Of course if you have one of those many cars where you have to pull the motor to get the oil pan off, you may want to just get some good oil into it then give it a couple of proper changes with a short interval. I have never come across sludge in an oil pan, but I expect that it could happen if the oil were changed a number of times when cold, or if the vehicle was used for a short commute where it never comes up to operating temperature.
 
Massey Harris has that procedure in their owners manual for during regular oil changes. But that is for an engine still in use. Also with today's detergent oils what's the point? I wouldn't do it to an engine that has set and formed all kinds of crud.
 
I bought an old Chevy once that needed an engine rebuild. 307 V8. The engine was real sluggy. I drained the oil out and removed the oil filter and dumped it out and put it back on. Then I put 5 Qts of fuel oil in the crankcase. Started the engine thinking that if the engine started clattering I would shut it down quick. I let it idle for 15 or 20 minutes and never had so much as a noisy valve. Then I removed the engine and tore it down. Still had some sluge in the corners but washed most of it out.
 
If your using a hd diesel oil, it will already clean better than anything you can add and keep the dirt suspended, and keep it from clumping....


Many folks used this solution on the toyota engines that sludged up from poor design and too much heat... Took a year to two years to finally fully clean a heavily sludged up engine but did it in a way that did NOT block the oil passages.

Other flushes are only good for getting water or fuel mix out of engine.
 
I used to hang around a old junk yard when i was a kid and saw the man use oil and kerosene to clean out a old running 6 cylinder chevrolet nova . And to my surprise it worked. Did that 2 times and sold it. Man drove it right out of the yard and never saw it again.
 
Flushing engines is holdover from the time when oil filter was an option when you bought a car. Combined with non-detergent oil no wonder you could flush so much crap from the engine. What do you want to bet before this is over somebody swears detergent oil is bad for old engines?
 
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