Which oil to use to clean up a mildly sludged engine?

[mickeeand]

I have been researching oil lately and my mind is mush.
Here is the question and I am sure I will get varied opinions.
I have a sludged engine and I currently run PP 10/30 and have been changing filters out at about every 500 miles.
Now I have changed the oil twice since getting the car running the same oil.
Is there a better cleaning oil like Rotella or Mobil1 high milage I can use instead?
Which in your opinion would be better? Also which do you think has the better additive package?
I am wanting a slow clean.
Yes I have read up on arx and mmo and rislone and any other additive but loath to put anything other than oil in my engine.
I know talking about oil is like beating a dead horse but the persons at bitog havent been to helpful.

Thanks in advance,
Mike

[Venom_5]

ive had good luck on the Camry with Castrol .... but i more recently switched to Valvoline MaxLife and it was also great, engine has been clean all its life tho

[flyeri]

The Castrol claims to remove sludge. I have been running it in my daughter's LE and it is pretty clean inside. When I first got her the car it had 81k on it and it appeared to have some build up beneath the oil filler cap. I was worried about the sludge as I had read alot about it in these I4 engines. So I now have run the Castrol for a little over 30k and when I replaced the valve cover gasket the inside was very clean and the build up I observed earlier appears to be gone.

I do like your idea of a slow clean. There are too many instances of problems when trying to clean the internals in one shot. I have a mechanic friend who suggests using a small amount of cleaner for a very short time just before an oil change. An example would be 6 0z of Seafoam for 10 min befrore changing oil. My only thought on that would be that if after the oil change some sludge may be dislodged and clog the new filter. If I did this, I would do another oil/filter change in 500-1000 miles.

[hill8570]

IMHO, for just a mildly sludged engine, just run a decent synthetic and don't worry about it -- it won't make the problem worse, and usually will clean things up a bit over time. It's the fast clean that kill engines -- if you clog up the screen in the oil pickup with chunks, the engine will probably be toast before you can figure out what the problem is. My opinion, and it's worth every cent you paid for it

[mickeeand]

I was thinking of running some rotella 10/30 because from what I read it has a high detergency level.
A friend of mine says to use rislone.
Another says high milage oil.

Right now I am using PP 10/30 and it does clean things up, evidence being the first oil change was quite black. I am now on the second and still cleaning.

[N35QU!K]

regular oil + half a seafom, lol

[deadrx7conv]

Thinner oil would cut into sludge quicker. Use ANY full synthetic 0w30 or 5w30 oil and just change it every 3k miles. All oils have about the same cleaning ability. So, buy whats on sale or simply rotate among the brands. 3k synth oil changes only downside is cost.

Unless you've cut your oil filter open and verified that they were clogged, don't bother changing it every 500 miles. Any filter should last a 3k mile OCI. I prefer to use the FL2005 or FL400s motorcraft filters. They are a little longer and have much capacity. Another filter size that I'm using is the Tundra 4.7L filter. A bigger filter doesn't cost any more and can hold 50-150% more crud that is loosened up.

Many strong solvent based cleaners will simple loosen up too much too quickly causing other issues.

Pull the valve cover off for inspection and post a pic.

You can use up to a 'PINT' of Rislone or Marvel Mystery oil with each oil change. This would be very cost effective since you can use it with the cheapest mineral oil(storebrand or wholesale club) you can find. And the low 'pint' dose won't scrub the engine up too quickly. UOAs have shown no negatives associated with MMO or Rislone. Positives are seen with visual inspection as the engine cleans up.

[hill8570]

Originally Posted by mickeeand

I was thinking of running some rotella 10/30 because from what I read it has a high detergency level.
A friend of mine says to use rislone.
Another says high milage oil.

The first two are fine. Overkill, perhaps, but they won't hurt anything.

All high-mileage oil does is swell your seals. Unless you've got a slow oil leak that you don't want to bother fixing right, stay away from the high-mileage oils.

[Deadly Sushi]

Originally Posted by N35QU!K

regular oil + half a seafom, lol

YUP!!!!! Screw the oil cleaning sludge thing. Just use Sea Foam!

[EA6BMECH]

Originally Posted by mickeeand

I have been researching oil lately and my mind is mush.
Here is the question and I am sure I will get varied opinions.

What makes you think you have sludge in the engine?? I just popped the valve cover off the front head on my '00 V6. Clean as a whistle. I run Wal-Mart 5-30 95% of the time with the Super Tech or Fram filters. Run the oil up to 6K+ most of the time. I don't know, go figure. It has 255K on it..

[toysarefun]

I bought a girl owned 95 with 150k. I put shell 5w30 in the whole time, a foreign car repair mechanic advised me on it so I just didn't worry about thinking about it. Of course I change the oil as soon as it looks dirty, usually 2000-2500 miles between changes, and the car has 225k on it and runs great. I have been able to go a little longer between oil changes, but really, only holding about 3.5 quarts of oil the car eats through oil changes it seems. I've seen where flecks of burnt oil have come off the silver part of the motor where the filter goes on and I'm assuming they just dissolve in the oil. Motor oil, I'm assuming has gotten better since the mid 90's and I don't think sludge is really a problem with these engines anymore. I heard the sludge problem had something to do with the oil pickup filter being clogged, and/or an oil bath situation underneath the lifters where the old oil did not always get drained out properly and you should never really mix oils. Hence, a weird situation that Toyota acknowledged.

[BamZipPow]

Any quick acting solvents have a potential of removing too much sludge and clogging up yer oil pickup screen. Best thing would be a gentle process like Auto-RX...