Engine Flush

Honest John Back Room » Technical matters
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Sat 3 Apr 2004 18:51
Engine Flush - Drivethru
Would anyone recommend getting an engine flush when you get an oil change. I see that one of the major garages has an offer on for £5.95 engine flush, but i'm not sure if it is worth having if there are no problems with the car and oil.
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Sat 3 Apr 2004 20:56
Engine Flush - Cliff Pope
I think an earlier thread concluded that flushing was a complete waste and unnecessary if the oil and filter were changed frequently.
On the other hand if the servicing has been neglected and the engine is full of old black deposits, flushing it can be a disaster, as it just loosens all the gunge and ensures that it gets pumped round everywhere.
IMHO reducing the service interval is much the better option.
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Sat 3 Apr 2004 21:29
Engine Flush - Sooty Tailpipes
I agree, spend your £6 on more frequent pro rata oil changes, or a better quality oil.
Engine flushes are from the 'black death' era which ended in the late 1980s.
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Sun 4 Apr 2004 01:24
Engine Flush - Civic8
Do not believe what you hear.flushing agents should only be used if you have a serious oil flow problem.even then I would not use one.would rather do engine strip down.problem lies in flushing agent it stays in engine so when new oil is put in it is there for several oil changes later.ie detergent is there long after oil change.causing damage to your engine.as has been said best way is to change oil before it should be.thats my opinion
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Mon 5 Apr 2004 16:55
Engine Flush - MW
Everytime I have bought a new secondhand car I have run a can of Wynns oil flush through. This is added to the old oil and the whole lot drained out after a while. I have never had any trouble and I think (might be an illusion) that the new oil stays cleaner. Perhaps this type is less damaging than the 100% flushing oil that is added by itself. I always thought it got the car off to a good clean start under my stewardship. After that, only oil and filter changes every 6000 miles.
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Fri 16 Jul 2004 01:17
Engine Flush - Badger
Is there any hard research evidence either way?
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Fri 16 Jul 2004 09:35
Engine Flush - Ford Dagenham
Hi

A friend of ours runs a J plate fiesta 1.1 automatic.

They dont really service it much at all.

The engine is full of black rubbish everwhere.

How do we clean it out without a rebuild or flushing agent.


--
(iam not a mechanic)

Martin Winters
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Fri 16 Jul 2004 10:07
Engine Flush - Cliff Pope
I think you have to accept that with that history of neglect it does not haven a long prospect in front of it. However, if it were mine I would not be able to bear running it knowing all that dirt was inside, so I think it would be a rare instance where a flush would be the least bad option.
I'd only say, it has to be a thorough one. It would be even worse simply to loosen the muck and have it keep falling off over the next few months.
My suggestion would be:
1) Remove timing cover and thoroughly clean out everything you can, taking great care not to drop bits down inside.
2) Clean out the whole engine breathing system, paying attention to manifold connections, flame traps, oil separators,or whatever your car has.
3) Put in a can of flusher just before a long trip, and drain the oil immediately after. Refil with new oil and a new filter.
4) Repeat flush and drain after say 200 miles and another long run. Refil with new oil plus filter.
5) Change oil and filter again after 3000 miles, or when black whichever is the sooner.
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Fri 16 Jul 2004 11:34
Engine Flush - martint123
I have a 100k mile MX5 and dump a little can of flush into the oil every 2nd or 3rd change, run it for 10 mins, drain and refill.
It seems to be accepted practice for these engines as an aid to stop clatter from the hydraulic valve lifters along with regular oil/filter changes. Some seem to suffer from it more than others and its vastly cheaper than buying a replacement set of lifters.

Martin
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Sat 17 Jul 2004 14:05
Engine Flush - sortedhow
When I had my Vauxhall Corsa 1.4 sri I used the Wynns engine flush to "clear" the engine of deposits. A lot of gunk came out with the oil, but it wasn't all smelling of roses. After a few days when i started the car load knocking noises could be heard until engine warmed up (about 2 miles). I asked the garage and they informed me that the flush took all the lubricant off the internal engine parts, causing parts that didn't know to start knocking. I wont use it again.

Howard
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Sat 17 Jul 2004 23:54
Engine Flush - Civic8
Agree with Cliff.though age of car wont warrant a stripdown.if you have no problems would suggest to give regular oil changes.flushing agent with that much muck in it may cause more probs than it is worth.as Cliff pointed out.It is a hardy unit and if left may carry on for longer than using any agents to clean it up.full stripdown is the only way to clean it.just my opinion.
--
Was mech1
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Wed 14 Jun 2017 18:45
Engine Flush - One law

Stewardship. What a phrase!

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Wed 21 Jun 2017 14:58
Engine Flush - 3uga

Use engine flush to clear deposits out of engine. The product is good but won't recomend it to be used more than once every 60k. One thing you should look after is the oil pan. I own a ford focus 2008 with 1.6 tdci and it has a steel oil pan with the drain plug flush with the surface of the pan. That mens not all the oil is changed. Around 400ml gets trapd in the pan and contaminates the new oil, lowering its quality.

For me, the engine flush worked and could hear engine ideling a little bit better.

If you plan on using engine flush, here are some recomandations:

1. Do not use if car is turbochared and banjo bolts have filters. If filters get chloged, you kill the turbo.

2. use engine flush only after warming the engine to its working temperature. After adding Engine Flush(EF), let it idel for 10-20 minutes.
3 After the 20m are up, you have to change the oil and filter. To not contaminate the new oil with the remaing old oil and ef, you should first drain old oil and add new and cheap oil and let the car idle for another 10 minutes. After that do a propper oil change with the prefered oil brand and new oil filter.

In my case, had a Fiat Doblo 1.3 with a dead turbo. Changed the oil and filter, added a new turbo. The filter had a few metalic shaving form old, dead turbo, but not as much after i did a EF a little over 500km. The filter was like covered in in those shavings..and EF got them out

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Wed 21 Jun 2017 15:53
Engine Flush - gordonbennet

3uga, did you by any chance use engine flush on your Focus which eats turbos?

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Fri 23 Jun 2017 23:38
Engine Flush - 3uga

Yes, but that was a long time ago, the same month that i got the car. Since then I got rid of the metalic filter located on the banjo bolt and after the engine flush, did around 20k km and 2 oil chages in that interval befor my first ever problems with the turbo

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Sat 24 Jun 2017 05:12
Engine Flush - RT

Yes, but that was a long time ago, the same month that i got the car. Since then I got rid of the metalic filter located on the banjo bolt and after the engine flush, did around 20k km and 2 oil chages in that interval befor my first ever problems with the turbo

So you used flush to disturb big pieces of carbon, you remove the banjo filter designed to stop big pieces of carbon - and you wonder why you've got problems?

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Sat 24 Jun 2017 15:37
Engine Flush - 3uga

Did you get what I Said?

Problems started at aroud 20k km after flushing the engine.

I've flushed the engine at every car i've owned and never had problems related to this. The problems on my car are temperature related. VNT melts away. Turbo on the other hand never had oils starvation problems, never seized up after removing banjo bolt filter.

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Sun 25 Jun 2017 11:55
Engine Flush - John F

I've flushed the engine at every car i've owned and never had problems .......

Nevertheless, the only thing you should flush is your lavatory.

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Wed 21 Jun 2017 15:53
Engine Flush - RT

IMO, oil flush is a pointless product.

Modern engines using modern oil stay clean, even at very high mileages, so a flush can't achieve anything - for older engines, those run on the wrong oil or those with an unrectified fault, once carbonisation or gumming has occurred then using oil flush greatly increases the risk of moving the debris on to a smaller oil galley, which it blocks causing terminal damage to the engine.

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Wed 21 Jun 2017 18:11
Engine Flush - nellyjak

In your case I would not waste your money tbh..if you have no issues then why bother.?

It may well do more harm than good.

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Sun 25 Jun 2017 13:00
Engine Flush - andyp

Back in the 70's I used to drain the oil out, fill it with Redex (donated by the garage I worked in :-) ), start it up and let it tick over for a few minutes. Then drain, change filter and refill with new oil which would then stay "clean" looking for much longer than usual. My mates dad always used to drain the oil then pour a gallon of parafin through the engine before refilling with oil which he reckoned used to flush the crud out of the engine. Not sure if either of these practises did any good or harm and of coures both oils and engines have come a long way in the last 40 years.

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