question for home mechanics

[aucky]

hi guys.I'm changing my oil on saturday and my question to you who do it your self as well is,does anyone use a engine flush,is it any good,does it remove much crap? I mentioned it to a friend and they said be carefull as it can make a car run bad if your engine is old or worn,says it will remove the carbon n mess things up  . Is that rite what he says as i'v never used 1 before,my engine got 90 thousand on clock.whats your thoughts and experiance with using it and how your car runs after.

[savage bulldogs]

Shouldn't affect carbon build up as I don't think there should be any in the oil system (mainly in the combustion areas)

imo it won't do any harm as long as the flush is suitable for ally engine's

[aucky]

thank for the reply savage.think i will give 1 a try  :)

[bowthruster]

I asked this question before and I got told don't use it,but each to there own

[aucky]

I asked this question before and I got told don't use it,but each to there own

did they say why not to use it?

[bowthruster]

Hi if you read this link,about halfway down the 1st page theres some explanations. http://uk.subaruownersclub.com/forums/topic/10159-fuel-and-oil-additives/

[aucky]

thanks bowthruster,looks same as what my friend was saying,so think i;ll not bother using 1.

[bowthruster]

No problem mate.I was in two minds to use it as i'd had it sitting on the shelf for a few months,so in the end i just binned it.

[savage bulldogs]

I saw that thread the first time it cropped up stu [emoji106]

and like most oil related threads I didn't comment as it's normally a can of worms lol

But it bring up a valid point that synthetic oils don't tend to leave sludge in the oil ways as much as mineral oils .so with regular changes with synthetic oil you shouldn't need to flush it [emoji6]

My uk turbo was on 90k and it had heavy piston slap when cold running10w 40 oil .

So I flushed it and replaced the oil with 10w 50 and then added some slick 50 , yes I know lots of people hate this stuff too but it sounded like a transit when cold [emoji16]

it took longer to warm up (less friction I assumed) and was slightly quieter when cold, I ran it for another 2yrs at 270hp using the same grade oil changed at 5k intervals .

I now prefer 10w 50 millers nano drive as it suits my forged build clearances better

Mabey if it's not broken don't fix it and just stick with just a refresh of the same grade of oil your currently running .especially if you haven't got any piston slap or hydraulic lifter noise on cold start up

[bowthruster]

Exactly clive i was waiting for you to comment ;) Some people say use it others dont.Own preference i suppose like you say.By the way im still looking for the turbo,you havent got out of it yet :D  I dont know anything about slick 50 but i suppose thats another can of worms :D

[savage bulldogs]

Glad you Brought it up stu[emoji106] cos I don't know whether he's got the same scenario as my old uk so wouldn't have wanted to advise someone to do something unessary or wrong

give me a shout once you've got one and I'll gladly convert it for you bud ,just give it a bit of a clean first .

Cos I don't like working on dirty scooby scraps [emoji4]

[Tlag]

I used to use flush on cars until about 10 yrs ago. At that time, it was pointed out to me that modern oils don't leave any sludge behind like the older oils did. Even if they modern oils did, it's generally not in my engine long enough to do so.

Plus, I really don't trust anything in a Subaru engine except high quality oil, for any length of time.

[Rick 2014]

I have slight piston slap on a cold morning.I just start the engine and let it warm up before I go any where.I also use carlubes triple r 10w/60 fully synthetic oil

[Mr B]

If you have a particularly dirty engine with black oil then a flush can be useful to remove more old oil & sludge from engine but if engine quite good/clean I would go with 1 or 2 short interval oil+filter changes over use of engine flush.