Anyone used this stuff? I used it this weekend and it really seemed to clean out some oil sludge. My car had been taking 3.5qts of oil to fill. This time it took the full 3 5/8's quarts to fill.

On a side note: This stuff apears to have the same properties as diesel fuel.

I am not sure if it was this stuff or the timing chain tensioner that completely cleared up my startup clatter.

nope

Now that my car is higher mileage, I'm reluctant to run anything as harsh as an engine flush.

What I do instead is take a cheap filter and some cheap oil, put them in the car, then drive around for 200 kms or so, and then dump it and put on a Nissan filter and some Mobil 1.

That gets everything pretty clean, although if you have bad sludge, you might need something more harsh, I admit.

I thought taking the oil pan off and cleaning it with old fashioned elbow grease was the way to fix the missing old problem? No?

Taking the oil pan off is not simple. It's in 2 pieces. The steel part you see, and the aluminum part that it attaches to. To get that part off requires (according to the Haynes manual) removing the AC bracket bolts and popping off an axel among other things. Too much work for me.

I just used the Gunk stuff the other night. I let the oil drain for almost an hour afterwards.

Before: it would only take 3 quarts. And after a spin around the block, the oil would be all dirty from whatever oil was staying in there.

After: 3 quarts only got it up to the "low" mark (good sign). And after a spin around the block, the oil was just as beautiful as when it came out of the bottle.

Problem solved.

I have heard some bad things about motor flush. I seem to remember Eric telling me at Ben's January geekout that they put some in somebody's CRX and it started to use a quart of oil a week. Anybody want to ante up on this aspect?

I used Gunk engine cleaner a few times around 50-60k on my motor (It's up around 93k now) with no problems. I don't burn oil and it did clear up some of the junk in the engine (not all of it though). I haven't had any additional build up since I switched to Mobil 1 and change my oil at 3k or less.

One of the tricks I've been told to rescue really sludged up engines is to put Transmission fluid in instead of oil. Run it for a few minutes to circulate it and then let it sit for a few days. Then flush the engine with oil and do a normal oil change. Repeat if necessary. Transmission fluid has a lot more cleaners in it than normal oil so it'll make short work of the sludge. The down side? All that sludge runs down into your oil pan and can clog up your oil pickup line (just like the Gunk engine cleaner).

Originally posted by Rittmeister
I have heard some bad things about motor flush. I seem to remember Eric telling me at Ben's January geekout that they put some in somebody's CRX and it started to use a quart of oil a week. Anybody want to ante up on this aspect?

Somebody's CRX huh? I'll bet a nickel that'd be the one parked in my driveway. She's not that bad, as long as she gets her can of engine restore. I measure oil changes on her not by time, but by how bad she needs a new can of that stuff.

i use gunk or stp flush about once a year, maybe twice depending on how hard ive ran it. never had a problem *knock on wood*. But then again there are always those big ifs ands or buts... Hell like it was once said not to switch to synethic on a high mileage car...ben did it to the celica at 400k...

Bringing back an old old thread. I bought a can of this today and I am going to try it out tomorrow when I do an oil change. My car has no visible crud or buildup that I can see by peeking around underneath the valve cover, but I figured it couldn't hurt since I've got 241k miles on my vehicle. Anyone else have any experiences with this? It's not bad to do it at really high miles, is it?

holy crap, some old threads are being brought back lately!

i wouldn't run that through my engine, ecpecially if it had 241,000 miles on it. like they say, if it aint broke dont fix it.

I can understand you wouldn't run it through a motor at higher mileages, and I respect your reply, but would you mind explaining why so I can learn something new? It was only 2.50, I have no problem not using it, I just want to know why I shouldn't.

Sure, here you go... as it has been explained to me: If your car has super high mileage, and did it on mostly or all Dino oil, then your various gaskets and seals can be dried out and cracked sort-of.. think of it on a microscopic level. Anyway, the cracks and whatnot will fill in with gunk and sludge from the dino oil, so that the seals are in effect still fine. (the cracks are plugged)

Now, you use engine cleaner through it, and it cleans out all the sludge, which exposes the cracks, and allows the clean oil to seep through, and bingo! You've got oil leaks, burning oil etc.

That is pretty much why we recommend using nothing but Mobil 1 from day one, it actually preserves all those seals etc.

Some cars spin bearings after using that stuff. I won't ever use it again. Sometimes its good for the sludge to stay where it is. Once you run the cleaner through the engine, you never know where it will end up.

I just did the flush thing on my car last week (172k miles on the odo). The difference was noticeable, but I really wasn't all smiles to be honest. I've had no issues though, but I was hoping that the inside would have cleaned up more than what I saw after running the Gunk stuff through it.

I have heard some bad things about motor flush.


same here

look at my signature... there is a reason i have a jdm swap... I'm 99% sure that I wouldn't have spun a bearing if I hadn't done the motor flush. (the car started eating oil) Just skip the flush and keep driving the car. It'll work even though the insides might not look pretty.

Sure, here you go... as it has been explained to me: If your car has super high mileage, and did it on mostly or all Dino oil, then your various gaskets and seals can be dried out and cracked sort-of.. think of it on a microscopic level. Anyway, the cracks and whatnot will fill in with gunk and sludge from the dino oil, so that the seals are in effect still fine. (the cracks are plugged)

Now, you use engine cleaner through it, and it cleans out all the sludge, which exposes the cracks, and allows the clean oil to seep through, and bingo! You've got oil leaks, burning oil etc.

That is pretty much why we recommend using nothing but Mobil 1 from day one, it actually preserves all those seals etc.


Perfect explanation!! I say don't use it at all. JMHO!!

Sweet. Thanks for the explanation guys. I'll just return the stuff. I knew I could count on you guys for the right answer. :)

Some cars spin bearings after using that stuff. I won't ever use it again. Sometimes its good for the sludge to stay where it is. Once you run the cleaner through the engine, you never know where it will end up.
I've also heard chunks of the sludge will break off and get sucked into oil galleys, tubes, and into the bearings.....