Pros an cons Gunk engine flush in 5min

Iron Raven

Registered User
I was at the auto parts store and found a can of gunk engine flush in 5 min and I wonder if I could reck my engine. It says pour it in with the old motor oil and run it for five minutes and the do an oil change. It says on older engines you should the drop the oil pan and clean all the crud out of it. It supposed to clean the engine out real good uncloging lifters breaking up carbon deposits the works. My Sc has 160000 on it and before it broke I was way over due for and oil change (my bad) so I'm sure it's pretty bad but I don't want to destroy the engine. I'm thinking it would be a bad idea to use it so I probly won't but if someone has had experience with this product I would really like to hear their input. I'm thinking I just rebuild the motor when the time and funds become avalible. I just thought I'd ask anyway.
 
Personally I would just buy a couple of quarts of detergent and add it to the old oil drain some if need be.. . it would do all the cleaning you would need. Run it for a while (15 mins or so) then change your oil.mIt's cheap and it wont hurt your engine..My .02
 
One of the cons is that it could - emphasize could - break loose a big enough chunk that if it gets stuck to the oil pickup screen would limit oil flow (volume). This isn't a very likely thing since they recommend leaving it in only a short time but it is a possible, especially if you don't drop the pan. Using Rislone, Marvel Mystery oil, ATF or other high detergent oils is basically doing the same thing only with a "milder" cleaner.

If you're really worried about sludge buildup and are up to spending a few $$$ (~50) you may want to try AutoRx. There are many who swear by it at bobistheoilguy.com but I haven't tried it yet. It's supposed to clean the sludge more gradually and avoid the floating chunks problem.
 
I had an old school mech tell me to use a qt. of
tranny fluid with the regular motor oil.
I haven't tried this because it didn't sound
like a good idea.But does sound reasonable.
 
Yea...I mean putting brake fluid in the oil of some cars will stop them from smoking..But i wouldn't reccomend doing it on your SC.. ;)
 
you know what i do, every 3 oil changes, i drain the oil, drain the filter, screw the filter back in, then i pour 1 gallon or more of diesel in,cant remember how much to pour in, run the car for like 5 minutes, and drain it back out, u know how much crap comes out. I was like wow, thats alot of crap, ive never had any problems with this. Never had problems with the oil pick up screen either or oil pressure after that. In fact my oil pressure went up. Not saying you should try it, but at your own risk, take it into consideration
 
I used to use that stuff before every oil change back when then car had only 29,000 miles on it. I stopped doing it at around 230,000 miles because I didn't feel like doing it anymore. Well at around 240,000 miles my oil pressure started to fall. So I flushed it with some more of that stuff and the pressure came back. I wouldn't do it on a high mileage car because of the "big chunk " theory, but I had used it from day one and never had a problem.
 
Gunk oil flush...

Many of those 5 minute oil flushes are simply higher petrolium distillates. Specifically: Kerosene.

Or as Darkstar mentioned: Diesel fuel, which is the cousin of Kerosene.

At the current gas prices, you could probably just use the Diesel fuel.

I like Darkstar's idea, but I've never put it to practice... Do you really run the engine with a crankcase full of Diesel fuel?

The risks to the engine I think would be a period of reduced lubrication since the engine flush is actually "washing" the cylinder walls down. It specifically recommends not to drive the car with the stuff in the crankcase, so I would think that it isn't intended to actually lubricate...

I know people who have seized engines, and have drained the oil, and filled the engine up with Deisel fuel right up to the valve cover and let it sit overnight. The next day they drained the diesel fuel and filled up with fresh oil and oil filter and the engine would turn over!!!! Doesn't always work, but worth a try.
 
doodaa said:
One of the cons is that it could - emphasize could - break loose a big enough chunk that if it gets stuck to the oil pickup screen would limit oil flow (volume).

That's exactly what recently happened to a friend of mine. He did an engine flush on his Dakota, then had to bring it to my house to figure out why it had no oil pressure. After pulling the oil pan, my assumption was correct, the oil pickup screen was clogged up with sludge.


OneBad89SC said:
I had an old school mech tell me to use a qt. of
tranny fluid with the regular motor oil.
I haven't tried this because it didn't sound
like a good idea.But does sound reasonable.


A few of my friends do this every other oil change or so on their small block chevy's. It seems to work well for them. Transmission fluid works as a detergent to clean out the crankcase.

-Rod
 
Opinions of Autozone upper cntrl. arms needed!

Autozone carries all there front end stuff under lifetime warranty. I drive my SC hard, and want to go with higher quality front end parts like Mogg. Being i plan to keep my SC and knowing ill probably need to replace the Upper cntrl. arms/ball joints again, i wanted peoples opinions who have used the Autozone brand "Perfect Circle" for the quality on these. I dont mind to much if they wear out a little faster as long as their sturdy like a higher quality brand for a while atleast. Let me know guys. Thanks
 
i have 185,000 on my 91 sc.i had to remove the intake manifold due to gasket leak.and to my shock it was nice and clean in there.but i've always changed the oil every 2500 - 3000 miles and only mobile 1.i bought the car like 2 1/2 years ago from a lady.and she did the same and she only use mobile 1.i'm not much of a fan of that motor flush crap i've heard too many horror stories.i do think my lower half bearings are pretty wore cuz my oil pressure bounces between the n and o on the gauge sometimes it might touch the r.but i imagine if i dropped the pan and just put some bearings in it it would still be around for awhile.really debating on doing this.what do you guys think?or just say screw it and rebuild?i have a spare sc engine (135,000) i could start rebuilding on side(nothing wrong with that engine neither)
 
Marvel Mystery Oil!!!

O.k, now that we have enough different products to try, everyone who said petroleum distilates / kerosene is right!

Just an agressive light weight oil to help clean things out. Marvel Mystery Oil has been used for doing such things for ages. The other stuff in the can is likely similar.

The down sides are that a passage-way gets plugged and you loose pressure to a bearing. But I'm not sure how likely that is. If you have a good filter it should be o.k.

If you've never done it before I'd recommend doing it 50 miles before an oil change. Then change the oil with cheap dino oil, a new good filter, and add another can of the engine cleaner. Drive for 100 miles or so and change the oil again with the good stuff.

That should clean out most of the stuff pretty good. Then at the next oil change throw a can in about 100 miles before your oil change again. Keep that for the life of the vehicle and it'll keep the inside of the engine pretty clean.

(personally I'd go with the Marvel Mystery oil.)
 
.i do think my lower half bearings are pretty wore cuz my oil pressure bounces between the n and o on the gauge sometimes it might touch the r.


Put NO faith in that gauge. Its more of you have some or you have none gauge. If its fluctuating, its because the sensor is going bad or you have a bad ground.



Chris
 
025.JPG

That is the valley of my 302 bird, that was at 125k miles, I did run MMO in there b4 I replaced the intake.

Putting an engine degreaser in there makes me pretty nervous, to say the least.

I pulled the heads off also. It took us about 12hours to clean all the crap out of the valley, clean up the rockers, lifters, keepers, valve springs...

There where some very large chunks, I am glad I did not run diesel thru there like everything told me.

I have been told that kind of build up comes from: not changing oil on a reg basis, oil over heating, short tripping the car, driving around town, doing no highway driving.-I run it in the highways all the time, I run valvoline, and change oil every 1500-2000...

I read somewhere, that, some shops can flush your block out, which, I guess, is what I would do, especaiily seeing the crud build up on my 5.0 :mad:
 
I don't think I would like to do a power flush through my engine. I'd be conscerned that the high pressure could force things to block passages that wouldn't otherwise be able to get there.

Oil crud is caused by combustion gasses mixing with the oil and creating deposits. These deposits are held in suspension with the oil and either filtered or comes out when you change the oil. But if you wait too long, they will build-up in the engine.

Such build up is a major problem in newer engine designs. Partially due to the small passages they are machining into the block.
 
fivaxis said:
That's really bad. Mine was clean with 166k (I'm assuming my engine was never replaced) http://www.fivaxis.com/set3/engine3.jpg


Your lucky then.

After seeing the valley of my 302, I have been a bit leary of cars I see for sale and am leary about them so called engine flushing products. I posted a thread on the corral about my valley, and they said that the motor will pry be going out soon, oil passages are pry plugged :(
 
Well I really apreciate everyones advice I'm going to have to do some serious thinking on this one I'll Keep ya'll updated. Thanks again.
 
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