Oil Flush? With Kerosene?

Elite Ele · 08-03-2007, 12:29 AM

I've had various symptoms which I finally had diagonsed by a friend who races AE86's and various other Toyotas. Looking with some secondary input. Anyway, the symptoms and his conclusion:

Symptoms:
Slow oil leak
Oil burning off the engine on long trips(60+ minutes) (and releasing a smell in the cabin)
Oil pressure drop at idle (however regular pressure 2000 RPM's and higher)
Gas mileage decrease from 36 mpg highway to 30
Oil burning off the engine on short trips (10+ minutes) but only after the engine is shut off (can idle forever without a problem)
Takes 2 times to turn over instead of 1

Conclusion:
Oil "funk" gathered in some of the lines leading from the head to the pan blocking the lines forces oil to collect in the head, evaporate off (producing smoke), put a light coat on the plugs, and just about everything else bad oil sitting in your cylendars can do.

Remedy:
Flush the oil system with kerosene or desiel fuel. Drain all the oil, replace the plug, put a few quarts of fuel in and allow it to sit 15 mins. Flush the system with light weight oil and then do a proper oil change.

Input anyone? Ideas?

carcrazykid · 08-03-2007, 12:52 AM

ehhh... I dunno about that one. If you go to O'reilly's, they have a metal can called seafoam, that stuff is awesome...I've always heard great things about Gunk's 5-minute motor flush too.

The previous owner and I have both used Seafoam regularly on my duece and honestly, it's so clean that people swear its been rebuilt and called my close up shot of the lifters a photoshop.

But as far as your oil burning and stuff is concerned, yeah a good cleaning should help out alot, what weight oil have you been running? is it synthetic? are you running lucas oil stabilizer?

Gairloch · 08-03-2007, 12:58 AM

If oil gunk is actually your issue you're on the right path.

Cleaning the system out still won't fix any oil leaks you may have though. Do you know which seals need to be replaced?

You might want to consider running some fuel system cleaner through also. I'm partial to ChevronTechron myself. A leakdown test might also be revealing.

What oil are you using?

TomsMR2 · 08-03-2007, 02:07 AM

i STRONGLY suggest not using seafoam, diesel, kerosene or anything even remotely similar. it wipes the oil layer off your bearings and wears them very quickly. those things all destroy bearings. use ATF, atf is still a lubricant, and it cleans ridiculously well. just add a quart of ATF to your engines existing oil and run it at 2500-3000rpm in neutral for 5 minutes or so and drain your oil. you'll get jet black oil out, works very well.

wesnemo · 08-03-2007, 05:03 PM

+1 on the ATF (the lubricant, not the bureau). If you are using Lucas oil stabilizer, stop. The stuff is guano. It increases oil foaming to the max. Bearings and other metal parts in contact react badly to air.

08-03-2007, 12:29 AM	#1 (permalink)
Elite Ele No Skills Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 31 Thanks: 3 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post iTrader Rating: (0/0% )	Oil Flush? With Kerosene? I've had various symptoms which I finally had diagonsed by a friend who races AE86's and various other Toyotas. Looking with some secondary input. Anyway, the symptoms and his conclusion: Symptoms: Slow oil leak Oil burning off the engine on long trips(60+ minutes) (and releasing a smell in the cabin) Oil pressure drop at idle (however regular pressure 2000 RPM's and higher) Gas mileage decrease from 36 mpg highway to 30 Oil burning off the engine on short trips (10+ minutes) but only after the engine is shut off (can idle forever without a problem) Takes 2 times to turn over instead of 1 Conclusion: Oil "funk" gathered in some of the lines leading from the head to the pan blocking the lines forces oil to collect in the head, evaporate off (producing smoke), put a light coat on the plugs, and just about everything else bad oil sitting in your cylendars can do. Remedy: Flush the oil system with kerosene or desiel fuel. Drain all the oil, replace the plug, put a few quarts of fuel in and allow it to sit 15 mins. Flush the system with light weight oil and then do a proper oil change. Input anyone? Ideas?

08-03-2007, 02:07 AM	#4 (permalink)
TomsMR2 Still not heraldo. Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Pineapple under the sea Posts: 4,911 Thanks: 18 Thanked 406 Times in 303 Posts Blog Entries: 1 iTrader Rating: (4/100% )	i STRONGLY suggest not using seafoam, diesel, kerosene or anything even remotely similar. it wipes the oil layer off your bearings and wears them very quickly. those things all destroy bearings. use ATF, atf is still a lubricant, and it cleans ridiculously well. just add a quart of ATF to your engines existing oil and run it at 2500-3000rpm in neutral for 5 minutes or so and drain your oil. you'll get jet black oil out, works very well. __________________ Science fact: If you took all the veins from your body and laid them end to end, you would die.

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08-03-2007, 12:52 AM	#2 (permalink)
carcrazykid No Skills Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 13 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts iTrader Rating: (0/0% )	ehhh... I dunno about that one. If you go to O'reilly's, they have a metal can called seafoam, that stuff is awesome...I've always heard great things about Gunk's 5-minute motor flush too. The previous owner and I have both used Seafoam regularly on my duece and honestly, it's so clean that people swear its been rebuilt and called my close up shot of the lifters a photoshop. But as far as your oil burning and stuff is concerned, yeah a good cleaning should help out alot, what weight oil have you been running? is it synthetic? are you running lucas oil stabilizer?

08-03-2007, 12:58 AM	#3 (permalink)
Gairloch Dreaming of apexes Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Minneapolis, MN Posts: 5,313 Thanks: 139 Thanked 296 Times in 264 Posts Blog Entries: 4 My Google Map iTrader Rating: (7/100% )	If oil gunk is actually your issue you're on the right path. Cleaning the system out still won't fix any oil leaks you may have though. Do you know which seals need to be replaced? You might want to consider running some fuel system cleaner through also. I'm partial to ChevronTechron myself. A leakdown test might also be revealing. What oil are you using?

08-03-2007, 05:03 PM	#5 (permalink)
wesnemo wesnemo Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Northeast PA Posts: 330 Thanks: 11 Thanked 18 Times in 12 Posts iTrader Rating: (2/100% )	+1 on the ATF (the lubricant, not the bureau). If you are using Lucas oil stabilizer, stop. The stuff is guano. It increases oil foaming to the max. Bearings and other metal parts in contact react badly to air.