An Old Timer's Oil Flush...

So I was talking to an old-timer, in this case my Dad, about some small issues I'd been fighting. This put him in story-mode, and while 94% of these stories were recycled, one was new and stuck in my mind as something to think about...

Apparently when he was working in a service station back in the day, whenever they had a car not equipped with an oil-filter come in for a fluid change (in this story it was "usually this one guy with a deuce with a flathead in it") they perscribed a very specific flush. First they'd drain all the oil and refill with a mixture of 50% 30 weight, 50% Kerosene. Then they'd let the car idle for "about an hour" at which point they'd drain that mixture out and re-fill with whatever the specified oil was. Dad was emphatic that this was an every-time thing for flathead cars.

Now, I've been fighting sludge in my Strait-8 Buick for the last three oil changes, and this got me to thinking. Maybe the old man is onto something and I need to go with some old tech...

Anyone ever used this method, then or now, for a sludged-up motor? What are your ideas? Or maybe you have some old-school tribal knowledge for this, or any other issues...

 

Give it a try, youll know if it was a good idear or a bad idear afterwards.

 

I've filled crankcases up with diesel fuel and used an oil pump primer/drill to push everything thru, but I dont think running the motor to pump it is a good idea.

 

I had a later model Jeep six that had a terrible sludge problem, so bad that oil would not drain past the head and I put straight diesel fuel in after draining the oil, let it idle for 15 min. Then new oil and filter, drove around for 30 min.and changed oil and filter again. It fixed it right up. Took the valve cover off a few months later, and the top end looked like new. ...your mileage may vary.

 

FWIW I've done the ATF flush.
Warm the engine up, turn it off, drain the oil, refill the crank case with ATF, let it idle for 10mins. Do not drive it or place a load on the engine. Turn off the engine. Drain the ATF and watch the glop pour out.
And I use Sea Foam in the oil as well. That will knock out a nasty hyd lifter tick on some gooed up engines.

 

The owners manual for my 1936 IHC tractor recamends doing a kerosone flush in the transmission .Once a year.
With todays motor oils I wouldnt think a flush would be needed.

 

The only danger of doing the flush thing is that all that sludge that has been hanging inside the engine will end up in the pan and be ****ed back up by the oil pump. I ruined a perfectly good 389 Pontiac motor that way years ago, and when I tore it down all this black, carbonlike gunk was covering the entire pickup screen, keeping it from letting oil in.

Don

 

I have heard that if you do a regular oil change, you can use one quart of ATF instead of one quart of oil when you fill it back up (4 quarts oil + 1 quart ATF). Run that for a thousand miles and then change it again as you normally would. This used to work if your hydraulic lifters were clogging up with sludge.

 

A 1000 miles?! I wiped out the bottoms end of an sbc with one quart of ATF after driving it 200 miles. It might have been on its way out but now all I do is a 10 minute idle session.

 

It fixed it right up. Took the valve cover off a few months later

 

Hey, Marvels Mystery Oil is no longer a mystery.

 

Back around 1964 my dad had a gas station and we had a customer, a Major in the A/F, who always had us fill his emptied crankcase with diesel and run it a few minutes. He was driving a Studebaker Hawk, probably a 58-59.

 

Haven't done this in years. I did similiar to twistedpiston and it works, or did then.

 

Gonna be facing this with my Holden. So for prevention, I'll go for well sealed air filter/ carb and quarterly/ 1000 mile oil changes.

 

I've used one to two qts of ATF and let it idle for about 20-30 minutes. I always do this if I happen to go over on my mileage for an oil change. Always worked for me and never any issues.

 

Speaking of engine flushes, this happened to me back in the '70s when I was driving a '59 retractable. On a certain Saturday, it was time for my next oil change, but I was on my way from Pascagoula over to P*** Christian, Mississippi, to pick up a date. I stopped at my favorite Gulf station in Ocean Springs and asked Bill, the owner, if he had time to do an oil change on my retractable. "Not a problem," he replied. I indicated that I wanted to use a can of Siloo Engine Flush first.
He was familiar with the Siloo product and told me to go ahead and put it in the engine and run it for a few minutes, which I did. Then, I pulled the car into the shop bay over the lift and turned off the ignition. Bill raised the car, drained the oil, and replaced the drain plug. He lowered the car and asked me to release the hood. I popped the hood open. Then the excitement began.

Bill leaned over the fender and removed the filler cap from the Cal Custom polished valve cover that I had installed on the car's Police Interceptor 352 engine. He set the cap aside and jammed the metal spout into the first quart of oil. As he began to pour the oil into the filler hole, the back edge of the can must have touched the battery terminal, causing a spark.

A gigantic explosion erupted from the engine. A ball of fire enveloped Bill's head as the can of fresh oil spun wildly out of his hand arching upward and spewing oil in every direction. Instinctively, I closed my eyes, but when I opened them, I saw that Bill had been transformed. His eyebrows were gone. His beard was reduced to ashen stubble. His hair was gone back to a point on his head where the fire had apparently reached. He looked like some occult monk. What neither Bill nor I had thought about was the fact that the engine flush had left lots of explosive vapors in the crankcase. They had ignited in a most impressive display.

Bill said more than a few choice words. He invited me to never bring this #@*&%$) car into his shop again. I looked at the label of the engine flush later on and it read like a recipe for environmental disaster -- acetone, esters, aldehydes, xylenes, butoxyethanol... -- a soup of carcinogens.

I never again found it necessary to use Siloo's most amazing product.

 

What a story ezdusit.

 

If you do a flush on a regular basis its probably OK.
If your car is running correctly and routine changes you probably don't need it.

Running a flush thru a recent resurrection of a previously neglected engine usually doesn't end well. Best to pull the tin and clean the majority of junk out as best as you can. Busting the sludge loose and circulating it throughout the block is a bad idea.

Hell of a story ez

 

I have used the kerosene method for years and yes it works just fine!!!

I do not put the engine under any load conditions. I just let it idle for about 15 or 20 minutes and then drain everything out.

Jimbo

 

I also did this with an older OT S10 PU that had never been taken out of town. I bought it from a retired guy that was going to junk it, and it smoked really bad. Drained the oil and added 5 qts. diesel and ran it for about 10 minutes. It quit smoking, and I sold it; it was still running the last time I saw it months later.

 

In changing intake maniflods on my EAB, I found that the valve gear was covered with sludge. I plan to remove the oil pan and flush the valley with some type of solvent. Of course while I have the pan off , I'll give it a good cleaning along with the screen. What type of solvent will work with out damage to bearings and other parts ?

 

My dad swears a drag racer friend of his used to drain his oil at the carwash and spray hot-soapy water into filler tube and let it run out the oil pan drain. Followed up with a regular hot water rinse and then refilled the oil.

 

Heard of this before, and I think it'd be fine just idling for 15-30 minutes. I think I would mix it 50-50 with some 30+ weight oil just so it still has some thickness to it. For those unaware, diesel and kerosene are essentially the same thing, so either would work, and diesel is usually cheaper and easier to find.

 

Early '70s Gulf station h/s job. Used to have certain oldtimers request a qt of kerosene added to the crankcase, prior to an oil change. Idle 5 min or so, & do the change w/filter. Never did it on my own stuff though.

 

.........What a great story! The visuals had me cracking up.

 

PCV on those gets plugged.Yes,my mileage did vary I had sludged up later model Jeep so I cleaned out the sludge.A few weeks later on a 10 degree morning the engine wouldn't pull oil pressure.Pulled the pan in an unheated garage to find the oil pick up plugged with soft **** left by the engine cleaning.

 

Stop using penzoil........"I FLUSH EVERYTIME"
B.B.

 

I watched my grandfather flush cars with diesel, 40 years ago.

 

Been there done that, it is a kind of a farmer methond but works. Or you can go to the autoparts and buy engine flush which is more or less the same thing and do it that way. I like the rislone brand of crankcase flush.

This is not aimed at anyone in particular but one would be amazed at the stuf you can find in an autoparts store. The same stuff that they have had for half a century or more is still there for the taking.

 

I did this on my 57 ford 272 back in the mid sixties in Norfolk in the Navy prior to driving home to Texas. plugged up the oil return holes in the head, blew a case of oil out on the trip home. When I got home to Texas I had to pull the valve covers and rod out the return holes.