How to clean engine sludge

An engine flush is an aftermarket chemical additive designed to clean accumulated deposits, sludge and other gunk from your engine. You pour it into your engine’s oil-filler port and idle the engine for about 10-15 minutes.

Use An Engine Flush

The simplest solution here is to use a chemical engine sludge remover. There are some sources that don’t really like them, but they are the easiest way to get rid of engine sludge. They are typically added to the old oil, then you idle the engine for 5-10 minutes without driving it.

As General Motors alludes to in the publication above, engine flushes can damage your engine. The chemicals in flushing additives can damage engine seals, leading to expensive repairs in the event of an oil leak. These chemicals can also damage engine bearings; turbochargers and other oil-lubricated components.

By changing your oil on a regular basis within the recommended time in your vehicle’s owners manual. Keep in mind that this doesn’t mean you have to change it every 3000 miles; most automakers recommend 5000 – 7500 miles. This will remove oil sludge deposits in lubricating areas with your oil change.

Engine Sludge is a gooey, tarlike deposit that reduces or shuts off oil circulation and can mean thousands of dollars to repair or replace an engine that has seized. Sludge also directly causes oil consumption, power loss, high fuel consumption, oil pressure problems, hard starting, blow by and overheating.

Engine sludge can be a very serious problem. When engine sludge is present, oil is not able to properly lubricate the moving parts of your vehicle’s motor. Some of the main causes for the buildup of engine sludge are stop and go driving and short commutes.

Yes, synthetic oil cleans sludge. The synthetic oil had removed the small amount of sludge that had built up in the valve cover gaskets and as a result they started to leak. The engine itself wasn’t sludged up, it just had sludge in some of the tiny nooks and cranny’s that don’t get much oil flow.

Common reasons for engine oil sludge buildup

During oxidation, the molecules of engine oil break down and the resultant products combine with the dirt in carbon form, metallic particles, fuel, gases, water and liquid coolant. Together the mixture forms a sticky sludge.

Synthetic oil helps prevent engine sludge

Fortunately, sludge and varnish deposits are something oil manufacturers can control. Using thermally stable synthetic base oils reduces the rate of degradation (oxidation). Anti-oxidant additives help reduce the rate of degradation as well.

There is no definitive answer to this question but in my experience, it takes from 34,000 to 38,000 miles for enough sludge and varnish to accumulate to cause an engine failure. That’s if the engine doesn’t run out of oil beforehand. If your not changing the oil is likely your not checking it.

Flushing with kerosene won’t hurt an engine that doesn’t need it! If it does need it, it can cause problems, as well as help.

In case anyone is unfamiliar with the kerosene flush you basically drain the crankcase and fill it with a 75/25 mixture of motor oil and kerosene with a cheapo filter and run it at about 2k rpm for 15-20 min after reaching operating temperature. basically spraying hot kerosene over all of your engine parts.

For these kinds of engine issues, it’s actually recommended NOT to use an engine flush. You would find it best to leave well enough alone and not disturb the sludge that may be the only real barrier keeping oil from leaking past the seals in the older engine.

Controls Engine Sludge

In addition to cleaning all types of engines, the Marvel Mystery Oil also prevents oil sludge in the engine.

Marvel Mystery oil can be used in the fuel tank and mixed with the engine oil but is not recommended as a one time engine flush. You can flush sludge out of your engine by regular use of the product with each oil change.

There is a brand of oil sold in the US called “Marvel mystery oil”. Looks like this: However if you have a seized engine then pretty much any penetrating oil will do. However if you have a seized engine then pretty much any penetrating oil will do.

Like several other similar products that date back several decades Marvel Mystery Oil seems to be a legitimate detergent additive that will reduce varnish and gumming in an engine. The best thing you can say about any additive is, first, do no harm.

It’s supposed to be a cleaner, lubricant, and an octane boost. It does to fuel injected engines what the Marvel Mystery Oil did to carbureted engines. It also has some protective effect due to the increased ethanol in today’s gas.