My 90 Camaro has 170,000 miles on the original engine. I change the oil ever 3-5k miles.

I wonder if my engine has a lot of crud built up in it?

My buddy says that I can do the following:

1) pour a quart of Kerosene into the engine oil
2) Start the car and let the car idel for about 10 minutes
3) drain the oil, change the oil filter, change the oil.
4) Crud should be gone.

Does this sound right? I've never tried this and it sounds too crazy to be true.

Thanx!

First, I would pop a valve cover off and look. Just because of the mileage does not mean you will have sludge.

Second, if you do add kero, you will most likely have more problems after you disturb the sludge, and possibly block oil passages.

i have a '89 ford van 302 with 497,000 miles on it. it leaks oil so i just keep it topped off and change the filter every couple of years. i don't worry about sludge and neither should you.

I wouldent use it in your situation. If you had regular flushes and knew the internal condition of the engine it would be ok but since you dont know dont.

The older engines that use the older bearings was made out of different metals and could handle kero cleaning. The new bearings will not hold up to the kero it will eat up the bearings and now you have bigger prollys. The kero will clean the sludge but will do more damage than you want on that high mile car. I took my Z28 apart after 155,0000 miles on it and it was clean as a fresh snow. Of course I did change my oil every 3k and put most of the miles on the car.

Two words... transmission fluid. Or you could do the long term approach with synthetic oil.

As for the bearings solubility in kerosene, I find that to be a whole load of McDonald's parking lot monkey spank.

OH REALLLY. Red Devil if you really believe what you write and not just spouting off from the key board... PLEASe put some kero in your car and try it please please please. Then spout some more when your car goes knock knock knock

I dont see how it could eat the bearing. In the DS shop I help out in sometimes (I get use thier chasis Dyno ) They use Kerosene wash on all internal engine parts before assembly.

ok heres whats happened to your motor.

over the last 15-16 years, its gotten alot of sludge built up in it.


but the moving oil has kept it from forming in the passage ways.
the moving parts has kept it from forming in the path of moving parts.



its NOT harming your engine at all right now... nasty to look at? yes. but its not blocking the oil pump pickup.. its not clogging a oil passage.



you start breaking that crud up, and poof..... its loose in the motor.. ALOT of it is loose in the motor.. all kinds of BAD could happen....... but if you dont touch it.....really it should last into 200k.... its not BAD.. it just looks nasty.




my advice? unless you're tearing it down for a rebuild, DONT TOUCH IT.


















and if you do, a quart or half quart of ATF breaks it up, and ATF will still lubricate the bearings, ect.

while kerosene does not EAT metal parts, it lacks the nice lubricating propertys oil has.... so you get the effect of metal on metal wearing.. it cant support the bearing load.

I would use this before I would use transmission fluid, kerosene, panther p*ss, etc.

http://www.auto-rx.com/index.html

Read more about it here (search):

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/

No the Kero does Not have little teeth and chomp away at the metal. The kero takes away the lubricating ablity of oil. It will not allow the oil to stick to the bearings and there for as Mr. Dude said it will have the effect of metal on metal. Bearing are made of soft metals. If you like your bearings dont use it if you dont like your bearings pour in some kero and you will finish what friction started. but they will be clean


Cleaning the engine before assembly is different the parts are not a running eingine. Doing this would be fine.

I've been following this with a lot of interest....

From what I've seen so far...

The Kero will clean the engine....but

- Will damage the bearings? [will 5-10 minutes of idle hurt?]
- May cause "crud" to break loose and catch in a bad spot... [can you hit it with another "treatment?" ]

I just gotta know....Has anyone done this to an older engine?

I'll take exception to that assessment with regard to the ring lands. Sludge will build up there and freeze the rings such that they won't seal against the cylinder walls properly.

As for kerosene, it's fine as long as you don't load the engine. Idling in the driveway with a quart of kero in the crankcase isn't going to hurt anything. However, I doubt a single treatment will completely clean an engine. In fact, I've never seen anything that gets all the stuff out of the intake splash tray once it's built up in there.

API-rated engine oils in the past 10 years have gotten a lot better about not forming sludge and varnish, largely because synthetics don't form them, and that desireable property requirement was forced down the throats of the Big Oil guys. However, petroleum-based oils will never match the anti-varnish/sludge formation performance of a PAO synthetic.

I've been using this product for a little over 20 years http://www.amsoil.com/storefront/aef.aspx .

Define "older engine".

123k, 13 years old in the case of the Camaro's LG4. Is that old enough for you? Currently has 168k on it, 5-1/2 years of additional daily driving.

It really depends upon the maintenance or abuse the engine has received in its past. In 22 years of using the aforementioned flush product, I've seen a grand total of one engine that had a lot of miles of petroleum-based oil use on it that was subsequently flushed and had a problem with the pickup clogging, and that one was (literally) a trailer park car, and had been in a flood. And, it took about 6 months of regular driving before the screen plugged. Had we flushed it monthly for those first 6 months, it probably wouldn't have clogged.

Funny, you should probably look into what al slew of additives on the market contain before spouting more fecal matter. I've used strait kero before... about 20 years or so ago when I first started learning how to work on cars. Ancillary note: It's still done in snall engines shops btw.

I've since learned some chemistry and like to read through a lot of information, hence the recommendation on tranny fluid or synthetic oil. In addition, one of the BIG knocks with kero (and al slew of OTC 'engine cleaners' is that it in fact does have the potential to knock large bits off that can potentially get clogged in the pick-up.


As I stated before, I doubt very much that the bearings are soluble in kerosene (which is what the above implies), if you meant something else why not state why you meant and then back it up.

What's different about the bearings that would not preclude them to being soluble in kerosene?

As I said before... monkey-spank.

I've used seafoam in several cars with no negative results. Cleans well, and acts as a lubricant.

kerosene does seem to break that stuff up well. we used it sometimes to clean up over at Energy Release, and in your basic oil flush product that we made for another company kerosene and 10w40 was all it had in there.

but I agree it might work but you could possibly be taking a chance also. depends on how much sludge you have in there if you have a lot it might break free and go somewhere it SHOULDN'T go or as hienz 57 said about blocking the oil screen.
sure you might be able to prevent that from happening by regular flushing.

but I woudl rather go the slow route by adding MMO or ATF to the oil as both have lube properties to them though would think the ATF would be better at lubing since MMO lube is only mineral oil with some other cleaning agents in there.

or better yet switch to a good synthetic like mobile 1 and stay away from amsoil (sorry had to say that to pick on heinz)

This thread realtes to what I am doing, I am cleaning a factory new short block. What do I use? Parts solvent, kerosene, tranny fluid, WD40, gas, oil??? Does it matter at all what I use if it is all drained before the engine oil is poured in?

Well I have used 8 quarts of straight kero in a Farmall MD started and ran until oil pressure went to 0 PSI with a gauge connected at filter housing when I drained the crankcase it almost looked like pudding but the engine is still running and running very well and this was done in 1992 . So yes I have done it worked and will do it again if needed Maybe not use all kero in your application .

Hmmm. What would mineral spirits do, if you added that to the oil? We use that at work for cleaning carbon build-up and oil residue on torpedo engine components. However, I'll add that torpedo engines are a whole different breed of engine (External Combustion...!) altogether.

I have yet too meet a Ford Probe owner w/ a lot of miles that hasn't used kero at least once to quiet his LCAs. No adverse effects other than a quiet motor.

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