I've read a bunch of stuff about doing an engine flush with an oil change. I dont know how well the previous owner took care of my 89 RS. Does anyone know anything about the "big chunk" theory?

 

You may or may not have cunks of crud float around if you flush it.
However I will tell you my story with synthetic oil.
I bought my 89 with at least 122,000 miles. (speedo was broke when I bought it) It had conventional oil, and probably did it's whole life. The first two or three oil changes I put conventional oil in it. Then I put Mobil 1 in. Their is nothing wrong with switching at any mileage. However if the conventional oil has covered or pluged any leaks the synthetic will make them magically appear. Which is what happened to me. I realized this before hand and was not concerened and still am not.
But about I think it was 3 or 4 days after I changed the oil pan which was already leaking some got worse. (expected) The valve covers I changed at the same time. What I did not think about was the valve seals. In that 3 or 4 days it had dissolved enough crud to make the valve seals leak enough oil onto the spark plugs to the point it almost wont start.

Moral of the story. If you have the ability to fix it, and don't care if you have to, do it. If you are afraid of leaks keep conventional oil in it, until you rebuild or replace it.

 

Thanks. I almost worry Mobil is paying off some of the guys on these message boards for how much I hear about Mobil 1. I'm no engine guru, But I'll probably switch over to synthetic, and start replacing stuff.

 

sythetic is buy far better oil and like stated will act as a cleaner. i had a rear main leak when when i bought my car w/ 170k on it. wasnt bad a few drops over night but when i switched to mobil 1 it increased to a noticeable amout the next morning, nothing to extreme.

aslo sythetics will not wear parts the way conventional will. mobil 1 also doesnt break down the way conventional oil does. the main reason why you need to change it is b/c it gets dirty. mobil 1 has no conventional oil properties its man-made product.

 

If you aren't having a related problem, don't flush it. It will only cause problems or make existing small problems worse 99% of the time.

Switching to synthetic is a good idea though. If there is anything in there that should be cleaned out, a good synthetic oil will do that, but it will do it SLOWLY which is what you want. Flushes clean out too much gunk too quickly, and will plug up your pickup screen, or an oil passage, or something else and cause you a real problem later. Synthetics clean engines out much more slowly, and those things don't happen because of that.

 

mobil1 is terrible valvoline is better... mobil 1 isn't even a true synthetic.. and doesn't meet the standards for oil... research it... "valvoline synpower is 4 times better then mobil1" then mobil1 wanted to sue valvoline for slander... valvoline then showed the stats to mobil1 and said either take your lawsuit away or we release this to the public... mobil1 quickly backed down.

I work for valvoline so you can say i am biased... but do the research... i used to be a big fan of mobil1 till i saw this study...

mobil1 works wonders.. but doesn't really do what they claim.

 

Yeah, kinda like Valvoline. . .

You're painting with too broad of a brush there, fella. To which Mobil 1 are you referring? They have different formulations.

And, what's your definition of a "true" synthetic?

When Valvoline takes on AMSOIL and gets them to back down, let me know.

(And, yes, I'm biased as well. But, I don't work for AMSOIL.)

 

i dont work FOR valvoline just a well educated mechanic who works at a oil changing bussiness... that happens to only carry valvoline

and mobil1 synthic all formula's...

well by the standards of the oil industry mobil1 is not a true synthetic...

 

Cool, thanks for the advice. Mobil1 or Valvoline... either way, I'll go synthetic.

 

yeah either way you can't go wrong... **** my dad's been using mobil1 and it works great...
but based on tests... seems valvoline does its job


JobbersWorld Online

Letter: JobbersWorld Online

Valvoline Q&A: JobbersWorld Online



Valvoline Hold its Ground and Turns up the Heat


Quote:
As reported in the July 24, 2008 issue of Jobbers World Online News, Valvoline launched a national advertising campaign that takes on competitor Mobil 1. The centerpiece of the campaign claim Valvoline SynPower has "four times better wear protection than Mobil 1."


According to Valvoline, the claim is based on the industry standard Sequence IVA test. The Sequence IVA is the industry standard test for determining wear performance of an engine oil and is required to meet the API SL and SM requirements. Multiple tests showed that Valvoline SynPower provided four times better wear protection than Mobil 1, as measured in these tests of 5W-30 grades.

ExxonMobil responded to the claim by saying it was "not aware of any accurate technical data to support the claim" and they requested Valvoline provide the "substantiating data to support this claim immediately."

Rather than backing down, Valvoline is holding its ground, and turns up the heat.

Marketers say they received a letter from Valvoline providing additional information and data to support Valvoline SynPower's significant performance advantage versus Mobil 1. In addition, marketers say the letter turns the table on ExxonMobil's challenge and Valvoline is now challenging ExxonMobil's claim for its Mobil 1 5W-30.

According to the letter, Valvoline says the company conducted a number of tests and commissioned an independent laboratory to evaluate the performance of SynPower and Mobil 1 in the Sequence IVA wear test. Marketers were told the tests were run on a 5W-30 since it's the top selling grade.

Now for the interesting part...

According to a letter Valvoline marketers received, the result from Valvoline's testing indicate:

Valvoline SynPower's 5W-30 wear performance is at least four times better than Mobil 1 5W-30
Mobil 1 5W-30 does not meet minimum API SM or ILSAC GF-4 specification because of its inferior performance in the Sequence IVA wear test

The letter reportedly goes on to say that Valvoline notified ExxonMobil of the failed test results in September and that the company take appropriate action regarding their claim that Mobil 1 meets ILSAC GF-4 and API SM specifications, or provide substantiation that they in fact meet these specifications.

As of today, Valvoline told JobbersWorld, ExxonMobil has been silent.

 

It's probably all just a marketing gimmic.

http://jalopnik.com/5176833/quaker-s...motor-oil-duel

 

id like to know this as well? i also am a mechanic fulltime and work at a oil change place part time. we dont sell Val. but, sell castrol syntec and mobil1 and castrol claims its better than mobil1 in tests, and yes i have seen the figures from castrol reps.

its all marketing to try to take down the giant that mobil1 has become in the synthtic oil world.

ive run mobil1 my whole driving life and never experianced and major problems running it. its as personal preferance really.

 

maybe its not a good idea to change oils on older cars until you are ready for a tear down. you dont want to have to do it, you want to do it when you have the time.

 

Back to the oil flush topic.. I worked at a new car dealer for 5 years as a full time, certified mechanic. We were a user of Well Worth products, (dont know how local they are if anyone has even heard of them besides me) BUT they had an "engine flush" This system worked great. It wouldnt "chunk" anything. It worked by dissolving deposits in the engine. You would pour it in(about a quart) and run the engine for about 10 minutes so it would get up to temp and make sure it circulated good, and had time to work. Then you would change the oil and add an additive. I've seen it work personally a couple dozen times. It helped oil pressure a little too. I have seen the "sludge" come out in the oil drain. I used it once in my chevy truck when it had 171,000 miles on it. I changed the oil every 3500 miles with semi-sythetic (basically conventional) oil. I now have 208,000 on the original bearings and oil pump.- 65lbs startup cold, 40lbs warm.
Had the intake off at 205,000 for intake gasketing leaking, so I saw the valley and it looked as clean as a crate engine with 3,000 miles on it.
Just my opinion, for high mileage this helped clean, and keep clean the engine so she would run longer with out problems.

P.S.-- I use AMSOIL in all my snowmobiles and it is the sh*t. --too expensive to run in a truck with 208k! lol.

 

I bought my 5.0 TPI with 150k miles on it... I bought the flush, wamred up the engine to 220, poured the flush in, ran it another 10 or 15 minutes, then drained it... I replaced the oil with Mobil 1 and Restore... No problems 3+ years running...

Raf

 

I'm telling you its not a market gimic.. read the results of the test.. mobil1 doesn't even meet the api asm standards for oil... where valvoline did... and exceeded it... valvoline only produced 20micron of wear... and you allowed 30micron, and the mobil1 produced 180microns.