I work as a fleet technician for class 8 trucks. We never judge oil by its color (in normal operating use). No matter how new the engine oil is, it will always look black due to the diesel soot. I can replace 42 quarts, literally only crank the engine, and it'll be black. That said, we also do oil samples and send them to Chevron for preventative maintenance testing through their LubeWatch Fluid Analysis Program. The trucks with Sea foam always come back with less contaminates, carbon deposits, copper and phosphorus. I've torn down engines at a million miles that used seafoam BEFORE every oil change and the internal components look brand new. A comparable engine without using seafoam will look significantly worn with excessive carbon deposits. That said, most people who want to use these products are generally the kind of people who actually care for their equipment. They often perform all maintenance as recommended by the manufacturer and usually drive their vehicles with mechanical sympathy. I would highly recommend sending those oil samples to an analysist for a final conclusion, however, I understand the cost and time lost in doing so. I am also curious if the Liqui Moly cleaned most of the carbon buildup before the seafoam did. I personally use seafoam on all my vehicles before every other oil change. I do in fact notice better idling and power restored after every treatment on my smaller engines. The only difference felt on my larger engines is fuel economy.
You make a valid point about the type of people that use engine flushes, and how their mechanical mindset could be affecting the condition of the engine. 👍 I do oil analysis on my trucks, just not for this test. Everyone else judges the need to do a flush, or the efficacy of the flush on color. My objective was to show that it bad no difference in the color on a properly maintained engine.
Diesels run dirty the color of the oil doesn't matter much, I cut my filters and look for particles if I don't see any let er rip, and I think 10,000 miles is too much between oil changes
@@chevypu4 10,000 may be a lot for a light duty vehicle, however the class 8 trucks I work on go 75,000 miles on a single oil change. That said, they have 45 quarts of 10w30 to cycle.
Great video and a load of testing you did. Thanks! For me as a mechanic, I did a simple test years ago for my own proof. I dropped my engine pan (300,000km Escape), inspected and took pics of the bottom of crank area. Then did an oil change and ran SeaFoam for a few hundred km’s. Dropped the pan again and inspected. Sure enough the bottom of the engine was significantly cleaner. Rather than a brownish stain on all engine parts they looked like new and shiny. I was surprised to be honest as I always run Mobil1 full synthetic or Pennzoil full synthetic the vehicle’s entire life and never do extended changes. I thought the detergents in the oil would have kept it 100% clean but that wasn’t the case. As such, I run SeaFoam through all my engines once every year or two to keep those rings from ever sticking. Never had an engine burn oil since doing this in 15+ years now! :)
@@FrankStein1Amsoil signature series is rated for 25k intervals. Look up million mile amsoil van. I wouldnt do 25k myself unless doing oil analysis, but would easily trust it for at least 10k without. They have extended life oil filters too.
@@freedomworxscientists here .. although I appreciate this joke 🤣😂🤣 dinosaurs have zero connection to oil, most of the world's oil reserves were formed from the remains of ancient marine microorganisms, such as plankton and algae, that lived millions of years ago.
Changing the oil never ever hurts an engine (or gearbox) unless you over tightness sump bolts! Manufacturers intervals are designed just to get the engine out of its guaranteed period! Before blowing up.
@williamarmstrong7199 that’s simply not true. I’ve never ran shorter than the manufacturer’s recommendation in any vehicle I’ve ever owned. In fact, I’ve run farther in many vehicles, based on used oil analysis. I’ve performed used oil analysis on every vehicle I’ve ever owned, to establish the proper oil change interval. The manufacturer’s recommendation was always extremely conservative for my driving conditions. You are just parroting what everyone else says. The proper oil change interval is based on the engine, the oil, the filter, and the operating condition. Period. Every time you touch an engine for maintenance, you are introducing the possibility of collateral damage that wouldn’t otherwise exist. So yes, changing the oil to often is statistically worse for the vehicle than changing it at the proper interval. That is a basic premise in automotive engineeering 🤷🏻♂️
Bought a used Scion with 180k, changed oil several times within a month and used a flush product each time and had the same results you got. My mechanic friend dropped the pan which had a coating of nasty oil on it, so each flush was just cleaning the pan each time. We cleaned the pan till shinny, now each oil change shows the real changes with flush and they do work, Love your 30mm pointer tool and every garage should have a reloader as just another tool.
@@freedomworx And using it too much could lead to the dreaded seafoam-resistant supersludge. The only way to know if you have it is by pressing your ear against the engine and listening for the faint sound of waves crashing on the beach. Then you must place your garage under quarantine, wedge a corn cob in the fill port, put the largest speaker you have under the hood and blast Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth on repeat for at least 24 hours.
If your scion burns a little oil you should change the oil to liquid moly (with moligen). It will lessen the oil consumption. It did on mine. I've got a 2009 scion xb with the 2.4L . It would burn about a quart every 3 weeks. Now it's less than half a quart. Just make sure you get the one with Moligen.
@@henrymatthews9365 Yes! I had a car turn oil burner on me, I was like, this never happens to me. I take care of cars. I flushed it and the problems stopped. As a traditionally trained mechanic it took me a long time to understand that flushes do have a place now and again. :) From adding 2 to 4 quarts at one point to a 3.88 quart system just to keep oil in it to NO burning. Wow! Winner winner chicken dinner. LOL
I've never done an engine flush to improve engine oil color, but to unstick the scrape ring to prevent oil consumption. Some piston rings are prone to clogging up and thus sticking rings and all that comes with it. The LiquiMoly helped tremendously in this regard.
@@freedomworx Sometimes, poorly designed engines (direct injection, etc) or fuel systems will have this problem, even with the most diligent maintenance and care. Outside of that, great video and hats off for the investment for our benefit.
You had good conclusions. I am a little older than dirt and have been working on cars foreever. In the 60's and 70's we only flushed the engine because of lifter noise or extream buildup of crap when we had the top of the engine apart and could not clean it all manually. It might be OK but I would say that you lose a large amount of lubrication when the flush is is the engine and a small amount of damage may result. With the new oils (I only run synthetic) I never see anything in the top of the engine as far as buildup. The oils are so much better than the old days. If you really want to clean the engine I would just change the oil more frequently. It is really hard to see the effects with a diesel because of the quick contamination from the combustion process. Great Video!
Interesting. I heard from an experienced mechanic that the dark color on the oil is not bad. It only means that the detergents in the oil are doing its job. Therefore, a black brand new changed oil is a good thing. It means that things are getting cleaned as its being lubricated. Your video was very helpful!
This oil is black when it’s new because there is a lot of residual oil left in the engine. The oil pan has a secondary sump that holds about a quart that won’t drain. Thanks for watching 👍
Years ago Popular Science had an article about oil and oil filters. Their point was that very fine particals pass through the engine without damage. Very large particals will not fit through the clearances. The particals sizes that cause damage are the ones slightly larger than half the clearances because two particles can get caught together and scrape and cause engine wear. Oil filters are designed to catch larger particals and let the small particals pass because they do no damage. If the filter caught all the particles then there would not be enough oil flow. Oil filter use the depth filtering method where particals get entangled in fibers. This method allows higher flow rates and the particals eventually get captured with enough passes. With all that said, your oil should look dark because it is full of fine particals that are not trapped by the oil filter. Send the samples to the lab to determine the partical size analysis. This test will determine if there are large particals in your oil.
I’m very familiar with particle size effects on engine wear. There are a couple of very good SAE papers I’m going to discuss in my upcoming bypass filtration video 👍
You know regardless if your engine is any cleaner or not your comedy was well worth the time spent watching. May i suggest using a riding mower engine that uses one quart of oil instead of your truck engine lol. Cool video man👌
I have not directly run controlled testing on engine flush products like this, and I think this was a great test. Thanks for publishing your work! My perspective based on my experience as an auto mechanic and an engineer working in gasoline engine R&D is that engine flush products have a very narrow application. "Conventional" (distilled petroleum) oils contain paraffins and other long chain hydrocarbons which tend to fall out of suspension as waxy deposits on surfaces. When these wax-coated surfaces get hot enough, the solid deposits tend to oxidize into "varnishes". Detergents help, shorter oil change intervals help, and good operating conditions (avoiding short trips, not overheating, not running the engine under high load and then shutting off immediately) help. But when lubricating an engine with dinosaur juice, at least some amount of waxy deposits and varnish are probably inevitable. Synthetic oils contain little to none of these components and are much more resistant to oxidation, so they're far less prone to leaving deposits. Synthetic oils are also far better solvents, so they do a better job of dissolving deposits and "self-flushing". However, if you have an engine that has been run for a lot of hard miles on conventional oil and is fully of wax and varnish, and you want to switch to synthetic oil, I see two concerns. First, simply draining the dino oil and refilling with synthetic may lead to a lot of deposits dissolving or breaking free and circulating through the engine until the next oil change. Not good. Second, if you really want to clean all the deposits out, the synthetic oil alone may not do the whole job. Engine flush products are basically just strong organic solvents so they are likely to dissolve more wax and varnish than the synthetic oil ever would. So I recommend using oil flush products specifically when switching from conventional to synthetic oil. However, I don't see carbon suspended in the oil (which causes most of that color change) to be related to engine flush products in any way. That comes from combustion blowby and does not stick to surfaces in the crankcase. It's always there when you run the engine and it floats around in the oil no matter what oil you use. It comes out with the oil whether you use the flush or not. You often have to do multiple oil changes (flush or not) to get clear oil because opening the drain and changing the filter never really removes 100% of the oil, and mixing a small amount of sooty oil in a lot of fresh oil is enough to change the color a lot.
Thanks for the comment. I used to be a diesel mechanic myself, but I've been an engineer in the nuclear field for the last 15 years now. Just do this social media stuff because nuclear is boring, as it should be. While I don't disagree that dissolved varnish might not have much effect on color change, there are plenty of other dark deposits and sludge that would. Used oil analysis would have been the most scientific way to prove this out, but my point was to show folks that their theory that their used oil is coming out super dark, due to using engine flush...really doesn't always hold water. It's generally just a placebo affect. That oil was already dark before they added the flush in most cases. I do agree that most people with engine deposits are likely using dino oil, or just pushing the oil beyond its limits. I always use synthetic in every engine, and I've never had one that wasn't squeaky clean when I opened it up.
@@freedomworx That makes sense. Really I think the most effective way to test out an engine flush product (qualitative, not quantitative) would be to pull the valve covers and oil pan, inspect the valvetrain and pan baffle, then reassemble, flush, and pull them again to compare before/after. Probably not worth the effort, though. Maybe just do it with a fiber optic scope. But I think that experiment would make more sense with an engine running on dinosaur oil for 100,000+ miles. I suspect any engine run in non-abusive conditions with synthetic oil will just be clean in the before-flush inspection, so there's nothing to see getting flushed out and removed.
@@freedomworx Would love to see a follow-up video on that! At a minimum, a before/after visual comparison of any deposits in the oil pan baffles and on the valvetrain would tell us a lot (but you have to resist the urge to clear away the junk you find before the flush!) but even more interesting would be to take a small sample of each and get them analyzed with FTIR or a mass spectrometer.
Absolutely. I did this when changing to synthetic. When I rebuilt the top end, everything looked brand new on a gasoline engine with 100k miles on it. Synthetic has stayed clean after 3000 miles. Some of the gunk settles in the oil pan. I tested Mobil 1. Idled for 2 hours. Drained. It was black. Let it settle overnight or two nights. Looked clear as new with a layer of black sludge on the bottom. It breaks down all the sludge and suspends it in the oil. I decanted the clear stuff from the black and poured it back in the engine. The flush made cleaning my valvetrain easier. All my hydraulic lifters were cleaner inside with hardly any varnish. That flush reduced my rebuild time.
We used Seafoam in a high mileage 454. The lifters became noisy. We put solid lifters in on a hydraulic cam. We eventually figured to set the clearance to .006 intake and .008 exhaust. The oil kept coming out of the drain gritty. So we pulled the intake off again and to our surprise, the heat shield on the bottom of the intake had a bunch of carbon under it. We took it off, (grinder and drill) cleaned the carbon off. We then ran a gallon of seafoam using an oil pump primer and having the lifters out, after draining the oil, changing the filter and slowly turning the engine by hand. We then reinstalled the hydraulic lifters in their corresponding spots. Changed out the Sea Foam and filter. The engine runs perfect, no lifter noise, even after several spirited runs. The amazing thing was that the Sea Foam shot through the oils holes in the lifter valley all the way to the front lifter holes with the lifters out when spinning the oil pump with drill using the oil pump primer in place. Engine is still running with no issues. Oh yeah. We took the hydraulic lifters apart and cleaned them before reinstallation
Had a '97 GMC Sonoma, with a 2.2 motor. It was beat, not well maintained, when I got it. It became my daily driver, and after a time- tic tic tic- sticky lifter. Tried Seafoam, and in 50 to 100 miles, all ticking was gone. Changed oil and drove the wheels off for another 5yrs. Also has worked well as fuel stabilizer in my- parked for winter- street rod.
In the mid 1980s i worked with the Superintendent of a large lathe machine shop. He was seriously into lubrication. We commuted a round trip of 85 miles daily. He was driving a Ford Granada, changed oil filters every 1000 miles and full oil change at 3000 miles. That car had no engine issues at 180,000 miles. The body was rusting out. Lol, I should suggested spraying the body with used oil....
@@MicJaguar , if every 14 to19 Yr old boy new what us 50 year old men know they would not have a problem with lubrication! Slow and steady wins the race!!
So as mentioned towards the end the oil is supposed to hold contaminates in suspension, meaning it is dark & opaque - looks bad but is doing it’s job. I think the unknown factor is the condition of the piston rings and the amount of combustion blow-by. I have seen old aircraft engines (used for training in school) which were pretty worn out - disassembled, cleaned, reassembled - they turn the oil black in 10 minutes, they were thoroughly cleaned and new oil used. It was the combustion products getting past the worn rings.
I’ve done two flushes on two different trucks with fresh oil and a cheap filter like this. I let them run for 20 minutes or so and can’t believe the color of the new oil! Amsoil flushes. Love Amsoil!
They caught a severe case of gravity!?!?! Had me in stitches. As a union ironworker that one hit home hard. Lmao. Good shit. Definitely earned a sub with this one.
Years ago I did a quick test and had different results. Car was an Australian EA Falcon, 1990 model, 3.9L straight 6 single overhead cam engine. 150 000KM on the odo. I had a cracked head, and a crapload of coolant in the oil. Since it going to be a few weeks before I could get a replacement head, I dropped out the milky oil and coolant, then drained the coolant, refilled the sump with supermarket special oil, and ran it for 30 seconds or so. This was just to avoid the engine sitting full of water for weeks. Once I had the head swapped, I drove about 20 mins to a local car parts shop, and purchased some decent oil and a can of Wynns oil flush. Instruction on the can said idle for 15mins, I just put it in and drove home very sedately. When I put the stuff in I checked the oil on the dipstick, it still looked new. Once I got home again and checked it was black! Clearly the flush had managed to dissolve out some sort of deposits.
I have used a small amount of marvel mystery oil in the oil about 500 miles before my oil change on vehicles I bought used and wasn’t sure the previous oil maintenance. After doing this on 2-3 oil changes, I can easily tell a difference in the buildup in the top of the engine as well as the oil that comes out when draining it. To me, this is a safer and slower method isn’t as harsh and potentially break loose large particles that can cause even bigger problems. Just my opinion
The safest method is to use synthetic or semisynthetic (if permitted) and accelerate the oil change interval. The solvent properties of the synthetic oil will clean out the engine over time. If anything, the dirtier an engine is, the more dangerous it is to use a flush or solvent. If you are going to accelerate the oil change interval, then you can use low end synthetic and a cheap filter too. Low end synthetic (Group III) barely costs more than dino or semi these days. I bought a used car once which I found out had synthetic oil crystallization under the valve cover. Alarming to discover, but I didn't try to clean it all out and with regular oil changes it did start to dissolve away. Synthetic oil crystallization occurs when the vehicle is driven only on short trips and the same oil is left in the engine for a long period of time.
Back in 1969, I had a 61 Chevy BelAir 283 that started ticking. No money or education to fix it so added one quart of MMO to each valvoline 10-50W racing oil. it eliminated the tick, so understand your method.
I think in part, a diesel is more likely to create dark oil on its own. My gasser doesn't do that. But I can attest that seafoam seems to strip deposits from my engine. My oil doesn't change as much over the first few hundred miles. But if I run seafoam, it not only runs better, I can drain it after 1000 miles, and it looks like it went 10;000 miles. And mind you, Seafoam is a treatment rather than a flush.
@slaydonk if you run seafoam Through them for 5 or so changes you'll see they start coming out cleaner my buck when I got it the oil would be black within 100 miles 5 changes later at 3k miles each it came out clean now I'll start extending the interval
@Wesleystewart78 i ran liquidmoly through with a long idle last time. All kinds of crap came out. It's looking new after 2000 miles now. But in the shop for a tranny rebuild. Sadly lost the tranny at 250k only because one of the coolant lines cracked and dumped wll my fluid while going 80 down the interstate. I stopped as soon as it slipped once and repaired and refilled, but two weeks later, I lost all gears past 2nd.
You are 100% correct about the reasons not to flush. Prior to the mid 80's we used to see so much sludge that the oil drain back holes in the head would stop up and cause oil to flood over the valve guides and into the combustion and into the exhaust especially on Chevy small blocks. They didn't have stem seals on the guides and most other engines just had umbrella seals. WE had to physically clean out the crud without dropping it into the pan. Flush would plug up the pick up screen and destroy the engine. A lot of our customers drove to the store and to church each week only a few blocks. We didn't want to cost them an engine because most couldn't afford it. If that black in the diesel engine oil was going to hurt the engines, we wouldn't see semi tractors with a million miles and more on the engines depending on the service and abuse.
With all short trips driving, the correct oil change interval back in the era of cast iron engine probably was 1800 miles. A friend of mine who was performance car guy back then said his friends with small block Chevys changed their oil that often. The small blocks were the most vulnerable, but all of the engines would go bad quickly without proper maintenance. Maintenance was difficult back then also. No oil change shops. No easy way to recycle drain oil. The cooling systems got a lot of rust and scale in them and the coolant was not as good as it is today either. When I speak of the bad old days, I am thinking of the cars particularly.
Diesel engines last longer than gasoline engine because diesel fuel is a mild lubricant, the engines that last the longest are those that run on natural gas or propane as those fuels do not contaminate the oil much. The engines with the shortest service lifespan are Ethanol gasoline engines (E70, E30, E15, E10), as that fuel contaminates the oil very much so.
The reason the oil stays dark after an oil change is the shape of the oem oil pan. It is shaped such that you can't drain 100% of the oil without dropping the pan.
@aboodmki3 well GM thinks it’s the appropriate interval and the used oil analyses that I get on that absurd 10k mile oil seems to support it. You do realize that Semis go 10s of thousands of miles between oils changes….
@@freedomworxу грузовиков объем масла Намного больше, поэтому они используют его дольше.На легковых автомобилях нужно менять масло каждые 5-7000 километров!
I love that you have a fumoto valve for your rig!! People have no idea how nice it is to have one of those for oil changes, especially with diesel engines. Makes the process much cleaner and smoother 👍🏼
So you want me to install a valve that needs a special adapter to open and use? The entire selling point is ease of operation without any tools. Hard Pass.
@@freedomworx doesn’t need special tools…. And, can’t open without intent instead of some stupid valve…. Can’t have a work truck with a fumoto…. I guess you don’t need to worry about that though with a GM…. Can’t use those for work 😂 😂 😂
I’ve got a Duramax, a Cummins, and a Powerstroke. They all have Fumotos, and I promise you that Powerstroke Excursion has gone places no work truck will ever go 🤷🏻♂️. They aren’t suitable for every application, but that doesn’t make them stupid. They work fine for me.
I’ll just keep doing the recommended 10k mile oil change and get the same result as you for half the time and money 😉 The oil change interval is a function of the operating conditions of the vehicle. You can’t just assign an arbitrary number of miles and apply it to every vehicle. My oil has plenty of life left at 10k miles. Somebody that tows continuously would need to change the oil more frequently. That’s why these trucks have oil life estimators/calculators in them.
@@freedomworx I did 15k OCI on and 85' Dodge 600 turbo with mostly Supertech 10w30 full synthetics, I drove 22,000 miles a year. At 114,000 miles I had an intercooler installed, they insisted on a new headgasket. I asked how the motor looked, no sludge, no varnish and looked great. So ya, if you drive a lot, high mileage OCIs on full synthetics are fine.
Love everything about this video. Top comments have already said most of what I came to say. I just wanted to type more than 8 words for you to get the algorithm kudos. Keep up the honesty, humbleness, and the way you address the haters. Thanks for serving. Stay frosty.
Great video … I personally have used Rotella, Delo or Valvoline Blue for my diesels. As for my gasoline vehicles I have always used Valvoline, Castrol or Chevron oil. I don’t mix my oils; I pick my weight and brand and stick with it, changing/ servicing a little sooner then recommended. Filters were PUROLATOR, WIX, NAPA OR BOSCH for gas, and factory Cummins or Motorcraft for diesel….. Never had an oil or filter failure in 35 years… It’s all about how well you maintain your engine. I like my granddaddy said good oil and filter is cheap insurance!!!
You lost a lot of oil But you deserve more than I like, and comment and subscribe I really appreciate what you do This is a lot of work we thank you so much for this video Thanks. ✌️👍
We have a bmw driving long distances in Europe. The diesel over here is mixed with biodiesel, which just makes everything clog up. Ran some cleaner and we felt a noticeable difference almost immediately, so they do work in my experience, but the main factor of its efficiency is based on fuel quality, which makes a lot of sense.
They do work in the right situation. Just saying that if the vehicle is properly maintained, it's likely clean internally. And the flush won't make ant difference. Biodiesel is not something we deal with much on this side of the pond. 👍
I used to work at an oil change place and we did this trick, draining the oil completely and then pouring about a quart of clean oil letting drain out and it cleaned better than what you did . Then we would pour fresh oil and it was way cleaner.
Been a mechanic since 1986 , an engine flushing fluid can be deadly for a Diesel engine that’s not been serviced regularly. Regular oil changes, (ie .. change oil and filter every 7000 miles), will be enough to prolong the engine life.. On a worn engine, as soon as you wash out all of the ash and carbon you can develop knocking and tapping in the bearings. Also, the muck ends up in the sump and filter thus restricting the oil flow. To be honest, your experiment was pretty good, it proved how quickly Diesel oils get contaminated. Even modern Diesels are no better, the more they do to reduce emissions the worse it’s got.. I’ve been converting my low mileage customers into petrol vehicles to reduce blocked DPF issues and expensive, unnecessary repair bills. My theory is, if you don’t do any more than 10,000 miles a year, don’t run a diesel. If that engine light comes on, it’s hell! 🙏🏼
This happened on my 1991 Jeep Cherokee with the 4.0 L @ only 190,000 miles. It was obviously a well used engine with a bit of neglect but being the 4.0 it ran just fine. I literally put Seafoam into crankcase, checked the dipstick and turned it on to idle for 10 minutes before a test drive, but within 5 minutes at idle the engine developed all kinds of knocking, clunking and it started idling like crap. Basically it lost all of its tolerances and died. Sure cleaned the engine out but that engine would still be running today if I didn’t put that Seafoam in. Awesome video by the way!
Former GM technician here. The TSB linked in the description says don't do engine flushes. But it also says to not use transmission flush machines to do trans flushes. But guess what? We used transmission flush machine at the Hendrick Chevrolet Dealership I worked at. And nothing bad ever happened. Also, GM builds piles of crap. I don't care what they say about engine flushes or anything really. Really enjoyed the video though. Thanks for the content. Cheers!
Very interesting to hear so many opinions about whether to or not to use a flush. I may try one before my next oil change on my 2.0tdi audi. The last change did result in dark oil almost immediately. Great content by the way..
I am a new subscriber and I can say you are the funniest creator that provides helpful information. On a side note, did anybody else realize that he spent over 600 on oil? Dedication that drove me to subscribe. 😂❤
I appreciate the complements. I’m a gearhead, engineer, compulsive learner, and wanna be comedian. I feel like this type of content in my niche. So thanks for subbing. I’m doing a video on Oil Bypass Filtration right now, that should be pretty insightful. 🤓
I like to run the flush at high rpm and then let it sit overnight. If you run it the next day again before flushing with oil, the chemical has time to do its job until it has no more life. I like to think of it as getting the most out of it.
Well this oil is dark from soot. This engine still has a functional EGR on it…for now. It is always reintroducing a little soot back into the engine, which just adds to the amount of soot making it past the rings.
I had an LLY with 200k and it was ALWAYS clean. Changed it after 5k and it looked amber, so a little darker but not like this. My old CUCV with the 6.2 on the other hand, the oil gets dark instantly. Lol my LLY was deleted and tuned though. So maybe that's the difference?!
It helps if your engine is actually crapped up. The point of the video is that a properly maintained engine won’t be crapped up and won’t really benefit from a flush.
Good video. After over 50 years of driving, I can say that 99.5% of "additives" are a waste of money, especially if your engine has normal wear and tear.
Yeah, modern oils don’t need anything except in special circumstances. I’ve used additive to help sticky injectors in a 7.3L Powerstroke. But that’s a special circumstances.
In 1976 my Father used his 1976 D100 with a 225 Slant 6 and 4 speed manual transmission. Every 2000 miles he would replce the Oil Filter and top off the oil level. The Dodge dealer caught wind of it one day 170,000 miles later. Told my Dad he was destroying the engine. The Mechanic took an Oil Sample to prove it. The sample came back a week later. He apologized to my Dad.
@Curt-ge9gc you’re likely doing more harm than good. Oil filters become more efficient the longer they run. Meaning they filter more and smaller materials at 2k miles than they do when they are new.
@freedomworx I did the First rebuild one one of the D100's at 530,000 miles and the second rebuild at 960,000 miles. My Brothe still has the other and his is still running just fine.
I love me some Mobil delvac 1300! I run it in everything and do frequent oil changes. It’s an affordable semi-synthetic I can find at Walmart/amazon/tractor supply or just about anywhere. I was curious how my riding mower would tolerate it, since they call for synthetic 5w-30 or regular 10w-30. But I only use it during the hot summer months mostly and mow about 1 1/2 - 2 acres at a time (it’s just a little Troy-bilt pony 42” deck). 6 years later and it runs just as good as when I bought it new. Works great in my tractor, 72 vw beetle, mini bike and go kart. I should be a freaking sponsor! Loved the video!
The older stuff will run on the diesel oils just fine. The newer engines are emotional and might get upset if you feed it to them 😉. Thanks for watching 👍
Another way to test engine flush would be a before and after compression test. The low tension rings used in modern gas engines routinely become stuck in the piston groove. We have used BG 109 engine performance restoration for over 20 years. After using flush before and after compression tests always show improvement. We recommend BG109 to every dexos gm product we service. Many many dexos era gm vehicles suffer from extreme oil consumption.
@@freedomworx also watched Eric's flush video. Can't remember if you or he commented on detergent oil. I agree detergent oil does a great job cleaning engines. What I'm not sure is where the saturation cutoff is for milage. After the detergent oil is saturated deposits begin to form. What I do know is engines before the 90s usually burned some oil. Engines from the 90s till 05ish recieving 3000mile oil changes didn't burn oil. Engines from the extended interval era burn oil. Extended oil intervals into the 7500mile range were spoken about in the continuing education classes we attended. At the time we acclimated to the new recommendations. Now with years of first hand witnessing engines burn oil. Many to the point the sump sucks air resulting in the timing tensioner going slack, the chain jumping and the engine meeting an early death. I never recommended extending the oil intervals beyond 3000 unless the customer communicates at least an hour 1 way to work daily. Then 5000 seems safe. Oil changes are just too cheep to justify rising engine destruction.
Well you have to consider that newer engines use lighter oils. Most trucks from the early 2000s used 5W-40. Most things now use 0W-20. Even some diesels are running 0W oils now. Lighter oils are consumed more easily. And it’s not just burning, much of it is evaporating. Lighter oils evaporate at lower temps. That’s just the reality of using lighter oils. You burn a quart of oil to save many gallons of fuel. We also use thinner piston rings with less tension now. That’s likely another contributor. I don’t correlate an increase in oil consumption on newer cars to wear caused by extended oil change intervals. It’s simply a function of the engine and oil design choices that were made to meet emissions and fuel economy standards. another thing to consider, is that few cars from the early 2000s require synthetic oils. Every 0W oil is synthetic. And synthetics can survive longer in service. That’s just a fact. They oxidize less and experience much less breakdown in service. So with the requirement to run a synthetic now being the norm, it makes sense for the consumer to take advantage of being able to run an oil longer.
@@freedomworx I can tell you from experience over the past 27years working in the repair industry and now owning my own shop: The exact same make/model/engine will burn oil or not depending on the oil change intervals. I've changed a lot of oil. The gas engine vehicles that get it changed 3-5000miles don't burn oil. The ones beyond that range do. The BG109 cleaner lessens the consumption and in some cases eliminates it. It also helps restore compression. Regarding synthetics. Most people who use it try and extend their oil change intervals. And I don't agree with that. I feel an oil meeting the engines standard is all that's required.
I hear a lot of people talking about junk staying at the bottom of the pan after you drain the oil. Put the plug back in, throw a quart of cheap sacrificial oil in take the bolt out. And proceeded on word
@@freedomworx I have an old postal jeep with a Cummins 4B non turbo diesel in it and the oil doesn’t ever turn dark black. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
@bluegrasskid well are you talking about that color as it appears on the dipstick, or in a jar or pan? The older diesels, especially non-turbo, are much easier on oil. They have lower cylinder pressures, so they have less blow-by, and they do t have an EGR System dumping soot back into the intake stream.
As a mechanic, I wholeheartedly agree with your conclusion. The only way I do an engine flush is to drain oil and drain the oil filter - then with the old oil filter on again I'll add 2 litres of engine oil and let the engine idle for 10 minutes to run that oil through, then replace filter and drain and replace engine oil... that gets most of the soot out of the engine. Engine flush additives are very caustic and if any if left behind in the new oil, it'll cause significant corrosion in the internals - usually on the softer metals like the bearing surfaces...
I just change the oil and move on with my life. And I change it a lot less frequently than most think is necessary. People put way too much emphasis on oil changes in my opinion. The operating conditions of the engine matter more than the maintenance, again, in my opinion. But there’s no way to convince people of that.
The reality of it is, the factory specified service interval is earlier than needed. There is a factor of safety built into their recommendations 😉. Thanks for watching 👍
😂 Ha! BMW says that the ZF transmissions are "sealed for life" and do not need the trans fluid changed. ZF however, recommends changing fluid every 50K miles. Any kind of Zero tolerance engineered machinery REQUIRES frequent lubrication changes. I always change my Bimmer's oil with Molygen every 5K miles!
@@freedomworx ..sorry that's the wrong way round ..the biggest customers for cars are the fleet buyers..the bean counters take the cost of servicing into account when buying new cars ..the marketing department asks the engineering department what the longest service interval we can have so we don't get many warranty claims ....if you intend to keep an engine for a very long time 1/2 the services interval at least.. the price of oil is literally nothing compared the fuel you put in
THANK YOU! You, and Eric the Car Guy just saved me from likely making a huge mi$take. After recently finding some built up sludge reside under the valve cover of my 2009 Honda Accord while replacing a valve cover gasket, I also changed both the VVT and VTC gaskets and was also considering doing an engine flush. Thankfully, I found both of your videos explaining the reasons why NOT to flush out the engine. Even though I only put about 7k miles per year on the car, I will start doing 3k mile oil change intervals instead of the 5k ones Ive been doing.
The issue you discovered, is that you truck was so well serviced, it didn’t make much (if any) difference. You need an abused truck with multiple missing services. Also you would need to examine the oil rings to really see although some lab work might deliver some more details.
Your test parameters might not be a test of engine flush. Oil darkening, or black oil, is carbon in suspension, which is not what a flush in intended to address. An oil flush is intended to remove varnish and sludge hardened on engine internals and oil passages, like in hydraulic lifters. In diesels I have had absolutely excellent results with Berryman's B12 Chemtool as an engine flush. It contains much more powerful solvents than the products you chose to try, and has almost completely done away with oil darkening in my 2001 lo-tech Deere 2.9. I run a low-miles 4.2 Vortec I6 gas with oil that stays absolutely clean for 3,000 miles. All my engines get a Berryman's B12 Chemtool flush every single oil change.
I know the difference between soot and oil darkening from dissolved deposits 😉. There is no flush that will keep this engine’s oil from sooting up. It was dark 30 minutes after it drove off the lot in 2006.
I must say well done on that test a lot of work and money, also how you keep the underside of your car in such pristine condition is amazing. Ive done a bit of research on engine oil flushes and I wanted to try it out. Do an experiment. I'm Irish and have a 2007 Skoda Octavia 1.4 petrol that was well looked after when I bought it. It now has 180,000 miles, so I decided to do an engine flush just to see what happened. So with 5000 miles on the oil i added the engine flush, ran it for about 12 mins on idle don't drive it... Drained the oil, it was very black. now the oil after the 5000 miles was NOT as black as after adding the flush. The flush was liqui moly same as yours. I left the same oil filter in (probably should have changed it - funds) and filled with new oil, I drove the the car around 50 miles. I then drained the oil again to flush out more, the oil came out black not jet black after the 50 miles, i was amazed at the residual carbon that was left in the oil, but not as black as the original 5000 mile oil i dropped with the flush. So then I filled with new oil again and changed the filter aswell Amazingly the oil is still absolutely spotless after 1000 miles. I also added liqui Moly Mos2 oil additive its an anti friction additive. The difference in the engine was significant. The engine after approx 300 miles is running a lot smoother, it also has more power and is zippier, it seems to be free-er if you know what I mean. The oil would have a slight grey tinge to it after adding the Mos2 but its not dirty still after well over 1000 miles. I don;'t see how it has harmed the engine I think it has actually improved the engine. Ive read lots of comments on the DANGERS so to speak of doing a flush but they wouldn't be selling it if damaged your engine, Ive read lots of people using it for years evrey so often with 2 and 300,000 miles on the clock with no burning of oil etc on their engines. So I think that it's really up to the owner themselves and see what results you get. My conclusion is, well it hasn't harmed my engine so far, also with the additive the car runs smoother and better with less of a ticking noise. I will use the additive and flush maybe once every third oil change. But for anybody out there thinking about doing it, I haven't had any problems at all only improvements and am really happy with the results. Cheers....
The biggest problem is that if you use it I. A severely contaminated engine with lots of sludge and deposits, it can clog the oil pump pickup and starve the engine of oil, or it can plug the oil filter to the point that the bypass valve opens and you run all that crap through your engine bearings.
@@freedomworx Yes but that's with an engine that's in bad condition. I'm not a mechanic but it worked well for me. If that's the case then don't do it at all.
I swapped my LBZ factory oil pan for a PPE oil pan and the difference of oil color immediately after oil change was night and day. Been using Amsoil on her since I bought her new and at 210,000 miles never done a flush (BS) and she still runs like a clock. Your science is good ole American made🇺🇸🇺🇸COMMON SENSE🇺🇸🇺🇸. (Love the 30 mm go brrrrrtt).
Seafoam works good for me. Use it in everything, I just throw it in the oil about 1000 miles before each oil change and 2 cans in a full tank of fuel. Did valve cover gaskets my 300k mile Tacoma and it looks almost new inside 🤙🏽 I will say I can tell a difference in response and starts easier after the seafoam
Well the counterpoint to that is, I never used or any flush in my oil, my engines have 180k, 212k, and 257k. And they have all been absolutely spotless anytime I've opened them up.
I can not believe I just spent 20 minutes of my life watching oil changes after spending the day doing my own oil changes on my truck and skid steer...but I have say that this was more entertaining than the movie I watch last night....informative and hilarious....I give this 5 on 5 stars.
Sea foam does clean to a point. It can also clean your front and rear main seal surface to a point where you would develop a leak with synthetic. As far as diesel oils. I tested Delvac, Rotella and Delo in my semi trucks one summer. I ran the same route and I always do 10K mile oil changes. The Delvac always held oil pressure for 1500 miles longer than Delo and 2000 miles longer than Rotella on the same hills, same outside temp before it would drop 5 psi. Delvac would make the full 10K before breaking down and dropping 5 psi on the gauge.
Is a 5 psi drop a huge factor? What's the normal running oil psi in a tractor engine? What's the engine your runnig?im a new diesel mechanic. Trying to learn a bit.
Hey man You should have used BG 109 engine flush. Supposedly that's the best of what's on the market. I'd be very curious to see a comparison between sea foam and BG. Congratulations to a great video and a super clean engine! :D
No, the best on the market just became available to consumers, it's the BG Dynamic Engine Clean system, around $300, but it works even on super sludged engines. Several YT videos on it, check em out
Not certain on your model of diesel, but I’m assuming you have an egr valve dumping exhaust into your air intake? Delete the egr and your oil miraculously remains clean much longer. I have 130k miles of proof on my truck- 09’ 6.7 Cummins.
A fantastic internet myth. I changed a lot for 7.3 with no egr, duramax's with no egr/deleted egr and for 6.0 with deleted egr's and every single one of them had pitch black oil before and after the oil changes.
@@loveracing1988 It’s not a myth. EGRs do dirty the oil quicker. I’ve got a 7.3L, Cummins, and a Duramax. And the Duramax definitely darkens much quicker than the other two which don’t have EGR systems. Of course you have to take into account that the sump size on the Duramax is smaller, thus it should darken quicker given the same amount of soot ingress. But, my Duramax is darker in 100 miles than my 7.3L is after several thousand. And my 7.3L is heavily modified and smokes like a freight train.
While my egr equipped 6.7 Cummins did get black faster, the 5.9 Cummins trucks I owned and the JD generators I work on never had any egr and the oil was definitely black on them in short order.
The moment you said, "this is the part where y'all say I don't know how to pour oil. And this is the part where I don't care." You got yourself a subscriber. Lol
For me, who is not a mechanic ! It was helpful information because I was thinking about doing an oil flush Thank you for your time to do all the work testing
On my previous vehicle which has been quite a while I used to have a ball valve as my oil drain unit that was spring loaded just like what you have I'm thinking about going back and putting one on my current vehicle but what I was going to suggest is that when you open that remove the oil fill cap so that that will allow the oil to drain out quicker and also if you have a vertically mounted oil filter do you not refill your oil filters well. Have you used one of those funnels before that has a little bit of an air pocket or a about the size of a large straw going down the side of the funnel to allow the oil to go in and the air to escape instead of the air glug glug glug glug also to let you know that plumbers are people that work on pipes whether they're PVC or copper they use a pipe cutter that's the same way and you turn the cutter around the pipe while you're turning the knob as you turn it around since you can't hold the cutter and turn the pipes around so I think it's originally where that process started according to the technical service bulletins it seems to me that engine flushes contain chemicals or anything that may not be beneficial to the inside or inner workings of the engine transmission or any other mechanical device you're trying to flush out which can affect any of the seals inside the engine or any other components that you're wanting to flush out so it's not recommended based on the technical service bulletins which can void the original manufacturer's warranty
I run a small freight hauling business and have been for 25 yrs. Since the very beginning, we’ve used Lucas and Seafoam products. Still do. Tried and true. We’ve had trucks for 20+ yrs with the original engines and transmissions in them. Some with 800,000 miles. They’d probably be still on the road if it wasn’t for frames rusting out and some bad accident damages (No one badly hurt by the way). Used for parts now. We did oil changes every 5k-7k miles or so. No higher than 7k. We’ve flushed out engines using only seafoam every 30k miles or so. The amount of sludge and debris that came out of those engines were incredible. No metal. Just dirt particles etc. It truly blows me away how much people neglect oul changes on their vehicles. Especially today. I’ve fone my own oil changes since I bought my very first car. Before that my Papa and I used to his and some family members vehicles. Very fortunate to have a man in my life that showed me such skills. Miss that man daily🙏🏼❤️
My wife woke up from me laughing. I haven't seen content this greatly presented for a long time. Just excelent, thank you for the video. Keep it going. The scientific part is also spot on.
Heat. Thermal degradation. Oxidization. Polymerization. Blowback. Color isnt too much of an indication, but its still a good video with other valid data points. Good video, thank you for it
Thermal stress in the oil is definitely a consideration. And I’ll discuss that more in the upcoming videos when I’ve had the oil analyzed after installing the bypass system. Thanks for watching 👍
Great video! As an amateur mechanic wannabe, and biological research scientist, I found your hypothesis, experimental design, methods, etc. instructive, methodical, with good controls, and solid scientific approach. Really enjoyed!
I appreciate that. All of the undergrad engineering students on the interweb said I had no controls and I needed 2 identical high milage engines, with identical operating hour and conditions, which were made on the same day, from identical components which were all from the same manufacturing lot numbers, while running the test in a climate controlled dyno cell, with the exact same load profile, on exactly the same oil and fuel from identical batches, etc... to have any meaningful result. Just think, with a $20M budget, I could have performed an experiment with sufficient control to make a RU-vid video that those goobers would still troll on. 😉
@@freedomworx I ignore fools with too much time on their hands, who get obsessed with theory, and are often woefully detached from the real world outside their safe, insulated bubble. Academia is largely a group think echo chamber filled with far too many annoying self-absorbed prima donnas. I've met and worked with too many PhD colleagues over the years who lack genuine common sense, and are often blinded by the reflection of their own self-assumed brilliance. In real investigative science you control the variables you can, and design experiments the best you can - given the equipment, facilities, and conditions at hand. There is no perfect experiment, and you can never control ALL variables in any experiment. Your approach was scientific, and your methods, and controls, were sufficiently rigorous to allow meaningful conclusions to be made from the results You noted alternate hypotheses, and didn't hesitate to point out inherent limitations to the experiments conducted - both points which indicate an objective, scientific approach. And finally, you made reasonable, evidence-based conclusions from the data (evidence) generated.
I believe in frequent oil changes so I'm not sure I will ever need to do a flush. But I wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed watching your video and your sense of humor!
Great video. I'm in England and run a Toyota Prado with the 3.0 litre 4 cyl turboDiesel engine, every Toyota 4x4 i've owned over many years has had this same basic engine with various flavours of fuel injection and intercooling. What these all have in common is they drain really well, after an oil change the oil will stay clean for almost 1000 miles on a car thats covered 120,000 miles, no need for flushing but i always try and buy Diesel specific oil for its better cleaning properties, and its worth doctoring the EGR valve operation to stop so much soot being fed back in to the intake. In common with most commenters here i'm serious about good servicing, in Europe they've got carried away with long life servicing with cars only needing an oil change after 20000 miles. Good servicing and some mechanical sympathy leads to long engine life...and don't forget the gearbox folks, in Europe they seem to think gearbox oils can last the life of the vehicle, rubbish.
Hey, brother. You are exactly the type I could imagine being able to deal with on a daily basis. Most people suck; and the other 10% are hit/miss at best. Liking your channel. thx
15:04 This might be a dumb question but do you think during the period in between of oil changes should we ramp up swapping out the filter I know it can be messy because you can't stop the flow Make it a quick connect screw on combination or maybe they should start building these cars with double filter ports because I'm wondering just because the oil looks black doesn't mean that it has things that can harm the vehicle in it
No reason to change oil filters between oil changes if you are doing regular oil changes. Oil filters actually filter better the longer they are used. Right up to the point where they wont flow enough through the media, and the bypass valve in the filter opens up. But theat should never happen during a normal oil change interval. So the oil will actually be filtered worse if you change the filter more frequently.
I am one of the obsessive-compulsives... flush before every other, add Seafoam: Dodge 1500 gas truck -- 217,000 mi then stolen. F350 6.0 run hard, 275,000 mi-- disintegrated cam roller bearing. Mazda 6 gas, 117,000 lost in accident. MB GLE300D, 150,000 going strong. I think flushes work -- period. My low metal engine oil analysis says they do. Thank you, Sir, for your content!
Service manager/mechanic here from 🇦🇺 you hit the nail on the head, an engine flush on modern engi es can and most of the time does more damage than good, when we have a catastrophic engine failure inside warranty we always take a sample and send it to a NATA lab for analysis, your home mechanic with a Google account is dangerous, we had an engine fail inside 45000kms on a very well and k own engine, turns out the owner was doing short interval changes at home using genuine oil (no such thing) and filter which is great except he also used double the recomended dose of flush at the same time, the engine did not like that even though the oil and parts were clean, at tear down the number of parts we found not working was scary including the oil pump full of gunk and sludge which was the reason for the cooked engine. Far riskier using these snake oil potions than just good old fashioned 7500km oil and filter changes.
One of the orangest filters money can buy 😂 Subbed! You put a LOT of time and effort into this. Not to mention time spent editing. Why didn't you use a scope tho??? I have always been skeptical about using Seafoam in a vehicle outside of anything with a carbeurator. Dug into some info after I heard about it and a lot of people were saying it was developed for use in marine vehicles. Hence the name "SeaFoam." I am going to try it in a lawnmower though. I'll leave intake cleaning to the pros. Because that, I am not lol.
It was developed for the fuel systems of 2-stroke outboards, but it's been useful in many applications since then. Kinda like Viagra wasn't invented to make your soldier stand at attention. I didn't use a borescope because there really aren't any good points on this engine to insert one. But I've got some firture tests coming up that I will utilize one.
