Thread: 'Flushing oil concentrate' - snake oil?

I've used the liqui-moly stuff, Couldn't say yay or nay... without pulling the engine apart before and after.
I'll continue using it every so often. Can't hurt.

Hi mate
I also use liqui-moly in my 1995 3.9 v8 petrol
Havent had any issues

Hello All,
Hi, my 1st post, an interesting and controversial thread. DiscoClax's reminisces on idling diesels with 50% kero prompts my story. My previous spannerman, now retired, was headhunted from his native Switzerland to be service manager at a European Car dealership in Sydney's eastern suburbs. He found they were getting trade-ins that while super low miles were pushing oil, cars that were being driven to the Double Bay shops and home to the mansion and never warming the oil.
He was astounded at the locals solution; a mechanic would take the smoky trade-in home to the Central Coast and next morning pull over at the Hawksbury Bridge and tip in a bottle of "oil flush", (not necessarily CEM brand) and drive the next hour to work HARD! The hoist was vacant, waiting for him, and the toxic waste immediately dropped out of the sump. Process repeated next 2 or 3 days and in my Swiss friends words sometimes UNBELIEVABLE results, but he gave the proviso only do this engines that are "lost cause's".

PS. I didn't ask what happened to these cars afterwards, they probably were wholesaled anonymously; caveat emptor (which of course is Latin for "bugger the buyer"

Cheers Chris.

This has come up before, if you look at the MSDS on most of them they are 30-50% diesel plus engine oil, although I think the Liqui-Moly one might be an overbased Calcium?
I need to re-look at that one.

There is one very good one out of the US that is lanolin ester based and takes about 3-5,000km to do it's thing including a flush cycle, which IMO is a lot kinder overall as being ester based it's a lubricant anyway and it breaks down crud nice and slowly so things like galleries don't get clogged.
It was originally formulated for massive offset printing presses which couldn't be taken out of service and it worked, and then someone had the bright idea to try it in an engine.

Originally Posted by rick130

This has come up before, if you look at the MSDS on most of them they are 30-50% diesel plus engine oil, although I think the Liqui-Moly one might be an overbased Calcium?
I need to re-look at that one.

There is one very good one out of the US that is lanolin ester based and takes about 3-5,000km to do it's thing including a flush cycle, which IMO is a lot kinder overall as being ester based it's a lubricant anyway and it breaks down crud nice and slowly so things like galleries don't get clogged.
It was originally formulated for massive offset printing presses which couldn't be taken out of service and it worked, and then someone had the bright idea to try it in an engine.

And it's called............?

DL

Originally Posted by 350RRC

And it's called............?

DL

Auto-RX.

FWIW I used the Liqui-Moly one in the work Hilux 2.7VVTi two months ago as the previous driver hadn't had it serviced for 30,000km !
We'd already done one flush with straight oil, then driven it 10,000km. The oil came out looking like diesel engine oil.

Tough little engine.

I have a a rolling update thread on this. all you have to do to find it is use the search function in the RRC board.

If it was snake oil I would have certainly said so. It is anything but from my experience. The product does exactly what it says, and no bull.

My guess is the discourse surrounding each individuals results are always going to be proportional to the relative IQ of the person using it, their mechanical knowledge, experience and perhaps even their sometimes delusional or unrealistic expectations.
There will always be an optimist, a pessimist and a pragmatist.

It's not a one-time wonder treatment.
Nothing is, if you want a one-time fix, pull the engine and hot tank it..

If you use the product correctly, in a manner that befits your vehicles condition and useage, then it does exactly what it says.
In 2 oil changes it has softened the hard carbon deposits in my 3.9 to the point where I could simply wipe the valvetrain with a microfibre cloth and it wiped spotlessly clean.

Previously I had to use a wire wheel on a drill to loosen the hard carbon deposits, a huge time consuming effort and that was not even 100% effective at removal.

I've spent more on other products and achieved far less (or sometimes nothing) for more outlay in the past.
I've got nothing negative to say about the CEM product and I am continuing to use it in a low-dose permanent additive.
In my case, the oil remained extremely clean after the initial shock treatment flush for a very long time, but by the second oilchange it was looking like it used to before I commenced the treatment regime - a very dark brown, with the broken down compounds visible in the oil film.

Have done almost 8000km since last oilchange and the oil is still looking almost as clean as the day it was put in. Previously it would have been filthy in less than half this mileage.

Prior to purchasing, I had quite a lengthy discussion with the CEM product manager about my specific intentions on the use of the product. His response was conservative, and very clear. I was told that the hard carbon would take quite a long while to completely disperse. However, it was softened sufficiently within two routine service oil changes, to allow the remaining residue to simply be wiped clean from the rockers, retainers and springs without effort, which was far sooner than I had anticipated.

I have never used one of these oil flush before... Maybe I should give it a try.

My reasoning is that the the oil flush was not tested against the oil seal in a tdci engine so really I don't know what it will do to the seals and also what will be the consequences of a reduced lubrication. The oil flush may be okay for some cars but may not be for the others.

Maybe I overthink?
Cheers