[alfa] Flushing oil (was Diesel oil)

[Alcon98340@xxxxxxx]

Keith Walker said:

"As I understand it diesel oils have a very large detergent content compared
to oils for normal petrol engines. Maybe the zinc content is to make up
for the detergents.
I wouldn't trust the stuff in a high revving petrol engine, although I
might well use it as a flushing oil"

My thought would be that having a higher level of detergents would 
actually be a benefit. Perhaps someone who has more of a background
in things of this nature could comment whether that is correct. 

Also, I would think that even though diesel engines don't rev as high as
their gasoline counterparts, they certainly have their own environmental
hostilities to contend with such as an arguably "dirtier" burning fuel and 
higher compression ratios. One more thing to add is that many diesel 
oils also have a rating for gasoline engines as well. Apparently the "S"
in an SAE/API rating for gas engines stands for Sevice, while the "C" for
diesel engines stands for Commercial. I have included this even at the risk
of sparking (pardon the bad taste in humor) controversy about what these
letters do or do not stand for. I believe that the currently used spec for 
gas 
engines is SJ or SL. I am not sure of the current diesel spec, although it 
may be CI.

A friend of mine was telling me that years ago his father used something
different to flush car engines: kerosene. Apparently he would drain out the
oil, fill with kerosene, drive around the block, drain out the kerosene, 
change
the filter, and add fresh oil. It was quite effective according to my friend.

-Josh
'71 1750 Berlina
'72 2000 Berlina
'84 GTV6
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