RE: diesel lube oil-engine cleaning

["Doss Donaho" <ddonaho@xxxxxx>]

Post seemed long so I summarized in this first paragraph:
I think you'd be better off using a product designed to clean the engine
rather than diesel oil.
It seems you already gotten some good posts on the properties and/or
advantages of using diesel oil as oil.
My opinion is that a motor flush is a good thing with no ill effects.  I
have heard it might cause oils leaks after 60k miles but haven't experienced
this personally.

Reasoning:
Here is what I know to be fact about running a cleaner through your engine
before changing the oil.

My uncle knew an old painter that used to run his engine about 10 minutes
with a quart of kerosene in the crankcase before each oil change.  Last my
uncle heard he had gotten over 200,000 miles out of the engine.
This truck was of 60's vintage and used everyday for work.  My opinion is
that engines didn't last as long then as they do now.  So I consider this to
be a good testimonial.

I had a '90 GMC S-15 (small pickup) that I bought new with 2.5l (??) 4cyl.
I ran a quart of Motor Flush (the can I have now says "made by K&W
Products") through it before every oil change.  I changed the oil as soon
after 3k miles as I could afford at the time.  Sometimes I went 5k to 7K
between oil changes.  I drove the sh!t  out of it.  Put 90k miles on it in
about 18 months.  Hauled bricks that had the leaf springs sitting on their
stops several times.  Flat towed a MGB from St. Louis to Houston.  Sold the
parts and loaded the monoque(sp?) body/frame on top of the bed and sold it
for scrap steel.  (I have pictures of it)  At 60K I blew the clutch to the
point of parts of the housing needed to be replaced.  Finally the oil
pressure light came on cruising on the highway.  I stopped immediately and
had it towed home.   Sold it for $900 (two years old) and the guy that
bought it pulled the oil pan and found that the shaft that spins the oil
pump had sheared.  He said the bottom end looked so good he just replaced
the shaft and put the oil pan back on.  I don't consider the shaft breaking
to be a result of poor oil/pressure/performance/maintenance but probably due
to the hard driving and constantly redlining it.  A year or two later the
guys kid walked through a patio door.  The guy got 5 tickets because a cop
followed him to the hospital.  Apparently the kid was bleeding profusely and
the guy was giving it all the truck had to get to the hospital.  Newspaper
had a field day with the cop.

I now run motor flush through all of my cars about every other time I change
the oil.  I was told once by a clerk at the auto parts store that using the
motor flush after 60k would cause oil leaks.  Her (yes female and very
knowledgeable) philosophy was that a certain amount of crud and varnish
helped seal the gaskets.  As the gaskets aged, the motor flush (being
thinner than oil) would find its way past them and the oil would soon
follow.  I had never seen a car that didn't leak oil at 60k miles regardless
of what kind of maintenance was done.  I have ignored her advise.  ( I have
now seen cars that don't leak oil.)

Point is that I think you'd be better off using a product designed to clean
the engine rather than diesel oil.
It seems you already gotten some good posts on the properties and/or
advantages of using diesel oil as oil.
My opinion is that a motor flush is a good thing with no ill effects.  I
have heard it might cause oils leaks after 60k miles but haven't experienced
this personally.

Doss




- -----Original Message-----
From: owner-bmw@domain.elided [mailto:owner-bmw@domain.elided]On Behalf Of
tedcrum@domain.elided
Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2000 1:51 AM
To: bmw@domain.elided
Subject: re: diesel lube oil

...

One does hear stories of diesel *fuel* being added to an auto's crankcase as
a
cleaner. I've used Riselone ocassionally over the years years to clean dirty
motors, with good results. (fast idle for 1/2 hour) It looks a lot like
diesel.
...

Ted Crum
tedcrum@domain.elided

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