Do you own a car? In that case, you are probably aware of how important it is to change the engine oil regularly. More and more often, a standard oil service is supplemented with an engine flush using special preparations known as flushes. These products are designed to clean the engine of various types of contaminants, which is meant to ensure efficient and stable operation of the unit throughout the season. Does an engine flush make sense? Is it worth reaching for it when changing the engine oil? You will find the answers to these questions in the rest of this post - we encourage you to read on.
Engine flush - what exactly is it?
Before we answer the main question of the day, namely whether it is worth using an engine flush, let us talk for a moment about what it actually is.
For people who deal with the automotive world on a daily basis, the concept of flushes is not unfamiliar. These are special preparations which, as the name suggests, are intended for flushing the engine, that is, cleaning the unit of the contaminants accumulated within it. In the past, this procedure was carried out using kerosene - today, however, the market offers access to high-quality products that contain concentrated cleaning ingredients in their composition. And that is exactly what flushes are - preparations used to care for the engine and keep it in good condition.
Removing carbon deposits, sludge and soot - what does an engine flush do?
It is no secret that the engine is constantly subjected to many trials. It has to operate in extreme conditions, which include, among others, heavy loads and high temperatures. As if that were not enough, during the operation of the drive unit, various types of contaminants form and accumulate in the system, led by carbon deposits.
This sludge is the result of unburned fuel and engine oil particles and accumulates mainly on the walls of the combustion chamber, the rings, the piston crown and the valves. You should know that it does not remain neutral to the condition of your engine - its presence can lead to serious and costly faults.
Carbon deposits are one thing - other deposits also form in the engine, including soot, varnishes, dust and other micro-contaminants. The moment there are too many of them, your unit will definitely make itself known - in the form of a minor fault or a major breakdown that your wallet will feel. And this is where the flush comes in - a preparation that should be able to deal with the removal of each of these deposits.
If oil already contains detergents, why bother with a flush?
That is the fairest question you can ask here, and it deserves an answer by mechanism rather than reassurance. Engine oil does carry detergents and dispersants in its additive package. They simply do something different from what most people assume.
Detergent in oil works preventively. Its job is to hold soot and oxidation products in suspension before they settle anywhere, so they leave with the drained oil. That work is continuous and quiet, and oil does it well.
What detergent does not do is lift deposits that have already bonded to metal. Once a layer of lacquer hardens in a ring groove it is no longer something that can be held in suspension, because it is not suspended any more. It has to be dissolved first, and that calls for a concentration oil does not have and cannot have.
The difference is an order of magnitude. Cleaning additives make up a few percent of the oil, chosen so that over thousands of kilometres they harm neither seals nor bearings. A flush is effectively a solvent that works for fifteen minutes and then leaves. Two different tools for two different jobs, not a strong and a weak version of the same thing.
“Just change the oil twice instead”
This argument comes up often and is partly right, so there is no point pretending otherwise.
Two quick changes genuinely will dilute and carry out soft sludge from the sump. If a car is behind on servicing and the deposit is still greasy, that works and it is a sensible move.
What it will not do: remove hard lacquer from the ring grooves. Fresh oil has neither the solvent concentration for that, nor that grade of detergent, nor the conditions, because a ring groove is the hottest point in the whole circuit and the deposit has been baked on there. And it is precisely that deposit which robs the rings of movement and shows up as oil consumption.
It is also worth doing the arithmetic. Two changes mean two lots of oil and two filters, usually more than one flush added to a change you have to do anyway. The economy argument holds up less well than it seems.
In one sentence: more frequent oil changes are good prevention, but they are not a substitute for dissolving deposits that have already bonded. When the procedure makes sense and when it is unnecessary is set out in the article on when a flush is worth using.
Engine flush - is it worth it?
While browsing various online forums, you may come across different opinions on the use of a flush during the change of old engine oil. Among the opponents of this type of solution, the argument of safety is raised most often. There are people who claim that new oil is enough, and adding a flush will only lead to the engine losing its seal. Do you have to worry about your lubrication system? Absolutely not.
When reaching for high-quality engine flushes from reputable companies (TEC 2000 or Motul), there is no cause for concern. Why? First and foremost because these preparations undergo a series of tests that confirm the safety of their use - both in the case of older engines and newer designs.
So where do such voices come from? The concern arises due to the condition of heavily worn engines in older vehicles. Such units often ran on mineral oils, which did not contain any enhancing additives, as a result of which significantly more deposits accumulated in the unit than in the case of synthetics or semi-synthetics.
In such situations, a single use of a flush may cause larger pieces of deposits to detach from individual components and not be 100% removed with the old oil, and thus they begin to work with the new formulation, which can lead to clogging of the oil filter.
This, however, does not mean that high mileage should rule out the use of a flush here. In the case of older engines, it is recommended to use the preparation not once, but two or three times during a single oil service. This, however, means changing the oil several times, and therefore a higher cost of the service.
Using an engine flush - a final word
The question of whether it is worth flushing the engine will always be debated. One thing is certain - a flush is meant to increase the lifespan of the engine, not to harm it. Otherwise, such preparations would not be advertised by the largest companies in the industry. Regular use will help keep the engine in good condition and get rid of the carbon deposits and sludge that ordinary engine oil is not able to catch.
And so, for example: the Engine Flush by TEC 2000 is a high-quality preparation based on a mixture of solvents and cleaning substances that effectively get rid of contaminants, thereby improving the compression and performance of the engine.
We hope that today’s post will help you make the decision to purchase a good-quality engine flush, thanks to which you will keep the drive unit clean for a long time.
