I was wondering what people thought of those oil's that you see advertised on tv that supposedly help remove sludge from the engine. Have any studies been done about adding auto-rx to these? Do they help at all?
It was Pennzoil that I was thinking of. I found the site and I guess the conventional oil removes 15% of the sludge while the synthetic removes 46% of the sludge. They also had test done on taxi cabs I guess in New York. I plan on sticking with auto-rx but just wondering what others thought about oils that do the same thing.
Pennzoil might remove some of the most recent, thinnest of the sludgy deposits, but is certainly not going to go very deep and really clean up any of the more difficult ones. Engine oil is formulated more to keep things clean if changed often enough. When fresh oil is poured into a dirty or sludged engine, the oil's "cleaning" additives get used up more quickly than when the same oil is poured into a new, clean engine.
Better to run an Auto-Rx cycle which is much more effective at cleaning metal and breaking down deposits. This leaves the oil to still do its lubricating job while helping disperse the contaminants and carry them to the oil filter. If you do go to a higher quality oil after all the clean/rinse cycles are complete, the new oil will stay in good shape longer since most of the significant contamination has already been broken down and removed during Auto-Rx treatment. I still use and recommend the Auto-Rx maintenance dose with the more expensive and higher quality synthetics and blends as I have seen it keep engines spotless, even with extended oil changes. Wear reduction and fuel economy are also better with this regimen in my experience.
Thanks for the information. I put Castrol GTX in my car and see that also does have things for sludge in it as well. I have gone through the cleaning phase a few times already so I was just wondering what people thought of this. Some of the oil's burn in my car and thus cause more sludge issues which I then have to run a cleaning again for. I plan on sticking with this oil and then when I do another rinse phase per Frank I will put the auto-rx back into my car.
Auto-Rx cleans out 100 % of sludge in an engine. Stay with the Auto-Rx Maintenance Plan and control the new sludge and keep your car engine running.
Remember this engines that are sludge prone will keep making sludge it does not go away. Controlling this constant problem is what Auto-Rx does safely.
1) Auto-Rx 2) Change PCV 3) Properly working Thermostat
Oil does 2 things, it lubricates and cools parts, someone once said that oil prevents wear, that is only if it can get to all of the parts in your engine.
If you want to prevent sludge make sure you do not take your car out in the winter for a short trip drive, meaning less than a mile or so. You need to burn off any condensation which can lead to sludge.
I agree with most of the rhetoric here. Some re-suspension of "leftovers" will occur. It's a byproduct of the additive package film formation. All things being equal (other than the oil), not too much is going to disrupt set in formations ..at least in any practical way.
