To Flush or not to Flush

[AverageMPH]

I’ve been advised by a Noble dealer that they add a flushing agent to the engine oil and run the engine for 10 minutes or so before draining.

They advise I should do the same when doing my own oil change.

If the engine as always been treated with engine flush and the oil changed at the recommended service intervals, then this should not cause any problems.

But if you have a build-up of sludge inside the engine, then the engine flush could cause problems by loosening the sludge up and dissipating it around the engine.

What do you guys do and why?

[TuxMan]

Never done it , would never do it !!!! Change the oil regularly , use engine well , job done !!

[sunoco69]

unless it has been an age since you changed the oil or you have done a hell of a lot of miles and hard driving on this oil then I wouldnt bother.

[Nebby]

I wanted to flush engine oil on my St220 but was advised by the chap at Opie oils to run mineral oil through it for an hour taking it for a quick drive to get it hot, then use your regular oil.

Must say it sounded a lot smoother afterwards.

[FUNKSTER UK]

Just put in good quality oil and give it some.

When we bought our Beemer to convert to a race car it had done 180k We have changed the oil after every race/trackday and its amazing how much crap we have dislodged by thrashing the nuts off it!
Because its a paper element you can get a good look at it when you take it out and the amount of carbon deposits in it was scary, but a half dozen oil changes and 2000 thrashed miles later it's as clean as a whistle.

I personally would not want to put a flushing agent through an engine, Modern oils and filters are quite capable of keeping an engine nice and clean, Especially if thrashed regular

[sunoco69]

Nebby said:

I wanted to flush engine oil on my St220 but was advised by the chap at Opie oils to run mineral oil through it for an hour taking it for a quick drive to get it hot, then use your regular oil.

Must say it sounded a lot smoother afterwards.

Yea that would work. The trouble with modern synth oils is that they arent allowed to have all the lovely zincs and sulphers as they arent good for us. It can also be of use to run a breaking in race oil as these are allowed all the really good additive packs in them.

[R0162]

I flush but not on every oil change, as they say run for 10 minutes then pull the plug, but the hot oil will come squirting out so have be prepared to funnel it.

[sunoco69]

FUNKSTER UK said:

Just put in good quality oil and give it some.

When we bought our Beemer to convert to a race car it had done 180k We have changed the oil after every race/trackday and its amazing how much crap we have dislodged by thrashing the nuts off it!
Because its a paper element you can get a good look at it when you take it out and the amount of carbon deposits in it was scary, but a half dozen oil changes and 2000 thrashed miles later it's as clean as a whistle.

I personally would not want to put a flushing agent through an engine, Modern oils and filters are quite capable of keeping an engine nice and clean, Especially if thrashed regular

Out of interest, what oil are you using?

[FUNKSTER UK]

sunoco69 said:

Out of interest, what oil are you using?

We use a Fuchs titan XTR Semi Synthetic......... Only coz I get it free from work but it seems pretty good stuff.

[sunoco69]

yes that is a good oil.

[Nebby]

I should that i had a strange tapping noise coming from the engine and his advice was to run the mineral through it because that was the best thing to dislodge any crap that had got stuck, basically we thought we had a sticking timing chain tensioner.

[daddysumo]

I use the Forte engine flush always, think it's actually recomended in the Noble service plan.
The noble isn't too harsh on the oil that I use, but the Evo is and the engine always sounds better after, and has lasted 100k hard miles with no issues.