The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop non detergent oil help.

I recently got a 46 2 ton that has been sitting for some time, but runs pretty good.The oil is black and needs changed real bad.There is a lot of crud on the bottom of the filler cap, so I expect the whole engine is sludged up.How can I be sure the oil I put in it is nondetergent?Don't some of the letters in the specs. identify it as detergent or nondetergent?I don't want to take this engine apart right now to clean it up, and don't want to use the wrong oil and stir things up.Was going to use a sae30 weight. thanks Jim.

jcarter,

There are lots of weird numbers on the oil cans, but I am pretty darn sure that It will be written in plain old English ... Non-Detergent .

It wouldn't be a bad idea to buy enough oil for two changes. Run the first batch for a week for so, then change it...real warm, for the next dose.

Try to warm it up before you change the old oil too.

Stuart

I would use a straight weight detergent oil and change it after running until hot, and then again after a few hours. change the oil as often as you can afford for a while. the detergent only keeps the dirt suspended for the filter to remove. detergent oil is marked as HD. Non detergent is labeled as non-detergent. Detergent oil has other additives that are good for your motor.

PS the crud on the filler cap may indicate the crankcase is not breathing properly. you want to fix that.

In my opinion, buy the cheapest oil you can find and change often till it get cleaned up a bit or you run out of money! I would think after a few changes it would be OK get back on the regular oil change cycle, all the loose crap sould be flushed out by then. Joe

I filled mine with oil for a short while, had her runnin for a few minutes then drained her out. Still a lot of crap in the engine. So I put about 2 gallons of diesel in her and kept turning her over for a while with the starter.

Drained her out and she was clean as can be. Refilled the oil and its actually clean!

I also pulled the valve cover and cleaned the valves, springs, etc with a can of carb cleaner before I drained the diesel.

Worked like a charm.
Jeff

I was wondering about putting somthing like diesel in it to flush it out, but got to thinking that it might loosen somthing up that might plg an oil gallery or somthing.I got to change the waterpump, so maybe I should get pan and valvecover gaskets and clean it up a bit.It's getting to cold to be running it much any more this fall anyway. Thanks.

just as info.... depending on the brand of oil you buy determines just what you may find on the bottle. Some brands simply say HD which is High Detergent but most brands now lead you to believe it means "heavy duty". For non-detergent most will simply say ND. An example of this is the Shell brand! It may take a little reading but you can decipher them...most of the time!!!

Achipmunk, thanks again.I've never looked for nondetergent oil before to see how easy it may be to find.I use pails of HD 10w30 which I assumed was"heavy duty" per year in my gas powered engines,even more DMO 15w40 in my diesel powered equiptment.I assumed DMO meant "diesel motor oil". Does it mean something else?I was going to use HD 10w30 in this engine, but when I did a search to see what weight other guys were using,I became aware of the concerns of a detergent oil stirring up some problems in these old engines if they are full of dirt.

Most guys around this part of the country use the Castrol 15-40 diesel oil or they run the Rotella 15-40. I have not seen (hadn't looked) at the "DMO" but diesel motor oil sounds about right!! Most of the "jargon" is just advertisement. Ever once in a while they just HAVE to change the look....but I will look for DMO tomorrow...you got my curosity up!!

Years ago the inline six in my truck was full of sludge and I started using the same oil we were running in the diesel engines at work.
When the motor was finally taken apart it was clean as a whistle through out.
The mechanic that serviced our work trucks recomended it as he had done the same thing with his truck and reported the same results.
It was chevron diesel motor oil.

Ray

I did that with my 261, I use Delo 400 or Rotella. It cleaned out the block but it also made my dried up valve stem seals leak a lot worse. I still need to repair those. It smokes bad down long hills.

D diesel
E engine
L lubricating
O oil

Delo has been API rated for both gas and diesel service for many years. A byproduct of diesel fuel combustion is ash. This oil is compounded to address this ash, so maybe that is why is tends to clean a gasoline engine so well.

Stuart