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Should I Use an Engine Flush?

Should I Use an Engine Flush?
June 16, 2022

Using an engine flush is a common way to clear out the buildup in your engine, but there is a lot you should take into consideration before making this decision. An engine flush is not always the best choice for your vehicle.

What Is an Engine Flush?

An engine flush is an aftermarket chemical additive that works to break up engine sludge and other obstructions in your engine and get it out of the system. An engine flush is most often used in vehicles that aren’t getting their oil changed as regularly as they should. Even regularly changing your oil can cause buildup in your engine because oil can become a part of that buildup.

 

How Does an Engine Flush Work?

There are three common ways to perform an engine flush. For each of these methods, a small amount of engine oil is removed and replaced with some kind of insoluble additive chemical: 

  1. Test drive: After the insoluble additive chemical has been added, the car is taken for a test drive to move the chemical through the engine. The goal is for any deposits the chemical breaks up to move toward the oil filter. Once the oil and oil filter are changed, the deposits have been completely removed from the engine. 
  2. Leave the car idle: Another way to perform an engine flush is to add the insoluble chemical additive and leave the car idling for between five and 10 minutes. This is supposed to give the chemical time to mix thoroughly while breaking up deposits and moving them to the oil filter.
  3. Drain the oil: For this method, the oil is completely removed from the engine and replaced by the insoluble chemical additive. The vehicle then idles for a few minutes to achieve the same effect as the other methods. With this method, the chemical drains out of the engine and brings the deposits with it. Then new oil is put back in the engine and the oil filter is replaced.

 

Why Would You Need to Flush the Engine?

Oil sludge and deposits build up and require some sort of motor flush for a variety of reasons:

  • Short trips: If you only drive your car for short periods and distances, the oil will never totally warm up and the moisture in the engine won’t evaporate. It is important to drive your car for a longer distance at least every once in a while to prevent buildup.
  • Oil failure: The use of improper or poor quality oil in the engine can cause the oil to fail and begin to oxide and break down, forming sludge. Oil will start to break down from regular usage. Not changing your oil and filter at advised intervals will cause the oil to fail.
  • Fuel dilution: Fuel dilution happens when fuel gets in an engine’s crankcase, thinning the oil down. This can also occur from driving short trips often, excessive idle time, low engine temperatures and other factors. 
  • High heat: The high heat engines produce will cause oil to break down, leading to buildup in the engine. 

Oil sludge builds up in your engine and needs to be cleared. Here are some ways to check and see if there are deposits, sludge or other sources of buildup in your engine: 

  • Oil pressure light: If your check oil light has been coming on, this can be a sign of sludge presence. Your oil may have polymerized enough to reduce its volume and cause the light to signal a low oil volume.
  • Experience noisy lifters: Noisy lifters can be a sign that your engine needs cleaning. As the oil breaks down and builds up on lifters, it causes a lack of good lubrication. That noise is the metal-on-metal sound from your valve-train. 
  • Visible thick and dark oil: If you can see the thick sludge on the dipstick, rocker covers, oil filter or other parts, that is a telltale sign of sludge. When the engine is off, you can open the hood and check for oil splatters underneath it. If the splatters are thick and dark in small clumps, you likely need to clear out your engine. 

You may be wondering why an oil change doesn’t fix the problem and why you would need an engine oil flush. However, when oil thickens, materials known as oxidation byproducts are created, which are essentially the sludge and deposits you notice when cleaning your engine. This is an indicator that the oil is no longer clean, and it will take more than an oil change to fix the problem. 

If oil deposits are not cleared out, your vehicle will suffer from oil loss until it is resolved, as oil alone cannot clear the deposits.

 

Why Should You Not Use an Engine Flush?

Engine flushes are not a foolproof method for breaking up deposits in your engine. Performing an engine oil system cleaning is an intricate and incredibly important process, requiring a method you can rely on. When performing a motor oil flush, it has to be powered enough and given the appropriate amount of time for it to work. If this does not happen, the process will have been for nothing or could even cause more damage if it moved the deposits into a more damaging location rather than removing them. 

Using an engine flush in older cars can cause problems as the engine seals could be worn or leaking but are kept shut by those deposits that a motor flush would get rid of. To clear that oil out could very likely cause a lot more problems than it would solve, meaning you should stay away from engine flush.

Using an engine flush also means you will have to replace your oil, which you may not necessarily be ready to do otherwise. Labor and parts add another expense to consider. 

 

What Should You Do Instead of an Engine Flush?

Hot Shot’s Stiction Eliminator is an engine oil additive, not a flush and cleaner, that provides oil treatment for gasoline and diesel engines. It removes the sludge and deposits created from burnt oil but goes a step further and lubricates the system in the process to improve your engine’s performance and prevent it from wearing.

Stiction Eliminator will improve your car’s fuel economy, restore its power and performance and reduce the wear on the engine by 62% more than just oil. Unlike an engine flush, you do not have to drain Stiction Eliminator. It works safely and gently over time, keeping oil passages clean consistently rather than just one time, while providing wear protection.

Stiction Eliminator is made up of a proprietary carbon nano lubricant as well as a synthetic cleaner. This lubricates and cleans the oil-wetted components, which include the engine’s rings, pistons, turbocharger, oil pump and HEUI injectors. It will also fix nine out of 10 HEUI injectors that are failing.

 

Choose the Hot Shot Secret Stiction Eliminator

For your next diesel engine flush or car engine oil system cleaning, choose the Hot Shot Secret Stiction Eliminator. Purchase yours today, so it is ready to use next time you change the oil in your car. 

Call us at 800-341-6516 for more information or with any questions.