Flushing out engine oil + mess...

[Oggy]

... does anybody have any magical methods or advice as to how I should go about cleaning the old oil and water/oily mess from inside the engine?

I ran some engine flush through with one lot of oil, but to no avail.

Now, not wishing to consume too much oil without needing to, I've decided to ask for your help.

How can I best clean it out without going through hundreds of pounds worth of oil and filters?

It's taken a hell of a lot of water to flush out the coolant system properly too!

Thanks in advance,

Oggy

[jermyns]

Oggy,

In the old days I was told that people used to flush them out with diesel. Disconnected the coil so the engine wouldn't fire, then cranked it over. Dis this sever times until the gunk stopped coming out of the bottom.

Now.....a note of caution!!! I would check this with other zoners comments before going ahead as this is the advice from my father who was a good mechanic in his time but that's before modern engines, if you know what I mean

[Alex]

put cheap oil in run it for 100 miles and change it again

[leeparkes]

Oggy,

In the old days I was told that people used to flush them out with diesel. Disconnected the coil so the engine wouldn't fire, then cranked it over. Dis this sever times until the gunk stopped coming out of the bottom.

Never heard of this one,
ive heard if you run it with diesel oil in it helps clean it out because of the detergents in the oil,only run for 1000 miles,

i take it you have had head gasket issue's,if so you will have traces for quite a while.

[Oggy]

Yes, the headgasket failed so I put a new one in, had the head rebuilt, skimmed, pressure tested, new water pump, timing belt and tensioner etc...

I need to get it cleaned out properly as I plan to sell it, and it doesn't look good if there's residual water in the oil from the failure.

Hmm... I'm not sure what's best to do?

[Speedtouch]

You can purchase flushing oil for this.

Alternatively, you could try a gunk/TFR mixture...

[Oggy]

I've tried using a couple of engine flush tins that you mix in with the used oil, but to no avail, there's still gunk in the top of the head, thus causing a little smoke.

The headgasket is right now, so it is only residual, but it's so damn hard to get rid of!

[N00b]

Isn't there a brand of engine flush that you use instead of engine oil?
Ie, drain old oil out, refil engine with flushing liquid, run for 5 mins or so then drain away?

[Speedtouch]

Yes, there is. This guide may be helpful:
http://www.carbibles.com/engineoil_bible.html

[Banjo1981]

I used this sort of stuff on my recent service, cost about £13 and cleaned it all up nicely.

[Oggy]

I used this sort of stuff on my recent service, cost about £13 and cleaned it all up nicely.

Where did you find that stuff? I can't seem to find any?

The only 0W/20 oil i can find is rediculously expensive for a flush!

[gareth]

you can get a gallon of flushing oil in every motor factor i've ever tried

[bodger]

GSF do flushing oil

[Martinaston]

If the head was re-built you should have drained it and changed the filter then, that would have removed most of it.
Because the water will turn to steam once its running it will condense back to droplets and gather at the top so take the rocker cover off and dry it out with a rag.
Do that a couple of times and it should stop the mayo.
If it don't then keep an eye on the coolant level and hope the new gasket has sealed.
Persil works pretty well for the cooling system.

[fingerman]

Forte Engine flush was recommended by a mate of mine (mechanic) and I've been using it on mine before every oil change