I found out that ticking from my motor is a dirty lifter, I poured in a can of Engine Restore and it did quiet down a little. I waited for some room in the crankcase, and I poured in a bottle of GM Engine Oil Supplement, quieted down a little more. Now I'm waiting for my next oil change, how much Engine Restore can I use instead of actual oil? The motor has about 120k and I've ran Mobil Semi Synth for the past 25,000 miles.

 

Engine restore is basically Diesel fuel. You need to change the oil about 60 miles after adding that stuff (but it does work well fro freeing up lifters). I've found that Lucas Oil Stabilizer is good stuff to, it's sticky as honey and about 3X as thick. Stuff does a good job of keeping everything lubricated between cycles, and makes the car easier to start in the morning (In my experience).

 

I think your thinking of oil flush. With is just disel fuel.

Engine restor is that blue crap that has junk in it to fill scratches and groves in the cylinder walls.

Read the can. it will tell you what to do.

Engin flush is a good idea to clean out crap. Butit should be used right before an oil change.


Mystery oil or tranny fluid is good to add to oil and run it all the time. as it helps to clean out the crap stuck in your lifter.

 

Ditto on the tranny fluid, basically detergent in your oil. Sea foam worked pretty good for me as far as cleaning things out.

 

seafoam is some bad a...... stuff. gas or oil.

 

Does that engine restore stuff actually work?

 

Yes, it does do what it says it will do an claim. It will fill in scratches n groves nd can raise compression on a worn engine. Its been around forever. I have used it before with no bad side effects. haven't used it in anything recently. The trick was though. To buy the can bigger. If you have a 4 get the 6cyl can, if you have a 6 get the 8cyl can. If you have an 8, get an 8-4 can.

 

Why more? Thanks man

 

More is allways better. I don't know.

 

There is no snake oil or miriacle product out there that will "rebuild' worn components.

I have a 3.0 V6 in my wife's Chrysler LeBaron (Mitsubishi built) engine that has worn valve guides and smokes after idling for long periods of time.

Lucas oil stabilizer makes it smoke "less" but won't put put little valve guide replacement gnomes inside my engine who rebuild it while we drive.

 

lol. well said.

 

I always wanted to try that stuff but the can's directions aren't too clear. They say "add to oil". Well shouldn't I drain out a 1/2 quart (or, haha, just let it leak out) first? But then the can says it works with "temperature and pressure", so maybe they want my engine 1/2 quart overfill.

Then I think about how I've got 276,000 miles (turned 276,000 this weekend) and don't wanna put anything weird in the motor. I used to put Slick 50 in at EVERY oil change back in 1994... as soon as I heard that the teflon clogged up oil passageways I almost **** a brick- and never used it since.

 

no additive will fix a worn valve guide. Only thicker oil or an additive that make it "thicker" can help. Id run 20-50


That stuff is only for scratches n groves in cylinder walls....

It wont fix cam bearings, valve guides, valve seats, crank or rod bearings. It wont fixed a stretched timing chain, a leaky fuel pump or a flat tire.

what the can claims is to fill scratches and groves in cylinder walls. but a hole that is worn out to big, will never be filled back in. It would only fill a scratch or grove dug into the metal, up to the original worn surface.

 

A Little over full is OK. I think most of the stuff boils off as its just an agent that hold the pieces of stuff made to fill in the voids.


only one snake oil product that ever really work or proved itself to me. Duralube. Drove 15-20 miles with no water or fan belt and had no engine damage. I was on my way home from a long drive.
In a 68 Ford with low original miles.

Duralube was the one with the glass bottom oil pan on an aluminum lawn mower engine that ran for 2 hrs and never locked up. I have locked or blown them sucker up in 10 mins without oil.

My rider lasted 10 mins and the engine went off like a car bomb. It had a strange problem and kept puking all the oil out the breather.

 

Ya know, since I've heard that tick....
ya may have a cam lobe wearing down & yep...
Good old straight 40 weight oil may be the best solution.
AND the tick is only on idle, still right?
Go back to regular oil (any brand will do!) and that also may solve the tick, too!
Lot of money to spend on a old engine, that synthetic stuff at $4 a bottle.
Does restore work?
Yep So does straight 50 weight oil to quiet a noise under hood, too.
Try one bottle of straight 40 weight, not 10-40, to quiet the ticking noise. Can't hurt the engine since it's already aged at 120,000 miles.

 

why would you want to use straight weight oil? wouldn't that cause more problems when the car is cold

 

id rather use light oil and have a car burn and leak oil all over the place and get descent protection, then use heavier oil and have dry starts and less protection that will make the already worn out engine wear out faster

 

Oh isnt there just a perfect oil weight out there **clutches hands together and blinks a few times while looking into space**

 

isn't that what multi weight oil is for?



isn't that engine restor stuff just some molybendiumdisolfate or something like that?


I understand that can help fill in scratches and stuff like that but also understand it isn't the greatest thing to have floating through an oil system but don't hold me to that

 

FOR FUN
I'll point out that thte last three responses come from AREAS THAT USE ENGINE BLOCK HEATERS TO BE ABLE TO START A CAR!!!!
Not a put down.
Just a note.
In SoCal, we don't need that product.
BUT to make my point, the thicker engine oil takes the space & "fills" it, to silence noise.
Restore worked for me (to some point to quiet rod knocking in a Small block Chevy). Straight 50 weight really helped quiet my noise.
Since I know 89V6Firebird & have heard the noise, I only suggested to use the thicker oil as a band aid approach.

 

Hey Karl! How have you been, I'm waiting for the next oil change to throw SOMETHING in... but the car doesn't get driven anymore.

 

For aged engines I always use 3-5/30's & one 10-40. Doesn't hurt/seems to help.
AGAIN IF I WAS IN CANADA,....engine block heaters do seem to help with that AM start up.

 

I don't use a block heater to start my car
never have
why not just use 20w-50 though rather then just straight weight?

 

Honestly. When I was younger I was really into the whole additive thing to correct issues with a worn engine.

My Dad basically told me that there is a large market out there for booster this's, and restore that's. But there is nothing out there that will replace the actual work that needs to be done.

Just like what was said above, there are no little repair guys hidden in this stuff that will do what needs to be done to solve a problem. Its all a temporary and "half arsed" solution.

There are agents that can be added to help protect what is left however.

I knew a guy who rebuilt mopars for a living (outside of being a towtruck driver - how convienient..) he said to me that engine restore does what it says on the can, it does help, but if you ever plan on rebuilding that engine that stuff is a royal pain to deal with, it makes a complete mess.

IMHO I figure stuff like engine restore is for the beaters that we drive in the winter just to make them live longer

My ex girlfriend's Dad is a mechanic for the city's dump. He seems hell bent on using heavy oil in everything. He claims to routinely get over 350,000-450,000kms on engines, and they don't burn oil, leak, or run bad. They just keep going.

Just my little bit of input.

:lala:

 

I know many Canadians that do need engine block heaers.
Even people in Maine & Vermont & N Hampshire Upstate New York, same story use engine block heaters for that morning cup of coffee starting,

Why straight 50 weight?
IN MY SMALL BLOCK CHEVY instance, 20-50 wasn't as helpful.
My receipt worked well for me.
I eventually sold the worn down rebuilt mill (Bad rebuild job) for $200.

In 89V6Firebird case, 10-40, 20-50 is better & a great option, instead of my usage of straight 50 weight. Should do the job, just right!

 

ok ked :-) I can llive with that

 

In whole scheme of things it's parts wearing down and a little "engine honey (thicker oil or STP or???)" is right answer.
Why tear down a whole good running engine for a noisy lifter tick?
Drive it till it dies is what I say!
I did that to my 2.8 for many many miles, using the thicker oil added trick.
For some areas of USA/CANADA or anywhere else in or Third gen World (Busting with pride!!!) & the temps, it's an OK band aid solution.

 

Agreed...235,000 and still movien you dont even wana hear my lifters sounds like a band is playing in my engine lol

 

understandable
just myself would rather use multi if I could due to start up wear
but I guess if the motor is shot enough it wouldn't matter either way


I know at one point with my celica when someone else did an oil change on their car I would recycle their oil nd just dump it straight into my celica.
worked fine for me :-)

but then again I know that is stupid and it was just me getin by

 

I think I have rod knock so no worries

 

I also agree with this. If you have no intention of doing anything with the motor, and you just want it to last a little longer, or make the annoying tick sound go away. By all means drown the thing in restore or some other liquid life support system.

Actually, it would be a good guinapig engine to see what really does do what it says....

I was only pointing out that lots of the things you can put into a motor to band-aid a problem, will become a pain should you ever want to rebuild that engine.