Engine Sludge: Any Updated Fix?

[edifice]

Could engine flush additives cause any oil seals to loose / dislodge and causing oil leak?
The cleaning ingredients in oil additives maybe too strong, that's why some flush oil additives suggest very short idling

[oragex]

Could engine flush additives cause any oil seals to loose / dislodge and causing oil leak?
The cleaning ingredients in oil additives maybe too strong, that's why some flush oil additives suggest very short idling

The Seafoam can be kept for a few hundreds miles (and no high revving). In theory it's safe. But on an engine with a lot of sludge, as jimmy says it's a risky business and the sludge can travel and clog channels (some cars didn't have the tiny filters on the vvt solenoid gasket) along with the oil filter, pcv, oil pan pick up mesh, etc. Even switching to synthetic on such engine is very risky (but sometimes needed)

[oragex]

Not sure exactly what's in it but it came out black and the oil has stayed pretty clean since..

Always a pleasant surprise to see the oil still half-clear after months of driving. On new engines is even more clear, but on these higher miles cars is even surprisingly pleasant to see this.

[Rattnalle]

Could engine flush additives cause any oil seals to loose / dislodge and causing oil leak?
The cleaning ingredients in oil additives maybe too strong, that's why some flush oil additives suggest very short idling

They're thin and thus the oil doesn't protect the engine as it should with them inside. Driving or long idling could cause extra wear. Or at least that's how I've interpreted the information.

[mecheng]

The old timers used to use Kerosene, Diesel or Auto Trans fluid, I would choose the auto trans fluid over the other two as it is actually an oil. As for any detergent, the key is to only idle the car, not drive it.

You may want to consider using Rotella Shell oil which has very good detergents in it. A lot of people swear by it.

[dlundblad]

Changed the oil in her S60 last weekend. The filter had no sludge or carbon chucks.. The 0w40 diet seems to be working very well.

[edifice]

Im interested to flush the engine. Only got Marvel and Seafoam at the store. My S60 T5 is 136,000km. Marvel or Seafoam?

Last week just flushed out the Atf. Use Lubegard Atf flush. Then refill with Penrite FS Atf and a bottle of Lubegard Atf Protectant. Can't feel any difference

[ignatz]

I had to drop the pan because of a 1+ second oil light delay on start up. I never got a warning message, but if the car sat for two or three days, it sounded like I just changed the oil with a dry filter.
Because I just bought the car a year or more ago, I changed the oil with Mobil 1 four times. The oil looked cleaner at the end, but after removing the oil pan...….there is no oil or mystery potion that is going to clean up the hard baked crap in a Volvo oil pan.
BTW, the two oil pan O-rings looked fine,....my oil pick up "O-ring" was crooked and sucking air, draining back the oil. Everything sounds great now.
My 02 V70 t2.4 and 05 S60 2.5t awd came with 100% "Carfax" dealer service from new and show a clean "under the oil cap".
The above 2001 V70 2.4t came with a long Carfax report, but showed oil changes from smaller shops, probably using cheap oil.

I had to drop the pan to fix the oil pick up problem, otherwise I would not have dropped the pan. But the "under the oil cap" condition on this car was dark and not great......and the oil pan looked crappy. Repeated scrubbing, scrapping and using Simple Green cleaned my oil pan. Not the little people in a bottle of engine flush.

[mrbrian200]

I'll share my own little experience here: when I bought my '06 S60 2.5t, with 84k on the odometer 30 months ago, the filler grate and bottom of the cap were covered with deposits more or less identical to OP's picture on page 1. Immediately I switched to full synthetic with the following interval: 1000, 3000,3000 then after that whenever the maintenance reminder lights (I believe its set at 4500 on mine).
I used Amsoil for the first year. Mechanical and tappet noise was crazy loud with Amsoil. Due to price increases I switched to Quaker State Ultimate Durability, the cleansing effect has continued nicely with QS, as well as the tappets quieted way down with an instant increase in fuel economy when I switched to QS. My suspicion is that excessive tappet noise gets picked up and misinterpreted by the knock sensors/ECU as detonation.

2 1/2 years and 25,000 miles later, you can see that the deposits on the grate are largely cleared with deposits on the bottom of the cap about half gone. No metal was visible on the grates or bottom of the cap when I bought it. The engine runs and sounds just beautiful.

[Rattnalle]

I'll share my own little experience here: when I bought my '06 S60 2.5t, with 84k on the odometer 30 months ago, the filler grate and bottom of the cap were covered with deposits more or less identical to OP's picture on page 1. Immediately I switched to full synthetic with the following interval: 1000, 3000,3000 then after that whenever the maintenance reminder lights (I believe its set at 4500 on mine).
I used Amsoil for the first year. Mechanical and tappet noise was crazy loud with Amsoil. Due to price increases I switched to Quaker State Ultimate Durability, the cleansing effect has continued nicely with QS, as well as the tappets quieted way down with an instant increase in fuel economy when I switched to QS. My suspicion is that excessive tappet noise gets picked up and misinterpreted by the knock sensors/ECU as detonation.

2 1/2 years and 25,000 miles later, you can see that the deposits on the grate are largely cleared with deposits on the bottom of the cap about half gone. No metal was visible on the grates or bottom of the cap when I bought it. The engine runs and sounds just beautiful.
DSCF1043.JPG

I'm seeing the same thing though perhaps a bit slower on my 10' km intervals (as opposed to the prescribed 20' km that PO has done the cars whole life). I'll have done 50' km in about 2,5 years on the shorter intervals in a few weeks. Engine is a nice and quiet on all brands of 5W40 I've tried so far.