Ok, lets say I'm going to take apart the engine (22re). Could I drain the oil and add a few quarts of acetone or thinning agents to the engine engine and run it for about 30 seconds to thin out any gunk in the engine?

The reason I specify BEFORE i take apart the engine is because I know these chemicals can swell and dry out rubber seals. But could this work?

 

no, no, no...

Acetone will offer no lubrication to your engine components. As an example, it doesn't take long to wipe a cam bearing out when you're running with no oil. Plus, a quick bath like that in acetone wouldn't do much to clean out a system anyways. You'd typically need to soak and scrub to get the bad stuff off.

If you want to do a general cleaning before you take things apart, some people have used seafoam in the oil system, fuel system and directly in the air intake (in a vacuum line off the plenum). Do a search on that and don't run your truck with acetone instead of oil.

 

I figured piston rings might be an issue, but if the engine will be apart those should be changed out.

I've run a few parts in the dishwasher before, but I'm reluctant to do that again where I'm living (fancy shmancy apartment complex) Would the chemicals in the detergent damage anything? Especially sensors?

 

I'd be more concerned with the cylinders and bearings than the rings, when running with no oil... bottom line is don't do it. Metal parts, when you have them off, you can soak them in varsol, or acetone, or spray them down with brake cleaner (more expensive), and then scrub them with a stainless steel or brass brush (toothbrush for hard to reach areas). Don't soak any electronic components, though... remove any sensors before soaking the metal components.

hmmm... Running car parts through a dishwasher... you can't be married, are you? j.k.

 

I'm about to be married, but I do the dishes around here, so if there's any complaining I'm the one cleaning it up anyway.

I saw the hot tank machine at carquest and it looked and smelled like a dishwasher. It did look like a pro grade washer at the Italian restaurant I used to work at as my first job. So I figured it can't hurt to use a home dishwasher.

 

another possibility (and won't hurt the engine) is to substitute one quart of engine oil with one quart of ATF and drive it.

 

I've heard about that before, but have never done it myself.

 

What you want to do is get is a bottle of Amsoil Engine flush. I used this stuff about 15,000 km's or so ago in my truck and it made a difference, even after having run Mobil 1 Synthetic for 60,000 km's up til the time I used this stuff for the first time (I then switched to Amsoil).

Make sure you are down about half a quart of oil before you use it as that is roughly what a bottle of this stuff is if I'm not mistaken, dump this into your crankcase, idle your engine for about 15-20 minutes, and then drain the oil and do an oil change.

 

The ATF trick is simple. Dump a quart in the crankcase and then idle your engine for at least 10 mintues. Don't drive the truck as this will increase the oil pressure because you now have an extra quart of oil. ATF has a lot of detergents (cleaners) in it because the last thing you would want in an auto trans is for the gunk to build up and clog the many passages, ATF helps to prevent this. Besides that it's just a 10 weight oil.

 

Check this out:

http://www.amsoil.com/storefront/aef.aspx

 

I wasn't actually looking to clean the crankcase or anything just yet. I was going to remove the block and do the piston rings in a few months and I was thinking of shortcut ways to clean the engine in one piece. I'd still feel safer soaking parts in a bucket of parts cleaner and using the dishwasher.

When the engine is assembled, though, these additives will help keep the thing clean. That amsoil stuff is impossible to find here. I've scoured up and down the additives section of all the local parts stores and have never seen it (or anything like it)

 

I think Mobile is probably just as good as Amsoil to be honest and its cheaper.

 

use mineral spirits. use about 1 quart. make sure you are down a quart tho. ive used up to a mix of half oil half spirits to flush a system and it works beautifully.

 

I can't believe nobody has mentioned Auto RX. This is the absolute BEST stuff you can use to clean your engine internals. The stuff works wonders, is completely compatable with any oil, and is completely safe for your engine. It's not a harsh cleaner like most of the treatments out there.

Read about it on Bobistheoilguy.com, you will find a ton of great info about this product.

 

I usually do that when I've 'overextended my oil change interval': I'll do an oil change when I can and up the oil weight and replace one qt with atf (usually a dexron flavor). If I were using 10w-40 at the time, I'd go with one quart atf and the rest 20w-50. Make sense?
It's an 'old' trick I learned while going through my certs for diesel mechanic (sometimes I wish I'd have stuck with that...) to clean the oil passages and ring-lands. When you get too much carbon built up in the oil 'scraping' rings, the oil "cokes", or turns to carbon, and if you can keep that from happening the other rings will last longer since the oil rings are the first to plug up. I heard that from 4 different fleet managers (that didn't know each other, BTW) so that would suggest, to me at least, some truth.

It was also mentioned in passing, but I don't have any hear-say to back that up, that even 1/4 quart ATF in each oil change would keep the engine clean. To be honest, if ATF can keep the transmission clean and running for over 50K miles without a fluid change, using a pint of ATF during every oil change isn't going to hurt anything. But that's my 25 cents worth (keep the change ).

 

I was suggesting a way to either clean it up, or keep it clean if it's not already clean, thus reducing the time in the dishwasher, time spent scrubbing or ...

good luck.

 

My wife and I were married for 6 months, she comes home from a day out with a girlfriend, sees the dishwasher light on, clean. She opens it, sockets and wrenches as far as the eye can see. I put all of the big ones in like cups in the upper rack and any of the small ones I placed over the tines, through the drive hole. There were combination wrenches in the silverware holder, tools everywhere.

She closes it, walks out to the garage and asks me if there is any particular reason why all of my tools are in the dishwasher? I got them out of there as quick as possible.

I ran them on the high temp, pots and pans setting. They came out spotless!!

Next time I will tell you the story about curing high temp paint on parts in the oven.....fumes, a bad thing.

 

You are one brave dude. Respect.