Hydraulic tappet snake oil

[sdg1970]

.....and 'respectfully' Mr. CNG, I also own a vehicle with a Hemi V8 in it. These are notorious for lifter failure, at low mileages or whatever, if you use oil with an improper zinc content/and or poor change intervals.

[colnet]

RollingThunder
Would you please let us know how you get on, thanks.

[volvo2]

I have this noise (1994 petrol, non-turbo, 206k miles) but only on start-up and only after the car has not been used for a day or two. There is no noise after that. Worth trying the Wynn's or maybe thinner oil (I use Castrol 10w-40)? The last thing I want to do is make this worse.

[RollingThunder]

The Wynn's bottle of magic has arrived, but I need to sort out a brake issue before I can take it for a run, so it might be a week or so before I can add it to the oil. I don't expect an immediate improvement, but hopefully it'll have an effect over the first couple of 100 miles... I'll let you know how it goes.

Despite the oil being fresh, I have no idea what it is, so I'll drop that in 1000 miles, and will replace it with a high detergent content 10W40. So far I'm considering the Castrol UltraClean or the Valvoline MaxLife which supposedly has a lot of cleaning agents and seal conditioners in it. Volvo's stated requirement is just a basic A3/B3 spec which pretty much all oil satisfies these days, so they should be ok.

[Cookeh]

Any engine flush should do the job, you're just looking for something detergent based to break down whatever minor sludge is present in or around that tappet. Might work out cheaper, for future reference, than a named dedicated item.

Luqimoly do a pretty good and reasonably priced flush.

[Dippydog]

Personally-this is just my take on the subject-I'd be wary of flushing unless you do it very very thoroughly and perhaps depending on mileage of the car,as it can dislodge stuff that's better left where it is rather than breaking free and clogging oilways elsewhere in the engine.Others are of course free to disagree.

[RollingThunder]

I know where you're coming from DippyDog - if the engine had a decent service history and I had the assurance of good oil being used all the time, then I would use an engine flush. However, the service records for this car show that while it has had regular attention, the oils quoted on the documents vary wildly. Plus it also has some minor oils leaks already, so I reckon that if I use an engine flush I'll end up with a lot more work

My intention is to use an oil with good detergent additives to slowly clear the gunk away, along with the tappet treatment. I dare not go any further at the moment, especially with the weather turning now - I don't want to be faced with a leaking rear main seal in the middle of December!

[Cookeh]

Respectfully, if you already have oil leaks then a flush won't make a (negative) difference. Additionally, avoiding using a flush for fear of creating oil leaks is generally bad practice and poor maintenance. Engines run better and have lower wear when they are cleaner, that's rather obvious and I don't think anyone will dispute that. Seals being held together by sludge doesn't fit into that equation, and if they are indeed being held together by sludge that needs to be established and the seal needs replacing. The idea that a single flush will wipe out all sludge, all varnish, and all deposits is also misguided. It will take lots of repeat flushes along with good oil choice to make a dent.

Given all the effort you've put into this car, and all the previous effort you've put into older cars skimping here seems out of character for you.

[ITSv40]

When I bought my V40 it was on 90,000mls with full Volvo main dealer documented service history. Looking through the detailed invoices I noticed that up to 50,000mls the engine oil and filter had been changed at the service schedules. From 50,000mls Wurth Engine Flush had been used at every second oil change.

I have now adopted the same regime with all our cars and use Wurth at every second change, I also change the oil and filter every 7000mls or so.

[RollingThunder]

Thanks for the feedback both

Cookeh, my problem is that its a bit more complex than just doing what I should with the car...

First off, my wife wasn't best impressed when I sold our perfectly good S40 to get this - which turned out to have quite a few issues even before I cocked up the cambelt change. So she just wants it on the road asap. To further complicate things, both my parents and my inlaws are elderly and disabled, so they need to be able to get into a car in order for us to take them out - I have the luxury of a Discovery V8 for wifey and me to use, but they can't get into that lol. They're not exactly housebound, but we can't take them out shopping, and they're a bit frustrated about that. (Obviously, we're part of their extended covid bubble due to their disabilities and us supporting them).

So while I'd normally admit that I have accidentally bought a project car and console myself in a few beers, I can't do that this time. We need it on the road asap as long as its safe and roadworthy. I'll pick up the non essential other work next year - but whatever I do now can't jeopardise the car's availability/reliability in the meantime.

This means I can do the smaller jobs that won't take longer than a day, but anything that would likely take longer will have to wait (as long as it doesn't damage the car or its safety of course!).

It will see the usual RollingThunder levels of attention and love in due course, but for now we just need it back on the road