Valvoline's new Restore and Protect oil, good to try?

[MoeMonney]

I recently saw the scientific test results on the NEW Valvoline restore and protect line of oils and was suprized that it removed almost all relevant deposits after 4 oil changes with it. Anyone consider trying out these oils on our cars? I was thinking of trying on one of my cars thinking that at nearly 170k miles on the original engine there must be deposits even though the engine runs very well. They only make 5w30 and 0w20 so i was thinking of running 5w30.

[Wespa]

YMMV, but I'd say 5w40 is the absolute thinnest oil I'd use for these engines, even in colder climates. And what about the ZDDP amounts of this oil, is there any data available on that?

[danmartinic]

At aprox. the 200k mark I did my head gasket and this was the carbon on the top of the pistons..

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I doubt any oil would have scrubbed that clean; took quite a bit of elbow grease and scotch pads..

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I say wait until you need to open it up and clean manually. In the meantime, use proper oil like 10w40 or above and keep the bearings alive

[blade7]

I used 5w40 in my turbo when I bought it 17 years ago. It leaked onto my new paved drive, switched to 10w50 and it hasn't dripped since.

[chrischrischris]

I am trying it in my volvo xc90. But, currently they don't make the oil in 20w50, so not really possible to try it in the 944.

[J-Dub]

I am trying to figure out if this is approved to use in classic flat tappet cam engines?

[dr bob]

R&P is a popular recommendation in a Honda Pilot forum I support. The challenges in the Pilot are related to their variable cylinder management system, which leaves the cylinder under vacuum while fuel is shut off to it. As the rings wear, oil starts to get pulled past them. The rings are carefully shaped to seal best with pressure in the cylinder. Anyway, the oil pulled into the cylinder is burned when fuel is restored, and it leaves a coke and ash clogging the rings. R&P claims to be able to revive the clogged rings and clean the skirts and lands. It's a very practical alternative to removing, cleaning and re-ringing the fouled pistons.

I'm not sure R&P does much for carbon on top of the pistons. I'm also somewhat convinced that we obsess over a normal thin film of carbon on piston tops. This jury is out on whether "scrubbing" the tops of pistons in the bores is a Good Idea; some of the crud that's scrubbed off ends up siting on top of the top ring and in the groove it lives in. IMO we end up doing more damage with that effort without a measurable benefit. If the pistons are seriously carboned up, remove them for the cleaning.

Valvoline has a new R&P-branded fuel system cleaner, with claims for top cylinder cleaning.

--------

A couple decades ago, an enterprising wannabe entrepreneur started buying used 928 engines. He carefully removed the pistons for resale, since certain sets were selling for more than the whole used engine. Pistons got soaked in parts dip, then wire brushed to clean them. Nice... He scrubbed the iron flash coating from the skirts, and the wire brushing nicely rounded the ring grooves and lands between them. Absolutely ruined them. Folks bought them, and quickly experienced cylinder failures. Wasn't pretty. The 928 is 2x the 944 engine as far as cylinders and the V8 block, and I sometimes wonder why the factory didn't make the same turbo development. Twice the 951 power would be pretty awesome. Regardless, the block and bore prep, the technology in the pistons is the same. Use extreme care with how you "clean" pistons.



My too sense...

[Tom]

R&P is a popular recommendation in a Honda Pilot forum I support. The challenges in the Pilot are related to their variable cylinder management system, which leaves the cylinder under vacuum while fuel is shut off to it. As the rings wear, oil starts to get pulled past them. The rings are carefully shaped to seal best with pressure in the cylinder. Anyway, the oil pulled into the cylinder is burned when fuel is restored, and it leaves a coke and ash clogging the rings. R&P claims to be able to revive the clogged rings and clean the skirts and lands. It's a very practical alternative to removing, cleaning and re-ringing the fouled pistons.

I'm not sure R&P does much for carbon on top of the pistons. I'm also somewhat convinced that we obsess over a normal thin film of carbon on piston tops. This jury is out on whether "scrubbing" the tops of pistons in the bores is a Good Idea; some of the crud that's scrubbed off ends up siting on top of the top ring and in the groove it lives in. IMO we end up doing more damage with that effort without a measurable benefit. If the pistons are seriously carboned up, remove them for the cleaning.

Valvoline has a new R&P-branded fuel system cleaner, with claims for top cylinder cleaning.

--------

A couple decades ago, an enterprising wannabe entrepreneur started buying used 928 engines. He carefully removed the pistons for resale, since certain sets were selling for more than the whole used engine. Pistons got soaked in parts dip, then wire brushed to clean them. Nice... He scrubbed the iron flash coating from the skirts, and the wire brushing nicely rounded the ring grooves and lands between them. Absolutely ruined them. Folks bought them, and quickly experienced cylinder failures. Wasn't pretty. The 928 is 2x the 944 engine as far as cylinders and the V8 block, and I sometimes wonder why the factory didn't make the same turbo development. Twice the 951 power would be pretty awesome. Regardless, the block and bore prep, the technology in the pistons is the same. Use extreme care with how you "clean" pistons.



My too sense...

Back when Devek was in business, he was local to me and I'd visit from time to time to pick up something for the 944. One time I was there, he was putting the final touches on a twin turbo 928 motor. It was the stuff of dreams. If memory serves, he expected over 700hp at 1 bar of boost.

[dr bob]

That motor went into a GTS that was a casual open-road racer and capable grocery getter. Marc and Susan had both secured 200+ badges at Silver State events in their own car. The GTS was a drive to the event, put on a helmet, 210+, helmet off, AC on, and drive home car. Pretty effortless in the giant scheme of 200+ road cars.

There have been several similar twin-turbo engines built by a few separate folks. I was a bit surprised that Porsche never bothered to build one themselves. The chassis is certainly capable, the engine bay tight but capable of fitting the needed pieces in. Lots of development effort went into the 951, and I'll speculate that a lot of it would have easily transferred to the V8.

All history now. The Panamera turbo is bigger, faster, and picks up the supercar theme well beyond where the 928 left off.

[chrischrischris]

It is too bad that Porsche has never made a two door Panamera.