Changing fluids in a vehicle

[rob love]

With the old non-detergent oil, you actually removed the pan like David did and cleaned it out. But with today's detergent oil, unless you are only driving it 4 blocks to church each Sunday, the oil should be cleaning the system out without the sludge buildups of yesteryear.

I would suggest draining the oil right after shutdown, while any particulate is still suspended in the oil. Open the filter cannister, remove the filter, and suck out the remaining oil from there with a suction gun. Follow up with lint free rags or towellettes to clean out the filter canister.

Once the oil had drained, and things have cooled off a bit, run your little finger into the drain hole and see how much sludge is on the bottom. If negligible, then put the plug back in and start re-assembling. Otherwise, pull the pan and start cleaning.

Pan gaskets are only about $10...far cheaper than those gallons of solvent or kerosene you are going to dump down the engine, and still not get it all.

Because of the removal of the zinc additives form today's gasoline grade of oil, you will want to run either diesel grade oil, add an additive like ZDDP to regular gas grade oil, or you could also likely get away with the high mileage oil from Cdn tire.Personally, I run multi-weight diesel oils like 15W40 and 10W30 in my engines and have had no issues. But if you want to live in the past, with the problems of the past, then go find some non-detergent 30 weight and have fun. The DND was running multigrade 15W40 in the Jeeps (and pretty much everything else too) when the Jeeps were disposed of.