Automotive

Engine owners eventually need to make an important decision about how to best care for their engines, with detergent oil or non detergent engine oil .  Even though detergent oil has not been widely used for many decades, it is the predominant type of oil used today.  Non detergent oil is not best suited for all applications, oil distributors normally recommend engine types for specific oils.

There are many people that speculate about the detergent content inside regular detergent oil.  Some people agree that the use of the word detergent, in the traditional sense of the word, is not present, but an ingredient is present that prevents carbon deposits from joining together to make larger sludge deposits.  In this theory, smaller carbon deposits suspended in detergent oil would then, theoretically, be filtered out by the oil filter.

Non detergent motor oil is also used in other applications such as inside transmissions or used as gear oil, depending on manufacturers’ guidelines.  Each engine or gear box should come with recommendations from the company on the best lubricant to use for optimal performance and maintenance.  Engine owners can usually access information about their motors or gear boxes from online sources such as downloadable PDF files or owners manual documents.

In addition to ND oil or non detergent motor oil, there is also HD oil, which is high detergent oil.  For engines that require it, engines may be lubricated with high detergent oil instead of the traditional types of oil.  One way for people to clean the inside of engines is to engage the use of a high detergent oil.  It varies by auto tech, but high detergent oil can be used as a viable solution for some engines.  HD oil is considered to be more gentile on breaking up sludge and less likely to break off sludge in large pieces that would clog oil passages.  Other options to using a higher detergent motor oil is to simply change engine oil more frequently to drain out the bits of carbon more often.