oil additive may have toasted my engine

I have an 89 lebaron with about 80k. Lifter noise was bothersone so I
added RISLONE engine treatment, mainly because I heard that RISLONE was
one of the best at "quieting noisy engine lifters". In fact,
lifter-noise-taming is what the product seems to mainly endorse, although
the label does mention that it will "remove sludge and other harmful
deposit". So well in fact that its' detergent properties were powerful
enough to release enough sludge on an 80,000 mile motor to block essential
ports, resulting in ?? amount of engine damage. At any rate, the fact that
previous owners of the car may have been lazy about proper auto.
maintenance, as well as the fact that RISLONE seems to "under-emphasize"
it's products' ability to break-up sludge in a car's engine, has left me
stuck picking up the pieces but hey, thats' life, right? I have, however
played with idea that, in the event the engines' oil ports were
free-flowing once again, the engine might not sound so sickly when I crank
it over and actually run again (how well, who knows?) Does anyone have any
suggestions on how to "un-block" the oil ports on a non-running 2.2L
chrysler engine, in case luck may be on my side?

 

I toasted something adding in Bardahl's for a smoking engine, I do believe.
You have my sympathies. I don' tknow about RISLONE. I forget what I
toasted. The catalytic convertor, is that possible? The car really went
downhill after some of that anti-smoking sludge. So I did the opposite
of what you did. I sludged mine up. A big Olds I had, probably similar
in engine type, a big 80's V-8 back then, about same mileage as yours.

 

I don't think you had lifter noise at all. I think you probably had the
beginning of gudgeon pin (piston pin) knock, which is very common on
earlier 2.2 and 2.5 litre engines. Those cam followers scarcely ever make
noise.

Adding anything other than the specified oil to your crankcase is risky
business on an engine an unknown or known-to-be-poor maintenance history.
Even on an engine in fundamentally sound condition, flushing operations
are fraught with exactly the hazard you encountered.

And unless I miss my guess, you just poured it right on in, probably on
top of a crankcase full of dirty oil and an old filter, figuring you'd let
it do its thing for awhile and then change the oil sometime in the
future...right? This is practically guaranteed to result in exactly what
happened to you. An engine dirty enough to require flushing really needs
to be opened and cleaned (at least the oil pan and cam cover removed and
manually cleaned), but if you're determined to try a flush, you start by
buying several oil filters and a lot of new oil.

Its entirely possible to accumulate fatal amounts of sludge in far less
than 80k miles if low quality oil and filters are used and/or if the oil
is not changed often enough.

Certainly seems so.

Er...huh? It says it dissolves gum and sludge. Where did you think the gum
and sludge would go? It doesn't just de-materialize or otherwise
disappear, y'know...

Well, let's have the rest of the story. You added the Rislone, you ran the
engine, and then...what happened, exactly?

 

Pulling the head is the only way if it is not running and brushing out the
ports. I have used a product called Marvel Mystery oil it comes in a red
can and most places carry it. Drain out all oil, fill 1 quart shy and add 1
quart of MMO fun engine for about 30 minutes at idle, drain oil, change
filter and refill with oil, run another 30 minutes check oil condition if
dirty change oil and filter. This stuff really cleans your engines innards.

--
HarryS My 2¢
|I have an 89 lebaron with about 80k. Lifter noise was bothersone so I
| added RISLONE engine treatment, mainly because I heard that RISLONE was
| one of the best at "quieting noisy engine lifters". In fact,
| lifter-noise-taming is what the product seems to mainly endorse, although
| the label does mention that it will "remove sludge and other harmful
| deposit". So well in fact that its' detergent properties were powerful
| enough to release enough sludge on an 80,000 mile motor to block essential
| ports, resulting in ?? amount of engine damage. At any rate, the fact
that
| previous owners of the car may have been lazy about proper auto.
| maintenance, as well as the fact that RISLONE seems to "under-emphasize"
| it's products' ability to break-up sludge in a car's engine, has left me
| stuck picking up the pieces but hey, thats' life, right? I have, however
| played with idea that, in the event the engines' oil ports were
| free-flowing once again, the engine might not sound so sickly when I crank
| it over and actually run again (how well, who knows?) Does anyone have
any
| suggestions on how to "un-block" the oil ports on a non-running 2.2L
| chrysler engine, in case luck may be on my side?
|

 

AND INSTALL NEW FILTER!

fast idle

 

Was this the type of Rislone that you put in for a quick 15 minute
cleanout, or something you put in an leave in?

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
adddress with the letter 'x')

 

Just change the oil at least twice in short order. Dan's suggestions are
sound. Good detergent oil will get out any solids in short order with far
less risk of too much too soon. Additives are not needed.

Richard.

 

Don't believe I've seen one of the 15 (or 5) minute "fast flush" engine
enemas with the Rislone label on it...

 

In the "old days", that's what a Rislone flush was - I guess at some
point they wisely changed the product, of which I wasn't aware.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
adddress with the letter 'x')

 

As far back as I can remember Shaler Rislone was available 2 ways - in
the quart and 1/2 pint (more or less) sizes. One was to add in a
change, the other to a full crankcase. The quart was basically a can
of oil with the concentrate already mixed in.

It was a rather "gentle" engine flush compared to most. I have used
cases of it over the years, without a problem.
If an engine is particularly badly gummed up I would not leave it in
for more than a few hundred miles of driving. I've had a few where it
could not clean the engine up enough to eliminate valve noises. If the
oil can't flow in the first place, the rislone can't clean out the
passages. A 351C (or M - can't remember which) on an old LTD was one I
remember that kept eating rockers untill I replaced all the push-rods
and pulled and hot-tanked the heads. (surprisingly, the crankcase was
pretty clean by then)

An old Rambler 232 did not respond either, so I ran a peice of brake
line from the oil sender switch port up to the rocker shaft. The
overhead oiler quieted that engine down and I was able to drive it
until I didn't need it any more, without a squeak or clatter. (on that
engine the oil comes up around one of the head bolts that was so badly
coked and sludged I was not willing to risk trying to remove it)
Within weeks of installing the Rislone and oil line the rocker shafts
were clean and varnish-free.

 

As far back as I have seen it advertised (at least as far back as the mid
'60s), it's always been the same as it is now: A thin oil containing a
dose of detergent chemistry. The fast-flush gookums are made out of active
solvents and/or Butyl Cellosolve.

 

Not sure about this, but in the past I've run diesel fuel in the crank case
for about a minute to flush it. I don't recommend it by any means because I
always thought it was dangerous.
B

 

What I call "sudden flushes" like that are not advisable if there is
significant sludge. People who do those are taking a big risk with the
engine. A gentle, controlled cleanout is less likely to cause
catastrophic engine faliure.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
adddress with the letter 'x')

 

Deisel, or Kerosene, is MUCH better than harsher solvents like varsol,
as it does not dry up the sludge turning it into "clinkers".
The only sludged engines I have had fail (after me working on them)
were my brothers old Vauxhaul (which we did nothing to, other than
change the oil and drive) and his '65 valiant slant 6, which we did
not flush - but we DID chip out a lot of crud to get to the valve
adjusters. We though we got most of it out, but obviously enough crap
stayed loose in the engine to block the oil pump pickup screen (dead
in less than 10 miles).
I have used Kero (and deisel, and stove oil), ATF, rislone, various
engine flush products, and never had a problem with any of them in
over 35 years.

 

That's the first I ever heard of anyone killing the venerable, a moment
of silence here, for the great, tank-like, slant 6. Kudos!

I tried, 300,000 miles. Nothing could kill that engine for me.
The body would rot away. Leaving the engine still going but
hard to drive a car when the body and other necessary parts
start to rot. The odometer would just keep turning over,
100,000 miles here and there, starts to add up after a while.

 

Me too, I thought they'd run without oil pressure. Eventually you just have
to give up trying to wear them out, or maybe get in a wreck.

 

I don't think the previous owner had ever changed the oil - and after
a bit better than a year of driving with noisy valves brother decided
he wanted me to adjust the valves. Could hardly find the rocker arms.
Didn't have any flush fluids around, so we decided to drive it back to
town and flush it the next day. Didn't get back to town before the oil
light came on and a main bearing spun.
Pulled the engine and the pickup screen was totally plugged.
Big brother bought a new car, and little brother "inherited" the
Valiant and rebuilt it while he was going to high-school. He put on a
2 barrel, split exhaust manifold, and a bunch of other toys trying to
make it go better than my old Dart and Valiant had gone. I was out of
the country when he got it back on the road, and he had sold it by the
time I returned - so I only have hearsay evidence that says it was
perhaps a little faster than mine - and had a lot more bottom end.
Used to have burnout contests with his buddies with 304 gremlins, and
apparently did quite well.
I personally never got rid of one with less than 100,000 miles on the
clock (usually bought them just shy of the 100,000 and drove them
another 3 or 4 years)
The "leaning tower of power" was a great engine and responded well to
tuning (204HP @ 6250 RPM 170 cu inch)