Just purchased an '84 300D turbo and will be doing a first oil change. Does anyone have experience using Lubro Moly's Motor Clean additive? Is there any point doing this or just change the oil? Thanks.

Is there a particular issue with the car that is making you think about this, or do you just want to do the best you can, for the new addition to the family?

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Mac
2002 e320 4matic estate│1985 300d│1980 300td
Previous: 1979 & 1982 & 1983 300sd │ 1982 240d

“Let's take a drive into the middle of nowhere with a packet of Marlboro lights and talk about our lives.” ― Joseph Heller, Catch-22

There's no need for additives. Just use a good diesel rated oil without additives and your engine will be happy.

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'81 MB 300SD, '82 MB 300D Turbo (sold/RIP), '04 Lincoln Town Car Ultimate

Sooner or later every car falls apart, ours does it later!
-German Narrator in a MB Promotion Film about the then brand new W123.

Snake oil!!!

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Grumpy Old Diesel Owners Club group

I no longer question authority, I annoy authority. More effect, less effort....

1967 230-6 auto parts car. rust bucket.
1980 300D now parts car 800k miles
1984 300D 500k miles
1987 250td 160k miles English import
2001 jeep turbo diesel 130k miles
1998 jeep tdi ~ followed me home. Needs a turbo.
1968 Ford F750 truck. 6-354 diesel conversion.
Other toys ~J.D.,Cat & GM ~ mainly earth moving

I just drain the old oil, refill with the cheapest oil possible, let the engine run for 5 minutes, then I drain that oil again, change the filter and refill the engine again with the good stuff.

Yeah just do a few good oil changes and filter changes in succession.

This is unnecessary but if you are really paranoid about getting the old oil out then remove the lower oil pan and replace with a new gasket, remove the injector pump to clean out any crud - and to make it easier for yourself take off the oil filter tower and clean that out too. A nice Saturday's work there - I can see why additives seem so attractive but I doubt any of them would clean as well as a clean (fluff free) rag.

May be you can justify taking off bits and putting them back on by doing a good valve adjustment, a timing chain elongation check, and a start of delivery drip test on the IP at the same time?

(Top tip - if you do take off the IP check the end play of the intermediate shaft - make sure it doesn't move too much - if it does it can knacker your vacuum pump - which when bust can knacker your engine with its debris => lots of ifs there though!)

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

If you want to do an engine flush ,add 250 -350 mls of Autotrans fluid to the engine 200 miles Before you change the oil/filter . if you think the detergent oil in a diesel gets black normally,wait till you what the ATF drags out! . Do this every oil change and the engine will run better and cleaner.
ATF is under a lot more stress in a trans than in a engine so dont sweat the worries about engine wear etc. it has lots of cleaning additives which work better than almost all of the things i have seen used ..except the original flushing oils which used to be available years ago.

I had blow by issues and finally used that stuff, worked for me.

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83 SD

84 CD

I have used AutoR/X. I heard about it on BoB Is The Oil Guy. I can't say one way or the other that it worked. It takes several oil changes though. Some report good results.
I have used trans fluid and the Motor Flush. I worry about using Motor Flush. I still see it on the shelfes, sometime.
Tom

Many people just run Mobil 1 synthetics, they do a great job of cleaning the engine internally while not compromising the lubrication. It'll be a lot cleaner after a few thousand miles.

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Gone to the dark side

- Jeff

That stuff's really popular in the Saab world, where sludging is a documented problem. I am running some through the wife's 9-5 right now, just as a preventative step. Can't hurt, I suppose. The reported "pro" is that it's much less harsh than the typical engine cleaner -- you run it through for an entire oil change cycle (3000 miles, as I recall), rather than for 5 minutes jus5 before an oil change. If deposits are there, it slowly eats away at them rather than breaking them off in chunks and sending them into the passages and filter to further clog things up.

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1992 300D 2.5T
1980 Euro 300D (sadly, sold)
1998 Jetta TDI, 132K "Rudy"
1974 Triumph TR6
1999 Saab 9-5 wagon (wife's)