Valvoline Restore and Protect - in 5.7

[Jetboy]

Thought it might be worth opening a thread about this oil. My Tundra is now at about 115k miles and there's a lot of pretty good looking data coming out regarding this oil and it's ability to help break down some of the oil deposits in older engines. I have noticed over the winter that I can occasionally hear some timing chain noise for a few seconds on cold starts. I think we all know where that's coming from and I've read some reports of this oil helping. So - my last oil change I bought some and used it.

After maybe 500 miles or so, I do not hear any chain noise on start up. BUT - and it's a bit "but" - it's also warmer. It's been a cold winter and I park in a garage so I'd normally only hear the chain on starts when leaving work at anywhere from 0 to -30*F. Now that it's more like 20*F when I'm leaving work - it may just be due to warmer temps. Hard to know. I'll keep an eye on it and update after my next oil change.

What prompted me to start a thread on it is this: A few days ago when I started my truck to pull out of the garage i got a decent puff of smoke out the exhaust. And it smelled like burning oil. I've never had that before with this truck. And the timing may just be luck with the change in oil. However - it did concern me because it's never done that. It went away immediately as you'd expect if a small amount of oil had found its way into a cylinder while it was parked. But it was unmistakable in how it smelled as I backed out of the garage. I tow with it a lot. And I towed my snowmobiles yesterday for about 100 miles out and back. I've seen no additional oil burning either during towing or in the dozen or so starts after that. Including a few overnight cold starts. But I'm watching closely now.

Has anyone else used it and had good or bad experiences. It may be snake oil. I'm generally very skeptical of magic oil additives or special oils. There's pretty good large fleet data sets that suggest oil brand makes no difference in engine life so long as it meets the class standard. I usually use Mobil 1 synthetic 0w20. But I have no heartburn about using any other brand of similar oil. I've never had a toyota engine fail from a lubrication related issue regardless of what brand is used. But it does initially seem like it may have actually helped free up the timing chain tensioner. I'm worried it might have also resulted in a piston ring getting loose that was sealing better before or released a deposit on a valve guide seal or something like that that was actually keeping it from leaking down.

Or I might be fooled by randomness. Probably randomness. But - anyone else use it and have any immediate or long term benefits or harm?

 

[SoCal818]

Thought it might be worth opening a thread about this oil. My Tundra is now at about 115k miles and there's a lot of pretty good looking data coming out regarding this oil and it's ability to help break down some of the oil deposits in older engines. I have noticed over the winter that I can occasionally hear some timing chain noise for a few seconds on cold starts. I think we all know where that's coming from and I've read some reports of this oil helping. So - my last oil change I bought some and used it.

After maybe 500 miles or so, I do not hear any chain noise on start up. BUT - and it's a bit "but" - it's also warmer. It's been a cold winter and I park in a garage so I'd normally only hear the chain on starts when leaving work at anywhere from 0 to -30*F. Now that it's more like 20*F when I'm leaving work - it may just be due to warmer temps. Hard to know. I'll keep an eye on it and update after my next oil change.

What prompted me to start a thread on it is this: A few days ago when I started my truck to pull out of the garage i got a decent puff of smoke out the exhaust. And it smelled like burning oil. I've never had that before with this truck. And the timing may just be luck with the change in oil. However - it did concern me because it's never done that. It went away immediately as you'd expect if a small amount of oil had found its way into a cylinder while it was parked. But it was unmistakable in how it smelled as I backed out of the garage. I tow with it a lot. And I towed my snowmobiles yesterday for about 100 miles out and back. I've seen no additional oil burning either during towing or in the dozen or so starts after that. Including a few overnight cold starts. But I'm watching closely now.

Has anyone else used it and had good or bad experiences. It may be snake oil. I'm generally very skeptical of magic oil additives or special oils. There's pretty good large fleet data sets that suggest oil brand makes no difference in engine life so long as it meets the class standard. I usually use Mobil 1 synthetic 0w20. But I have no heartburn about using any other brand of similar oil. I've never had a toyota engine fail from a lubrication related issue regardless of what brand is used. But it does initially seem like it may have actually helped free up the timing chain tensioner. I'm worried it might have also resulted in a piston ring getting loose that was sealing better before or released a deposit on a valve guide seal or something like that that was actually keeping it from leaking down.

Or I might be fooled by randomness. Probably randomness. But - anyone else use it and have any immediate or long term benefits or harm?

I started using it about 1k miles ago in my 4.7L. Similar situation where I read all the glowing reviews and positive remarks so I decided to give it a try. No price difference from my standard Mobil 1 (synthetic). Nothing to report yet but after a few oil changes I’m hopeful it’ll have helped clean the internals a bit after nearly 250k miles. Granted, I’m not expecting miracles.

 

[Jetboy]

I'll pull apart the filter on my next change and put some pics on here. The 5.7 cartridge style filter is really easy to just break the ends off of the pleats and pull open to see what's in them. I didn't keep my last one, but there's usually just a small amount of visible darkenign around the creases in the middle. I've never seen a metalic flake in the filter media.

I'm becoming more convinced over time that it really did fix the timing chain tensioner though. I did a start yesterday at 20*F and it was completely gone. If that's the only outcome - easy win IMO. Agree that the price being the same as normal oil makes it easy to try.

 

[vtl]

This Valvoline has NOACK (volatility loss) about twice higher than already high Mobil 1. More oil vaporizes, more of it gets into cylinders via crankcase ventilation. Though initial puff is most likely oil sipping past valve stem seals. Kinematic viscosity of these two is identical, it may be Valvoline does not swell seals as much as Mobil 1 does. Looking at datasheets, Mobil 1 looks better in numbers.

I had occasional burning oil smell on startup on both my 3URs, even when they were new. Cold weather, give it a few days of sitting in driveway - it will burn.

Also 5w30 for the win

Have you ever replaced PCV valve? Part number 12204-38030. Very cheap and easy to replace. It is spring-loaded, soaked in oil and I can imagine it can freeze or gummed up in cold weather.

 

[Jetboy]

Juste an update - it only happened once. Hasn't happened again. I've been starting it every day with the remote as I walk up after work to see if I get any smoke or smell and also listen for timing chain rattle. The news so far is all good. Have not had another instance of smoke. And the timing chain rattle has been completely gone. I've probably put around 800 miles on it with the new oil so far. My timing chain rattle was less than 5 seconds - probalby closer to 2 seconds - but definitely there on cold starts and has been completely gone. However - it's warmer. So, it's hard to separate any oil results from warmer weather.

I am glad that I haven't had any additional oil burning.

 

[Jetboy]

This Valvoline has NOACK (volatility loss) about twice higher than already high Mobil 1. More oil vaporizes, more of it gets into cylinders via crankcase ventilation. Though initial puff is most likely oil sipping past valve stem seals. Kinematic viscosity of these two is identical, it may be Valvoline does not swell seals as much as Mobil 1 does. Looking at datasheets, Mobil 1 looks better in numbers.

I had occasional burning oil smell on startup on both my 3URs, even when they were new. Cold weather, give it a few days of sitting in driveway - it will burn.

Also 5w30 for the win

Have you ever replaced PCV valve? Part number 12204-38030. Very cheap and easy to replace. It is spring-loaded, soaked in oil and I can imagine it can freeze or gummed up in cold weather.

I'm sticking with 0W20 for my climate (south central Alaska). I have a lot more -20F days than 100*F days. Actually zero 100*F days. The hotest temperature it has reached since I moved here is about 73 degrees. So, I think I'm probalby better with the 0w20. But I might go to a higher viscosity if I move back south.

So far so good on the oil puff being a one-time thing. I am curious to see if there's much difference in the oil filter next time. I probably could have boroscoped inside the valve cover or something like that as a before and after, but I'm not sure at my mileage it would make any difference anyway. I was mostly hoping it might help with the timing chain rattle that had started periodically over the winter. Seems to be gone already, but hard to know. That alone was worth the small effort to use it for an oil change or two if it does really fix it.

Never changed the PCV. Probably does get sticky in cold temps.

My snowmobiles both use 0W40 oil. That's a bit of an oddball oil weight I've never seen before. But it might actually be an okay choice to swap out for the 0w20 if I wanted good cold weather flow and also thicker oil once its warmed up.

 

[SoCal818]

I started using it about 1k miles ago in my 4.7L. Similar situation where I read all the glowing reviews and positive remarks so I decided to give it a try. No price difference from my standard Mobil 1 (synthetic). Nothing to report yet but after a few oil changes I’m hopeful it’ll have helped clean the internals a bit after nearly 250k miles. Granted, I’m not expecting miracles.

Ok, so quick update on the 4.7 and this oil. I changed it at 3k miles (normally I do 5k OCI) to be safe. The oil was dark, gunky and looked like it was pretty well used. The only negative is my passenger side valve cover is now leaking very slightly. Might be a coincidence but I just noticed it today when I popped the hood. No difference otherwise after one oil change.

 

[TheBussman]

This oil is absolutely great for engines that have issues with low tension rings getting seized because of excessive carbon and cause oil burning 2az, 1zz, 1AR, subaru FB, Honda V6, ETC. I've taken a bunch of these engines apart, many of them look absolutely great, good bearings cyl walls, everything in the motor is clean except the ring lands they are burning so much oil that they foul plugs. the only real issue is that the rings are stuck with carbon. I have a rack of restore and protect at my shop and use it in all the problem engines. It's been working great and it's dramatically reduced the oil burning in my customer's cars. the engines that are not known for these problems do not get it.

 

[vtl]

This oil is absolutely great for engines that have issues with low tension rings getting seized because of excessive carbon and cause oil burning 2az, 1zz, 1AR, subaru FB, Honda V6, ETC. I've taken a bunch of these engines apart, many of them look absolutely great, good bearings cyl walls, everything in the motor is clean except the ring lands they are burning so much oil that they foul plugs. the only real issue is that the rings are stuck with carbon. I have a rack of restore and protect at my shop and use it in all the problem engines. It's been working great and it's dramatically reduced the oil burning in my customer's cars. the engines that are not known for these problems do not get it.

I've taken only a couple of engines apart for rebuild (high-tension rings), no way in life that carbon could be taken out of grooves while inside the bores, with any chemistry. Hours of hot-tanking in DIY hot tank, in Simple Green solution, with compressed air agitation, and that was only enough to prepare the pistons for the high pressure washer, which cleaned most of the cooked gunk - but not everything! Without softening the gunk even mechanical grooves cleaner wasn't doing much, only kept digging into aluminum. It is truly cheaper to change oil often than to deal with FUBARed engine.

 

[TheBussman]

I've taken only a couple of engines apart for rebuild (high-tension rings), no way in life that carbon could be taken out of grooves while inside the bores, with any chemistry. Hours of hot-tanking in DIY hot tank, in Simple Green solution, with compressed air agitation, and that was only enough to prepare the pistons for the high pressure washer, which cleaned most of the cooked gunk - but not everything! Without softening the gunk even mechanical grooves cleaner wasn't doing much, only kept digging into aluminum. It is truly cheaper to change oil often than to deal with FUBARed engine.

for sure on time oil changes are important, I do have some customers that bought their car new, changed oil on time with documentation and still had oil burning on those problem engines. i know exactly what your talking about with how hard it is to remove that stuff scrubbing. I have know way of knowing what exactly is going on when running that oil in those motors, what I can say for sure is that the oil is black in a short amount of time and that it has been reducing the amount of topoff oil needed between changes.

 

[Jetboy]

UPDATE: Just a quick update on my '16 with 5.7 and 115k miles. It's been a few months now. Have not made it to the next oil change yet. Only around 2,500 miles since using for the first time. But - I can say with a pretty high level of confidence now that the chain noise on startup has completely gone away. I start with the remote start as I walk up periodically just to check and see if I can hear anything. Have not had any audible timing chain rattle on cold starts since a week or so after my oil change to the R&P. I have not had weather in the subzero range and likely won't for quite a while.

My only other note is that I think I hear more valve noise at idle now than I used to. Very typical of Toyota OHC engines. I didn't notice a lot of valve noise in my 5.7 previously and it seems like it's a bit more. Acutally sounds a lot like my dual vvti 1GR engine. Possibly I'm just imagining a difference. Just something I've noticed recently at stop signs if I have the radio off.

I had no oil burning issues or leaks before outside of a very slow weep from the cam tower on one side. That does not seem to have changed at all. It's never been measurable as lost oil or enough to make a drip. Just visible dust accumulating on the engine side where the small amount of oil ends up on the side of the block. No change I can tell either way.

So far so good. Not sure if I'll keep using the oil or go back to normal oil for the next oil change. Very curious to see what the oil filter looks like during the next oil change. My biggest concern now is that it's removing enough deposits to start to clog the oil filter. But I have no indication of that. Just over-thinking it. Golf clap for the chemists who developed it!

 

[aztoyman]

Thanks for the update. Why not keep using it? It says to use it for 4 consecutive oil changes for maximum results.

 

[vtl]

So far so good. Not sure if I'll keep using the oil or go back to normal oil for the next oil change. Very curious to see what the oil filter looks like during the next oil change. My biggest concern now is that it's removing enough deposits to start to clog the oil filter. But I have no indication of that. Just over-thinking it. Golf clap for the chemists who developed it!

No filter bypass valve in UR?

 

[TheBussman]

No filter bypass valve in UR?

Yes there is a bypass, good thing is that the 5.7 has a huge filter so that thing opening up is unlikely. I'd bet most of the debris getting cleaned away are going to be smaller then the filter can catch or be soluble into the oil. Every time i change oil with this stuff i can't see anything on the filter but i've never put it under the microscope either.

 

[Jetboy]

Thanks for the update. Why not keep using it? It says to use it for 4 consecutive oil changes for maximum results.

It's a psychological problem. I don't really have any good reason not to keep using it. I still have some unfounded fear that it isn't as good of a lubricating oil. It seems too good to be true that an oil can clean the engine, not have any additional wear, and costs roughly the same as normal oil. There's gotta be a catch somewhere right??

I guess barring anything unusual in the next oil change I'll probably just keep using it. Going to put it in our RX350 for the next oil change too. Not sure it needs it, but why not?

 

[vtl]

It's a psychological problem. I don't really have any good reason not to keep using it. I still have some unfounded fear that it isn't as good of a lubricating oil. It seems too good to be true that an oil can clean the engine, not have any additional wear, and costs roughly the same as normal oil. There's gotta be a catch somewhere right??

I guess barring anything unusual in the next oil change I'll probably just keep using it. Going to put it in our RX350 for the next oil change too. Not sure it needs it, but why not?

Likely truckloads of calcium and other cleaning additives. Not good for combustion chambers, where such oil covers pistons and valves with cement-like substance that likes to chunk off and get caught between valve seat and valve face, causing a valve burn.

Just use a good oil like PPU 5w30 and replace it at least twice a year.

 

[aztoyman]

I'm running it in several vehicles. Lots of cheap borescopes out there to look in the spark plug holes. I'll report back if that happens.

My one vehicle I won't run it in is my Flathead powered 52 F3 pickup. With years of leaded gas and non detergent oil the sludge was unreal.

 

[vtl]

This is from a vehicle that runs engine bay hot and is known for crankcase ventilation problems. Was on Red Line (known for high calcium) for a few years when that happened. Bearings were like new though

I have to note that it had bore taper, worn compression rings and failed valve stem seals, so it was eating oil about 30 oz every 1k mile a few weeks before the abrupt death happened.

 

[Jetboy]

Likely truckloads of calcium and other cleaning additives. Not good for combustion chambers, where such oil covers pistons and valves with cement-like substance that likes to chunk off and get caught between valve seat and valve face, causing a valve burn.

Just use a good oil like PPU 5w30 and replace it at least twice a year.

I haven't seen any teardowns show issues like that, but it hasn't been out for all that long.

I did watch an interview about the the formulation of the oil and one of the biggest challenges was making sure it would both suspend the debris well so it would depsit in the oil filter and make sure it didn't remove too much contamination so it wouldn't clog oil filters. How much detergent that requires? I have no idea.

My basic guess is that my 5.7 at 115k miles is pretty clean anyway. I do tow about 50% of my miles, so it gets worked pretty hard. But I also make sure it has on-time oil changes. We'll see what the oil looks like at the next oil change.