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.

The amount of detergent included in detergent oil is often up for debate with many engine oil experts.  Experts will site that, for engines that need detergent oil, the oil prevents sludge from forming by keeping collections of sludge from sticking together and forming longer chains of sludge within the engine.  Changing your oil filter regularly is the other half of regularly scheduled maintenance to remove carbon deposits that build motor oil sludge.

Non detergent oil may be used for more than simply engine lubricant, non detergent oil may be used in a wide variety of uses, like as a transmission oil and as a gear lubricants.  It is always best to check with your vehicle’s manufacturer for recommendations on the best engine lubricants to use.  Engine owners can usually access information about their motors or gear boxes from online sources such as downloadable PDF files or owners manual documents.

Engine users have many choices for oil type, they may choose from non determent motor oil, to detergent motor oil, to high detergent oil.  High detergent oil, as you may have guessed, is said to contain higher levels of detergent.  Again, it is important to verify that your engine can use or needs to use higher detergent motor oil before using it.  HD oil does not mean heavy duty oil, rather it refers to include a higher level of detergent for cleaning the inside of engines.  Instead of using a more harsh engine cleaner, some like to use motor oil with a higher level of detergent because the cleaning process is more subtle and will be less likely to separate chunks of carbon that could harm engine lubrication.  What ever your chosen solution for reducing your engine sludge, be advised that every solution has advantages and disadvantages and that to maximize the life of your engine, you need to also maximize your lubrication.