Keeping engine internals clean is the key to getting optimum engine performance every time, all the time. So regular oil changes and preventive maintenance is a must to keep your vehicle’s engine chugging along happily through the kilometers you travel.
But despite all those religious oil change intervals that you do, sludge still forms inside your engine. Now engine sludge forms even under normal engine usage. It’s just something you have to deal with eventually. That’s what engine flush solutions are for during oil changes. But there is that niggling question…do completely flush all the sludge out?
Recently, I found myself needing to schedule an oil change for our daily driver, a 2017 Mitsubishi Mirage GLS. A little econobox that has brought me to where I need to be while making a minimal dent in my wallet.
The engine is a 3 banger that has about 52,000 easy kilometers traveled on the clock. After sourcing out what I needed for the oil change, engine oil and oil filter, it was time get the oil change done. (A huge thanks to the guys at Autoplus for the oil and PIAA for the filter.) As per my usual habit, I called on friends at PartsPro/FixStop to schedule and do the oil change.
But before doing the oil change, a flyer caught my eye at PartsPro/FixStop. It was a for an engine cleaning system. So naturally, a curious mind wants answers. After a few inquiries, and the fact that my engine had the right amount of mileage, getting the engine internals cleaned was added to the job list of the day.
Enter the Sludgenizer NV20, an engine cleaning system from Japan that takes care of the sludge, soft carbon and other contaminants inside your engine, flushing them out and leaving you with a clean engine on the inside. A clean slate if you will.
After draining the old engine oil out of the engine first, the green Sludgenizer machine is hooked up to the engine through two specially terminated hoses. Then the cleaning can begin.
The Sludgenizer NV20 cleans out the engines’ insides in three steps.
First step- washing.
A special proprietary solution is run through the engine, bathing the engines’ internals in a special cleaning fluid that can remove sludge and other contaminants from the engine block, piston heads, camshafts and oil pan.
The fluid, in conjunction with the high wave pressure created by the green Sludgenizer machine, does the cleaning without even disassembling the whole engine.
Second step- soaking.
For the really dug in sludge, a little soaking is in order. The specially formulated fluid is capable of breaking down the sludge that may have not been removed in the washing phase of the process. 
Finally, the third and last step- rinsing.
Just like washing anything, the last step is rinsing. The specially formulated fluid is run through the engine one last time. This last step in the process is meant to rinse off any remaining sludge and debris that could have left behind by the first two steps. Making sure that the inside of engine is completely clean and sludge-free.
After the Sludgenizer process, its the usual oil change steps you do to your car. Put in the new oil filter, pour in the fresh engine oil and your done. No special steps, no special treatments. It only adds an additional 20mins or so to the whole oil change but what you get in return is a fresh rejuvenated engine that performs almost as good as when you drove it out of the dealership.
Now take note, you don’t really need to undergo the Sludgenizer process each and every time you do your oil change. It’s recommended to undergo the process every 50,000 or so kilometers. And it works for both gasoline and diesel engines.
After all that, are there any benefits felt by doing the process? I can surely say the engine has more pep than what I’m accustomed to after oil changes. It has a felt improvement in the acceleration department based on my buttometer. Smoother idle and less engine noise than the small 3 banger usually has. Those are what I felt immediately. Fuel economy and emission numbers will have to wait but I’m expecting improvements.
Until the next oil change…