I Put Valvoline's Restore & Protect Oil in my Wife's Toyota, and The Results Shocked Me!

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Valvoline claims their "Restore & Protect" product returns pistons to a factory clean condition by removing 100% of engine deposits. Here's what this motor oil expert found when it was used on a Toyota-motor oil only, vehicle, with 167,000 miles.

Can a specially formulated motor oil clean your old car engine?

That was a question addressed in an earlier article about Valvoline's "Restore & Protect" motor oil product, which they claimed would clean a car's pistons and rings to the cleanest they've been since the day it rolled off the assembly line by removing 100% of all carbon deposits that has built up over the years.

Valvoline's Restore and Protect

A "Restore & Protect" motor oil for cars is a unique engine oil formulated by chemists and automotive engineers to enhance the performance, longevity, and protection of a vehicle's engine.

Motor oils of this type are formulated with a concoction of advanced additives and high-quality base oils to achieve key benefits such as:

  • A Cleaner Engine
  • Rejuvenated Rubber Seals
  • Performance Enhancement
  • Oil Breakdown Resistance
  • Engine Corrosion and Rust Prevention

What Is In a "Restore & Protect" Motor Oil?

As we've learned earlier, the exact formulations of these products are proprietary. However, what we do know (or at least suspect) is that to achieve the aforementioned vital benefits, the product would contain a foundation of a synthetic base oil aided by several chemicals such as friction modifiers, anti-wear agents, antioxidants, anti-foaming agents, and highly effective detergents and dispersants.

Related article: The Truth About Motor Oil Additives

A Tribologist Discusses Valvoline's Restore & Protect Motor Oil

Previously, we were privileged to look inside a Valvoline lab where The Motor Oil Geek YouTube channel host toured the facility and talked with Valvoline engineers. The host, Mr. Lake Speed, Jr, is a tribologist who specializes in understanding how friction, wear, and lubrication interact with each other in car engines and is known for his catchphrase "Let's let science do the deciding for you," as he addresses important oil burning questions about engine lubricants.

Unfortunately, in that episode, if you were expecting to see an actual before-and-after demonstration of the product's cleaning abilities, you would have been as sorely disappointed as I was.

The video, it turned out, was more of an abbreviated explanation of the development of this specialized motor oil and Valvoline's credentials to back up the believability of their claims.

Still, it was an interesting video to watch and learn from.

Today, however, we are fortunate to discover that Lake Speed answered the question of whether Valvoline's "Restore & Protect" motor oil product is all it claims to be by showing what he discovered after using it on his wife's 167,000-mile Toyota.

"In a previous video, we actually visited Valvoline's secret R&D facility, and they showed us how well the Valvoline "Restore and Protect" did in terms of cleaning deposits on the test engines. But that's a test engine. What will it do in the real world? Let's go pop the hood take an oil sample and find out," states the host.

Follow along with the host as he reveals what happened after using the "Restore & Protect" motor oil product. In the video, you will learn the following:

  • The best way to take a motor oil sample from your car.
  • The dipstick test.
  • The number of oil changes Valvoline recommends for results.
  • Oil filter test result considerations you need to consider.
  • How the Valvoline Restore and Protect compared against Toyota's recommended 0W–20 motor oil
  • The most important factor measured chemically proving whether Valvoline’s Restore and Protect cleans an engine without having to take an engine apart to observe the effect(s).
  • What the Valvoline Restore and Protect numbers showed, when many differing vehicles and their oil samples were factored in as well and compared to the Toyota example.

However, if you want to know the answer without watching the video, a spoiler summary is provided directly below the video.

The Truth About Valvoline's Bold Engine Cleaning Claims

 

Video Spoiler Summary

Lake Speed, Jr. found that not only did the Valvoline Restore and Protect live up to its claims, but there is a good chance that if you were to use Valvoline Restore and Protect rather than the recommended Toyota 0W-20 motor oil in your Toyota, it will beat Toyota motor oil as a better and preferred motor oil.

The host hints that he might actually do this comparison test in a future video. Be sure to watch for our report when this does happen.

For additional motor oil-related articles, here are three you need to know about as well:

Timothy Boyer is an automotive reporter based in Cincinnati who currently researches and works on restoring older vehicles with engine modifications for improved performance. He also reports on modern cars (including EVs) with a focus on DIY mechanics, buying and using tools, and other related topical automotive repair news. Follow Tim on Twitter at @TimBoyerWritesas well as on Facebook and his automotive blog "Zen and the Art of DIY Car Repair" for useful daily news and topics related to new and used cars and trucks.