Non detergent oil vs detergent oil?? Which one ?

I have many old two cylinders in my collection and have tried to stick with the right oil, but I here many opinions on what is right. I picked up a bottle of non detergent the other day and it specifically stated not for use on engines new than 1930.... Damage would result. I have never seen that before nor heard that. I have two cylinders from 1938 thru 1960 and know they probably have missed an oil change or two and had wrong oil put in before. What would make the most sense? Go with regular oil in today's times?
 
Didn't know they had detergent oil in the thirties.
Seems I remember discussions of whether or not to use detergent oils in the fifties.
This is not the fifties. Use detergent oil in your engines.
 
I have worked on the inside of many of these old engines and when I open them up many have had two inches of sludge in the bottom of the crankcase. My guess is a lot of that is from not using detergent oil also i"m sure some of them had not had an oil change in decades. If you just put a detergent oil in with all that sludge I,m sure all that sludge will be loosened up and mixed in with your new oil. NOT GOOD. I would suggest to open the top of the crankcase and clean out all of that sludge then you would be ok to use a high quality detergent oil.
 
Use detergent oil only if you strongly suspect the engine has been overhauled sometime since the late 1950s - 60s or after. I know this may seem impossible to guess at, but IF a engine from the 30s or 40s IS INDEED original (i.e. barn find tractor) then it only has had NON-Detergent oil run in it as that's all there was back then.

After a fresh overhaul and good crankcase cleaning, you may run whatever oil you wish.

Detergent oil in an original engine can/may/will eventually wash the carbon build-up off around the rings and valve guides etc. causing the engine to start to smoke & use oil.

I know, I learned the hard way ONCE............
 
Amen. Non-detergent oil is definitely not a good thing for engines. Get the best detergent oil you can. Get the engine clean and keep it that way. Mike
 

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