steveb1

Choco, Awsome write up Bro. I'm at 52,xxx miles and coming up on an oil change soon. I got some pinging and rough idle (mostly when cold) so I'm doing the whole procedure. Looking forward to it.

But I have some questions about my son's 1998 s10 2.2l 4 banger. It's got 9x,xxx miles. It used to be mine and I took care of it pretty well. My son doesn't. Just gas and keeps adding oil. It sounds like crap and has a ticking sound. My plan is to do the Seafoam procedure first then new wires, plugs, filters, pcv, etc...

Question 1 Do you think this engine will hold up to this procedure? or will I be blowing oil all over the place.

Question 2 Assuming all goes well and I get this engine cleaned out, do you think it would make sense to switch to synthetic oil?

Thanks for your help.
Steve

ChocoTaco369

for your first question, yes i think it would hold up, but who really knows? 90k miles isn't a lot on today's engines.

in regard to question two, when i bought my car, i didn't know what kind of oil was in it. i seafoamed my oil before switching to synthetic. it came out 3x as dark as it was on the dipstick right before i seafoamed. the stuff works. i did my oil change sunday and after 4,200 miles, the oil was cleaner and more amber than my old car after 3,000 miles.

Mr Incredible

I did the Seafoam thing last night. It smoked enough to make a passing jogger almost kill herself, and the car lot guys on the corner stared in disbelief. I could see the wheels turning in their heads, thinking, "Tsk, tsk. What a nice looking car to be such a smoking POS."

But the thought occured to me that if there are chunks of carbon blowing out the top end, how big are they, how much is there, and how will they affect (if at all) the cats?

wayblownout

First, killer write up and props for sure Choco.
Second, that stuff sure does work. Gas and oil worked as expected with a bit of throttle response improvement and what seemed to be smoother idle. Then I did the internals. After waiting and starting her up, there was hardly any smoke. I let it idle as suggested, then rolled out of the parking lot onto the service drive, and merged onto 75N to put my foot in it. Hole-y-sht. I ran first up pretty good and got into 2nd before looking in my rear view to see what looked like the smoke screen from spy hunter. Some poor vehicles in the right two lanes merged over to avoid my carbon dump. It only lasted for about a 1/4 mile or so and there was a little pinging until the smoke cleared.

I drove it hard for another mile or so before the SES light came on. The car is running beautifully it seems (better than in a while), and I'm not sure what set the light. I'll get it checked and do a tune up this weekend.

ChocoTaco369

yea i've thought about this. the short answer is "who knows what comes out of each car". i just chalk it up to acceptable risk IMO, but that's for you to decide.

i would think the smoke and choppy idle confused the hell out of your O2 sensors or cats and caused them to throw a code. i would just disconnect the negative terminal of your battery for 10 minutes and see if the code clears. you likely just confused an emissions sensor.

Mr Incredible

"Preciate it. Great instructional. Worth doing. My SOTP dyno has been derided in past threads, but it registered "better" on this one, too.

badinfluencelsx

iTrader: (14)

yesss... i have near 180xxxmiles. this is gonna be fun.

Mr Incredible

Like this????

ChocoTaco369

^^^i take it someone seafoamed the USS New Jersey?

00SS!

iTrader: (7)

Thanks for the info. Gonna do this this weekend before I change the plugs and ff. Prolly do the hauler too. That gonna be niiiiiice!

kliuzzo

just a few questions. i just wanna make sure im gonna do this right...seafoam can be used on automatics right? and i was just plannin to do the oil and gas treatment tomorrow and wait on the third step. thats fine right?

MIDNITE Z

iTrader: (1)

Well I decided to try it.....I used the 1/4 of the can (equal 1/2 from day before) and had no problems everything went smoothly It was smoking but not much
as the first time....excellant write up

Mike

ChocoTaco369

you sound a little confused. seafoam is an engine treatment. it has no effect on the transmission nor does it matter which tranny is in your car.

now, DO NOT put any in your transmission! that would be BAD BAD BAD!

yes, it's fine to wait on the third step.

kliuzzo

thanks alot.. cant wait to see some smoke

kliuzzo

i used the seafoam today. i only did the first 2 steps ( gas and oil). i drove about 50 miles after i used it and there wasnt any smoke. i have about 97,000 miles on my car. maybe i have to do the third step to see the smoke.

ChocoTaco369

only the 3rd step produces smoke. running it in your gas tank only helps clean your injectors and evaporate some water. running it in your oil cleans the gunk out of the crankcase.

i recommend changing your oil ASAP. run it 100 miles max (although seafoam says 250 miles is fine, i find it a lot for gunky oil).

Rescue Ranger

iTrader: (10)

Im going to seafoam my civic first.. Its always my guinea pig.

98turbls1

iTrader: (17)

Has anyone had a sevice engine light come on following the pcv step?? I had my light come on as soon as I did it and it never went off... also I've noticed that it's wanting to run a little warmer...I did exactly as Choco instructed....I did notice a good difference in power and all but that's the only side effect that I've noticed...I'm going to run the code tomorrow to see what it is and if it's relative to the seafoam... Any help would be greatly appreciated...

ChocoTaco369

chances are the seafoam made the engine feel like it was missing very badly and threw a code. simply unplug the negative terminal of your battery and let it sit for 10 minutes so the codes clear. i'd be willing to bet the SES light doesn't come back on.

Rich3fan

Ahh yes, those overly sensitive little kitty cats...

Mr. Taco, first let say I appreciate your very well thought out instructions. The amount of detail you included is exactly what someone who's as prone to screw-ups as me needs to see. What would really go a long way to satisying my concerns about the cats though is some re-assurance that there won't be any short or long term harm that comes their way. Until I've done my planned header install, I don't want to be spending money on new cats if I can avoid it.

I guess only time can tell, but thanks for understanding my Alarmist atitude anyway.