bgw70

iTrader: (1)

Thank you again for responding...
Yes, the ticking always starts at 2-2.5 min then it ends at 7 min.

dan.b

iTrader: (1)

no prob. you could try seafoam..carbon on the pistons has been known to be somewhat noisy aswell

https://ls1tech.com/forums/general-m...-your-car.html

i personally would seafoam an ls1 every 15-20k

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

What information do you have that would indicate that this would be beneficial? GM warns to be careful about carbon cleaning at all - particularly on older engines.

dan.b

iTrader: (1)

source? the seafoam writeup on here said it's probably good to do every 10k..no mention of carbon cleaning being harmful

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

Do you believe everything you read on the internet? I suppose it also depends on what you mean by "seafoam."

That seafoam thread is so long that there are a few terds mixed in with the nuggets...

In the '90's, GM came out with a TSB that warned against frequent carbon cleaning. If I recall correctly, the logic was that some carbon deposits beneficially help seal up marginal gaskets that would otherwise leak and that carbon cleaning on high mileage engines could lead to leaking gaskets. So, the recommendation from GM was to only clean cars with related performance or mileage problems.

Doing a fuel system treatment every 10K miles is probably a good idea. Dumping a can of seafoam in the tank would count for that and should be fine. However; I would hesitate to do the full aggressive foaming treatment of the top end, etc. unless performance of the car is dropping off. Always putting TopTier gas in the car is also a great thing go do: http://www.toptiergas.com/

dan.b

iTrader: (1)

OP of seafoam thread said himself that doing a complete seafoam (gas, throttle body, brake boost line) is fine as long as you dont do it too frequently (more than every 10k) and not one person with credibility in the entire thread has said otherwise.

carbon acting as a sealant to old leaky gaskets makes sense on high mileage cars (150k+), but (for me) doesnt justify not cleaning the carbon out of a lower mileage car, especially since normally the more the car sits the more carbon it will have built up inside. it all depends how you drive the car. if i beat on the car hard for 20k miles id hold off. if i babied it for 20k id do a complete seafoam. this is just what I would do

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

So, there's "tech discussion" and "just discussion." The stuff on "how" to seafoam a car is great tech discussion. There are some other threads around where we've had shared great information regarding the chemistry involved. (Seafoam uses similar chemicals to the other top end engine cleaners on the market, etc.)

The one thing we are really short on technically is quantifiable information on how quickly carbon builds up. There are lots of variables there and the test is to tear apart the engine = not fun.

I think the high mileage caution regarding carbon cleaning is a good one, which is the main caveat I wanted to put on the table. As well, it's probably more of a concern these days, 10 years after the original Seafoam thread started.

There are a lot of Seafoam fanboys/girls who will promote the product and swear that there's 100% goodness in the can, which I understand GM's engineers do not believe is the case. Given that fact, I would be reluctant to recommend that doing the treatment every 20K miles is a good thing without evidence that it's truly needed.

^ That being said, I understand that many new DI engines do have a rapid carbon build-up problem, but that should not apply to the LS engines run on good gas.

dan.b

iTrader: (1)

my apologies i havent read that seafoam thread since it was ~30 pages long. here is the proper way to clean your top end as seafoaming thru the brake booster line has been deemed a joke
https://ls1tech.com/forums/general-m...-your-car.html

you raise good points on no concrete knowledge of carbon buildup. these are just my opinions. I haven't seafoamed a car since 2008. op do your own research on the subject to decide if this is a route you'd like to try. my friend (lt1) had decent results with seafoaming twice (40k and 75k) and will be trying mccc this week, now 40k pampered miles later

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

lol I hadn't even seen that one.

We have a lot of really good/long threads that have developed "tribal knowledge" that should probably be cleaned up and consolidated to be useful stickies. The seafoam one would be difficult to do that with, I think.

We could definitely use a good write up on piston slap, though! This ticking comes up a lot and I don't think we have a good tutorial. (The link I posted above is... probably not "it.")