Administering Seafoam

[Benzadmiral]

I've had a little trouble with my '03 Buick Park Avenue with the N/A 3.8 L engine losing, or burning, oil -- about 1 quart in 1700 miles at present. There doesn't appear to be a leak or any blue smoke, so I'm not sure where it's going. On another thread, posters suggested checking the PCV valve, and possibly Seafoaming the engine. One suggested administering some of the Deep Creep spray into the PCV access tube just to the right of the valve.

The 1-year-old, OEM valve is clean and rattles. I squeezed about an ounce of the liquid Seafoam into that tube opening, with the engine off, then started up and drove the car, getting the revs up, for about 15 minutes. No white smoke that I could see, so maybe it wasn't doing anything, or I hadn't done it right.

Question, then: Must the car be running while I feed in the spray or liquid? I had the engine on at one point, and removing the housing that covers the PCV valve resulted in a lot of sucking/roaring noise, and the engine stumbled. If I have to run this stuff into the running engine, as the instructions have it, I'll need to have a helper keep a foot on the pedal, to keep the revs up, right? Or is there another way to get the stuff into the engine -- and if so, can you point me to a site with some pictures?

TIA,

 

[getnpsi]

The car has to be running to suck the seafoam in. the idea of that stuff is to let it run for a short time stumbling on the extra oil and then you shut off the engine. The seafoam will be eating away gunk trapped in the ring area. Once the car is started again the junk freed up with break off and be burned or deposited into your oil which should be changed soon after treatment.
I dont use pcv line unless I cant find another line. what i like to do if the brake line booster hose is huge i cram a smaller size vacuum line inside it to make the "leak" smaller and suck the fluid in that way while modulating throttle with my hand at the throttle body.

Sometimes you have to add an extra foot or more of rubber line somewhere to make everything accessible at once but its worth it, especially if you are clumsy and spill things.

 

[J. A. Rizzo]

I would give it a little Italian Tune-Up treatment and skip the Seafoam. 1 quart in 1700 miles is not bad oil consumption at all - well within tolerances and nothing to worry about IMO. Once you start adding chemicals to the mix that aren't supposed to be there, who knows what could happen?

 

[HangerHarley]

Originally Posted By: J. A. Rizzo
I would give it a little Italian Tune-Up treatment and skip the Seafoam. 1 quart in 1700 miles is not bad oil consumption at all - well within tolerances and nothing to worry about IMO. Once you start adding chemicals to the mix that aren't supposed to be there, who knows what could happen?


Thats where im at. Wondering how my engine is doing because i Overdosed it with almost every chemical i could find...............................

It still runs, but it has other issues. No idea at all if the chemicals were fine or did something.

Its that complicated, the engine and the stuff that makes it run smooth. Clean engine, bad components could give same symptom as small HG leak.

Oil looks the color it does when you add Moly, so that is inconclusive too. Next up is A-Rx.

 

[demarpaint]

HH a small head gasket leak should be easy enough to detect, pressure test the system. If that doesn't work do a used oil analysis. [I've yet to have a pressure tester fail me finding a leak.] MMO, Kreen, A-Rx, Gunk Flush, or anything else for that matter designed to clean an engine isn't going to work if the HG is bad and dumping coolant into an engine. It would be like sweeping a floor and having a kid behind you tossing dirt on it. A total waste of time and money IMO.

 

[HangerHarley]

Originally Posted By: demarpaint
HH a small head gasket leak should be easy enough to detect, pressure test the system. If that doesn't work do a used oil analysis. [I've yet to have a pressure tester fail me finding a leak.] MMO, Kreen, A-Rx, Gunk Flush, or anything else for that matter designed to clean an engine isn't going to work if the HG is bad and dumping coolant into an engine. It would be like sweeping a floor and having a kid behind you tossing dirt on it. A total waste of time and money IMO.


I totally totally read that the other day. it says DO NOT USE ARX IN EBGINE WITH GAS IN OIL. And i smell Fuel dilution. is that another sign? If my oil smells gas-like, what could that mean?

Pressure test is pump air into expansion tank w coolant drained down like it i snow.. and look for what again?

Its cool i read that the other night, and here it is.

I also thought HG leak engines WERE clean, since the water in the coolant steam-cleaned the [censored] out. of cylinders and head. is this true?

 

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted By: HangerHarley
Originally Posted By: demarpaint
HH a small head gasket leak should be easy enough to detect, pressure test the system. If that doesn't work do a used oil analysis. [I've yet to have a pressure tester fail me finding a leak.] MMO, Kreen, A-Rx, Gunk Flush, or anything else for that matter designed to clean an engine isn't going to work if the HG is bad and dumping coolant into an engine. It would be like sweeping a floor and having a kid behind you tossing dirt on it. A total waste of time and money IMO.


I totally totally read that the other day. it says DO NOT USE ARX IN EBGINE WITH GAS IN OIL. And i smell Fuel dilution. is that another sign? If my oil smells gas-like, what could that mean?

Pressure test is pump air into expansion tank w coolant drained down like it i snow.. and look for what again?

Its cool i read that the other night, and here it is.

I also thought HG leak engines WERE clean, since the water in the coolant steam-cleaned the [censored] out. of cylinders and head. is this true?


Oil smelling like gas is a sign of fuel dilution, a major sign especially after a long drive. The injectors could be leaking down.

Pressure testing a cooling system is fairly easy. Make sure the radiator is full and apply the pressure tester to the radiator itself. Pump it up to the pressure the cap was designed for, eg: 15 pound cap, pump the radiator to 15 pounds, or a hair under. If the pressure drops you have a leak. Look at hoses clamps etc, then around the cylinder heads. If you don't see it it is probably leaking internally.

Now if you are losing coolant, and not seeing it odds are it is leaking internally and you already know where it's going. Have a look at the oil if it looks milky save the time and skip the pressure test you found your problem. Either way, if you have gas in the oil, or coolant in the oil, don't waste your money trying to clean the engine fix the problem first.

If the HG is leaking into the cylinders, then yes the combustion chamber 'might' be clean, but you are wrecking bearings, and destroying the engine. So there is no gain in having a clean combustion chamber from a bad HG.