Berryman B12 success

Joined
Apr 14, 2025
Messages
16
Hi, I'm new to the forum but lurked for a few years. I wanted to share my B12 success. My wife drives a 2019 Hyundai Tucson with the 2.4 Theta II. We bought it with 19 miles. At 2000 miles I dumped the 5w-20 and started running PP 5w-30 and at some point started using Castrol Edge 5w-30. Always have changed oil at 5000 miles and have never run it low.
Fast forward to 80k and the engine started to use oil. At 115k this thing is burning 1qt per 1400 miles. Started using Valvoline 5w-30 VRP with hope of some results. Ran the VRP for 4 5k oil changes and the oil usage actually got worse. Now it's 136,00 miles and using 1 qt per 900-1000 miles. I was waiting and hoping this car would blow up and I could take advantage of Hyundais lifetime motor warranty that was agreed upon with the class action lawsuit.
As a last resort I decided to do a B12 piston ring cleaning. Basically, pulled the plugs and kept the pistons wet throughout the span of 48 hours. New plugs and fresh oil change with VRP. To my amazement the car has gone 1600 miles and has not used a drop of oil. I will continue to keep an eye on the oil level and check back in.
 
My Theta 2.4 is using some oil at 80K. Always used nothing but synthetics with 4K oil changes. I am planning on a Berrymans soak this summer. These engines are prone to carboned up rings no matter the oil.
 
It seems they are prone to sticking the rings even with good oil. Would a better oil like HPL or the likes helped from the beginning? I don't know. When you remove the spark plugs take note of the condition. I could see that cylinders 2 and 4 were the ones burning oil. Maybe those cylinders run hotter and maybe the reason for the rings sticking.
 
Hi, I'm new to the forum but lurked for a few years. I wanted to share my B12 success. My wife drives a 2019 Hyundai Tucson with the 2.4 Theta II. We bought it with 19 miles. At 2000 miles I dumped the 5w-20 and started running PP 5w-30 and at some point started using Castrol Edge 5w-30. Always have changed oil at 5000 miles and have never run it low.
Fast forward to 80k and the engine started to use oil. At 115k this thing is burning 1qt per 1400 miles. Started using Valvoline 5w-30 VRP with hope of some results. Ran the VRP for 4 5k oil changes and the oil usage actually got worse. Now it's 136,00 miles and using 1 qt per 900-1000 miles. I was waiting and hoping this car would blow up and I could take advantage of Hyundais lifetime motor warranty that was agreed upon with the class action lawsuit.
As a last resort I decided to do a B12 piston ring cleaning. Basically, pulled the plugs and kept the pistons wet throughout the span of 48 hours. New plugs and fresh oil change with VRP. To my amazement the car has gone 1600 miles and has not used a drop of oil. I will continue to keep an eye on the oil level and check back in.
Dealing with similar issue on friend’s 2018 kia soul plus 2.0l. What procedure did you follow ( kia TSB, video etc?).

Did you simply pour into spark plug tubes or did you have to do at TDC, turn engine over or other similar things?

I posted about the Kia Soul in the bitog maintenance thread yesterday. Not a lot of responses yet to my questions. Posted pics of spark plugs, pcv valve opening and “fouled” cat converter bore scope from tech.

Looking at bg epr and bg platinum 44k, as pcv valve was leaking according to dealer. Opened claim with Kia, but Service Advisor didn’t sound optimistic today.

Appreciate any insights you or others can share.
 
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Dealing with similar issue on friend’s 2018 kia soul plus 2.0l. What procedure did you follow ( kia TSB, video etc?).

Did you simply pour into spark plug tubes or did you have to do at TDC, turn engine over or other similar things?

I posted about the Kia Soul in the bitog maintenance thread yesterday. Not a lot of responses yet to my questions. Posted pics of spark plugs, pcv valve opening and “fouled” cat converter bore scope from tech.

Looking at bg epr and bg platinum 44k, as pcv valve was leaking according to dealer. Opened claim with Kia, but Service Advisor didn’t sound optimistic today.

Appreciate any insights you or others can share.
I read a lot of online posts about how people did the process. I also read the Hyundai TSB. This is what I did.
1- Removed the Fuel pump fuse.
2- Removed the spark plugs and disconnected the power from the high pressure fuel pump.
3- Used a plastic syringe and poured 50cc of Berrymans in each cylinder.
4- Rechecked each cylinder every 4 hours over the course of a weekend. If the piston tops were dry, another 50cc was poured in the cylinder.
5- Rotated the pistons twice to work the Berrymans in the rings. I don't know if it helped but I did it anyway.
6- At the end of the second day I covered the sparkplug tubes with a towel and cranked the engine with the starter to make sure the pistons didn't have a fluid in them.
7- Installed new sparkplugs, changed oil and filter and started the car.
The engine took a few cranks to get it started. If I were doing it again, I would put a little bit of oil in the cylinders and crank the engine over without the plugs. This would have helped it start easier. Since the cleaning the engine has 2300 miles on it and the level of oil on the dip stick has not moved.
In my opinion I wouldn't worry too much about the cat. If you are not setting codes, it's probably good for now. The pictures you posted of the spark plugs were sorta hard to see.
 
Hi, I'm new to the forum but lurked for a few years. I wanted to share my B12 success. My wife drives a 2019 Hyundai Tucson with the 2.4 Theta II. We bought it with 19 miles. At 2000 miles I dumped the 5w-20 and started running PP 5w-30 and at some point started using Castrol Edge 5w-30. Always have changed oil at 5000 miles and have never run it low.
Fast forward to 80k and the engine started to use oil. At 115k this thing is burning 1qt per 1400 miles. Started using Valvoline 5w-30 VRP with hope of some results. Ran the VRP for 4 5k oil changes and the oil usage actually got worse. Now it's 136,00 miles and using 1 qt per 900-1000 miles. I was waiting and hoping this car would blow up and I could take advantage of Hyundais lifetime motor warranty that was agreed upon with the class action lawsuit.
As a last resort I decided to do a B12 piston ring cleaning. Basically, pulled the plugs and kept the pistons wet throughout the span of 48 hours. New plugs and fresh oil change with VRP. To my amazement the car has gone 1600 miles and has not used a drop of oil. I will continue to keep an eye on the oil level and check back in.
Dealing with similar issue on friend’s 2018 kia soul plus 2.0l. What procedure did you follow ( kia TSB, video etc?).

Was it just pouring into spark plug tubes or did you have to do at TDC, turn engine over or other similar things?

I posted about the Kia Soul in the maintenance thread yesterday. Not a lot of responses yet to my question
I read a lot of online posts about how people did the process. I also read the Hyundai TSB. This is what I did.
1- Removed the Fuel pump fuse.
2- Removed the spark plugs and disconnected the power from the high pressure fuel pump.
3- Used a plastic syringe and poured 50cc of Berrymans in each cylinder.
4- Rechecked each cylinder every 4 hours over the course of a weekend. If the piston tops were dry, another 50cc was poured in the cylinder.
5- Rotated the pistons twice to work the Berrymans in the rings. I don't know if it helped but I did it anyway.
6- At the end of the second day I covered the sparkplug tubes with a towel and cranked the engine with the starter to make sure the pistons didn't have a fluid in them.
7- Installed new sparkplugs, changed oil and filter and started the car.
The engine took a few cranks to get it started. If I were doing it again, I would put a little bit of oil in the cylinders and crank the engine over without the plugs. This would have helped it start easier. Since the cleaning the engine has 2300 miles on it and the level of oil on the dip stick has not moved.
In my opinion I wouldn't worry too much about the cat. If you are not setting codes, it's probably good for now. The pictures you posted of the spark plugs were sorta hard to see.
Thanks. I had to screenshot the plugs from tech’s video. Ill try and get better pics in person from dealer if I can arrange it. First plug looked really gunked up and maybe wet. Definitely worse than other 3. Although, they are probably oem from factory and have 101k miles.
 
Hi, I'm new to the forum but lurked for a few years. I wanted to share my B12 success. My wife drives a 2019 Hyundai Tucson with the 2.4 Theta II. We bought it with 19 miles. At 2000 miles I dumped the 5w-20 and started running PP 5w-30 and at some point started using Castrol Edge 5w-30. Always have changed oil at 5000 miles and have never run it low.
Fast forward to 80k and the engine started to use oil. At 115k this thing is burning 1qt per 1400 miles. Started using Valvoline 5w-30 VRP with hope of some results. Ran the VRP for 4 5k oil changes and the oil usage actually got worse. Now it's 136,00 miles and using 1 qt per 900-1000 miles. I was waiting and hoping this car would blow up and I could take advantage of Hyundais lifetime motor warranty that was agreed upon with the class action lawsuit.
As a last resort I decided to do a B12 piston ring cleaning. Basically, pulled the plugs and kept the pistons wet throughout the span of 48 hours. New plugs and fresh oil change with VRP. To my amazement the car has gone 1600 miles and has not used a drop of oil. I will continue to keep an eye on the oil level and check back in.
I noticed I had burning in my Honda around 4k miles w VRP. I cut my oci back to 3k miles and it stayed full. Others here have noticed it too. My Honda did not burn any oil at my normal 5k mile oci with other oils. I had resolved the stuck rings previously to VRP coming out, I was using it to clean heavy varnish on the cam lobes. I would do the piston ring soak first on any 4cyl first then run the VRP at 3-4k miles going forward forever, no reason to run a different oil in a known oil burning motor.
 
I would do the piston ring soak first on any 4cyl first then run the VRP at 3-4k miles going forward forever, no reason to run a different oil in a known oil burning motor.
Seconded.

My Camry was chugging 1 quart every 350 miles (although in hindsight a leaky valve cover may have contributed a small bit to that). A five day B12 soak resolved much of that since she is at 2400 miles and not through a quart of oil yet. I am doing a second B12 soak soon to hopefully free the rings up and clean the piston holes out completely and then switching to VRP for as long as it keeps the consumption from returning.
 
Following up to give the final verdict on the B12 piston soak. Changed the oil today at 5,040 miles. The level on the dipstick pre change was right where it was at the start of this OCI. From a quart every 1000 miles to no usage is a big win. Hopefully by using VRP the piston rings will stay clean and this issue will not return. We shall see.
 
Following up to give the final verdict on the B12 piston soak. Changed the oil today at 5,040 miles. The level on the dipstick pre change was right where it was at the start of this OCI. From a quart every 1000 miles to no usage is a big win. Hopefully by using VRP the piston rings will stay clean and this issue will not return. We shall see.
I doubt Berryman's intended B12 for this reason, but darn if it isn't magic as a piston soak. I have my Camry up on stands right now for her second round. One bottle of B12 to go and then VRP.

Good job on the fix, but don't spread the B12 word around too much because it was harder to find this time around 😄
 
I doubt Berryman's intended B12 for this reason, but darn if it isn't magic as a piston soak. I have my Camry up on stands right now for her second round. One bottle of B12 to go and then VRP.

Good job on the fix, but don't spread the B12 word around too much because it was harder to find this time around 😄
How do you like B12 added to the gas tank ?
 
How do you like B12 added to the gas tank ?
I have used B12 in the gas tank as directed every 3 tanks of fuel and while my exhaust was off the other day I noted just how clean everything was. Exhaust ports in heads had very light carbon, manifold carbon non existent. Catalytic converter free of carbon, a nice light tan color. AFR and o2 sensor free of carbon, light tan color. Very impressed.
 
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