The 5w-30
Did a piston soak on the 18 Kia 2.4L this weekend
- Thread starter K20FA5
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OK, dropped off KIA yesterday, for 2nd piston soak, and supposed to pick it up today. They said they would put in my can of BG EPR 109 and do the flush. Not sure how long they run it for. Can says minimum of 10 minutes. Supposed to warm up first I think, If I did the flush I would run it for at least 20 minutes. I don't like it when I can't monitor work. Dealer mechanics always under pressure to make the book time. I took a video of my oil cap dancing on the oil entry hole. Back pressure easily felt. Told them to check the PCV part. My MAIN concern is that all they have to do, for oil improvement, is to get the oil usage back to 1 qt /1k miles. If I was out of warranty, I would do a B12 piston soak like I see on some YouTube videos until I am using 1 qt for 5k miles...or less. The service manager let me give them Valvoline restore & protect to fill after piston soak. Next update will be latest after 1k miles..but will let you know if the original PCV part was bad. As you see, I am trying the shotgun approach. Trying to save the cat converter. My exhaust pipe is grungy with oil & carbon.
I did a cocktail of B12 Chemtool and BMW TEC on a gen 2 Prius. Brought oil consumption down from 1qt/2K to 1qt/4K. I’ll take that as a win. I’ll do it again if need be.
Dealer says PCV part ok
Any updates? I'm very curious because I have over 5000 miles spread across two OCIs with the VRP and two applications with the BG EPR before each oil change on my 2019 Sportage and I'm still losing the same amount. It's new to me, less than 12k miles driven but the odometer was at 98k when purchased three months ago. This whole time it seems to be burning a qt ever 500 miles or so
So, I can tell you on my sons Kia Rio, the BG EPR did nothing. A piston soak using seafoam, did nothing (maybe slightly better.)
Piston soak 3 weeks ago with Berrymans Chemtool B12. Holy smokes. Worked a charm. Not a drop of useage in 3 weeks. Son put almost a 1,000 miles on it since the piston soak (couple trips to the mountains of NC.)
Latest. For some reason, the 15,000 dealers getting hacked or whatever. The 2nd piston soak FAIL did not get reported from KIA dealer to KIA techline in time. GRRRRR. They wanted me to do a 3rd piston soak and I picked it up about 10 days ago to drive the required 1k. miles. I talked to 5 KIA corp. customer service reps to get an override but NOPE and the reps were all over the map on responses to this oil consumption issue! Maybe 3 times will be a charm?? FYI------- I saw on YouTube where the tiny oil drain holes on a valve cover gasket got clogged and caused excessive oil use.. The user cleaned out the holes and the oil usage stopped.
How do you do a piston soak on these Kias? YT and forums been fruitless. I don't have a long enough bar to give me leverage but I know I'd have to go in from underneath to rotate the engine. But I thought you had to remove the serpentine belt first. And then there's the concern about timing. Literally, some people (how I don't know) throw off their timing this way.
And finally, I tried turning the ignition with the plugs out during my 1st (and only) piston soak a couple weeks ago to blow out the fluid, but nothing happened. Everyone I see the engine rotates. Wth
Not valve covers. Pistons.
The oil control rings on the pistons have holes that allow the oil being scraped off of the cylinder bore walls to drain to the inside of the piston.
When those holes clog up, then the piston rings can get sticky, then carbon up more, and get stuck, and that allows for oil burning to happen.
Same way you do any other car.
Remove the spark plugs, rotate the engine until the 4 pistons are all lined up, and then pour in your favorite chemical.
How the hell do you throw the timing off on an engine by rotating the crankshaft bolt?
Well, if you have a crappy cam chain tensioner, and you rotate the engine backwards, it might happen, I guess.
So, if you don't rotate the engine backwards, you should be okay.
You tried to crank the engine?
Please explain exactly what you did.
Ok wise guy, doing a piston soak on my Kia "the same way as any other car" nearly lead to issues. Not to mention everyone's method and procedures are different because it's not a standard maintenance practice on most vehicles (certainly doesn't say in my owners manual). Even searching on Hyundai/Kia Forums has lead to inconsistent information. Few people with indepth knowledge and experience doing and sharing these things.
How does rotating the engine throw off timing? Idk, people copying other people on the Internet and doing it wrong or instructions being wrong/unclear, just a couple guesses. I don't think I would do it but I'm not immune from making mistakes.
I had the plugs out, fluid in the cylinders, key in, turn and nothing. Everywhere else I've seen/read, it's a like a geyser of solvent and carbon that erupts from the spark plug holes.
Does it smells like Amsoil Power Foam? That stuff smell awful...
There are several piston soak write ups on this site. My KIA is on the 3rd dealer approach. You can see what they do by GOOGLE TSB 222 (technical service bulletin) They use Valvoline fluid. Most on YouTube that work use Berryman B-12. Type in piston soak, Berryman B-12. Some users have to repeat . Depends on how bad the rings are stuck. Just guessing but your car might not crank because the car computer is seeing a no connect to you sparkplug coils.
Depending on the condition of the rings and cylinder wall it's possible for some fluid to leak down into the crank case. You also have to pour enough fluid to cover the entire piston.
Hi Blade,
You are correct I know about what you are talking about. My KIA is on the 3rd dealer piston soak and I have been researching this problem on the internet for over a year. HOWEVER... doing so led me to see this on a KIA forum... https://www.kia-forums.com/threads/oil-consumption-fix.369178/#replies
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These GDI engines are hard on oil and have carbon build up/blowby, and sticking low tension rings issues. Lots of options to try and control oil consumption issues:
Shorter oil changes
Higher quality oil
Use higher oil grade (30 or 40)
Use Combustion chamber cleaner occasionally
Do a piston soak
Use an engine oil flush
Change PCV valve
Use an oil catch can
Shorter oil changes
Higher quality oil
Use higher oil grade (30 or 40)
Use Combustion chamber cleaner occasionally
Do a piston soak
Use an engine oil flush
Change PCV valve
Use an oil catch can
I used Berryman B12, I have a post about my piston soak on this site too. And I'm familiar with the TSB you mentioned. I'm didn't do it that way and will retreat the same way as before, just longer soak time.
So how do I get the engine to turn over from the key in the ignition with the plugs out?
Im sure I used enough fluid. Most "procedures" call for 2oz at least. That's actually a little more than what they call for (50ml) in that TSB the other guy is referring to.
dnewton3
Staff member
It sounds like you're the victim of some bad BOT CHAT advice; much of what you're mentioned over several posts seems implausible if not impossible.
I'm not blaming you; you're only trying to find good info.
The problem is finding that needle among the haystacks of garbage info on the 'web these days.
Well, which part?
Did you visually verify that what you poured in hadn't leaked down into the crankcase?
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