Piston Soak?

[SteveSRT8]

Originally Posted By: Cujet
Kreen is a good solvent. But it will not dissolve carbon. It might clean the engine internals in much the same manner as using a quart of Kerosene in the oil.


Perhaps we need to clarify. Kreen utterly dissolves the black deposits that form around the piston's rings and ring grooves as an engine develops more and more blow by.

Maybe that is not "carbon" but it is dissolved nonetheless...

 

[supton]

Originally Posted By: demarpaint
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Originally Posted By: Olas
We don't have the Saturn over here, but if they were notorious for burning oil and having bad rings I'd want to put high tension gapless rings in there to stop it rather than using chemicals to fix the symtpom instead of the cause..


Of course you would.

Beautiful idea, but many do not have the money. A few dollars for some Kreen is a bit cheaper than a teardown, eh?

Many oil burners develop coked rings and respond beautifully to this. I have seen it personally in a fleet I operate here, as well as in several other folk's cars...


Exactly. I'd rather give the piston soak a shot first. Many of us had good luck with it, making it worth a shot. Rebuilding an engine takes time, costs a lot of money, and can always be done if a piston soak fails.


Should be noted that you could make things worse on a rebuild: just how many things could one screw up if you've never rebuilt the engine in question, let alone any engine? All the way from ling ring gaps up to missing widget A which supplies oil to bearing B. Or getting some grit on a bearing and wiping out in short order -- or finally, getting in there and realizing you've got a cracked head and now you "have" to replace it too.

 

[hattaresguy]

Originally Posted By: 901Memphis
Originally Posted By: hattaresguy
Leave it alone, don't mess with a 15 year old engine that runs good that only burns that much oil.

Buy lots of cheap oil on sale and drive it.


+1 unless your bored


And you have a spare motor and the know how to swap them if you cause a problem.

I know some guys just love fixing stuff until its broke, so if that's the case don't let me be a wet blanket!!

 

[hattaresguy]

Originally Posted By: Olas
We don't have the Saturn over here, but if they were notorious for burning oil and having bad rings I'd want to put high tension gapless rings in there to stop it rather than using chemicals to fix the symtpom instead of the cause..


GM messed up the rings on those motors, most of them burn a bit of oil. Having said that they are the oil tension rings not the compression ones. So they will burn a bit of oil for just about forever.

Typically when it gets to about a quart every fill up the motor is about done, but by that point the car is usually shot. Also if you live in an emissions state your cats and O2 sensors are toast by that point as well.

No snake oil is going to fix this, who even says theirs carbon in their? Did he scope the cylinders? Guessing not.

If he really wants to throw some money at this and fix it, than yank the motor, bang out the pistons and fix the rings. Saturns have a cult following, I'm guessing there are guys on the Saturn forums that could tell him exactly the parts he needs and what machine shops to use.

 

[actionstan]

It seems many are concerned with "if i know why its burning oil".. Well I cant say with 100% certainty... but what I have read my symptoms point to the common ring issues with Saturn. They have no oil drain back holes, as many pistons do, and low tension rings, oil gets stuck on the oil control rings, and gunks them up. Thats why I think a Piston soak MAY help.

I have considered trying to find another engine cheap, and slowly rebuilding it (the right way) so hopefully once my engine was ready to be ripped out, id have a new one to go in.. I have decided against this though as I have a SOHC that needs a little bit of body work and have decided when it finally gets to a point where its bad enough, Ill just get a different car.. maybe a saturn with a DOHC.

The car only has 136k miles, burning oil they have been known to last well over 200k. It seems like my best course of action at this time is to keep adding oil, even if it is annoying!

Thanks guys!

 

[Donald]

Dump the Saturn and get as new a Camry/Corolla as you can afford.

 

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted By: supton
Originally Posted By: demarpaint
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Originally Posted By: Olas
We don't have the Saturn over here, but if they were notorious for burning oil and having bad rings I'd want to put high tension gapless rings in there to stop it rather than using chemicals to fix the symtpom instead of the cause..


Of course you would.

Beautiful idea, but many do not have the money. A few dollars for some Kreen is a bit cheaper than a teardown, eh?

Many oil burners develop coked rings and respond beautifully to this. I have seen it personally in a fleet I operate here, as well as in several other folk's cars...


Exactly. I'd rather give the piston soak a shot first. Many of us had good luck with it, making it worth a shot. Rebuilding an engine takes time, costs a lot of money, and can always be done if a piston soak fails.


Should be noted that you could make things worse on a rebuild: just how many things could one screw up if you've never rebuilt the engine in question, let alone any engine? All the way from ling ring gaps up to missing widget A which supplies oil to bearing B. Or getting some grit on a bearing and wiping out in short order -- or finally, getting in there and realizing you've got a cracked head and now you "have" to replace it too.


Good point, and another reason for trying a piston soak. The worst thing that can happen is it doesn't work and you're out a little time and money. If you use Kreen all you'll be out is time, they have a very good satisfaction guarantee and honor it.

 

[spasm3]

If you do the piston soak with a strong solvent like b-12, remember to squirt some oil in the cylinders when the soak is over before spinning the motor. The b-12 will strip the oil off . You don't want to score the cyl.

 

[nwjones18]

My Saturn was burning more oil than that and I did a piston soak with MMO and started using MC 5w30 and it doesn't use much oil at all any more. I also drove it like I stole it for a couple weeks after the soak.

 

[nicholas]

Do a compression test - this will give you a good idea on the condition of your rings.

Our Versa was loosing compression in the #3 cylinder, very badly - I tried a product by a company called Xado - and after 1500kms it brought all of the cylinders back to spec including the #3 - zero burning issues for us - well at least for the last 3 OCI's - 15,000kms.

FWIW-

 

[andyd]

Heh . I bought my first 528e with 150k miles on it It leaked a qt every 1500 miles. It was a bad head gasket, a common condition in the M 20 engine. It ran fine otherwise, for another 200K miles. I just used cheap oil. I would try a hot soak and dosing the oil with MMO. I also believe in Italian tuneups.

 

[ram_man]

There were more than a couple people commenting on this that do not know diddly about the series saturn.
a piston soak with b12 did help with my other saturn in the past I acctually mixed mmo and b12

you probably won't make it stop completely but making it better isnt a bad thing.
a compression test wont do anything its not the compression rings its the oil control rings.
You should atleast do this for 24hrs and check it every couple hours and top off as necessary. Make sure to purge fluid before reinstalling spark plugs. And if it has a hard time starting a spoon full of oil may help that.

to the poster who said buy a camry/corolla. I would gladly put my saturn up against either one of similar vintage and or price point. Saturns are overall excellent cars if it needs oil once in awhile add it. No big deal.

 

[DesertDually]

Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
As a last resort prior to teardown a shot of Kreen may work wonders. I have used it in several old engines, some have had amazing results.

In others it did nothing. But it is worth a shot. It DISSOLVES carbon like magic!

Just remember that no snake oil is ever going to repair broken parts. BUT it can indeed remove carbon like crazy...


I too, have had phenomenal luck with Kreen! And yes, it does dissolve "carbon". Kreen really is some amazing stuff.