Saturn Clean Up

[cp3]

Ran a short OCI of GTX and a couple ounces of Seafoam in my son's 2000 SL2 with the plan to do a piston soak. While doing the oil change I pulled the #1 & 2 plugs to find them soaked in oil. This led me to get him to order a cam cover gasket. Put it on last weekend and found this when I took it off.

I also did the thermostat, ECTS and a coolant flush as it was running cool. I am thinking that the thermostat has been gone for a while and contributed to what is seen above. This time it has Petro-Canada 0w30 and an oversize Baldwin (higher capacity and efficiency) in it and will go no more than 5000km. What I'm thinking right now is that I will get a case of PC Duron 0w30 and run the next few OCIs with the HDEO to see if it will clean it up some, maybe pull the cover again in the summer to see how it's going. I'm not terribly concerned about it and wouldn't really care if it was just varnished but I'd like to see if I can get it looking a bit better.

It has an oil life monitor in it, just the light no %, I will see how long it goes but I doubt I will use it. At least not until things are a little cleaner.

 

[Dakota1820]

Try some mmo works pretty good

 

[SuperDave456]

The thermostat alone should help clean some of that up.

Time + heat + any decent modern oil = some cleaning

It's when things get extended, or short trips, that the oil loses some of its capability.

Thanks for posting pictures! I look forward to hearing an update!

 

[Dakota1820]

Did you use a stant Thermostat?

 

[mechtech2]

There is no race to remove those deposits. Taking a little longer is OK.
Lots of options.
Pen Plat can help clean things.[among a number of others]

 

[tommygunn]

Nice pics. The t-stat alone will help stop those deposits....you mean there was no t-stat in it at all....? Dont understand some people.....I've seen/heard this alot....they think no thermostat = better, something to do with "better flow" or something.....lol.


Just curious, how long did you keep the Seafoam in the crankcase? For how many miles?

 

[LeakySeals]

After using seafoam my valve cover started leaking too, real bad within days. And it was perfect, no leaks before using it. Could smell burning oil, was running onto the exhaust manifold! During replacement I had a look. Still a mess. And it was ticking like never before for almost a week.

PS. My oil pan leaks now too! but this was months after so I'm not so sure on that one. Never again. Wish I'd joined BITOG earlier, would have known Mobil 1 High mileage was all I needed.

 

[cp3]

Originally Posted By: chevyboy14
Try some mmo works pretty good

No MMO north of the border, from what I hear.


Originally Posted By: SuperDave456
The thermostat alone should help clean some of that up.

Time + heat + any decent modern oil = some cleaning

It's when things get extended, or short trips, that the oil loses some of its capability.

Thanks for posting pictures! I look forward to hearing an update!

Unfortunately, the car is going to stay pretty much a short tripper as my son works in town. Not extreme short trips but not as good a run as my cars get daily. More pics for sure, good or bad, when I open it back up. Pretty sure I can just reuse the gasket as it is a rubber one too.


Originally Posted By: chevyboy14
Did you use a stant Thermostat?

It was a Stant that I put in.


Originally Posted By: mechtech2
There is no race to remove those deposits. Taking a little longer is OK.
Lots of options.
Pen Plat can help clean things.[among a number of others]

Yes, no rush here. Getting to the time of year where being under the hood isn't as fun when out in the driveway. I am thinking the Duron will have a bit more detergents compared to the Supreme Synthetic and help that along.


Originally Posted By: tommygunn
Nice pics. The t-stat alone will help stop those deposits....you mean there was no t-stat in it at all....? Dont understand some people.....I've seen/heard this alot....they think no thermostat = better, something to do with "better flow" or something.....lol.


Just curious, how long did you keep the Seafoam in the crankcase? For how many miles?

There was a thermostat in it but when the S-series thermostat goes it just runs cold. Gauge sits at 1/4 instead of almost half where is is supposed to run. If you don't look into it, you really wouldn't know. Car blows warm air and really all seems fine, just not as hot as it should be.

I only put about 2oz of Seafoam in and was only ran for about 1000km. That was done more to pre-treat the rings, I was told it was using some oil, before a soak. With the amount of oil in the spark plug wells I have a feeling that is where most of it was coming from, not the rings.

 

[cp3]

Originally Posted By: LeakySeals
After using seafoam my valve cover started leaking too, real bad within days. And it was perfect, no leaks before using it. Could smell burning oil, was running onto the exhaust manifold! During replacement I had a look. Still a mess. And it was ticking like never before for almost a week.

PS. My oil pan leaks now too! but this was months after so I'm not so sure on that one. Never again. Wish I'd joined BITOG earlier, would have known Mobil 1 High mileage was all I needed.


Well this one was leaking before, I know that for sure. Ya I'm not a big additive guy myself, actually that is the first one I've ever used I think. But when thinking it had the ring issue I wanted to try and do something.

Is the oil pan leaking at the gasket or the pan it self? My old '94 kept springing leaks through the metal, just patched them with some epoxy while doing an oil chnage.

 

[LeakySeals]

Originally Posted By: cp3
Originally Posted By: LeakySeals
After using seafoam my valve cover started leaking too, real bad within days. And it was perfect, no leaks before using it. Could smell burning oil, was running onto the exhaust manifold! During replacement I had a look. Still a mess. And it was ticking like never before for almost a week.

PS. My oil pan leaks now too! but this was months after so I'm not so sure on that one. Never again. Wish I'd joined BITOG earlier, would have known Mobil 1 High mileage was all I needed.


Well this one was leaking before, I know that for sure. Ya I'm not a big additive guy myself, actually that is the first one I've ever used I think. But when thinking it had the ring issue I wanted to try and do something.

Is the oil pan leaking at the gasket or the pan it self? My old '94 kept springing leaks through the metal, just patched them with some epoxy while doing an oil chnage.


Its the oil pan gasket or whatever Toyota uses. Not sure how long its been there. Not dripping, just wet, will have to deal with it at some point. Every couple of years I go to the car wash spray booths, do an engine degrease. So Im sure about the valve cover. somebody told me to use the whole can for an engine flush. Later found out the stuff has more lubricant than anything else, with a high flashpoint so its stubborn to get rid of.

Anyways I read a lot of posts about brittle/cracked/worn piston rings on saturns resulting in really bad oil consumption. hope things workout for you short of replacing them.

 

[LeakySeals]

Forgot to mention..There is an add you may want to investigate. User Trav has some convincing testimonials regarding Kreen. I attached a link to the end of his thread where they are coincidentally discussing a Saturn Here

 

[91344George]

Have to be VERY careful when using solvent products like Seafoam around older vehicles, solvents will likely cause leaking in older already compromised gaskets and seals.

My advice DO NOT USE SEAFOAM IN THE ENGINE! EVER!

 

[cp3]

I'm confident it wasn't in there long enough to hurt or clean anything.

The Kreen sounds like it may be the ticket though, if I can get it up here. If it doesn't look any better when I open it up I may have to look into getting some.