Sea Foam dissipation?

[Jimmy9190]

I have a 2001 Dodge Dakota with a 3.9 liter V6 and 5-speed manual. It had some problems with pinging at a light to moderate throttle so I added half a can of Sea Foam down the TB with the engine running, there was a minimal amount of smoke from the tailpipe. Then there was about 2 minutes of smoke out the tailpipe after the truck had sat for 15 minutes. I put the other half can in the tank which had about 10 gallons of 87 octane Chevron in it at the time. Drove the truck yesterday, pinging was less but still present so today I changed the spark plugs for a slightly cooler Autolite single platinum "truck plug". The engine was pinging like a popcorn popper when getting on the interstate and slightly less but still bad when cruising at 75 mph. The odd thing was my oil pressure was a little less than it normally is at that speed, about 2000 rpm at 70-75 mph in 5th gear.

I ran most of the gas with the Sea Foam in it out today and filled up on 89 octane mid grade Texaco on the way home. The ping was a lot less on that gas but still present under a hard throttle, as in passing another car on the interstate. Oil pressure read normal all the way back home.

I have never used Sea Foam before and am not a big fan of miracle cures in a bottle. Does it take a while for the Sea Foam to completely dissipate from the tank, fuel lines and engine? I would think that the Sea Foam would have been completely diluted when I filled up at Texaco. Sorry for a long post and I appreciate any info.

 

[Rtstrider]

Seafoam is one of those IMMEDIATE fixes. You'll know if it fixed the issue right away. Just run the gas down to as low as you can comfortabley and you should be fine. Also CHANGE THE OIL immediately after running the Seafoam brake booster crankcase treatment. As far as the pinging goes, maybe someone else on here can come up with a solution to help "mask" the problem.

 

[Gary Allan]

Although the air horn technique does give immediate results, it may not do the complete job. Seafoam always worked for me for pinging, but didn't really do much in terms of cleaning injectors ...at least in my experience. Amsoil PI does a good job, and I've had favorable results with Gumout Ragane. RLI Bioplus (I think that is the name) did well too, but is a little expensive unless you buy a good bit due to baseline shipping.

There are other causes that are deposit related but aren't directly caused by combustion chamber deposits. Your EGR, if so equipped, can contribute to higher combustion temps (by not lowering them as designed). This too may be remedied by enough additive use, but may take some time without physical removal and cleaning.

 

[BrianWC]

I've never used the Amsoil PI. What I have used is Berryman Chemtool. I can tell you there is no comparison in cleaning ability between Berryman and Seafoam. What Seafoam takes soaking to clean Berryman will "knock" right off.

 

[dargo]

Use Amsoil power foam instead of seafoam....

 

[Craftsman]

Originally Posted By: BrianWC
I've never used the Amsoil PI. What I have used is Berryman Chemtool. I can tell you there is no comparison in cleaning ability between Berryman and Seafoam. What Seafoam takes soaking to clean Berryman will "knock" right off.


Yep that Chemtool is good stuff! Can't get it in Canada however... It's a good thing that I live next to the border!

 

[Dyoel182]

Originally Posted By: dargo
Use Amsoil power foam instead of seafoam....


Yes its better but its also harder to get your hands on.

 

[tmorris1]

Could the ping have been made worse with the cooler heat range plugs that you added? Maybe go back to the standard plugs.

 

[Dyoel182]

A car wont ping more with a colder plug.

 

[Jimmy9190]

Well thanks for the replies and here's an update. I ran a tank with Regane, and on the very good advice of another BITOG'er here I ran another tank with no Regane then ran another tank with another bottle of Regane. Of all the fuel additives out there the Regane seems to work best for me, even somewhat better than Techron. I put a standard length spark plug in that is one heat range cooler than the OE plug. Then I had a vacuum-induction service done at a local shop and that seemed to help. Ping seemed to be gone after that so I put the longer truck plugs back in because the truck seemed to run a little better and get a little better mpg with them, on the test drive the ping was back, pretty bad too. So after much research on Dodge Dakota forums I put in a 180 degree thermostat. The OE thermostat is 195 degrees. What the 180 does is trick the PCM into running a richer fuel/air ratio because the PCM thinks the engine is not at operating temperature yet. Even Mopar itself has admitted that the 3.9 V6 makes the most power and is the most effecient at 185 degrees but they had to use a 195 to make the engine run hot and lean to satisfy government emissions requirements. I also found when installing the thermostat that my engine coolant temperature sensor was broken. The element was still intact but the plastic housing at the top was broken in half. I was able to lift the element right out of the sensor body. I replaced that sensor too. It may have had something to do with the pinging I had, I am not sure. Anyway the ping is gone now. I test drove around town last night and had just an ever so slight momentary noise when climbing hills and gunning it to get more speed, which I consider normal. Today I filled it up with Sunoco 87 octane and went on an extended test drive through the country at varying speeds, no ping was present. Then I went up on the interstate and had no ping at 70 to 80 mph. When I gunned it to pass another car, I again had the ever so slight noise for just a second or two, which I think is normal for an 8 year old engine with 84,000 miles on it. It could just be a psychological sensation but the top end seemed to be better as well. I very seldom drive on the interstate and hardly ever over 75 mph but the truck seems to have regained -no pun intended- some performance at that higher speed. It used to be slower when passing on the interstate. So far the MPG seems to have stayed the same, but even if it drops a little due to the richer mix, I can live with that as opposed to damaging the pistons with continued detonation.

The Dodge 3.9 is notorious for ping, detonation, preignition whatever you want to call it. Faking out the PCM may not be the textbook answer to the ping problem but I had tried everything else available short of tearing down the engine, which I would rather not do. Nothing else worked. The truck didn't ping with 89 octane fuel, but that is not the way to fix it either. Nor is it economical given the price of gas nowadays. Cleaning the combustion chambers, and the cooler thermostat in combination with a colder copper core spark plug seems to have finally stopped stopped the ping. I think the Regane really helped and will continue to use it every 5k or so. If the ping stays gone I will be very well pleased. If not, it may be time for a trade.