Sea Foam in Crankcase Before and After Photos.

[Z71]

The car in those pics has a known sludge issues

Audi/Volkswagen (1), (2) 1.8L 4cyl Turbo 1997-2004 Audi A4
1998-2004 Volkswagen Passat

Chrysler/Dodge (3) 2.7L V-6 1998-2002 Chrysler Concorde
1998-2002 Chrysler Sebring
1998-2002 Dodge Intrepid
1998-2002 Dodge Stratus

Toyota (4) 2.2L 4cyl 5S-FE 1997-2001 Toyota Camry
1997-1999 Toyota Celica
1999-2001 Toyota Solara


Lexus/Toyota (4) 3.0L V-6 1MZ-FE 1997-2002 Lexus ES300
1999-2002 Lexus RX300
1997-2002 Toyota Camry
1997-2002 Toyota Avalon
1998-2002 Toyota Sienna
1999-2002 Toyota Solara
2001-2002 Toyota Highlander


Saab (5) 2.0L 4cyl Turbo
2.3L 4cyl Turbo
2000-2002 9-3
2000-2003 9-3 Convertible
1999-2003 9-5
1999-2002 9-3 Viggen


Sources:
(1) Audi of America, Inc. Warranty Extension Letter
(2) Volkswagen of America, Inc. Warranty Extension Letter
(3) ConsumerReports.org
(4) Toyota Motor Sales, USA Inc., Customer Support Program Letter
(5) Saab Cars USA, Inc. Special Warranty Coverage Letter

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Z71 thanks for at info because those photos did not make sense even with poor care. I think EPA wants makers to try to keep the bad stuff inside and sometimes it does not come out with the oil.

 

[94BULLITT]

i'll tell you what I have done on super dirty tractor engines.

and yeah.. i have seen oil sumps that needed a screwdriver poke to drain.

on those.. I dropped the pan if possible and manually cleaned the lower portion with a putt' knife and then degreaser..

otherwise.. I added a quart of atf to the oil and ran till warm then drained.

if i knew that the engine had been on NON detergent oil or otherwise super neglected.. i did an oil change with 50/50 nd and detergent oil.. and a new filter.. short interval.. and beore draining.. added more atf.

I had a jd B that took 4 oil changes till the oil drained clear and the filter cartridge came out without gunk..

I think marvel mystry oil is or contains ATF.

 

[Soundguy]

at least the same red dye anyway.

I used to use MMo alot.. but I found atf seemed to work near as good.. and was way cheaper..

 

[DEWFPO]

Not sure why filter only short changes are not preached more today for dirty engines and extended change cycles. Some oil may be good for 15,000 miles but few filters are rated for 15,000 miles and often they do not filter to as small of a micron size I have read.

Because studies have proven that the longer a filter is in use, the 'better' the more of the finer particles are removed, but obviously only to a point. As a filter is used, the pores get filled up and the filter actually filters down to a finer particle size. This works fine as long as the engine and oil are in good shape. If the engine is sludged up though, this is not the case. You will want to change those filters more frequently at first until you are convince you no longer have a sludging issue. The filter efficiency charts that I have seen look like a skewed bell curve. Particle size removal efficiency goes up smoothly, then down as you might expect.

There are many synthetic media filters available that are rated for 10-15K, even 25K miles now-a-days.

DEWFPO

 

[Loadstar]

Because studies have proven that the longer a filter is in use, the 'better' the more of the finer particles are removed, but obviously only to a point. As a filter is used, the pores get filled up and the filter actually filters down to a finer particle size. This works fine as long as the engine and oil are in good shape. If the engine is sludged up though, this is not the case. You will want to change those filters more frequently at first until you are convince you no longer have a sludging issue. The filter efficiency charts that I have seen look like a skewed bell curve. Particle size removal efficiency goes up smoothly, then down as you might expect.

There are many synthetic media filters available that are rated for 10-15K, even 25K miles now-a-days.

DEWFPO

Everyday the filtration gets better, but everyday the flow gets worse. It's one of those love hate relationships.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Because studies have proven that the longer a filter is in use, the 'better' the more of the finer particles are removed, but obviously only to a point. As a filter is used, the pores get filled up and the filter actually filters down to a finer particle size. This works fine as long as the engine and oil are in good shape. If the engine is sludged up though, this is not the case. You will want to change those filters more frequently at first until you are convince you no longer have a sludging issue. The filter efficiency charts that I have seen look like a skewed bell curve. Particle size removal efficiency goes up smoothly, then down as you might expect.

There are many synthetic media filters available that are rated for 10-15K, even 25K miles now-a-days.

DEWFPO

I agree in a crankcase clean up effort the fine particles is not Job #1 as much as just not having a blockage leading to filter by-pass mode.

There is no reason to have an engine to develop these issues but buying/restoring old stuff we will have to deal with these cases from time to time. Because the filter change is a low brainer on the F700 truck was the reason I tried it on a fluke and it worked.

While dumping Sea Foam in the crank case will make the oil much blacker every time I have tried it even in clean engines I have never been sure if it that was from cleaning the engine or just flushing crude out of the old filter back into the oil. I need to install a new filter then dump the Sea Foam into the motor oil and monitor results I guess. I may just change the oil filters on the two tractors soon and see if the diesel soot clears up any. I do know the Sea Foam cuts 40 weight oil to more like 20 when hot so that would help it drain a bit faster I guess and maybe flust a bit more. Having poured diesel into the crankcase with the plug OUT and on looking at it the color would be much darker so that could help in a really bad case of crude in the pan. As soundguy noted with many older tractors dropping the pan is quite simple.

 

[joshuabardwell]

For the most part in my experience it liquifies deposits. If you are going to clean a nasty engine with an additive you would definitely want to shorten oil change intervals I would go as far as to change filters between the shortened intervals.

Sea Foam does say not to run with it in the oil for long term. They say you should add it to the crank case a few hundred miles before a scheduled oil change so it dissolves the deposits, then you get them out of there when you drain the old oil.

 

[aczlan]

The car in those pics has a known sludge issues

Sources:
(1) Audi of America, Inc. Warranty Extension Letter
(2) Volkswagen of America, Inc. Warranty Extension Letter
(3) ConsumerReports.org
(4) Toyota Motor Sales, USA Inc., Customer Support Program Letter
(5) Saab Cars USA, Inc. Special Warranty Coverage Letter

Also add the 1999-2003 Volvo I5 engines to that list (Specifically the ones in the S70 or V70). Running one of those with dino oil is a recipe for upper end failure due to oil starvation and Volvo in their infinite wisdom says to run 7500 mile change intervals with dino oil...

Aaron Z

 

[Loadstar]

Sea Foam does say not to run with it in the oil for long term. They say you should add it to the crank case a few hundred miles before a scheduled oil change so it dissolves the deposits, then you get them out of there when you drain the old oil.

I never said it did.(maybe you quoted me in mistake) If you would like to know my procedure to clarify this it would be add it, idle it for a period, change oil, change filter, run it. After that let's say oil changes were on 100hr intervals. I would change a filter at 25, change oil and filter at 50 then again 100. when the dust settles go back to 100hr intervals.