Sea Foam in Crankcase Before and After Photos.

[Johnp33]

I rebuilt engines for a living, class eights at work and automotive at home. ATF DEX 3 is the very best thing to do an engine flush. I use it all the time, I add it usually 1/2 hour of highway driving in my Duramax and then change the oil. On a vehicle that I am going to overhaul, at home I would add at least a quart of ATF and take it to work to use their preasure washer, I wanted it overfilled. at work I would add up to a gallon and run the motor at 1200RPM while I washed the unit, it takes at least 1/2 hour to wash one properly. When you take it apart it is amazingly clean.
There is no problem with the crud blocking the oil pick-up at dissolves and is caught in the filter.
I use AFT also as a hand cleaner, when you are doing brakes and you get the grime in you hands, rub them, with AFT then wash with hand cleaner, soft and clean.
Just a thought!

 

[Soundguy]

anyone used the stp produft? I notice it does not list diesel.. etc

 

[Gale Hawkins]

I rebuilt engines for a living, class eights at work and automotive at home. ATF DEX 3 is the very best thing to do an engine flush. I use it all the time, I add it usually 1/2 hour of highway driving in my Duramax and then change the oil. On a vehicle that I am going to overhaul, at home I would add at least a quart of ATF and take it to work to use their preasure washer, I wanted it overfilled. at work I would add up to a gallon and run the motor at 1200RPM while I washed the unit, it takes at least 1/2 hour to wash one properly. When you take it apart it is amazingly clean.
There is no problem with the crud blocking the oil pick-up at dissolves and is caught in the filter.
I use AFT also as a hand cleaner, when you are doing brakes and you get the grime in you hands, rub them, with AFT then wash with hand cleaner, soft and clean.
Just a thought!

Actually DEX3/MER ATF has some ability to lube. When the S10 with 524K miles started missing on the home with it then when to dead miss that turned into a bent valve I bought another engine (turned out to bad however). I decided to trash the old engine before pulling and ran it hard right up to the red line running on five cylinder. I must to have done that for 25-30 minutes before it started knocking. I did put motor oil back in it to see if i could drive it to the shop. It made about 15 miles and threw a rod through the crankcase about 300 from where I was going but then it gained power and made it to the shop. A few days later we were going to push it into the shop and for the heck of it I tried it and it started maybe on three cylinders after having no oil in the crankcase after loosing all the oil a few days before. It got to the lift on its own power. The chevy 4.3 is a tough engine.

In hind sight I could have just did a top end and saved the half million mile engine. Also in hind sight I might have saved the engine had I changed the oil and added Sea Foam/ATF/Marvel/etc and just drove it not over 2000 RPM to freed up the lifters/valves. It had not been driven much in several years. The guy that put the last 300K miles on it as a mobile home excort/chase vehicle bragged about power shifting all the time. He had heavy gear oil in that NV3500 5 speed because the synchronizers where out of it. We now have a engine that is sounding good and a nice used 5 speed that I have been driving for the last few days. The guy that put it in for me drove it to his day job for about a week (over 100 miles) before giving it back to me.

I ready would not have a problem running a quart of ATF before an oil change but plan to stick with Sea Foam since it is labeled for such and cost more.

Soundguy I have not seen the STP option yet.

 

[crazyal]

Decades ago I was entered into a demo derby with an old taxi. It was a Chevy with a V6 and over 300k miles. The owner swore by STP. Being young I wanted to see if I could get more power out of the engine so after doing a tune up I thought I would adjust the valves. I pulled one of the valve covers and the sludge was so bad it formed a perfect image of the inside of the valve cover. I started digging out the sludge by hand (what a mistake) and finally gave up making a mess of everything. The engine was driven by taxi drivers and made well over 300k so there must be something to STP. But I have never seen an engine so gummed up. The oil had made small passages so it could flow to the drain holes and back into the pan.

 

[ultrarunner]

I know at one person that never changed the oil..

Back in the 80's I was a property manager and one of the tenants bought a Brand New Toyota Corolla twin Cam Fx???

She drove it for a commuter and when the car was 3 years old her new boyfriend was in the car and the oil light blinked... she said she will have to go to full service on her next fill-up so the attendant can add a quart of oil.

Her boyfriend told her she was ruining her engine and then he learned this car with 50,000 miles had never had the oil changed once... only oil added when the light came on...

After learning how she had screwed up the car... she called the finance company to come and get it...

I can only imagine what some sucker down the line really got when he saw 50,000 miles on the odometer.

True Story...

 

[Gale Hawkins]

I had a guy that worked for me once that had a Nissan Sentra from new that was not an oil changer but not sure how that turned out but it was 5+ years old at the time. In 1986 I bought a Nissan B210 wagon with 56K miles on it before leaving Memphis that was owned by a real-estate broker. When I looked in the oil fill opening and saw a mess so I pulled the valve cover can cleaned it out. It was not hard yet but bad. After running it a few miles I changed the oil. It was our daily driver and 10 years later it was near 200K miles and ran fine.

With today's oils I think one might get away with not changing oil IF every 3K miles on changed the filter and added that much new oil. I have been able to clear up the Rotella Synthetic 5w-40 after draining the old oil out of the Ford F700 with 429 engine a 16' flat dump by only repeatedly changing the oil filter. After the third filter change the oil is not going black in a couple hundred miles. Since 2010 we have not put over 1000 miles on it but a lot of those were around the place moving dirt in lower gears and high RPM. It is showing 144K miles but the history is unknown. I know years ago it got a Modine replacement radiator but that is about all.

A new filter filled with new oil will help keep the additive package more fresh.

 

[vabiker23518]

A little off topic, but after the last couple posts I can't resist!....back in the 80s my Dad had a 66 six-cyl. Mustang and a 70 something Ford Granada. As the cars got older, he would change the oil from the Granada like most folks, but then would "recycle" the used Granada oil to the Mustang. And, he would only change oil filter everyother change! Guess he really was a a child of the depression! Never had any problems with the Mustang...he gave it to my sister when she got older and used it for years!

 

[Soundguy]

A little off topic, but after the last couple posts I can't resist!....back in the 80s my Dad had a 66 six-cyl. Mustang and a 70 something Ford Granada. As the cars got older, he would change the oil from the Granada like most folks, but then would "recycle" the used Granada oil to the Mustang. And, he would only change oil filter everyother change! Guess he really was a a child of the depression! Never had any problems with the Mustang...he gave it to my sister when she got older and used it for years!

sounds like old farmers.

chang ethe oil in the truck and put that in the tractor.....

 

[Gale Hawkins]

I take the UTF from tractor and BH to replace crud in the dump hoist on the F700 truck.

We never had much money but dad took better care of the tractor engine than any of the others. He was the first around in 1962 to use high detergent oil and that was in the new 801 Ford tractor. It was 10w-30 Chevron.

Today's engines are not a loose new as the old one's I have read so they need cleaner oil.

Sea Foam we find is a good fuel additive if system is dirty. In a crankcase that has been filled repeatedly with unreprocessed used might be a good place to use some Sea Foam.

It sounds like Mobil 1 High Mileage has properties added to it so it will clean like adding Sea Foam. A ready dirty engine gets on my nerves.

We know from oil testing reports a lot of used motor oil could be left in longer or put into another engine just fine. I would screen with a cloth or something appropriate.

For kicks the next time you need to change oil just change the filter and top off with new oil. I often just put in in a hanging filter before I screw it on to save from having to top off later. Most Wix filters run around $7 for gas engines locally.

Run the engine for four hours or 200 miles and see if the oil looks as dark as before adding the new filter. IF after replacing the filter no topping off is required for the oil level still be in the safe zone just drive it with only the old oil and check the results. That way there will be no new oil so if it clears up some you know it was due to the new filter only.

I do fine on most engines that I run Sea Foam 50 miles before the oil change the new oil will stay brighter a little longer. Not sure that is worth much unless it is for my emotional state.

 

[buickanddeere]

5S-FE MK2 Non-Turbo Engine Seafoam, Before and After PICS 5SFE

Found this set of before and after crankcase use of Sea Foam photos. There were no details on how long the Sea Foam was ran in the engine.

While I use it in the crankcase like for the sticking oil pump relief valve in the 2003 GM 5.3L engine I am not sure I would want to run it in an abused engine from lack of oil changing.

Not a big deal. Put any fresh clean new detergent oil and a new filter on the engine. It will cleanup just the same.
Snake Oil is not allowed on my place.