hey everyone i have an 89 4runner 22re and bought some seafoam for my truck. I've heard of seafoam causing leaks on really dirty engines (like mine). My question is which method could possible give the engine a leak (adding it to crankcase/ adding it to fuel tank / adding it through vacuum line/
The reason im asking is because im paranoid of getting a leak as my engine is extremely dirty inside and is all gunk pretty much. I cant' afford any repairs or anything on my truck right now so im trying to minimize the risks. Thanks

gabe

 

if its running fine now and you think it will cause leaks then dont use the seafoam

 

yeah its not running fine thats the problem...

the truck also burns oil (black smoke out the tailpipe) and has a knock on start up if that matters at all..

 

Does only smoke on start up and shortly thereafter, or consistently?

Regardless, read about this stuff. I've used it several times myself. Then, use the seafoam in your fuel and intake.
http://www.auto-rx.com/

 

it only burns oil noticeably when i almost redline it

 

you should be fine running it in your fuel and through the intake. i wouldnt run it in the oil because and sludge that is preventing or slowing a leak will get washed away at the seals and thats when things start leaking. id suspect piston slap or rod knock. you can check by adding thick oil to the cylinders on a cold start. if it get quieter then suspect piston slap. either way cleaning the carbon out of the combustion chamber isn't going to ruin anything. the burning at high rpm's is your rings.

when you say its not running fine what do you mean?

 

besides the burning of oil at high rpms, it hesitates a lot when i begin driving (usually when the engine is cold) and hesitates even more when it is really hot outside. Iv tried many things to fix it but nothing has worked. Iv bought a TPS, MAF and have redone the timing chain. The valves have also been adjusted. Cat has also been tested for cloggs. This is the only thing i can think of that will fix the hesitation problem. Thanks

gabe

 

Black smoke is seldom caused by burning oil. Burning oil produces a light gray/white smoke.
Black smoke is almost always caused by a fuel mixture that's too rich.


A couple of things regarding Seafoam.
It does not appear to clean carbon deposits in the engine.
We've applied it to a couple of vehicles and checked them (using a bore scope) before and after and really couldn't see any difference in the amount of deposits in the cylinder. Someone else here, on this forum, has done the same thing and reported the same results.
It probably does clean the intake plenum and, when introduced through the fuel tank, clean the valves some.

Mopar Combustion Chamber Cleaner does work. It will clean up deposits in the combustion chambers.
Also water. Plain 'ole water, introduced through the intake (though I haven't looked to see how one might do this with a 3.0) works absolute wonders and will totally clean the combustion chambers. This is an old mechanics "trick" and has been around for decades and really works.
Switching gasoline brands every 5000 miles will help some also.





Fred

 

Hmmm...right. Oil smoke is bluish (or light greyish). I wondered about that and about saying anything. Eightnine....you should look at your water temp sensor.

Thanks for the water tip, Fred. I'm going to start doing that. I'm getting too much oil through my PCV (22RE) for some reason and Seafoam is kinda expensive according to my wallet.

BTW, on the 3.0....through the brake booster line.

 

I'm not sure about "sucking" up water through the brake booster line.
On a lot of vehicles that have the throttle body upright (downdraft, instead of sidedraft like on the 3.0), we simply trickle water (got to go easy with it) into the throttle body while keeping the RPM's up.

If you've ever had a blown head gasket that has compromised a cylinder, it's easy to see which one. When the head is removed, the cylinder that had water getting to it will be, literally, spotless, deposit wise. No carbon, no nothing.




Fred

 

Hmmmm.....I said brake booster because I've never had luck keepin' the motor running disconnecting....say...the PCV line and pouring Seafoam in. It just seems like with the longer vacuum line I could regulate the motor RPM's easier. I figured, though, it all goes to the intake so what does it matter?

 

First of all let me say I am big believer in seafoam, but I just did a treatment in the crankcase and it caused a leak somewhere in the block. It's true. wasn't there before and now it is but, if you have a leak you should want to find it so you can fix it

 

My truck is pretty clean, smoke came out only 20 seconds after I put it in, when I turned it off and back on again, nothing... I did hear a nice attractive rawr from the engine when it was all done.
Go for the brake booster line.
I have heard the crankcase would be your biggest worry..

 

Hey eightnine, have you by change check how the back of the butterfly valve in the throttle body looks? Sound like the same symptoms I was having after getting the famous "black goo" in the intake. Bad O2 sensor = rich running = egr pushing fuel-rich exhaust gas back into the intake = black goo = horrible power loss, a bit of smoking, and not to mention terrible gas mileage.

That's how it went in my case N E way... just food for though.

Here's the link to the thread and my finds.

I SeaFoamed before the intake cleansing, and noticed a bit of a difference, but no leaks of any sort as your affraid of. But as others mentioned, I would imagine it added to the crankcase would be more likely to possibly cause leaks more than anywhere else.

 

that black goo is a pain to clean. Three days in the hot tank and it still laughed at me. Getting the black goo out of the throttle body really helped the hesitation.

 

keeping sludge in the engine to stop leaks does not make sense to me. I would prefer to get the sludge out and have a slow leak if it meant that my oil was flowing better through the engine (sludge = bad).

Sludge is not going to hold back big leaks, so you really are not going to open up anything more than a small, slow leak, if any at all.

I am also not sure about pouring water in the intake. I know we are talking a small amount very slowly, but the cleanliness of an engine is based on how efficiently it burns the fuel. If all the fuel burns and the exhaust is sent out of the chamber, there is nothing left to cause deposits. Adding water to an explosion does not seem to be a good way to make the explosion more complete, unless maybe the water cools the intake charge (air and gas) causing a more even burn/explosion. Seems risky to me and little benefit.

 

I would just rebuild the thing sounds like your piston rings are bad and the head could use the cleaning too im sure. get the ENGNBLDR kit its a couple hundred bucks but it comes with all the gaskets and pistons and such.

 

have you changed your plugs recently?? my 22re hesitates when i need new plugs!

 

Water down the vacuum line works great! The water is phase changed to seam and we all know how well steam cleaning works. Costs nothing and works great. Won't damage CAT or O2. Have to work throttle as water is gently poured into the intake. Try it, you will be amazed. Piss on Seafoam.

My $0.02

 

I've heard the same thing before from a few people; they put it just as you did, how it basically steam cleans the combustion chamber. I still would never try it myself. If it works great for you, then awesome, but I've hydrolocked several motors, therefore I will never PURPOSEFULLY put any amount of water no matter how small or how slow into my intake. SeaFoam works for me...