[s-cars] Still on 4 cylinders, some background.

[Dan DiBiase]

Brett Dikeman <quattro at frank.mercea.net> wrote:  
On Dec 20, 2005, at 10:56 AM, Ingo Rautenberg wrote:

> Ooh -- likey your theory there, Bob!  May I suggest a Treatment of  
> SeaFoam to remove any gunk in the lifters (maybe with a dose of  
> dino oil) for a few hundred miles (up to five hundred) and then an  
> oil and filter change.  Sure beats having to do a motor swap in his  
> weather ;-)

I googled around on SeaFoam, and came across a Jeep owner's forum.

Conclusion: in the intake, helps remove carbon deposits (similar to  
MOPAR's combustion chamber cleaner.)  In the crankcase, helps clean  
up sludge and such, but one guy with a leaking rear main seal had a  
dramatic failure of the seal days after the treatment.  Reasonable  
conclusion by those in the forum was that the seal was being held  
together on a thread by deposits (varnish/carbon/whatever) or that  
the SeaFoam weakened the rubber.  Either way, some advised against  
putting the stuff in the crankcase.

If the engine has been run on Mobil1 for any period of time,  
internals should be nice and clean.

Seems a little suspicious that a cylinder with a bad lifter would ace  
a compression test...?  I've also never heard of lifter 'failure',  
just them getting noisy on the 10v's.

Us British Car guys use it in the gas tank - one can for about 8  gallons, then drive the car for a while. Seems to clean out gunk in the  intake system pretty well. Hadn't really heard about putting it in the  crankcase, though....
    
    Dan D
    '04 A4 1.8Tq MT-6
    '76 MGB Tourer
    '65 MGB Tourer
    Central NJ USA