Do not use seafoam?

[DSMBanditFZ6]

Bought my eclipse gsx, bought a oil change (Pennzoil high mileage) 204K miles.

bought some sea-foam on sale for the gas tank. The genius at advance auto suggest putting a quarter bottle in the oil when i change it along with Lucas to solve my lifter ticking noise.

sound started ticking even louder while idle, while on my way to work the next morning the wrist pin sheared off number 1 cylinder causing a drastic drop in hp. i was trying to get up a hill and pull in somewhere then the rod somehow got rolled up with the rear balance shaft causing the oil pump pulley to lock up knocking a 2 X 4 hole in the back of the motor.

when the oil pump & pulley locked up the timing belt quit spinning ( thank god ) but the crank kept spinning and literally destroyed the gates timing belt i installed a week prior.

Also when the header was glowing bright red when i popped the hood, it was around 0645 in the morning. (had a highflow Magnaflow cat on a stock exhaust Wtf?)


i will never be using sea-foam ever again in any vehicle i own. (at least never in the oil)

Any Thoughts? bad experiences? i am not blaming this solely on sea-foam because i did have what a thought was a tick but was a knock.

it just wasn't that bad until i did this.

Rubber side down!

 

[DSMBanditFZ6]

As stated I would be hesitant to run seafoam in the crank case for anything besides flushing the oil right before changing it. I am also hesitant to say it was seafoam that caused the issue either way. Who's to say considering the variables though.

The manifold glowing red isn't that uncommon and you will usually see it right after doing a long WOT run. People usually don't pop their hood right after a pull; it usually goes away after about a minute of idling/normal driving. Ignition timing can greatly affect this like Craig said. A long pull with lots of knock will pulls lots of timing and send a lot of the heat of combustion out the exhaust.

Take my advice with a grain of salt though, I work for Advance Auto

Lol funny. Yeah the cat wasn't clogged so that would be my 2nd guess.

Thanks!

 

[blaknoize]

I've used seafoam in my crankcase, but as mentioned before you should only run on it for a moment. It's suppose to free up stuff in the crankcase. I did it on my 287k CRX and in my DSM when I bought it at 183k.

 

[elplatanudo]

Ive used seafoam in to clean my throttle and it worked great!! Ive also used it in my oil and nothing bad happened...i did notice that my oil lasted a litlle longer and my next oild changes my oil came out cleaner....

 

[bryanwheat]

Well the carbon build up over time on a motor with that kind of mileage actually helps it stick together.Running seafoam cleaning that out may cause some issues and trying to restore a motor with high miles decided to take it toll.Correct me if I am wrong about the carbon build up.Just thought I throw in my 2 cent's from what I've been told.

This is kind of a silly statement. The ONLY thing that carbon might be doing to keep the engine running is filling in the imperfections in the valve seats and valves and seafoam in the crankcase doesn't even make it there. There is nothing in the bottom end or oiling system that has carbon "holding it together"

 

[clipto]

Didn't know he was only using it in the oil system.

 

[V8Killer25]

dont ever listen to those guys at the part store. seafoam ok it made my car run better for about a week. not worth the money to me.

 

[Dsmkauai]

Lol that's like saying the octane booster you pic up at the local dollar general acutally works. It had negative impact on my car aswell as a few other people. It could have knocked some sludge off causinvlg it to break. Which would mean it was caused by this and running.it.in a newer motor might be great, running in a old motor might have adverse affects being as it.was use to using.all that gunk. Idk only time will tell.

But not for me!

You can at me about it all you want bro. Ill continue to use seafoam like I have been for the past going on 14 years, in my 240,000 mile dsm that runs consistant 12's and will be faster this race season. I've used this combined with great oil vr1 20/50. I'll be honest when I dropped my oil pan a few weeks ago to do an routine inspection. I was amazed how clean this motor is, even under the valve cover, with all the abuse I put it thru. Comparing seafoam to octane booster is what needs to be at honestly. Anyway hope you learn a good leason out of all this. Just please don't bash products when you have no real proof. Especially when all of us can see what was the real issue here. Anyway going for a ride in the dizzum for my bday, and tuning a bit. Good luck bro

 

[97gst_spyder]

I use it in my DSM and Sentra all the time with no issues. 5+ years over 160k on the sentra, and 50+k on the dsm with no issues at all.

 

[V8Killer25]

Shit... don't bow to me. I bought my first DSM brand new 18 years ago, and I still learn something new about them every day. Just ask Bryanwheat up there ^.

Yea ive had my DSM for a few years and im still on a low base with it I love the car.

 

[hypergenesis]

Does no one understand with sea foam you change your oil after you put it in and drive it for 15 minutes? If you drove with seafoam in your oil then its your own fault honestly. Ive used seafoam on multiple cars with no problems, it just comes down whether or not you know how to use a liquid cleaner for your engine...

 

[pboglio]

Seafoam recommends 1.5 oz per quart of oil, or about 7 oz. for us DSM owners. Then run it for at least 100 miles before changing the oil. Their website has a useful faq: Sea Foam | Gasoline Engine FAQ's | General Content - Motor Treatment

I'm famous for not reading instructions, so I ran an entire bottle in the crankcase. I dumped it into the crankcase while the engine was still hot, and I did get a weird vapor lock type starting problem that refused to allow the car to start, then after 5-7 tries it kicked over. Ran perfectly fine after that. I have run synthetic for the last 100,000 miles and didn't expect huge sludge deposits to get removed, just that little bit that clogs up the lifters.

I expected it to eliminate my lifter tick right away, but that didn't happen. Ran it for 200 miles. When I dumped the oil it was pitch black. Poured in some fresh Valvoline 10W/30 Syntec full synthetic, and tried out a non-mitsubishi oil filter for the first time ever, a Napa/Wix Gold oil filter. The one thing I noticed is how clean my oil stayed after the Seafoam treatment. Stayed gold for a good week.

For the first time in 15 years I was able to mostly eliminate lifter tick. Sometimes it runs without tick right from start up, other times it takes about 5-15 minutes of driving when its really cold out, but it has mostly eliminated it. I think it was the Seafoam/oil filter combo that did the trick.

I think the OP's problem lies elsewhere. The list of things that failed on that car suggest either a fluke chain reaction, or a horribly maintained car. I think the latter.