Engine cleaners, Are they good? (1 Viewer)

[jeff lam]

I have a fairly old car that has had a lot of stop and go miles. The car is burning oil and the oil gets dark quick. I figure this is due to composits in the engine (sludge). Is there an engine cleaner that will help get the sludge drained out of the engine, or should I use a synthetic, will it help?

I take my car to jiffy lube and they have a internal engine cleaning product that they use before draining the oil. Do those products work?

 

[Mark C Sherman]

There are several Products on the market that Claim that they clean your Engine. Go to a local garage and see what they think. Most of the time they can order stuff that you can ONLY get from a Mechanic. Also some day just take your car on the highway up to WARP 3. That will clean some of that stuff out.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

Jeff,

If you are burning oil past the rings, you will get increased blow-by and that's what's causing the oil to get dirty so quickly. Modern oils (non-parafin based) don't sludge up the way they used to. Save your money for a compression and leak-down test. You won't pass smog next time if you are burning oil.

 

[Ken Garrison]

If you like your car so much and don't wanna get a new one. May I suggest an engine overhaul. Had that done to my 1984 Toyota Van after the water pump blew. They bore the cylinders and make them bigger, install bigger pistons, new crankshaft, new cam shaft, make new valves, and do some other shit to it. After the rebuild, my dad went to go pick it up and he noticed a great difference in power. The speed limit on that freeway is 70 MPH and there was this one hill it would always bog down on. Causing it to drop outta Overdrive. NOW it can go over that same hill without bogging and without downshifting. So, if you can afford it, have the engine rebuilt. Actually, it's cheaper than a new car.

 

[jeff lam]

I burn oil when the engine has been running for a while and I'm at fairly high speeds (50+). When I need to climb an incline on the freeway I gas it and hear a clicking sound and see greyish smoke in the rear view. This only happens when I hear the clicking/rattling sound. Anyone know what the problem is?

 

[Philip_G]

that's pretty odd. Dunno what it is.
however, one time I had a jeep wrangler with a pretty nasty case of blow by, the mechanic suggessted I try "restore for sticky rings" I sold the damn thing, and never tried it, so I can't comment on it's effectiveness

 

[Ken Garrison]

My mom's 93 Concorde with direct fuel injection seems to sound a little rough once and a while and will emit black smoke. It'll shoot it out like a fire hose shooting water if you stomp on it. What's the problem here? Also, once and a while, it'll buck and shake a little on the highway. Then we floor it and leave the person behind us with a cloud of black smoke. I guess this is useful for them tail gaters. BTW, wouldn't it be cool if you had a tail gater behind you and all you had to do is flip a switch, causing a bunch of stinky black smoke to come out your tailpipe? Guess that'll show them. Tail gating is only wrong if the person in front of you is going the speed limit. If they are going so damn slow, then yes, I say tail gate them. Push them to go faster. I'm just kidding BTW. Tail gating is bad and going to slow is bad. If you want to go so damn slow, pull over and let the traffic by. If you wanna go so damn fast when the speed limit is 55 MPH and my speedo says 60, then either pass me, or back off. Another thing I hate. I can be going around 60 MPH in a 55 and people behind me still wanna pass. In fact, yesterday, I was doing 56 MPH and there was a cop behind me. He passed me and I decided to take mine up to 60 MPH. He was still pulling away from me. Hmmmmmmmmmm. Well, anyway.......Back to the subject.

What could be causing my mom's 93 Concorde to be behaving like this? Could it just need a good tuneup? We just gave my 84 Toyota Van a slight minor tuneup. It was misfiring too but no black smoke. NAPA replaced my fuel filter. Then we replaced the coil and the rotor. Problem still existed but not as bad, except, I would loose #4 after a while. Then we replaced the distributor cap, plug wires, and the spark plugs. THAT fixed it. Like I said. What might be the problem with MAMA'S car?!? LOL O2 Sensor? Injectors? Fuel Filter?

 

[jeff lam]

he smoke isn't black but it's grey and my oil goes down quite a bit. I have to fill it about a quart a month. t's not leaking much so it must be burning right? I do also have radiator leaks which makes it smell funny under the hood. I really should get a tune up. its an 89 Accord btw. I change the oil every 3000, and the car has served me well but it just seems like now is the time I just never quit putting money into it because something always is wrong with it.

 

[Ken Garrison]

I do also have radiator leaks which makes it smell funny under the hood.

Get a bottle of Barz Leak. I had some mysterious water loss in my Van's radiator and once and a while, it would overheat. So, I put a bottle of Barz Leak in the radiator and the loss of water has stopped. Right about when the car reaches the 10-15 year mark, you'll start putting more and more money as plastic gizmos start breaking down, fuel filters start clogging, and ignition systems start failing. Usually, after about 150,000 to 160,000 miles, an engine rebuild is the way to go. Had mine rebuilt. When it comes time to have it rebuilt again, I might get one of them used Japanese engines, and drop it in there. Maybe rebuild it. Japan considers their engines JUNK after about 50,000 miles. Rebuilds are pretty good and you'll notice a difference. You'll get more power when they bore the cylinders and install bigger pistons.

 

[Sean Conklin]

You'll get more power when they bore the cylinders and install bigger pistons.

They most likely only bore it .030 over which equals around 5cubic inches, the extra power is not coming form the cylinder bore, it is the combination of higher compression due to compression restoration with the new rings, the head being shaved and the new sealed valves in the head. The .030 overbore is not worth much power in and of itself. Size of the overbore is almost irrelevant, unless you put in some high compression dome top pistons and run some serious compression, but this isn't the case with a typical import rebuild

 

[Ken Garrison]

Basically, the main reason they rebuilt the engine after the water pump blew is because they kept finding more and more problems. One main problem was there was something loose in the crankshaft. Probably a bad rod. We heard it rattling one time, then it quit and everything was fine. They replaced the torque convert because it was leaking and did some rewiring under the dash and got my rear blower fans working again. They also adjusted my transmission a little. After my dad picked it up, the Overdrive didn't work, neither did the cruise control. He took it back, and the Overdrive switch was disconnected. So they hooked it back up and still didn't fix the cruise.

If you're gonna have your engine rebuilt, make sure they put the wires back where they go. I'm STILL driving with no cruise. I'm gonna demand a refund on the bill. IT DID WORK BEFORE!! I've check every connection I can possibly find. I can't find out what's wrong with it. I WANT MY CRUISE CONTROL BACK!! ANY SUGGESTIONS?

 

[Brad_V]

Various things:

As was said, cleaning an engine isn't going to help bad rings or bad valve seals. Some engine cleaners do work well, such as Mopar Combustion Cleaner, but it's just for cleaning the carbon deposits. It's not going to help oil use.

To find out what's wrong internally with an engine, you can get a compression tester for around 20 bucks. It's very easy to do a compression test, and the numbers can tell you many interesting things about an engine's condition. Also, plenty of cars may not even need the cylinder walls bored bigger. Often, just putting new rings in will be enough.

For import cars, a JDM (Japanese) used engine can be a very good deal if you shop around. Some people pay ridiculous amounts of money for them just so they can tell their buddies it's a JDM engine, though. Many people also think the JDMs have more horsepower. Which is often true, but only because Japan has higher octane gas and less emissions testing, so they can alter the Japanese ecu tuning to take advantage of those things. I just put a JDM engine in my Talon, and the whole process worked out very well.

Ken, it definitely sounds like the Concorde is running very rich and the unburnt fuel keeps piling up and starts snuffing out the spark on the spark plugs, and then the flooring it helps clean them off again. Could be a bad O2, but you should get a check engine light for that. Shouldn't be the fuel filter at all. If the plugs haven't been changed in the last two years minimum, I'd change them and go from there. Plus, then you can see what the plugs in there look like. Probably will come out nice and black.

Also, could just be a big air leak somewhere. If the car is Mass-Air, it senses the air being sucked into the air filter, but then if it leaks out somewhere before it gets to the engine, it doesn't know it, so then the car runs rich. You have to hook an air compressor to the intake area to test for leaks. I had a huge one at the turbo outlet when I put my new engine in, so it's no wonder I was getting 15mpg.

 

[Ken Garrison]

Also, could just be a big air leak somewhere. If the car is Mass-Air, it senses the air being sucked into the air filter, but then if it leaks out somewhere before it gets to the engine, it doesn't know it, so then the car runs rich. You have to hook an air compressor to the intake area to test for leaks. I had a huge one at the turbo outlet when I put my new engine in, so it's no wonder I was getting 15mpg.

I had a leak on my air intake hose between the throttle bottle and the MAF sensor on my Toyota Van. I couldn't figure out WHAT was causing my van to stall out when I go to a stop. And why it would be fine in reverse. Well, I took it into Napa. They took it for a test drive, came back, lifted up the seat to the engine and immediatly showed me the hole. I borrowed some duct tape and taped it up and drove it home. Then I started pricing a new AIR HOSE, since Napa doesn't carry it. $65 is what Toyota told me. I go, Jesus Christ. WTF? Then we removed the hose, went into Napa, gotta tube of GOOP and some electrical tape, glued it, and when it was dry, we taped the shit out of it. NOW she works.

Yeah, I should pull one of the spark plugs on her car and see what it looks like. She'd probably have a fit though. Also, I tried pulling one of the spark plug wires. It won't come off.

 

[Brad_V]

And thinking about it a little more, it could very well be a dying O2 sensor if flooring it clears things up. At cruise, the O2 sensor will tell the ecu the car is warm enough to go into closed-loop mode, but usually flooring a car bypasses the O2 and it goes into open-loop mode. So when cruising around in closed-loop and it's running rich then, it could possibly be the O2 sensor on its way out but not bad enough to trip the CE light.