automotive additives

[LEWETHETIGER73]

Just wondering what everone uses for there personal cars and why. It seems to be the talk of my shop lately. And has anyone ever used seafoam in their vacuum lines?

[BR3W CITY]

Who HASN'T? Seafoam for errrrrverything I own. Seafoam in gas after storage, seafoam in oil right before change, seafoam in vac lines of any older/unstarted car.

[LEWETHETIGER73]

What do you mean " in the oil before change"?

[Ricky Bobby]

Pick up a can and read it

[Rocket Power]

Never used it, don't plan on ever using it.

[spooln30]

I've used Seafoam to clear up a sticky Injector, intake cleaner, oil cleaner and to piss off my neighbor. LOL. I had a friend that had a head gasket leak and didn't have the cash to properly fix it right away so I poured in a bottle of Bar's Leak Head Gasket repair. Guess what its been 1 1/2 years and its still working. It was a decent leak so I was surprised. I've also had good luck with their rear main seal stop leak, lucky like 4 or 5 times. I personally will just fix what ever is wrong with my or my families vehicles but some of my broke friends or their friends that's a different story.

[BR3W CITY]

What do you mean " in the oil before change"?

put in oil, let idle for a few minutes warm, then change oil. Crap builds up everywhere, this helps get it out. Do NOT drive for long distances or run high rpm while doing it, as it does reduce certain lubricating factors, but isn't traditionally "abrasive". Hard to explain, but it works.

[LEWETHETIGER73]

good to know, thanks
\

[wrath]

Nope. Never seems to do anything that Dexron VI or Marvel Mystery Oil doesn't do for cheaper. Or a quart of naptha.

[BR3W CITY]

Nope. Never seems to do anything that Dexron VI or Marvel Mystery Oil doesn't do for cheaper. Or a quart of naptha.

I have never seen someone recommend dumping atf into an engine to clean it. I've heard of putting a little in a lawn tractor or 2 stroke to help clean it out, but with all the shit in atf wouldn't you be leaving just as much crap as you took out?

OR is there something different about Dex VI than, III or V?

[Moparjim]

The atf thing is an old school thing, I used to do that way back on old muscle cars, and used to even "fog" motors with it by pouring it right down the carb right before changing the oil and before pulling and storing engines.

Nowadays I would never recommend any type of atf, every type of atf that I know of has some sort of friction additives so your trans clutches work prooerly, and detergents and other stuff. Old school cars were pretty simple and forgiving as far as bearings, tolerances, clearances, oil oassages, etc. modern cars are not lol.

[wrath]

Dexron II and III don't exist anymore. You're stuck with Dexron VI.

ATF is full of detergents and is fairly low ash for what it is. It burns easy, which is why it works.

The way most of them work is a different combustion temperature causes the crap to fall off. Doesn't really matter what it is which is why water works. Some stuff is pretty abusive to oxygen sensors and monolith catalytic converters.

[brotherbenn83]

we use ATF in dirty engines all the time FWIW

[BR3W CITY]

Damn I feel out of touch, I've literally never tried that. I guess I've always had an extra can of seafoam, or never had an engine that dirty.
Gonna have to keep this one in the back of my mind.

[brotherbenn83]

Work at a GM dealer, we used to do it a lot in cars with internal coolant leaks (3.1/3.4/4.3/5.7etc) Run 80% oil and 20% trans fluid for an hour or two or if it is real bad for the first 500 miles after say an intake reseal.

[BoosTT]

I've been known to dump texron fuel injector cleaner in the tank of my Audi. It's sworn by audi owners that it cleans the gas gauge sensor. Otherwise, I've done seafoam and heat.

I've tried the bars stop leak head gasket repair... didn't work for me. A buddy got it to work, but clogged his heater core.

[Sprayaway Fox]

If you ever have a HG leak find a shop with the "seal tabs" they basically look like quarter sized particle board. Those will seal just about anything.

[wrencher]

I've used sea foam, trans fluid to oil, techron, & others.
I also like to use either lucas ZDDP oil additive.
New oils have very little to no zinc anti-wear additives in them anymore.
If your running no catalyst= no foul.
If your running an older car much more reason to run it specially with flat tappet cams etc.