My car has always had what I consider excessive valvetrain noise. I've set the valve lash and there's still some tick from what I presume to be tired lifters. There's a weird muffled oink in the vicinity of the #8 cylinder exhaust valve when the engine is cold.

After reading a post about using Sea Foam to check for exhaust manifold leaks, I decided to give it a whack. I sucked about 1/2 can into the intake through the brake booster vacuum line and killed the motor. I tossed the remaining 1/2 can in the crankcase to get rid of it. When I restarted the motor per the directions, the huge clouds of theatrical smoke was quite entertaining. Every Vette mechanic wannabe in a ten block radius was throwing in his .02 about my blown head gasket etc. Sorry to disappoint, guys. Sea Foam.

The following morning I put a whole can in the fuel tank and ran it like that for a few days. I don't like anything but oil in my crankcase for too long so I changed the oil.

I've been listening to it for the last few days. It's oinkless and the ticking now is almost impossible to hear. With fresh oil, my coolant temp is running 10deg lower than I'd expect it to be. I've played with other additives in other vehicles with varying degrees of success, but I find it hard to believe that Sea Foam could have this dramatic effect.

I'm thinking about drinking the stuff.

 

Maybe its just carboned up? Where did ya get that stuff??????? :cheers:

 

Historically carbon buildup has not been an issue in cars I've owned. This car goes like a madman but I've only put about the last 20k miles on it so who knows? Sea Foam is supposed to help that too.

It's on the shelf everywhere around Minneapolis, but I found this too;
http://www.seafoamsales.com/motorTuneUpTechGas.htm

 

I picked some up at Napa.

Just make sure you don't use the stuff upwind from traffic. Theatrical smoke is a good term to use there. :yesnod: