Possible SEAFOAM Mishap HELP:(

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Oct 14, 2007 | 11:33 AM

#21

FLATOUT

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Temporary Hold

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From: www.modular-concept.com www.flatoutimaging.com

Higgs,

Its grey and dirty smelling,

Is it possible it blew the gasket on the intake port of the intake manifold (i.e. LS6)

But it is definetly dirty looking.

After I shut the car off it will continue to burn off allittle after the key is off.

Andy

Oct 14, 2007 | 12:17 PM

#22

Higgs Boson

Race Director

Joined: Jul 2007

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From: Texas Hill Country

Quote:

Originally Posted by FLATOUT

If it's grey and dirty then it's more likely oil and not coolant. I am not familiar with the port/cylinder layout on the LSx though. I wouldn't think oil flow through the head in passages but I could def. be wrong. It could be rings or valve seals letting oil into the cyilnder and out the exhaust.... You can open your radiator and see if it smells like any hint of oil in it and you can open your oil filler cap and see if there is any foam/white buildup on it (coolant). I don't think you will find either though.... Grey smoke out of the exhaust is oil and doesn't indicate a headgasket problem, IMO.

Also, is the white smoke just at startup and goes away after driving around? Sometimes valve seals will let a little oil leak past and smoke on startup but go away after warmup. And it is possible that the SeaFoam isn't out of the system completely yet....

Last edited by Higgs Boson; Oct 14, 2007 at 12:20 PM.

Oct 14, 2007 | 05:20 PM

#23

FLATOUT

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From: www.modular-concept.com www.flatoutimaging.com

Will take it out tomorrow and see if it is just at start up.

Garage door spring broke so now I cant get the car out of the garage LOL.

Will see tomorrow though.

Andy

Oct 14, 2007 | 05:39 PM

#24

nitrojunky

Burning Brakes

Joined: Sep 2001

Posts: 893

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From: ATX

Quote:

Originally Posted by FLATOUT

Oil is usually blue IMO, coolant is white and sweet-smelling. IIRC, seafoam is also white tho... could be you're just burning off the seafoam residue.

Re: the intake manifold gaskets... I can't see why you'd blow one of those while using seafoam, and I also don't think it'd make for white smoke if you did.

Quote:

Originally Posted by higgs boson

...

One of my good friends is at CERN, he's looking for you

Oct 14, 2007 | 06:28 PM

#25

Specter

Racer

Joined: May 2006

Posts: 332

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From: Lexington Mass

I had the same problem on my old VR4 after seafoam, turns out that at least on 3000GTs using seafoam drys the *** out of the seals and lets oil drip down, A $4 bottle of seal conditioner in the crank fixed it for me but that was in the VR4. Could try it and see, I bet thats what it is.

Oct 14, 2007 | 11:03 PM

#26

vjjack04

Melting Slicks

Joined: Apr 2007

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From: Hereford AZ

Quote:

Originally Posted by dgrant3830

He didn't say how many miles are on his engine. Usually SeaFoam is used in an attempt to stop pinging caused by carbon buildup in the cylinders. Carbon is a natural leftover of the premium fuels our cars require. I keep my '99 in as good shape as possible and I do have some pinging issues that Seafoam did not cure. It did help a little, but didn't stop it. So even though mine runs like its new, it pings...of course in my case, I'm at 297,000 miles too.

Yeah, I get it. Seafoam is a gimmick; may or may not work. I prefer to use tried solutions; run better gas or octane booster. No need to add this stuff. I say don't add this stuff. Keep your engine clean and the combustion chambers by proper tuning and injector cleaner. I have pulled these engines apart and not seen this 'carbon build up' any different than other engines. 297K is alot and for any engine there would be carbon (regardless of the fuel)....I do have an, L92 with 10.1 compression and have no pinging on premium.....just smoking side ways power which is exercised often....

Oct 15, 2007 | 12:48 AM

#27

dgrant3830

Tech Contributor

Joined: Dec 2006

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From: Van Buren Arkansas

Wounded Warrior Escort '11

The pinging that I had did in fact decrease, but not gone. A long while back, when I replaced the lifters in it, I had the valves done, replaced the springs and guides along with the valve stem seals. Apparently the place put the seals in wrong and ruined them. With smoke starting to cloud from the exhaust when taking off from lights, I had a different place replace the seals again when they found they had been messed up. #8 cylinder was the worst. My assumption now is that I have plenty of carbon in there even though at the time I did the lifters, I insured it was clean. After the lifters, there was no pinging at all and slowly developed. So, without taking the heads off again and no place to work on the car now, I tried Seafoam. It helped a little but I was very careful and very leary about it.

Oct 15, 2007 | 12:56 AM

#28

mvvette97

Melting Slicks

Joined: May 2005

Posts: 3,394

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From: Leon Iowa

St. Jude Donor '06-'07-'08-'09

Do you have cats? If so I know that they can hold the smell of whatever got put down the engine. I have an old 98 grand am turbo that had the turbo go bad so it started to push oil in the exhaust. Even after I got the new turbo on it would still smoke for almost a month. It was just the cats for some reason still had some of that crap still in them. They finally plugged so I took them off and to my surprise no more smoke. That was 5 years ago and still no smoke to this day