alex wrote: - rust in the cab corners... - light wallet syndrome... - expanding driver spare tire... Okay, probably nothing on the parts store shelf for the last three.
Sure there is...
Bondo comes in a can......
some thin slices of lead will weigh down that wallet
skip the snack rack by the check out.
see easy!
Hapco makes a product for steering racks called Slipcoat. it works.
In reply to Gearheadotaku:
I think cutting back on the Natty Light would bea better bet for the spare tire.
In reply to Alex:
Under 200k? Ill be putting seafoam in likely this afternoon. Over 210k and not many issues. I really doubt it will fix the ball joint.
I'll let ya know how it works out.
I usually do an oil and plug change afterward. Prepare for a wonderfully stinky smoke show!
In reply to Lesley:
Full synthetic. Maybe I'll wait until payday.
I've Seafoamed a couple of different engines and haven't noticed any big difference.
One thing that did seem to help, though, was running ATF in the crankcase. I had a Miata with 140k on it and the infamous lifter tick they are known for. I drained the oil, put on a cheap filter, one quart of oil, and filled the rest of the way with ATF. Ran it for about 10 minutes, mostly idling, but gently revving it a few times. Drained it and it came out BLACK. Put in regular oil and a good filter, and I never head the lifters again.
In reply to Taiden:
Yes, I've done all three.
The egg in the rad is temporary, it's enough to get you to a garage. Leave the cap off.
I used a little water in the intake on an old Chevy six to get rid of the carbon, worked like a charm.
Shawn
What makes one suspicous are the odd ways that they tell you that it works.
My current pet peeve is V-Max- they put it into a small cup of metal, and then they show how it absorbs into the metal. For what they are trying to prove- that it absorbs into metal- it's complete crap- metal structure is tight enough so that it's capable of sealing the small molecules of H2 for quite a while, and easily sealing H2O. I'm very certain that V-Max is some kind of hydrocarbon based stuff, and unless it's CH4 (which is a gas), it's a bigger molecule than H20. There is NO WAY that anything will be absorbed into solid metal- such as bearings, cylinder walls, cranks.
What they are showing is a block made of powder metal, which isn't pressed together so tight to absorb materials.
I know that old aluminum oil pans do tend to absorb oil- true- but that's an issue with the casting- which can be cheap and have significant porosity. The stuff that needs lubrication- cranks, cams, rod bearings, cylider walls- etc, none of that can have significant prosity and survive very long.
So I'm not willing to even TRY V-Max since the "example" is pure BS.
Tom_Spangler wrote: I've Seafoamed a couple of different engines and haven't noticed any big difference. One thing that did seem to help, though, was running ATF in the crankcase. I had a Miata with 140k on it and the infamous lifter tick they are known for. I drained the oil, put on a cheap filter, one quart of oil, and filled the rest of the way with ATF. Ran it for about 10 minutes, mostly idling, but gently revving it a few times. Drained it and it came out BLACK. Put in regular oil and a good filter, and I never head the lifters again.
Since I'll be at 198k for the next and probable last oil change in my Miata- I may try that. Easy to do....
I usually blast some carb cleaner down the intake before an oil change. Cleans the carb and intake of oily goo, and should blast carbon out of the cylinders.
I think I'll try adding ATF to the crankcase too before the 'rolla's next oil change, it smokes a bit even with the GTX High Mileage (25W60) oil in it.
I do the carb cleaner thing too, but with a clean rag. Dodges tend to stall if the throttle body gets gunked up.
Back in it's day, I reserrected several poor running engines with the full Bardahl treatment..
Marvel Mystery oil is the king of all addatives anf is the oldest. When I was just learning how to work on cars, my father had me spray the leaf springs on cars when doing a lube job, anybody remember those. Then later on, we had some problems with sticky valve bodys on Hydromatics. A little mystery oil freed them right up. I still use it for various things.
Is there anything that will actually work on a bad head gasket? I'm not talking about grossly blown, but impending doom.
In reply to cwh:
Replacement.
So what exactly do I do with Marvel Mystery oil? Put it into the crankcase with the oil? Put it in the gas? My mom has a RAV4 that seems to be using oil even after a valve cover gasket, cam and crank seal replacement during the recent timing belt change.
A piping hot cup of it is a great way to start the day...
Um, sorry, that's the coffee thread. 
cwh wrote: Is there anything that will actually work on a bad head gasket? I'm not talking about grossly blown, but impending doom.
Tom & Ray have a very cautious non-endorsement of the Bars Leak HG-in-a-can on their website. Sort of a "We've seen this kinda work in the past, and hey, what harm could it do?" statement.
I had a coolant leak on my $1500 gmc, tried the commercial products, but didn't stop the leak. It looked like it was leaking at the seal for the water pump. I'd lose about a gallon a week. Put 2 bags of pepper in when I topped it up and it hasn't leaked since, it's been 3 1/2 months. I guess I should fix it properly, but like I said it's not leaking, so I'm just gonna leave it alone.
alex wrote:cwh wrote: Is there anything that will actually work on a bad head gasket? I'm not talking about grossly blown, but impending doom.Tom & Ray have a *very* cautious non-endorsement of the Bars Leak HG-in-a-can on their website. Sort of a "We've seen this kinda work in the past, and hey, what harm could it do?" statement.
I've seen a couple HG in a can type products in the "aftermath" stage, I don't know which products or if they were used as per the instructions, but neither fixed the engines (A Honda D15 and Toyota 3VZE) and both required extensive flushing of the coolant system, especially the heater core, after the HG job .
In reply to Lesley:
Tastes terrible, can I mix with Crown Royal?
As far as the talk about running engines without oil, I saw a 302 powered cougar run the last 45 min of a Lemons race without any oil pressure (pickup tube broke off) and finish the day that way. They replaced the engine overnight (it was able to run when pulled, not a fused lump as you would expect), but inspection verified that there is NO WAY it had oil. IIRC there was no snake oil of any kind in it.
45 min running hard around summit point shenandoah, makes me take that "test" of snake oil with a HUGE grain of salt.
DuPont sued several companies, including Slick50, to force them to quit using PTFE in their formulations but lost. The FTC jumped in as well. There's a link on this page to the FTC lawsuits and findings. http://www.carbibles.com/additives.html
IIRC there was at least 1 lawsuit involving an aircraft engine which seized in flight, the oil passages were found to be clogged with PTFE particles from the Slick 50, but I can't find a link.
Anyway, ATF is an old lifter cleaning trick. Used to be, you changed the oil, replaced 1 quart of oil with ATF, drove it to the next oil change interval and the lifter noise would be gone. BG used to sell a two part engine flush (it smelled like Pine Sol) which really did work on lifter noise.
Subaru center diff plates were known for chatter in turns, we had several come through and decided to try a transmission flush on one, just for the heck of it. Damn if it didn't work. Our theory was the solvents in the flush chemical (again a BG product) cleaned oxidized fluid off of the plates in the center diff allowing it to 'slip' smoothly, as it was designed to. The same thing happened with the newer Quadra Trac Grand Cherokees.
Seafoam will definitely remove carbon etc and as Lesley pointed out make a big ol' stinky cloud. 
ATF will work as well. We had the police show up at the Isuzu dealer one day because the Seafoam/ATF mix cloud from our shop had rolled out into the six lane road out front.
Water will definitely remove carbon, yank the head off a car with a blown HG and the offending cylinder will look like the day it was born. That's known as 'steam cleaning'. I once did a CB350 Honda that way, pulled the airbox boots, revved the engine and sprayed water in the intakes. The amount of crap that flew out of the pipes was amazing; there were actual flakes of carbon.
I once took apart a nice quiet Spitfire diff and found pieces of a small block Chevy cork valve cover gasket in it. Cleaned it all out, filled it with 90 weight and put it back in, sure enough it howled.
Oil stop leak products are bad news. They soften the seals etc and may work for a short time but the seals will wear much more quickly leading to bigger problems. Also it is not selective; if only 1 seal is leaking the stuff will affect EVERY seal in the same way, oops.
I saw a Ford automatic disassembled at the AAMCO I worked at, when a piston was popped out of its drum the piston external seal literally flew out of the groove and expanded to probably 1 1/2 its intended size. The trans builder said that was because the stuff worked by softening and swelling the seals. FWIW, the stuff that came out of that transmission smelled like brake fluid to me.
When I was in Costa Rica, we were driving a toyota COE diesel van with about 400k kilometers on it. Man that thing was hilarious to drive. It felt really sluggish so I sprayed probably a liter of hot water down it's throat while revving it. Seemed to run much better after that. Never knew for sure if it was placebo or not.
Curmudgeon wrote: FWIW, the stuff that came out of that transmission smelled like brake fluid to me.
Back when I was younger and more dishonest about selling cars...
A half pint of brake fluid will fix a slipping trans long enough that the new owner won't blame you for it.
I did eventually learn that karma is a bitch though.
Somewhere I read that putting slices of a banana in a cylinder through the spark plug hole will quiet a piston slap for about 50 miles or so.
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