Seafoamed now burning oil?

[Rusche]

Seafoamed a friend of mines Ex the other night, 4.0L V6, did it right through the throttle body
About half a can, shut it off, sat for 15 minutes, started her up, blah blah blah, same results as everyone else. Worked fine.
Other half the can was ran through the oil a few days prior to the seafoam in the intake.
After we did it through the intake, put a few miles on it to work all the seafoam out, we changed the oil.
But now hes burning oil like mad. Isnt Seafoam a ring regenerate?
Is it just a coincidence that he started burning oil afterwards?
Any ideas?
Thanks.

 

[DeRocha]

How much oil buring is alot? Maybe when it was put into the oil it cleaned up any oil clumping around the valve guides which is now allowing the oil to seep into the cylinder(s) and get burned.

 

[Explodr94]

I don't know how many miles your ex has, but it could also be a valve stem seal.

 

[yellowcat]

what color is the smoke coming out the tail pipe. Does it smoke all the time.

 

[ParkerRocker]

i am the "friend" in question here, the exhaust is not visible, its the same color it always has been. I was down a quart after 3 days of driving. the ex has about 134,000 miles on it

 

[Flandry]

That's a pretty significant loss in a short period. I assume you think it's burning oil because you don't see any puddling on the ground. But it sounds more like you have a leak. Have you checked around the oil filter? I had a bad seal on an oil filter do the same thing - I'd lose oil, but not see anything on the ground because it wouldn't leak until it was under pressure.

 

[Willard]

It could also be leaking around the valve covers or rear main. If it was the rear main, you would likely see it though. I would check for oil accumulation around the spark plugs, that will tell you if it's leaking there.

 

[ParkerRocker]

devilboy222, thank you for that. I'll check that ouy.
Flandry, the first thing i checked was the oil filter, it was dry as a bone, as was the surrounding areas and the parking spot that i use.

Does anybody know the oil capacity of the 4.0L?

 

[Maniak]

5 quarts with a FL1A filter..

Edit: btw.. at 3 quarts down the Oil light on the dash will be on (the low oil light you don't see very often)..

~Mark

 

[yellowcat]

I agree sounds like a leak

what type of oil are you running. The oil pans love to leak. How did you manage to find a parking spot that no one leaked before. I put cardboard under my ex to check for leaks. Go to the carwash and clean every part of the engine you can get to. Then check for leaks

 

[ParkerRocker]

I meant the place that I park on the street in front of my house has no oil on it. sorry i didnt clarify. I'm running Penzoil 10W-30.
Ya i took it to a carwash and hosed out the engine compartment (it was filthy due to mud and love) then i took Purple Power to the underside and hit the oil pan. I don't believe it is leaking enough to lose a quart a few days after an oil change. There is a little bit of oil on the plug though...

Too bad the seafoam did it's job and my oil is still amber and harder to see...

 

[redneck21]

throw in a car of engine restore or stop leak in the oil. Some time seafoam will clean an engine too much but not that bad and have no sines of it.

 

[mechjames]

my friends jeep was leaking at the rear main seal, and while it was a bad leak (lost all oil in 20 minutes), if you're losing a quart every 3 days, then it might just be accumulating in the torque convertor housing. just a guess, if it is doing that, then there should be a little oil residue where the transmission meets the motor.

 

[coondog491]

sometimes seafoam will clean carbon deposits that are actually holding gaskets together and preventing leaks. especially on high mileage engines

 

[Shen2187]

This is why I wont ever use Seafoam. If it comes down to it, I'll rebuild the engine myself.

These 4.0's generally do not build up much carbon because the air/fuel mix is monitored and managed accordingly. However, every engine has some carbon build up. And with the miles the engine had on it, it could very well have been worn ever so slightly and the carbon had kept everything comfy. Now that the carbon is gone, the oil gets to go wherever it pleases, and that includes the combustion chamber.

Then again they could be unrelated, and just be coincidence. I would refill the oil to make sure that you did fill it completely then troubleshoot from there.

 

[boggs1227]

This is why I wont ever use Seafoam. If it comes down to it, I'll rebuild the engine myself.

These 4.0's generally do not build up much carbon because the air/fuel mix is monitored and managed accordingly. However, every engine has some carbon build up. And with the miles the engine had on it, it could very well have been worn ever so slightly and the carbon had kept everything comfy. Now that the carbon is gone, the oil gets to go wherever it pleases, and that includes the combustion chamber.

Then again they could be unrelated, and just be coincidence. I would refill the oil to make sure that you did fill it completely then troubleshoot from there.

...sorry i have to say that may not be the case .....when i got my x the whole upper intake plenum was FULL of carbon deposits.since mine was not running i had to take all the upper engine management equipment off ,and as soon as i took the upper intake out of the engine compartment and turned it over ,i'm not lieing when i say this but a golf ball size clump of carbon fell out of it (wish i still had it to show) ! the milage was at 189k.

 

[Shen2187]

These 4.0's generally do not build up much carbon because the air/fuel mix is monitored and managed accordingly. However, every engine has some carbon build up.

boggs1227 - Key word there is **GENERALLY** Sometimes, things go wrong.

 

[boggs1227]

sorry was not trying to snipp at ya ,but man you have seen it when it fell out lol .......i had to end up soaking the intake in a big plastic tub filled with gas and let it soak fora day to get it spotless !

 

[Shen2187]

Yep, I've been there, but with the Pontiac 400 sitting in my garage.
I still need to find something to put that in...

 

[seth247]

my check oil light comes on at exactly one court low. preety handy.

if you cant see it in the exhaust then thats not were the oil is going. that amount of loss would be very noticable in the exhaust.

sounds like its in the bellhousing. i think ive got some in there on mine.