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Cleaned it out too well


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Ok, so last night, I seafoamed my 87 Gl, ea82. It did fine, lot of smoke, but no problem. Well, as I was getting ready to leave school, it started puffing blue smoke. So, I pulled it back up to the bays, and opened the air cleaner. Full of oil, filter soaked, probably about half a cup in there.Had my instructor look at it, and we started checking vacuum lines for the pcv. It wasn't blowing any when it was sitting, but it had a good little breeze coming out of the oil fill tube. We soaked up all the oil, and I figured it drive it home gently, and change the oil (since I thought that the seafoam probably thinned it to let more by).

 

But wait, it gets better. I was driving out, and going out on the road around the school, it got worse. I came up to a long, but not very steep hill, and it started pouring out white, slightly-grey smoke. So I pulled back up the service drive heading back towards the bays. About half way there (about 500 feet) the whole car was filled with smoke (more than the seafoam made), so I turned it off and coasted. Well, after that, it wouldn't start. It would crank, but no start.

 

So, after about an hour of trying to figure out what to do, I was given permission to leave it overnight. I was probably 20 feet from where I needed to park, so since I was short on pushing power, I just put it in gear, and turned the starter. After it started rolling, the engine started, and held idle (granted, its idle is 2000rpm), but it was puffing out a thick stream of blue smoke. So, I got it in the parking spot, and waited for my ride.

 

About an our later, my ride showed up, so I started it up to show them, and it wasn't smoking much at all. Still some blue, but not a lot. I assume this is because the oil is thicker when it's cold, so not blowing out as much.

 

Here's my questions:

-Would the seafoam have thinned the oil enough to cause at least part of this?

-Will changing the oil help, or at least buy me some time?

-Why the white smoke (btw, it did have a slight sweet smell, but not as much as when the headgasket in my parents van went out)?

-What should I do?

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See what your plugs look like. It is possible if you really drenched it with seafoam, that a large amount of it collected in the exhaust without burning. Then when you started driving, the exhaust got hot enough to burn it out causing the big clouds. The oil in the air cleaner sounds worrisome though. Perhaps try a dry, then wet compression test to see how the rings are sealing.

If the plugs look ok, and compression is ok, take it out for a hard run to see if the smoke clears and the air cleaner stays relatively clean. It may be fine.

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Oil soaked air filter? Check your PCV valve and see if it's stuck and report back. It should rattle freely when removed and shaken. Guessing it's clogged up with oil/gunk from the seafoam treatment that loosened all that gunk up. If that's the case may want to pull your main large PCV lines and clean them out also.

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There is a PCV filter in the airbox - check that and the vacuum break line going from there to the driver's side PCV "F" fitting.

 

Burning oil, lots of oil in the airbox and PCV system..... you have massive blow-by from the sounds of it. Time to do a leak-down check and find out which cylinder has broken/stuck rings.

 

My guess is that you have some really carboned up rings and the carbon was doing a good percentage of the sealing. Your seafoam probably dislodged it and now there's nothing sealing up the rings anymore. Also possible that the seafoam knocked some carbon loose from the combustion chamber and that has fouled the rings.

 

Typically things like seafoam should be used as a last resort to try and fix a specific problem. If it's not broken - don't try to fix it with some bottle of solvent. You stand a good chance of just creating bigger problems.

 

GD

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didn't have the chance to do a compression test, but I did a leakage test. The results were: 1) 25% 2) 15% 3) 30% 4) 35%. It was all blowing out through the rings (could here in the oil fill). So, what am I looking at here? I don't think I can do it myself, because with the time I have now, it would take me about 3 months. However, I don't make much either (like, $350-400 a month).

 

Oh ya, did I mention this is my dd?

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Sorry about your subie, but im really glad you posted this because I was actually going to seafoam my 87 GL tommorow. Guess im not now. Thought it might help my GL's hesitation problem when im accelerating. Thought maybe my injectors are dirty. Good luck getting your ride back on the road.:)

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didn't have the chance to do a compression test, but I did a leakage test. The results were: 1) 25% 2) 15% 3) 30% 4) 35%. It was all blowing out through the rings (could here in the oil fill). So, what am I looking at here? I don't think I can do it myself, because with the time I have now, it would take me about 3 months. However, I don't make much either (like, $350-400 a month).

 

Oh ya, did I mention this is my dd?

 

Sorry DJ... that sucked and I wish you well. My wagon is currently dead and really causing my headaches and has me stumped, but I'm not faced with the DD issue. Good luck.

 

I love Seafoam and use it my cars and motorcycle... but I do find it may not cause problems but definitely can bring preexisting stuff to the forefront :/ We just ran some through my friends old Porsche 928 he bought and now he's having fuel delivery problems... I'm sure we dislodged something.

 

Good luck getting everything straightened out, glad you have a place to work on it at least.

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Did you try getting it warmed up good a taking it for a good run? That sounds like too much smoke for the amount of leak down you have. I still think it is seafaom collected in the exhaust, especially if the smoke smells sweet. Those leak down readings look like a tired engine, but not totally done yet. I would clean out the air cleaner, check the oil, and run it some more, see if it clears up. It ain't gonna hurt.

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it is cleared up more, but my back door doesn't seal very well, so the smoke comes in the cab. Also, it was spitting oil up into the air cleaner, so I stuck a little rag over it. I'm probably gonna have to drive it for now. Anyone know of any good rebuild shops in colorado springs area? Also, prices?

 

Guess I'll have to cross my fingers for warm days so I don't freeze with the window open.

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Sorry about your subie, but im really glad you posted this because I was actually going to seafoam my 87 GL tommorow. Guess im not now. Thought it might help my GL's hesitation problem when im accelerating. Thought maybe my injectors are dirty. Good luck getting your ride back on the road.:)

 

There are a couple ways to run seafoam.

One is in the oil (as the OP did) and another to put it in the gas.

If you put it in the gas, you won't have the seafoam coming enough contact with the oil to cause any issues like what DJ is experiencing.

It will do a good job of cleaning your fuel system, with a very low likelihood of causing more problems.

 

As for DJ, hey don't feel bad.

I did the same thing to my lego :-\

If it starts sucking oil like mad, in addition to blowing blue smoke, I recommend just putting junk oil in and changing your filter more often.

Also, blowing oil in through the PCV valve is fixed by a $3 new PCV vale from the auto parts store.

 

Twitch

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Don't block PCV lines with rags - you will blow out cam and crank seals from crankcase pressure.

 

It's not economically viable to rebuild EA82's. Find a used low mileage one and drop it in. Rebuild on *any* engine is going to run $1,000 minimum. Parts and machine work alone will exceed $700 typically. And if you are paying for assembly you have to add in labor.....

 

GD

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my advice (this is from when I had my standard hatch (std). I did the same thing and turns out I had a stuck ring. Remove all the spark plugs, Dribble about 2oz of MARVEL MYSTERY OIL into the spark plug hole just before top dead center (one at a time) reinstall the plug, then SLOWLY apply pressure on the crank bolt with a breaker bar to force the MMO past said stuck rings (DON'T USE THE STARTER OR YOU WILL BEND A ROD) Take your time and do it ONE cylinder at a time. as you do the rest, take the "done" plugs out and leave rags over the holes so any excess MMO can escape. when you have done all 4, clear the area, cover the plug holes with rags and spin the engine with the starter to clear out any remaining mmo. dump the rest of the MMO into the oil, reinstall plugs, and fire it up. give it 5 minutes or so to work with the engine running, then change the oil. I have had this work before and it's worth a shot to see if it can fix it for you. also, if you have alot of miles on your engine, you may want to run a thicker oil. I run 15w40 shell rotella in both my subaru's because they all have MILES on it.

Edited by Ricearu
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@GD Not plugged, just around it so that less oil makes it into the air cleaner. Air still gets out fine.

 

@ricearu I'll have to try that. It actually only has 119k on it. Right now I run 10w-40 in it. I used to do 10w-30, but it went through it faster. Actually, just before the tranny went out end of january, it was hardly going through any.

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