Is your truck running rough?
Does it ping?
Have you lost MPG?
Have you ever had an internal engine cleaning?
Maybe it's time to Seafoam the engine. After the results I had with my Camaro on this, I'll be doing it on the Xterra that's pinging like mad and the MPG has gone to heck. It's an easy process that will take just a couple hours of your time, and cost about $25. Repair shops charge as much as $250 for almost exactly the same service you can do yourself.
- Buy 2 cans of Seafoam and 1 can of Seafoam Deep Creep spray.
- Put one can in a full tank of gas
- Put half of the second one in your oil
- Drive 100-150 miles.
- Park the truck and pull the vacuum line going to the brake booster.
- Start the truck. The idle may be racing, or it might not want to idle at all. If it's idling high, don't worry about it. Right now you have a huge vacuum leak. If it's stumbling, blip the throttle by hand enough to keep it running as you do the next step.
- Trickle 2/3 of the remaining 8 oz of seafoam down that line. You may need to have a friend there with a hand on the throttle giving it just enough gas to keep it running.
- With the final 1/3 of the remaining half can, now just dump it down the vaccum line. This should kill the engine. If not, shut it off ASAP after doing this.
- Use seafoam deep creep spray and pull the air intake tube, push the throttle butterfly back and spray about 1/3 can down the intake and let it sit as well.
- Reassemble your intake and put the brake vacuum line back on.
- Let the truck sit 30 minutes.
- Start the truck back up (it will start hard)
- Let the truck idle 15 minutes. If it doesn't want to idle, work the throttle a little bit to keep it running, but do not rev hard on it during this period. The truck may smoke a considerable amount during this time. Don't worry, it's not going to hurt anything.
- Go out and take it on a drive - flog it. You'll make lots and lots of white smoke.
- After a few wide open throttle accelerations, the smoke will clear and you'll end up with a better running truck. This cleans all the carbon buildup on the inside of the engine.
- Lastly, change your oil. This will be the blackest, nastiest oil you drain out of your truck.
This stuff is a petroleum product and will not harm sensors, cats, etc. I know it's weird to think about dumping something like this in the oil, but with the difference it made on my car, I'm sold on this stuff. The pinging went away, as did a flat spot in my rpm range under acceleration. The car also is idling a lot smoother.
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