Kreen Update

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little update:

since the kreen treatment i took my first out of town trip.(one that I do often). usually this burns two quarts or so and I have to fill it when I get back. This trip is only 160 miles total but i guess the prolonged highway driving really got to it before.

I am on kreen treatment 1 and am currently at 700 miles. That trip this time around did not burn a drop. I felt as if this trip was going to be the real test for the car and it passed. Driving up to MA this weekend and do not have any doubt that my corolla will perform. Gonna run the kreen treatment in my brothers cougar as well. he's got about 150,000 on it so I am sure the car has some varnish or something to be cleaned given that I know the previous own before my brother did a not so good job. I guess i will update that case too when the time comes.
 
Because I have personal experience with Kreen (and so do many of the people here) I have no trouble believing that Kreen indeed managed to fix your car.

But understand that for any other product, this type of unsolicited testimonial by a newly registered participant would have been attacked viciously by the old timers and would have been dismissed as spam. I have been guilty of that often in the past myself!

It is glowing testament to Kreen's efficacy that nobody has (so far!) came out and accused you of being Kreen's shill :)

- Vikas
 
Originally Posted By: Vikas

It is glowing testament to Kreen's efficacy that nobody has (so far!) came out and accused you of being Kreen's shill :)


Are you talking to the poster above or Trev? You should make it clear.
 
FYI, I have used Kreen in my BMW for two years abut 12 months and 14,000 miles apart. Each time a moderate amount of crud came out in the oil filter pleats when i changed the oil. This is on an engine with regular oil changes and two doses of Auto-RX and was considered fairly clean. I plan to use Kreen again next year.
 
HOw many hours should a small engine be run with Kreen before you change oil? Any guestimates? I just dumped my last 4 oz of kreen in a problematic oil burner as a last resort.
 
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Anybody who thinks Trav is a "newly registered participant" probably has not been here long enough himself :)

I was talking about gibsonzero who has posted only three time but all of the three entries have excellent information content.


RE: small engine question:-

Rule of thumb would be "half (or 1/3rd) of the oil change interval". So, if you usually change your oil every season, change it mid-season.
 
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Originally Posted By: Vikas
Anybody who thinks Trav is a "newly registered participant" probably has not been here long enough himself :)


your post is flagged [Re: Trav].
you should learn to use the reply or quote buttons.
 
I have been watching the Kreen threads the last few days very "keenly".

I bought a 2001 740iL (very similar to the car in this post) a couple of months ago with 78k miles on the clock. Dropped the oil pan and saw a lot of sludge build up there. Seemed like the previous owner had not changed the oil in some time. The filter was not too bad, but there was a lot of sludge in the oil. A lot of varnish buildup on the timing chains, deep golden hue.

Everybody I know in this part of the world seems to recommend liqui moly. Kreen seems like a much better product from what I hear. I was worried about the seals in the engine, especially the vanos, but there seems to be no harmful effects from what I hear. Still a bit apprehensive.

I want to know if any other member has tried this product on a newer year bmw and their observations. It would be really informative to know. What makes me apprehensive is that the newer german car are really fragile and much more sensitive compared to the japanese counterparts. if anybody has something of their observation to share in this regard, it would be really helpful.

Thanks!
 
Sorry, I bailed on Bimmers almost a decade ago. That's a long story.

But Kreen simply does not harm anything. I've used it in a fleet of GM trucks for some time now with ridiculously wonderful results, wildly above any expectations I had.

I have also put it in my friends cars and not a single negative.
 
Originally Posted By: krosnovski
I have been watching the Kreen threads the last few days very "keenly".

I bought a 2001 740iL (very similar to the car in this post) a couple of months ago with 78k miles on the clock. Dropped the oil pan and saw a lot of sludge build up there. Seemed like the previous owner had not changed the oil in some time. The filter was not too bad, but there was a lot of sludge in the oil. A lot of varnish buildup on the timing chains, deep golden hue.

Everybody I know in this part of the world seems to recommend liqui moly. Kreen seems like a much better product from what I hear. I was worried about the seals in the engine, especially the vanos, but there seems to be no harmful effects from what I hear. Still a bit apprehensive.

I want to know if any other member has tried this product on a newer year bmw and their observations. It would be really informative to know. What makes me apprehensive is that the newer german car are really fragile and much more sensitive compared to the japanese counterparts. if anybody has something of their observation to share in this regard, it would be really helpful.

Thanks!


I'd shoot Trav a PM and ask, he's used it in a lot of cars and possibly a BMW. It would certainly be worth a PM.
 
I would not use it on a BMW with vanos unless it has been retrofitted with teflon vanos seals.
The OEM seals are Buna N rubber and are very sensitive to many chemicals.
No idea why BMW chose this outdated material but they did and its been a nightmare.
Use Mobil 1 0w40 and perform short 4K OC. Mobil 1 0w40 has good cleaning and will not harm these seals.
 
Thanks a bunch Travis! My suspicion was correct. That is certainly good to know, and depressing at the same time. I was looking forward to using it on the 740. Went through the besian systems article, very informative, thanks for the pointer.

The article mentions vanos units in 7-series E38 95-98, mine is a 2001 but i am not going to risk it now. A question here, if kreen can potentially harm the vanos seal would something like liqui molly be equally harmful, or will that be ok since it seems to be a much milder product. I will try to see if I can get details on the BMW seal materials for the relatively newer cars.

Lately it seems like BMWs are being made by MBAs instead of Engineers. They try to save every penny in the manufacturing process and just pass on that cost, many times compounded, to the long term owner.

BTW: There the gent who posted the "Beginning Kreen treatment, with PICS.." thread is planning to use kreen on his 7 series e38 that falls in the 95-98 category. Its probably too late, but he should be warned as well.
 
Do you think that using kreen in a lower concentration (less quantity compared to the oil) and then immediately changing the oil after, lets say, 400-500mi may also cause harm to the seal material inside the engine?
 
Check this out (I am digressing but thought that the extra info might be worth while to somebody reading this thread):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VANOS

VANOS Performance

Single and Double VANOS systems due to age and mileage often experience performance issues as well as complete failure of the BMW OEM Buna-N VANOS piston seals (which are often successfully repaired by the use of aftermarket Viton seals to replace the OEM Buna-N seals). Another common effect is a rattling sound coming from the upper valve train assembly. The original seal material was found to be inferior for the application and tends to break down within 75k - 100k miles. VANOS Seal & Rattle kits are available to address these shortcomings from aftermarket suppliers (but not from BMW -- BMW's solution when VANOS units fail is to remove the entire VANOS unit and replace it with a new one). VANOS repair may require special tools (cooling fan clutch wrenches, etc.) that can be rented or purchased from a variety of vendors.
 
With so many failures of these particular seals i would be afraid to use anything other than quality motor oil in an engine with them.
 
Originally Posted By: Trav
I would not use it on a BMW with vanos unless it has been retrofitted with teflon vanos seals.
The OEM seals are Buna N rubber and are very sensitive to many chemicals.
No idea why BMW chose this outdated material but they did and its been a nightmare.
Use Mobil 1 0w40 and perform short 4K OC. Mobil 1 0w40 has good cleaning and will not harm these seals.

Interesting. I have seen nothing but cleaning by using Kreen on my older 95 525i BMW with about 214,000 miles. No issues with the stock original single vanos at all after using kreen twice. BTW, my car seemed to hate Mobil 1 0w40. Engine was noisy.
 
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Its great you got good results but i would still like to soak something made of Buna N in Kreen for a while before subjecting seals to it.
It could well be that the chemicals flash off quickly enough that it doesn't have long enough to have much of an effect on them.
I think it would be prudent to wait a while so some testing can be done on the seal material.
 
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