Kreen Experience (piston soak + crankcase + gas)

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Just wanted to share my Kreen treatment of my Generation 8 Corolla. This car is known to have plugged oil holes near the piston ring and cause oil burning. After reading threads on this forum, I was hoping that Kreen will dissolve the carbon and restore its health, as some others have noted (particularly suggested by LeakySeals). Hope it's the right place to share, and would appreciate any comments.

Car: 2000 Corolla CE
Engine: 1zz-FE
Symptoms: Classic 1ZZ-FE symptoms--oil burning, piston slap. Suspected sticking rings or plugged oil return holes. Burning about ¾ quart per 3500 miles the latest oil round with Valvoline High Mileage Semi-Synthetic

date of treatment: 3/2/2015 11pm-ish
treat duration (days): 3/2/15 11pm - 3/5/15 4pm. 3 days.
Mileage of Treatment: 1287.0
volume used in crankcase: 1/2 quart
volume in gas tank: around 0.4 quart
volume in piston soak: around 1oz (or more) in each cylinder
duration of piston soak: more than 12 hours (more like 13)
oil used: SuperTech Synthetic 5w30
Oil burned: around 1/2-3/4 quart

Observations: Green, clear, very watery when poured, though did leave a thin oily film on the plastic funnel. Smelled like a certain kitchen or floor cleaner. melts off markings on my plastic measuring cup.
Piston soak: created a lot of smoke that took at least 10 minutes to burn off. Did not step on the gas when burning it off, due to hesitation. Tried to increased the RPM a little near the end to burn off the residual smoke. Apparently some got on the MAF sensor as well since it started to behave strangely with hesitation and very poor acceleration. The check engine light came on with “p0171” for the rest of the treatment. However, that was solved (so far) with a MAF sensor cleaning. I could smell kreen when taken off the MAF sensor.

Crankcase: It ran mostly highway miles for the duration, from Orlando to Miami, then to Kendall and then the Everglades. The next day to Key West, and then back to Orlando. The piston slap noise persisted after the oil warmed up (pretty quiet when the oil first got in), and the knocking noise during acceleration (due to clogged MAF sensor and lean fuel mixture). No discernable improvement in acceleration (possibly due to the dirty MAF sensor). The oil didn’t dirty very quickly. It was hardly noticeable in the first two days. Then when it comes time to change, it’s less like espresso than it is like iced tea-- it’s still transparent, but dark brown. It’s a bit disappointing, as the oil cap indicates a sludgy engine. The valvoline high mileage came out completely black like crude oil. This is nothing close to that. Maybe Valvoline did its job? Maybe MMO did over all this time?

Changed to Mobil 1 5w-30. The oil is selected for two reasons: 1. it’s said to clean very well, so it’s a good followup to Kreen, I thought; 2. It is thin and can burn easily if the piston ring isn’t fixed, so a good test to see if the oil burning problem persisted. Piston slap continued near idle, if not more persistent. Hesitation persisted with CEL P0171. Cleaned MAF sensor. Hesitation stopped. No CEL yet (was turning on almost every gas fill up and more toward the end. Very poor acceleration too). So far only piston slap seems to be more pervasive than before the treatment, otherwise it is normal. Will check to see if oil burning continues in a few hundred or thousand miles.
 
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Originally Posted By: ciac
Just wanted to share my Kreen treatment of my Generation 8 Corolla. This car is known to have plugged oil holes near the piston ring and cause oil burning. After reading threads on this forum, I was hoping that Kreen will dissolve the carbon and restore its health, as some others have noted (particularly suggested by LeakySeals). Hope it's the right place to share, and would appreciate any comments.

Car: 2000 Corolla CE
Engine: 1zz-FE
Symptoms: Classic 1ZZ-FE symptoms--oil burning, piston slap. Suspected sticking rings or plugged oil return holes. Burning about ¾ quart per 3500 miles the latest oil round with Valvoline High Mileage Semi-Synthetic

date of treatment: 3/2/2015 11pm-ish
treat duration (days): 3/2/15 11pm - 3/5/15 4pm. 3 days.
Mileage of Treatment: 1287.0
volume used in crankcase: 1/2 quart
volume in gas tank: around 0.4 quart
volume in piston soak: around 1oz (or more) in each cylinder
duration of piston soak: more than 12 hours (more like 13)
oil used: SuperTech Synthetic 5w30
Oil burned: around 1/2-3/4 quart

Observations: Green, clear, very watery when poured, though did leave a thin oily film on the plastic funnel. Smelled like a certain kitchen or floor cleaner. melts off markings on my plastic measuring cup.
Piston soak: created a lot of smoke that took at least 10 minutes to burn off. Did not step on the gas when burning it off, due to hesitation. Tried to increased the RPM a little near the end to burn off the residual smoke. Apparently some got on the MAF sensor as well since it started to behave strangely with hesitation and very poor acceleration. The check engine light came on with “p0171” for the rest of the treatment. However, that was solved (so far) with a MAF sensor cleaning. I could smell kreen when taken off the MAF sensor.

Crankcase: It ran mostly highway miles for the duration, from Orlando to Miami, then to Kendall and then the Everglades. The next day to Key West, and then back to Orlando. The piston slap noise persisted after the oil warmed up (pretty quiet when the oil first got in), and the knocking noise during acceleration (due to clogged MAF sensor and lean fuel mixture). No discernable improvement in acceleration (possibly due to the dirty MAF sensor). The oil didn’t dirty very quickly. It was hardly noticeable in the first two days. Then when it comes time to change, it’s less like espresso than it is like iced tea-- it’s still transparent, but dark brown. It’s a bit disappointing, as the oil cap indicates a sludgy engine. The valvoline high mileage came out completely black like crude oil. This is nothing close to that. Maybe Valvoline did its job? Maybe MMO did over all this time?

Changed to Mobil 1 5w-30. The oil is selected for two reasons: 1. it’s said to clean very well, so it’s a good followup to Kreen, I thought; 2. It is thin and can burn easily if the piston ring isn’t fixed, so a good test to see if the oil burning problem persisted. Piston slap continued near idle, if not more persistent. Hesitation persisted with CEL P0171. Cleaned MAF sensor. Hesitation stopped. No CEL yet (was turning on almost every gas fill up and more toward the end. Very poor acceleration too). So far only piston slap seems to be more pervasive than before the treatment, otherwise it is normal. Will check to see if oil burning continues in a few hundred or thousand miles.

Maybe MMO did over all this time? , So you used MMO and Kreen ?
 
I didn't have/drive this car for very long. I added 20% MMO for the first two oil changes using Shell Conventional oil, and those oil changes weren't full 3k miles since the car has been sitting a lot. Then I used a full change without MMO using Castrol Edge, which I drove over 4k miles, before changing to Valvoline High Mileage semi-syn, hoping it cleans better. Then I did the Kreen treatment, using Supertech 5w-30 and a pint of Kreen.
 
Did you pour Kreen, and previously MMO, through the spark plug holes and soak, or mix in with the oil? Sounds like the latter.

OK, disregard, I just read -read and see you did both, also adding to gas.
 
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To summarize, the problem you were trying to fix was:

1 Piston slap
2 0.75 quart consumption every 3500 miles

After 2 treatments of MMO and 1 treatment of Kreen the only result is your piston slap is worse.
 
Originally Posted By: Donald
Compression check?

Maybe try Auto-Rx?

Replace the rings?

Its a 15 yr old car. Let it be and buy Walmart brand oil.


x2 what this guy said. Is it really worth the effort on such an old car? Either way, a quart every 3k isn't even that bad! Most manufacturers consider that NORMAL. Check the oil every few weeks and add half a cup or so to fill it up and drive it till the wheels fall off!
 
Originally Posted By: Bluestream
No oil treatment will fix piston slap


Yep and it even seems that MMO and Kreen made it worse.
 
The "worse slap" is the Mobil 1. Noisy oil in many vehicles. Put a quiet oil in next time, like Castrol or Pennzoil.

I agree though, no oil or treatment will "fix" piston slap.
 
Thanks for the replies.

Just want to make sure what the "piston slap" is: it's a knock-like noise when idle at low speeds (around 650-750rpm). Almost sound faintly like a diesel engine. At higher RPM it isn't audible.

Then there's the knocking when accelerating or going uphill. This was fixed apparently by cleaning the MAF sensor.

The "piston slap" got "worse" in the sense that it doesn't go away when the car is warm, and I can hear it all the time when stopping at a light where the sound may bounce from the car next to me. Before it's more on and off. Not sure why cleaning/kreen would do that, but maybe it's just Mobil 1, or maybe it's just the way it is like everyone says here.

With the Castrol Edge and Shell Conventional, the slap wasn't audible until past 3k miles after oil change. It was more obvious when Valvoline HM was put in, in the sense that it quiets very well that the slap became the lone noise that wasn't suppressed completely. Now with Mobil 1 it's unmistakable from day one.

It's true, that the oil burning isn't as bad or unexpected as an old car would be. However, for generation 8 Corolla and 1ZZFE engines, oil burning and knocking noise is precursor to engine failure. There are plenty of examples around the web, and my friends owned two that both suffered engine failure around 100k. Toward the end it was knocking like a broken diesel truck.

The cause of the failure was oil return holes by the oil ring being plugged by burnt oil/carbon deposit, and Kreen is exactly meant to dissolve/clean/remove that. So it seems to make sense to give it a shot.

I wouldn't have bothered with Kreen treatment except it is suggested (Leakyseals on this forum) that it may fix the stuck oil ring problem in these engines. So I thought it'd be worth a try (other than taking apart the engine and replace the rings which will definitely fix it). If it's fixed, I wouldn't have to worry as much about upgrading cars in the near future. I don't drive that much, and it works well around the city where I don't have to worry about it getting banged up with street parking. It's also very fuel efficient.

So far everything seemed okay except the low RPM piston slap. Will continue monitoring the oil consumption to see if that's fixed. Not sure if the "slap" and consumption are related though.
 
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The carbon that is formed in the piston holes that are clogged is very hard and baked in. It almost has to be drilled or chiseled out, i dont think anyone has cleaned them with solvents at least not in the vehicle.

If it were my vehicle i would choose a good flowing 5w30 and add a little 2 cycle oil to the gas for upper cylinder lubrication.

This is a defective piston design that wont be solved with anything but a piston replacement.

turn the radio up and drive it till she blows.
 
Originally Posted By: ciac


Then there's the knocking when accelerating or going uphill. This was fixed apparently by cleaning the MAF sensor.

The "piston slap" got "worse" in the sense that it doesn't go away when the car is warm, and I can hear it all the time when stopping at a light where the sound may bounce from the car next to me. Before it's more on and off. Not sure why cleaning/kreen would do that, but maybe it's just Mobil 1, or maybe it's just the way it is like everyone says here.

With the Castrol Edge and Shell Conventional, the slap wasn't audible until past 3k miles after oil change. It was more obvious when Valvoline HM was put in, in the sense that it quiets very well that the slap became the lone noise that wasn't suppressed completely. Now with Mobil 1 it's unmistakable from day one.

It's true, that the oil burning isn't as bad or unexpected as an old car would be. However, for generation 8 Corolla and 1ZZFE engines, oil burning and knocking noise is precursor to engine failure. There are plenty of examples around the web, and my friends owned two that both suffered engine failure around 100k. Toward the end it was knocking like a broken diesel truck.

The cause of the failure was oil return holes by the oil ring being plugged by burnt oil/carbon deposit, and Kreen is exactly meant to dissolve/clean/remove that. So it seems to make sense to give it a shot.

I wouldn't have bothered with Kreen treatment except it is suggested (Leakyseals on this forum) that it may fix the stuck oil ring problem in these engines. So I thought it'd be worth a try (other than taking apart the engine and replace the rings which will definitely fix it). If it's fixed, I wouldn't have to worry as much about upgrading cars in the near future. I don't drive that much, and it works well around the city where I don't have to worry about it getting banged up with street parking. It's also very fuel efficient.

So far everything seemed okay except the low RPM piston slap. Will continue monitoring the oil consumption to see if that's fixed. Not sure if the "slap" and consumption are related though.



Going up hill, are you hearing a knock, or pinging under load?

Something to keep in mind as far as the sounds you're hearing after the Kreen and other cleanings you did. Did you use the same brand/grade of oil, and the same brand/model filter? If not your situation might caused by using different products and have nothing to do with the cleaning of the engine. Final thoughts: Kreen continues to clean after you change the oil. At least that has been my experience with the product.

Piston slap won't be fixed with any cleaners, flushes, or additives.
 
Originally Posted By: aa1986
Originally Posted By: Bluestream
No oil treatment will fix piston slap


Yep and it even seems that MMO and Kreen made it worse.

Trolling.gif
 
Originally Posted By: ciac
So far only piston slap seems to be more pervasive than before the treatment
 
Mori he doesn't even know if it has piston slap. Try sticking to your razors, photography and cooking. LOL

Fact is if it were deposits on the piston skirts taking up clearance between the skirt and the wall just regular oil changes could have also removed them without any sort of cleaner. You cant fix broke.

Quote:
thanks for the replies.

Just want to make sure what the "piston slap" is: it's a knock-like noise when idle at low speeds (around 650-750rpm). Almost sound faintly like a diesel engine. At higher RPM it isn't audible.

Then there's the knocking when accelerating or going uphill. This was fixed apparently by cleaning the MAF sensor.

The "piston slap" got "worse" in the sense that it doesn't go away when the car is warm,
 
Some people will be against MMO and Kreen just because the people they dislike use those products. Those are not good reasons to be against a product.

A person should use a product based on whether the product is effective or not, and not on whether or not the people you dislike are promoting or using that product.

And people should stick to what they know. If they know cooking, photography and razors better than automotive engines they should probably concentrate on what they know.

No engine cleaner will fix worn out parts and no engine cleaner will do mechanical repairs on an engine.

So a person has to consider sooner or later if they should get the engine repaired or replaced or else get a new vehicle.

Or keep using the vehicle and put up with the piston slap. If the vehicle runs well enough keep using it for as long as possible.

And make sure that gasoline of the proper octane is being used.

Since this is an older vehicle I think the best thing is just to drive it as long as you can and get your money's worth out of it, or else get a new car or a used car in better condition.
 
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Originally Posted By: krismoriah72
The carbon that is formed in the piston holes that are clogged is very hard and baked in. It almost has to be drilled or chiseled out, i dont think anyone has cleaned them with solvents at least not in the vehicle.

If it were my vehicle i would choose a good flowing 5w30 and add a little 2 cycle oil to the gas for upper cylinder lubrication.

This is a defective piston design that wont be solved with anything but a piston replacement.

turn the radio up and drive it till she blows.


I suspected as much, and that's always bad news. However, seeing how this corolla seems to burn far less oil than some other corollas in more advanced stages of oil burning, and the fact that Leakyseals here suggested that he fixed his oil burning with a mix of Mobil 1 HM and Kreen, I had my hopes up. Maybe it isn't completely plugged, and that there's some hope of washing it out? Wishful thinking probably, but for the price of an oil change/tank of gas, hey why not. :p

but yeah I hear ya. if this doens't work I'm out of quick fixes, and taking the engine apart to fix the rings is not in the plan. Too bad with this car's notorious piston problem. It's otherwise pretty efficient and reliable.

Originally Posted By: demarpaint

Going up hill, are you hearing a knock, or pinging under load?

I think it's like a pinging noise when it's under load. However, with MAF sensor cleaned, that noise went away under load. I think I might here it sometimes, but not nearly as bad as before.

Originally Posted By: demarpaint

Something to keep in mind as far as the sounds you're hearing after the Kreen and other cleanings you did. Did you use the same brand/grade of oil, and the same brand/model filter? If not your situation might caused by using different products and have nothing to do with the cleaning of the engine. Final thoughts: Kreen continues to clean after you change the oil. At least that has been my experience with the product.

Piston slap won't be fixed with any cleaners, flushes, or additives.


Yes I understand. I can't be sure if Kreen did anything to the noise because I have never put mobil 1 in this car, so there's no reference for comparison. Filter wasn't the same either (got a bosch almost free with coupon before changing to purolator classic now). So I guess the only thing I can do to see if Kreen did anything is by checking if the oil burning problem is reduced in any way.

Kreen keeps cleaning after oil change? Is it with the residual kreen in the crankcase? I noticed that the oil burned quite a bit faster, dropping to half way on the dipstick within the 1200 miles I drove with Kreen. I assume it either was thinner and thus got past the rings more readily to be burned, or that it simply evaporated. It'd surprise me a little that there's still cleaning effect after flushing, but all the better!

The thing is: why didn't I get a really black and sooty drain? The oil was pretty clear even with the pretty high dose of kreen+pistonsoak. Does it mean it didn't work all that well, or the engine is actually pretty clean (i doubt it unless MMO really did wonders).

Thanks guys.
 
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