Recomendations for piston soak..?

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The saturn forums recommend a piston soak, generally to unstick oil control rings to less oil useage. Warm up the engine to operating temp, this will fully expand piston/rings and get a good seal. Next remove plugs and crank engine in shart bursts until piston midway up/down. Use enough of solvent to cover piston about 1 inch deep, 3~oz. per cylinder depending on size. If rings in good shape,little will flow by to crankcase. Even on deep heads you should be able to see fluid level in cylinder. Check every 1-2 hours and see if it has dropped, top up to keep it wet. Let it soak as long as you can before you remove any left over in cylinder. You can do a fairly good job with a turkey baster and length of small hose. I could pour in 4oz. and suck back out over 3. You will likely want to change oil after this.
 
Originally Posted By: ziggy
This i am aware of, replaceing the spark plugs... i have many of em stashed..so not worried about that.
so! One thinks MMO worked good, and the oother says it didnt..interesting..the water too..
anyone else?


There are mixed results with MMO on here, never tried it through the vacuum though. B12 is pretty strong isn't it, maybe give that a try.
 
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Originally Posted By: jldcol
The saturn forums recommend a piston soak, generally to unstick oil control rings to less oil useage.


Won't Auto-Rx accomplish this ?
 
Some people haven't had luck with Auto RX in the problematic Saturn engines. It's probably due to the lack of oil drain holes in the piston, so the Auto RX never really circulates through the rings like it would on other engines.
 
Water trickled in the intake while you keep the revs up will work pretty good, and is safe.
Then get some good cleaner to run through the tank once or twice a year.
 
Did MMO on my saturn, would try seafoam if needed also as I read it's stronger.

Didn't unstick the rings. Neither did Auto-RX.

Burning oil carbons up the combustion chamber and MMO sure scrubbed that off! Much less pinging (and resultant timing retardation), more power, everything you dream of... except it still burned oil.
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Interestingly, even though I shot most of the MMO out by cranking the engine with the plugs out, the first start with plugs in was real hard and slow turning over, I was afraid I was bending/ breaking things but it all worked out.

I did the soak cold, I am not a fan of removing plugs from hot aluminum cylinder heads, but to each his or her own...
 
The Chevrolet dealer did the soak on my Camaro using GM Top Engine Cleaner. They introduced it thru the spark plug holes and let it sit over night. They then ran it thru the intake per the instructions the next day.

Fixed the light throttle ping.

However, replacing the warped intake manifold cured the oil sucking that lead to the carbon build up.

BTW, Edlebrock's TPI manifold base is not a direct bolt in.
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Originally Posted By: paulo57509
The Chevrolet dealer did the soak on my Camaro using GM Top Engine Cleaner. They introduced it thru the spark plug holes and let it sit over night. They then ran it thru the intake per the instructions the next day.


Top engine cleaner or "CLEENS" as it called in Canada works best for me. Mopar combustion chamber cleaner works very well too.
(Same stuff probably)

I find it works just as well if you run 90% of the can down the throttle of the hot engine while it's running. Then spray the last 10% in the throttle (engine OFF) and bump the starter a few time to distribute in the cylinders. Let is soak over night and your good to go.
The stuff is also excellent (and cheap) injector cleaner if you run it through the fuel rail.
 
That's what I do. After coming home while engine is beautifully hot, drop about 10 ml of local variety of oily solvent (Redex) through the carburettor. Tidy the trunk while it flows down. After brief cranking it is there to sit till the morning. If I feel knock possibly from carbon build-up I follow this ritual for a few days hoping the alternative valves are open. Easier than cylinder soak, also cleans the carburettor and intake valves.
 
Back some 25 years ago I had an old Galaxy 500 with a 400 engine in it.My brothers and I were leaving on a fishing trip and stopped for a refuel,brother topped tank off with 3/4 tank of diesel fuel.Car started up smoked alot but ran well enough so we drove it the 90 miles to our destination.Again topping it off with gas when we returned dipstick showed a quart above so drained it out and replaced oil.Drove this car another two years till body fell apart and sold engine to a buddy who put in his truck.When I helped him change oil pans this was the cleanest engine ive ever seen and had 170psi compression on all eight with 130k on engine.It still runs strong after years of abuse.
 
My GM dealer did the piston soak on my 2006 Yukon Denali 6L engine to eliminate cold start carbon knock. It worked for about 5,000 miles then the knock returned. After more major issues I traded the GMC POS for a Toyota and all is well. My opinion: If you have to piston soak an engine...you need a different manufacturer. After 2 cold start GM "knockers" in a row I am finished with the GM business model for life.
 
What is "cold start carbon knock"? Are you referring to the infamous GM 'Piston slap' that occurs with some GM engines before they reach operating temp?
 
Originally Posted By: PT1
My opinion: If you have to piston soak an engine...you need a different manufacturer.

I also tend to think like this, definitely it shouldn't be carboned up regularly like a motorcar from 1920s or I'd like cylinder heads with wing-nuts. But I'm just not sure if this is exclusive to the low revving bigger engines, exclusive to EGR systems or the GM.

Any ideas?
 
I have overhead cams on my truck and when I take the plugs out I use a Fibre-Optic camera I have to look into the cylinders. (I'm a geek), It has infra-red vision and lights up the cylinders in colour. I can see the bottom of the valves, the piston etc. It's always very clean in my engine and all I use is Amsoil engine oil, Amsoil PI every once and a while, and now this new fuel additive I came across from a confidential source. Works great to tell me whats going on in the engine... I bought my camera off a friend who had gotten it on E-bay.
 
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