Piston soak

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My little 02 sc2 uses about a quart of oil in a 1,000 miles. Typical Saturn stuff.
I am going to do an engine flush procedure and piston soak most likely. What would be the best chemical to use for this job? Something that will soften the carbon on the piston rings. What would you use? Engine has 122,000 on it runs great compression is perfect it just has stuck oil control rings. .
 
This will be interesting to follow. The oil control ring is the bottom ring and will come into contact with very little of what you pour into the spark plug hole to do a piston soak. But some will certainly get past the top two rings and onto the oil control ring.

Something like Kreen or similar in the oil might be better.
 
Mopar Combustion Chamber Cleaner.. I think its close to the same as the old GM ring cleaner and looks to be the same as Yamaha Combustion chamber cleaner.


I think PEA also dissolves carbon.. so maybe a Redline Si-1 soak.
 
Mystery Oil, let it sit for two days and hope for the best.

Stuck rings are very tough to free up and when the oil control rings are carboned up, they are a nightmare to unclog.

I wonder if overfilling a crankcase by a couple quarts with mystery oil, taking it for a run and having the oil actually enter through the bottom of the piston area would help things before a soak? Because that oil will get forced into the combustion chamber if it's overfilled.
 
PEA needs heat to activate, that's what makes it superior to other solvents that can't survive the combustion chamber temps (even before compression) long enough to do anything.

Berrymans, it has a very stout mix of solvents...way better than Seafoam. A gentler mix would be MMO. There's a line of thinking that says it's better to de-carbon the piston tops in little steps to avoid a big chunk breaking off and getting stuck between the exhaust valve and the seat. MMO is a mild cleaner..I think it's mostly a kerosene carrier with mineral spirits and some other stuff in small amounts. Kerosene btw is a mild solvent too. I've used it to remove grease.

I would not use a PEA based cleaner, it's a waste of money for what you're doing. Xylene, naptha, toluene, mineral spirits, kerosene are all good solvents and readily available .
 
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Originally Posted by Railrust
Stuck rings are very tough to free up and when the oil control rings are carboned up, they are a nightmare to unclog.
.

The only thing that helps rings that bad is regular flushes over several oci's (maybe) or taking them out and physically cleaning them.

Not all carbonaceous deposits are the same and some can be a *_&#- to get freed..
 
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Originally Posted by LotI
Originally Posted by Brian553
Berryman's B-12 Chemtool.

Or Chem-Dip.

^^^ this! Fill each cylinder and let it sit overnight. Best carbon dissolver on the market.
 
no need to dwell on this subject with solvent soak, nothing will work for you anymore (oil ctrl rings completely jammed)

Proper way to deal with this is re-ring the engine.

Q.
 
What is the future of this vehicle? Want to run it for a few more years? Ready to dump it but want to do some experimenting.

Get a price to pull the heads, remove pistons and install new rings from a mechanic who can do this on the side.
 
It'll be around a long while it's more of a hobby car. As far as pulling the engine apart I wouldn't do that unless I had to. This is a super common Saturn problem that people have had success trying additive Cocktails to help slow consumption
 
I had a 99 saturn sl2 with the twin cam engine.
It still ran well, but oil consumption was getting bad.
I soaked it on a friday overnight with chemtool, then saturday I added some marvel mystery oil and let it soak the rest of the weekend.
Make sure to turn the engine over by hand with a breaker bar a couple times after you add your chemical to coat the cylinder wall and help it work down into the rings.

My consumption was reduced considerably after I did the soak.
 
Originally Posted by cronk

Make sure to turn the engine over by hand with a breaker bar a couple times after you add your chemical to coat the cylinder wall and help it work down into the rings.

Have the starter turn it over. Before you start the soak empty out the FI's by taking out the fuel pump fuse and start it until it dies (this is how you take out injectors).. then when you want to turn it over just unplug the coil packs (or plug wires) and you can now crank the engine without the risk of spark/ignition.
 
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Originally Posted by Mad_Hatter
Originally Posted by cronk

Make sure to turn the engine over by hand with a breaker bar a couple times after you add your chemical to coat the cylinder wall and help it work down into the rings.

Have the starter turn it over. Before you start the soak empty out the FI's by taking out the fuel pump fuse and start it until it dies (this is how you take out injectors).. then when you want to turn it over just unplug the coil packs (or plug wires) and you can now crank the engine without the risk of spark/ignition.


I'm telling him to turn it over slowly by hand when he adds his soak chemical so it doesnt all blow out of the cylinders. It helps work the chemical down into the rings. If you turn it over with the starter, it will turn fast enough to blow it all out.

When the soak is over you can turn it over with the starter to clear it out of the cylinders before replacing the spark plugs, just make sure you cover the plug holes with rags to soak up everything or you will have a mess everywhere.
 
How about turning it over until two pistons are at BDC and pour a lot of your solvent in. Wait a day or two and turn it over so two more are at BDC. And more a solvent. It will take awhile for the solvent to run past 2 ring gaps and get down to the oil control ring.
 
Originally Posted by Quest
no need to dwell on this subject with solvent soak, nothing will work for you anymore (oil ctrl rings completely jammed)
Proper way to deal with this is re-ring the engine.
Q.


^This is the truest post on this thread. If you want to get another 100K out of this car, bite the bullet and redo the motor.
If you want to just get by, your piston soak might help, but buy your $2/quart oil by the case(s), and just remember to check your oil frequently.

A couple of weeks ago, my coworker and I were in the same truck together and we pulled up to refuel. There was a pretty decent looking Saturn at the local gas station with a "For Sale" sign on it. I mentioned to my coworker that it was a decent looking car, but I bet it used a lot of oil. He looked at me funny and asked me how I knew that it used oil. I just mentioned that it was a Saturn and Saturns of that era used oil.
He then admitted that it was is son-in-law's car (I didn't know it) and that his son in law had to add a quart of oil every 500 miles. The car is no longer there, so maybe it was sold.
 
Originally Posted by Kruse
Originally Posted by Quest
no need to dwell on this subject with solvent soak, nothing will work for you anymore (oil ctrl rings completely jammed)
Proper way to deal with this is re-ring the engine.
Q.


^This is the truest post on this thread. If you want to get another 100K out of this car, bite the bullet and redo the motor.
If you want to just get by, your piston soak might help, but buy your $2/quart oil by the case(s), and just remember to check your oil frequently.

A couple of weeks ago, my coworker and I were in the same truck together and we pulled up to refuel. There was a pretty decent looking Saturn at the local gas station with a "For Sale" sign on it. I mentioned to my coworker that it was a decent looking car, but I bet it used a lot of oil. He looked at me funny and asked me how I knew that it used oil. I just mentioned that it was a Saturn and Saturns of that era used oil.
He then admitted that it was is son-in-law's car (I didn't know it) and that his son in law had to add a quart of oil every 500 miles. The car is no longer there, so maybe it was sold.


That would be $400 worth of oil to go 100,000 miles assuming it did not get worse.
 
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