Seafoam...

[speedtre]

The Montero I bought has a little valve-tick so I've been looking at ways to possibly cure it without taking the valve covers off and one of the possible problems was sticking VLAs on these motors when they sit for a long time (this one sat for about 6 months awaiting a head repair not long before I bought it).

So, I did a little research and one of the suggestions was that I try Seafoam both on this forum and on another.

http://www.seafoamsales.com/motor-treatment.html

I could not find anywhere online where anyone said it hurt their car and some said it helped tremendously or maybe just a little or didn't do anything. But it's cheap, so I figured it was worth a shot. No harm no foul.

So I bought two cans about 2 months ago. I put about 1/3 of one can in the oil and the rest in the gas tank. I drove it about a thousand miles, valve tick is still there and MPG stayed about 15 MPG for my mixed city/hwy driving.

About two weeks ago I decided to go ahead and run the second can through a vacuum hose into the intake system for ****s and giggles since I already had it and it supposedly gives off one hell of a smoke screen when you drive the car after you apply it.

OMFG....I wish I took a picture of the wall of smoke it left behind my Montero as I pulled out of the parking lot....I literally could see NOTHING behind me except white smoke for about 100 yards.

I ALWAYS reset my tripmeter when I get gas and I noticed yesterday that my mileage was noticably higher than it usually is before the low fuel warning light comes on. When it finally did come on I went and filled up and then calculated my mileage....17.3 MPG. The last time I filled up it was 14.9 MPG. That is a not so insignificant increase. I'm gonna track it again this tank to see if that holds, but if it does, this stuff seems to do something. It is the only variable I can think of. I always buy my gas at the same place and the same grade. This Montero does have 165K miles on it (first 163K miles was the original owner, middle aged woman, so there was probably a decent amount of carbon build-up) , so I don't know if it will help that much with a newer car, but if this increase holds up over the next tank call me impressed. I know some people on here have recently bought older higher mileage Monteros, so you might want to consider giving this a shot.

I am still trying to resolve my valve tick without taking the valve covers off though...

 

[Lichen]

I used to run a can through my Corvette every year before emissions. You're right about the smoke!

 

[alexrex20]

I am still trying to resolve my valve tick without taking the valve covers off though...

Automatic transmission fluid (ATF) works great to unstick a sticky lifter. It's very high detergent. There are several ways you could go about using ATF. You could add about 1qt to your oil; ideally about 1000mi before your next oil change because you don't want whatever gunk is broken up to clog your oil filter.

Another option is to drain the oil completely, replace it entirely with ATF and let the engine run for a couple minutes. Don't worry, you won't hurt anything. You just want the ATF to pump throughout the entire engine. Then drain it all out and refill with normal motor oil.

I would try adding ATF into the crankcase first. It does the same thing as SeaFoam - just better.

Of course, this is all assuming that the noise really is valve tap, and not something else like an exhaust leak...

 

[off-roader]

The Montero I bought has a little valve-tick so I've been looking at ways to possibly cure it without taking the valve covers off and one of the possible problems was sticking VLAs on these motors when they sit for a long time (this one sat for about 6 months awaiting a head repair not long before I bought it).

So, I did a little research and one of the suggestions was that I try Seafoam both on this forum and on another.

http://www.seafoamsales.com/motor-treatment.html

I could not find anywhere online where anyone said it hurt their car and some said it helped tremendously or maybe just a little or didn't do anything. But it's cheap, so I figured it was worth a shot. No harm no foul.

So I bought two cans about 2 months ago. I put about 1/3 of one can in the oil and the rest in the gas tank. I drove it about a thousand miles, valve tick is still there and MPG stayed about 15 MPG for my mixed city/hwy driving.

About two weeks ago I decided to go ahead and run the second can through a vacuum hose into the intake system for ****s and giggles since I already had it and it supposedly gives off one hell of a smoke screen when you drive the car after you apply it.

OMFG....I wish I took a picture of the wall of smoke it left behind my Montero as I pulled out of the parking lot....I literally could see NOTHING behind me except white smoke for about 100 yards.

I ALWAYS reset my tripmeter when I get gas and I noticed yesterday that my mileage was noticably higher than it usually is before the low fuel warning light comes on. When it finally did come on I went and filled up and then calculated my mileage....17.3 MPG. The last time I filled up it was 14.9 MPG. That is a not so insignificant increase. I'm gonna track it again this tank to see if that holds, but if it does, this stuff seems to do something. It is the only variable I can think of. I always buy my gas at the same place and the same grade. This Montero does have 165K miles on it (first 163K miles was the original owner, middle aged woman, so there was probably a decent amount of carbon build-up) , so I don't know if it will help that much with a newer car, but if this increase holds up over the next tank call me impressed. I know some people on here have recently bought older higher mileage Monteros, so you might want to consider giving this a shot.

I am still trying to resolve my valve tick without taking the valve covers off though...

You did and oil change after doing the seafoam right? Which mitsu 4x4 do you have (model & year)? And which vacuum line did you use to get the seafoam into the intake (picture preferred if possible)?

 

[speedtre]

You did and oil change after doing the seafoam right? Which mitsu 4x4 do you have (model & year)? And which vacuum line did you use to get the seafoam into the intake (picture preferred if possible)?

Yes, changed the oil after the seafoam treatment. The line I used is the one circled in red. They said to use any vacuum line going to the intake, usually a brake booster line, but my bbl connection is a pain in the *** to get off/on the bb itself, so this was simpler and it entered the intake nearly the same place as the bbl (circled in blue)

 

[Silverwulf]

Back when I used to work for mitsu. (parts guy) We had customers brng in their monty's and 3000gt's for ticking lifters. The fis was as simple as using a factory mitsu oil filter. The check valve in the oil filter opens at a lower pressure than aftermarket filters.

For $5 its worth a try:ylsmoke:

 

[speedtre]

Back when I used to work for mitsu. (parts guy) We had customers brng in their monty's and 3000gt's for ticking lifters. The fis was as simple as using a factory mitsu oil filter. The check valve in the oil filter opens at a lower pressure than aftermarket filters.

For $5 its worth a try:ylsmoke:

Dang, I think I remember you mentioning that before....or someone else. I will give that a shot, for $5 it's definitely worth a shot.

 

[off-roader]

Back when I used to work for mitsu. (parts guy) We had customers brng in their monty's and 3000gt's for ticking lifters. The fis was as simple as using a factory mitsu oil filter. The check valve in the oil filter opens at a lower pressure than aftermarket filters.

For $5 its worth a try:ylsmoke:

Is that all they go for these days? I thought they were more than that but honestly never really checked. I've been using either Mobil 1 or K&N filters which are identical filters I believe.

I'll have to check that out at the local dealership.

Silverwulf, if you don't mind me asking, did you stop working for them on your own accord or did you leave when a dealership closed down?

 

[Silverwulf]

I stopped working for the mitsu dealer in 2000. My partner and I were the only parts guys they had for mitsu. The owner also had honda, hyundai, olds, gm/lincon/merc. One day the owner ran a cost analysis report. I learned that out of 144 employees my partner and I made him the most $ per $ spent. We asked for a raise. He gave my partner a gas card good for 1 tank a week, and he gave me .5% comission increase. He said "Wana make more? Sell more"

I said ****** U. Went back to school, did a radiology program and now work as a MRI Tech at ucsf. Oh, and make x5$.

I grew up around motorcycles and cars. At work I'm "the car guy" :smiley_drive:

Some one also mentioned a slippy trans, Mitsu has a tiny bottle of "friction modifer" that usually does the trick too. Smells like cat pee,,, thats what we called it:coffeedrink:

 

[HARABAS]

I stopped working for the mitsu dealer in 2000. My partner and I were the only parts guys they had for mitsu. The owner also had honda, hyundai, olds, gm/lincon/merc. One day the owner ran a cost analysis report. I learned that out of 144 employees my partner and I made him the most $ per $ spent. We asked for a raise. He gave my partner a gas card good for 1 tank a week, and he gave me .5% comission increase. He said "Wana make more? Sell more"

I said ****** U. Went back to school, did a radiology program and now work as a MRI Tech at ucsf. Oh, and make x5$.

I grew up around motorcycles and cars. At work I'm "the car guy" :smiley_drive:

Some one also mentioned a slippy trans, Mitsu has a tiny bottle of "friction modifer" that usually does the trick too. Smells like cat pee,,, thats what we called it:coffeedrink:

Good tips. I've got ticking during engine warm up. I'll give ATF a shot before my next oil change. Also, my transmission (automatic Gen 1 Montero LWB) slips from 1st to 2nd. Actually hasn't been happening lately (I call it the zen of procrastination), but when it does I'll look into the cat pee solution.

Thanks for the inside tips.

 

[matteas]

I had the lifter tick during start up and tried a few things to fix that problem. In the end it was solved by a boneheaded mistake on my part. I left the lights on in the truck one night and the battery was low. My plan was to let the truck idle for a bit to recharge the battery but I forgot about it. Then my wife came home from work 3 hours later and said the truck was running. She got a good laugh about it because I'm usually the anal one about our vehicles. Anyhow after that the valve tick is mostly gone. I suspect the hours of idling did something to pump up the lifters or got rid of the air in them. It's nice to start up the truck and have it sound normal.