soi bought a bottle of seafoam type stuff from the bmw dealership i work at mixed it with water and sprayed it in the intake then took the straight liquid from the bottle and let it go into a vacume tube intil the car stalled.

so a half hour later i start the car and its shaking like hell and making a noise like 1/2 the cylinders arent firing.

it was running fine after the water and cleaner mixed was in the intake, it just screwed up after i put the cleaner straight into the vacume tube that goes into the plenum

so i figure its the plugs so in the rain i changed the plugs just now. its still doing it
the engine is shaking like hell and barley running.

what the hell did i do? whats wrong and how do i fix it

 

Why did you mix it w/water inthe first place???

How much did you let the engine suck up?? I jsut used about a third bottle when I had the 3.4 .

Any codes??? Also, you didn't mention how much smoke was coming out the tail pipe, and for how long if it ran.

 

when i mixed it with water i let it run for a half hour or so before hand, then for about 5 mins after i was finished. it ran fine when i was using it with water


then later on i let it run for another good while and let the vacume line suck it straight up with no water till it stalled.



no smoke came out at all

there is smoke coming from the passeger side egr area though. its running too crappy though for me to feel comfortable letting it run for any period of time

i been reading that carbon chunks could clog the egr but would it really run this bad? and no codes yet

 

Ouch....Sounds like yaeither locked up an injector (NEVER PUT WATER INTO YOUR ENGINE....unless in water jackets of course). You might have possibly hydro-locked it with the cleaner as well.....anyhow, you need to take it to a mechanic.

 

oh ****

 

but it was running fine after i misted the water/cleaner into the tb. i even shut the car off and started it up a few more times after that.

and the car still starts and runs now, its just running like hell

 

How does exhaust pulse feel?
Steady or poops of forced air?
TRY also pulling one plug wire, starting (if does), then try same trick next plug wire.
Why?
Try to isolate the cylinder with problem.
Try keep digging?
Maybe ya got a sensor so "damaged" it's reacting like this. And yes, could be injector, too.
PS Don't feel so bad.
My learning curve involved---
dropping carb stud into carb,
on aluminum engine, stripping spark plug hole, plugging with larger spark plug, taking Dad for a ride (he needed one) and praying whole time the plug will not blow out
Your's ain't so bad.
Maybe time to find a spare set up fuel injectors, tho!

 

i'd go pick up a set of injectors

 

just took out the 02 sensor to see if the cat was clogged or if the 02 was screwed car started and was the same thing. it runs but doesnt have enought power to move the car very well and shakes and smokes from the passenger valve cover

 

so i took the new plugs out and looks like only 3 of them were firing as they were clean and wet 1,2 and 5. all the other 3 were slightly blackened.

so with the plugs and wires out of the way i turned the motor over to see if i cant dry out anything left in the cylinders. it turns over really smooth with only a whirr and a tick from the spark. im going to leave the plugs out for a fw hours.

 

i put the plugs back in and it still runs the same like ****

 

im almost convinced its hydralocked

if i take off the valve covers can i tell if the valves arent moving when i start the car?

 

be ready to clean up all that erl when yo do.

 

erl? you mean oil?

 

Well, yeah, you could pull the valve cover, but I'd just buy a compression tester for $30 (get the one with the hose!! Don't get the gauge-on-a-stick b/c you'll never get it near the spark plug holes). If your valves aren't moving then you won't see compression.

I would blame the water at all on this. Misting water into the throttle body is the standard way to break up carbon.

I'm thinking along the same lines as FBodTrek- that the motor got hydrolocked b/c of the cleaner going to the vac line. But, hooking the seafoam up to a vac line is standard procedure, right? Have other guys done that here?

One possibility, altho rare- the cleaner could've loosened chunks of carbon that plugged up the valves.

 

if a rod is bent do i have to replace the block or could i just replace the heads. or should i start anew thead on doing a 3.4 swap.

 

Personally I think he may just have some deposits of that crap all over the inside of the motor and is still getting on the plugs and sensors.

I would pull the plugs again one at a time (Remove coil wire so engine doesn't start) or all plugs at once and just crank the motor and see what the heck comes out of the sparkplug holes.

Hae someone else crank it while you hold a clean papertowel near the sprk plug hole and see if any foriegn matter comes out or if its clean fuel.

I bet it my have fouled the O2 sensor with gunk.

 

v6toy.... read the whole thread, ive done all that

 

Yes, sorry I missed that

Did you try new plugs, or reuse the old ones?

 

new plugs

 

 

I used seafoam on my engine before and havent had a problem. Put it through the brake booster line and lots of smoke came out the back. Didn't mix it with water though...

 

I just used sea foam yesturday and put in in the pcv vac line and the intake, no water, I also put it in my oil and gas. Your not supposed to stall the motor when your putting it in the vac line. If you read the can it says let the vac line suck it up, then shut the car off when 1/3 of a litre has been sucked in. The can being a litre you wanna put 1/3 of the can in. The motor will bog down but your not supposed to stall it. I'm guess that had something to do with it. Your also not supposed to let it sit for 30mins, only 5mins then start it up and let it run. The exhaust should reak hardcore for a while but that goes away.

Side note my car idle's better, feels like it's quicker, a lot quicker. Gonna do motor flush before I change my oil as well, try and get as much crap out as I can.

 

ok i drove the camaro down to my mechanics as best as it could drive. was smoking like a chimney from under the hood by the time i got there.

 

I used to sell this stuff, and its running like crap for two reasons, one water whats wrong with you? water in a motor, stop working on your own car if you use water inside the motor. and 2 seafoam is a very good cleaner, it is running like crap and smoking because all your carbon deposits are working out it takes at least 30-45 mins of running to work it all out depending on how much is in it. just get your car before the mechanic rebuilds the motor and let it run for a while, rev it up, manually adjust the idle real high whatever you have to do to get it to stay running and it will clear up and go back to normal. good luck

 

You say there is smoke coming from your EGR Valve.. I know sometimes that carbon build up helps when its an older car because is seals up the engine where the gaskets let go. maybe you just removed that carbon and cause a leak from somewhere. Just an idea.

Or you still have chunks of stuff getting in the way

 

ill post pics of the bent rods when i rip into the motor after my mustang enige come out of the shop. i need to do this first.

and water is used to clean deposits out, seafoam is made mostly of water. i just let it suck in too much and the piston hit it. liquids dont compress at all, metal does.

 

well ive had a rough month

this happened to my winterbeater i was driving while waiting for the camaro to be fixed

my towncars rear main seal went so bad that when i was driving it for a few weeks it smoked so bad it looked like i was going down a dirt road. and this was on my 220km round trip to work everyday. so eventually it started running out of oil before i got to work. overheated it about 7 times ran it on no coolent and a litre of trany fluid for about 10 minutes till i got to the next gas station. well i got pulled over that night towncar smoking overheating and expired temp sticker. got off with a warning but had to park the car. rented a kia, cops showed up at my house because the towncar was spilling oil on the street. i had to tow it and have it stored at my towtruck drivers place right next to my mechanic and body shop.

told the mechanic to look at my car he said hed get to it maybe by that weekend. 3 weeks and 1100$ later he still hasnt really looked at my camaro. he fired his assistant to do less work and make more money. said its be another week at least. so i find a new mechanic and tell him to go pick up the car. he calls me said the car was towed and he cant get it. i call the towtruck guy and he yells at me saying i can just leave my **** around. my old mechanic parked my camaro in front of his building blocking it. he didnt charge me anything because he has my other car and said i can come get it on the weekend. so on the weekend i get the gate unlocked and the camaro wont start. so i had to have it towed.

so finnaly it was at my new mechanics, he saw the codes checked all the usual stuff, maf i had a spare tried it, saw the break in the tps wire, he twisted it tempararily. then called me and said 3 of my injectors werent firing anything.

so on my lunchbreak at work i got dealer cost on 6 rebuilt injectors for 417$ canadain and -60$ for cores when i return them.

i find out within the hour if my car is fixed.

and you know what? we just got dumped with snow.

so 1500$ for the rental for a month, 357$ for injctors, 40$ for the tow i think -havent paid him yet, and whatever 7 hours of labour is going to be.

i dont think ill be doing any tuneups on my car anymore.

 

Bad experience you had, but don't stop doing tuneups on your car man, IT saves soooo much money when you work on your car yourself its not even funny.

 

you just let too much go in for the rpm your engine was at is all. don't give up, just take your time and ask on here like I have to do now after drilling 4 holes in the top of my gas tank, breakin my tranny crossmember bolts and having the tranny hanging...umm....there's a bunch more stuff I've broken from just doing it instead of asking first or reading up on it.

 

For whoever said NEVER put water in your engine, it's an old trick. I used straight water into my PCV vacuum intake to clean mine. There's nothing wrong with it as long as you do it right.

 

Way to give bad advice

There is nothing wrong with using water to steam out the combustion chambers. You do it in small amounts, and it works perfectly. Its not like this is a new thing, people have been doing it for over 50 years. It used to be when they would start pinging you would run a little water down the carb. Cleans out the chambers, and stops the pinging (from increased compression due to deposits).