Will this hurt me if i use it to clean out 25 yearse of crap

WEll on a parts run to NAPA i saw an engine cleaner, you warm up the engine, drain the oil, pur this stuff in, let it idle for a couple mins, and drain. Will that hurt my clutch and stuff, i think this would really help, but idk if it would make my clutch slip. I cant remember the exact name, its NAPA brand.

 

SHORT ANSWER, PUT IT IN THERE ONLY IF YOUR GOING TO SELL THE BIIKE TO YOUR WORST ENEMY....

 

Re: Will this hurt me if i use it to clean out 25 yearse of

The real question is...What makes you think you need to use it? The bike runs ok doesnt it?

You need to really think about what you have to gain and what you have to lose. I guess you would have the piece of mind that your engine is "cleaner" on the inside, but the possibility of having catastrophic damage to your engine, transmission, or clutch is way too high to take that chance. I dont know about you, but I dont spend enough time inside my engine to worry about how clean or dirty it looks.

Its like an old man once told me. If it aint broke dont fix it.

 

change your oil and filter then change the oil again in 100 miles, keep that oil for your car
look in the oil fill hole with a flashlight, thats how clean your whole motor is
if you keep looking for trouble your going to find it, another old man saying

 

Re: Will this hurt me if i use it to clean out 25 yearse of

I'm assuming you're referring to an engine flush? A lot of people have done the same thing except using Seafoam in the crankcase with no problems. I'm a big proponate of Seafoam and I've used it in all my vehicles and my boat over the last 10 +/- years.

However, Seafoam in the crankcase makes me a little nervous though many *many* people have used it successfully and swear by it.

If you want to clean your crankcase, my vote goes towards a product called Auto-RX. I heard about it for the first time around four years ago while I was on the Dodge Durango forums and some really respected people at Bob the Oil Guy say is it is not only safe, but also very effective. I know this isn't all talk either. On the Durango forum we had a guy that was constantly calling everything "snake oil". He ended up pulling the valve covers, taking pics and exposing pistons and taking pics for before pics. He ran the Auto-RX treatment by the instructions and took after pics and he was stunned by the results. For the first time he was able to say that a product wasn't snake oil.

http://www.auto-rx.com/

Apparently they make stuff specifically for motorcycles as well. Read up on it. Research it. For me, it would be the only thing I would add to my crankcase besides oil.

 

Schooter; The "Uncle Ernie" rule applies here: IF IT AIN'T BROKE DON'T FIX IT. NOT "if it ain't broke screw with it until it is." DON'T DO IT. You have no reason to believe your bike is "gummed up" internally; if you change the oil and filter regularly (although at shorter intervals at first if the bike had been sitting before you got it) it will be FINE. THAT STUFF VERY WELL COULD MESS WITH YOUR CLUTCH. Get your manual. Go through all the stuff that actually NEEDS to be done, don't think up new and unusual ways to mess with your machine because you're bored.

 

I'll join in the choirs too Schooter, "if'n it don't stink, don't stir it" was a very good bit of advise a fellow gave me in my youth (it concerned a 67 Mustang I was wasting my 18th winter on).
I'll agree with Organizedinsanity, what makes you think you need to flush the case? Leave well enough alone unless you have need to spend a few hundred dollars to renew messed up parts (clutch plates and plastic chain guides come readily to mind).

 

Re: Will this hurt me if i use it to clean out 25 yearse of

These high revving engines don't usually sludge up.

I've yet to crack open an engine on a metric machine and find anything other than a slight tarnish to anything.

 

Good advice guys. I was thinking of doing the same as Schooter. Ummm... but not now. *lol*

 

Re: Will this hurt me if i use it to clean out 25 yearse of

I'll second the seafoam. I have heard of it's uses on old Jeep forums (earlycj5.com), truck forums (gmfullsize.com) and on here. My girlfriends dad used to be a mechanic for a used car lot, and he swears by it. He said it does miracles for cars that comes in running rough.

Normal dose for a car is 1/2 a bottle in crank case. He told me 1/3 bottle for good engines, 2/3 for bad engines, straight into the crankcase. Drive for 100 miles or so. You don't want to drive too much, as this will reduce the effectiveness of your oil. Some people will suck it into crankcase using a vacuum line while the engine is running, which causes a great cloud of smoke. This method is supposed to be great for de-carbonizing. For a more normal usage, you can put it in the gas tank every so often. On fuel injected cars, this will help to clean injectors. It wont fix varnished carbs overnight, however. When I bought my bike, I ran about 1/2 bottle in the gas to clean out the engine, and I plan on running another half bottle through the bike at the beginning of the spring.

 

I would not dump SeaFoam in my crankcase unless I was doing a "static" engine flush to cure a problem, not as a preventive measure.

 

I think the dumping in through the vacuum line is more of a do it once around 100,000 miles to de-carbonize type of thing. I wouldn't do it all the time, or else you will have a very clean engine with spun bearings. :-(

As far as motorcycles, I think if you run some through the gas tank every 3,000 miles, you shouldn't have any need to be more drastic. The goal is to prevent the problem before it happens.

 

Never put engine cleaner in the crankcase of a combustion engine ever, it will harm the engine. A good quality motoroil is all you need. Engine cleaners do harm to the quality of motor oil.

If you search the Internet for engine cleaners and cleaning crankcases you will be suprised what you will find about Warranties.

What a Motor Oil Must Do
Modern motor oil is a highly specialized product carefully developed by engineers and chemists to perform many essential functions. A motor oil must:
• Permit easy starting
• Lubricate engine parts and prevent wear
• Reduce friction
• Protect against rust and corrosion
• Keep engine parts clean
• Minimize combustion chamber deposits
• Cool engine parts
• Seal combustion pressures
• Be nonfoaming
• Aid fuel economy

 

ok jeez... y am i getting yelled at, i was wondering if this stuff would hurt it... its 25 years old and i want to treat it like royalty.. figured a clean engine is a happy engine, but it will make the clutch mad i guess. ok just wanted it clarified... i thought this could be good for it.. im trying to prevent it from breaking... jeez i know about the if it aint broke dont fix it rule.... but doesnt that apply to changing the motor oil? it still runs.. why change it... see? got ya there. I was about PREVENTATIVE measures. sheesh

 

aggressive cleaners are NOT the same as normal maintenance like changing your oil. In reality, on a machine as old as these, you may very well have some seal inside the engine, or a guide or some such, that is mainly held together by luck and the kind of non-damaging "gunk" that those cleaners go after. Remove the gunk, and as robert pointed out, you may be replacing nearly every seal and rubber/plastic guide between the cases.

edit: as a prime example, on my daily driver a couple weeks ago, i noticed I was leaking a little bit of oil from the rear main engine seal. I figured I'd go ahead and seafoam the system like i was planning, and see whats going on from there. Well the seafoam treatment went fine, but as soon as I changed the oil back to pure oil, my entire rear main seal let go and I had to spend 4 days under the car to fix it.

 

Funny you should mention that. Couple of years back I mentioned Slick50 or something like that to the guy at the shop I take my car to. He related the sordid tale of a lady in a Hyundai who put the stuff in her engine.

She ended up replacing every seal on that engine, I'm told.

 

The internals of my little 3.8 V6 in the camaro are nice and clean now, but man I hope I never have to replace a rear main again. I'll sell the car before I do it a second time on this vehicle. It really was that horrible.

 

I think what the Members of the Forum are doing for you, Schooter, is politely trying to tell you to not do something stupid that will harm your bike.

New Members often spend a few hours SEARCHING the Forums to become familiar with what has been discussed before, and find valuable information to answer their questions, without creating a Thread and embarrassing themselves.

None of us want to see you do something to your bike that is going to cause you time and expensive repairs, learning about "What not to do" ... the HARD way!

 

schooter
no offence, we were just worried you were going to harm your bike.

As schmuckaholic described I have had the same problem with Slick50 and that was not only with the seals. Piston rings broken and sharp as raiser blades. Oil all over the place because of high pressure in the crankcase. A complet engine rebuild was necessary.

 

holy sheesh, i was only asking if it would hurt the engine, and i got my answer, so i wouldnt have to learn the hard way.... and sorry i didn't search, figure this could be a simple thread with one post to say, " dont do it, it will hurt your engine" and i would say, "Thank You." Done.