Restore's Engine Restore, anyone use it?

[DeusExMachina]

Someone suggested to me to check out "Engine Restore" by the Restore company. Its an oil additive and supposed to raise compression, mend bearings, etc etc. Anyone have any experience with this?

I have no problems with my motor (all tranny related) but I haven't had it when it was new or in tip-top condition, so I may be missing something. (Though it feels like its faster than the horsepower ratings would say, even at 7 psi)

I think I'll try some fuel injector cleaner, though.

1991 Legacy Turbo Sport Sedan, 123,000 miles.

[vrg3]

I don't personally think it's generally a good idea to use oil additives. Motor lubricants are so complicated and there's so much research effort that goes into the recipe that it seems silly to think that blindly adding other things in would be an improvement.

With all the mixing and matching and blending that goes into making a quality motor oil, wouldn't the manufacturer already have put in that kind of stuff?

I do like the idea of cleaning stuff out, though... I like Sea Foam. It can be used in the fuel tank, in the crankcase, and through the intake.

If you're concerned about the state of your engine maybe you should do a compression and/or leakdown test, and maybe after your next oil change send a sample of the oil to Blackstone Labs for testing.

[DeusExMachina]

Yeah, I'm mailing a sample today.

I guess you're right about oil additives.

Does Sea Foam work well as a fuel injector type cleaner?

[vrg3]

I don't know. It's hard to gather useful evidence on fuel system cleaners that you put in the gas tank since they really do relatively little even when they work well. I haven't personally tried Sea Foam in the fuel tank of a car that wasn't already running pretty well, so I don't know.

I do know Sea Foam is supposed to work as a gas stabilizer (like what you use when you need to park a car for a long time), and some people say it's actually better than the purpose-made stabilizers they sell at auto parts stores.

Sea Foam is also designed to be used in injector cleaning machines, so it definitely has some properties appropriate for the job.

Chevron's Techron cleaner is also supposed to be good. I have personally seen some older cars improve (smoother idle, less stumbling) after a tank with Techron cleaner.

[BAC5.2]

I put the remaining bit of Seafoam into my gas tank after cleaning my intake.

I didn't notice any improvement really. That may be a good or bad thing.

Vikash, I meant to ask you, but how quickly do you injest the seafoam in your car? I was going only a TINY bit at a time (took about 10 to 15 minutes to get all of it in there). I heard it was supposed to smoke like a MOTHER, but it only smoked when I slipped with the hose, and accidentally submerged the hose for a fraction of a second.

[vrg3]

I take about 10 or 15 seconds to feed the engine all the stuff. Or maybe 20 or 30.

And then it takes 5 or 10 minutes for the smoking to stop.

You might want to try again, feeding it faster. You want it to get in there fast so that some of it ends up sitting on the backs of the valves and stuff when you shut the engine off and wait 5 minutes.

[DeusExMachina]

How do you spray it into the intake?

[Legacy777]

I hooked a vacuum line up to the pcv valve, and slowly poured it in there. It sucks it in.

[vrg3]

I use a nylon fitting with 1/4" male NPT threads and a 3/16" hose barb. It looks something like this:



I remove the PCV valve, and thread the nylon fitting into the intake manifold in its place. The threads don't quite match up but you can get a couple of turns in and it'll deform enough to seal at idle. Then I attach a piece of 3/16" vinyl tubing and dip it controlledly into a little container of Sea Foam.

Then I put a new PCV valve in.

[BAC5.2]

10 or 15 SECONDS!???

WHAAAA? That's a LOT of sea foam in a little time.

What do you do? Just submerge the vinyl tube into the container of seafoam? I was sucking at a rate that seemed to be about 80% air 20% seafoam.

I did what you said about keeping the idle up with a quarter in the throttle, but if I went to quickly with the seafoam, it would sputter and the revs would drop significantly. I certaintly don't want to hydrolock the engine.

[vrg3]

I basically feed it in as fast as I can without stalling the engine.

I'm not too worried about hydrolocking it. Let's do a rough calculation. 2212cc engine, so each cylinder is 553 cc. 8:1 compression ratio means at TDC the volume should be about 70 cc. I'm putting in a total of about half a pint of Sea Foam, or about 236 cc. So I'd have to get about a third of the entire source container into a single cylinder during a single engine cycle in order to be sure to hydrolock the motor.

I feel like the engine would stall out way before it would hydrolock.

[evolutionmovement]

The engine cleaner they use at work takes forever. They drip it in like an IV.

Steve

[vrg3]

Does that engine cleaner go through the intake manifold, Steve? Or do you splice it into the fuel system or something?

[entirelyturbo]

Our engine cleaner at Toyota is ingested in the engine usually through the brake booster vacuum hose. We have a special tool that a) screws onto the top of the bottle and sticks a metal pipe straight to the bottom of the bottle, b) from that pipe, goes to a hose that has a little nipple on it to shove into the vacuum line, and c) has a hook to hang on a hole in the hood. It usually ingests the whole bottle in about 30 seconds, and you have to stand right there at the throttle body, ready to open it up when it starts bogging down. I've seen cars that have literally smothered the whole dealer with smoke, they had such ridiculous carbon build-up.

It would be pointless for us to use our brake booster hose, however, because it's attached on the #4 intake runner. So the #4 cylinder would suck the whole thing down instead of all 4.

I took the hose off my throttle body that comes from the canister purge valve (a central location so all 4 cylinders get their fair share), and just bought a long vacuum hose, put it on the throttle body and stuck the whole hose in the bottle. It worked quite well. Josh and a few others had expressed concern that this method may end up cleaning the black goo off the throttle plate, but I didn't find any missing off of my old throttle body when I swapped them.

[entirelyturbo]

Oh and the Engine Restore. I used to use it when I first got the car. I don't know whether the stuff doesn't work, or whether my engine is in too good of a condition in order for something like that to work, but well.... it didn't

I would ask a friend who has an old beat-up car that's barely running that he doesn't care about and ask if you can use it in that, then see what happens...

[WRXdan]

I'm not sure what Engine Restore does...but I did try some in my rod knock motor. I knew it would not help, but I had a can of it so what the heck. I pulled the motor and drained the oil. The oil was off color and very milky. I think all that stuff does is thicken up your oil?? I'm going to open the oil filter to see what I find.

Whats with this seafoam craze? The best way to clean your injectors without removing them is to run the engine straight off the cleaner. They make kits that tap into your fuel lines. Then you pull the pump fuse and the engine will run off the bottle cleaner.

If you want something to clean your engine, valves and pistons nothing works better then ATF. Use the vacume line trick and don't hydro lock your motor.

[vrg3]

The people that make Sea Foam recommend using a 50/50 mixture of Sea Foam and fuel to clean injectors on cleaning machines... I would think the same advice would apply to doing it on the engine.

You think ATF is a better solvent than a purpose-made motor cleaning solvent like Sea Foam?

[WRXdan]

The people that make Sea Foam recommend using a 50/50 mixture of Sea Foam and fuel to clean injectors on cleaning machines... I would think the same advice would apply to doing it on the engine.

You think ATF is a better solvent than a purpose-made motor cleaning solvent like Sea Foam?

Oh yeah...ATF will make your valve shine!!

[James614]

Josh and a few others had expressed concern that this method may end up cleaning the black goo off the throttle plate, but I didn't find any missing off of my old throttle body when I swapped them.

Do you simply not want it injested into the engine when being removed? Or do you want to actually keep black goo on the throttle plate? (which would be unfathomable, since every other high mileage car sees huge benefits from removing it)


Sorry for ressurrecting an ancient post, but I found the link here in a newer post and that post was locked.

[Adam West]

My neighbor swears by this stuff. I'm going to try it in my next oil change. Prevents sticky lifters, tapping...

http://www.bardahl.com/mods/gallery/gal ... =&shownew=

[SubaruNation]

well i'm just going to continue this then

so the last time i used seafoam, i bought the stuff (weird i know) then dumped it in the gas tank (the whole container)i then filled her up with gas.

is that how to use it...? i hope.

and how do you get it into the intake?
i couldn't really understand what you guys were typing (months/years ago i guess)

[vrg3]

It can be used in the fuel tank, in the crankcase, and in the intake.

As for how to get it into the intake? That question was asked less than 24 hours ago.

http://bbs.legacycentral.org/viewtopic.php?t=35127

[93Leg-c]

Someone suggested to me to check out "Engine Restore" by the Restore company. Its an oil additive and supposed to raise compression, mend bearings, etc etc. Anyone have any experience with this?

Since this thread's been resurrected, going back to the original question, I've used Engine Restore on my air-cooled VW engine and my dad's Dodge slant six engine. Both cars had worn rings with oil blowing out the exhaust. From what I understood about Restore, it's not really an oil additive, per se, but it's supposed to actually add "metal" or something like it to worn rings, etc. Both cars stopped blowing oil and had more power. The only thing about it, from what I recall, is that once you changed the oil, you have to add the proper amount of Restore again.

[James614]

Engine Restore doesn't add metal..... it's designed to seal across larger gaps, which is how it's supposed to reduce blow-by on worn rings and oil leaks. Think about what a large amount of metal in your oil would do..... it'd score the hell out of your cam lobes and bearings, and generally ruin your engine with the quickness. Unless it was mercury, which would give anyone who rode in your car cancer.

"Liquid fixes" (emphasis on "fix", this doesn't include cleaners, detergents, stabilizers, etc, just products that claim to give a quick breathe of life in dieing cars), even if they work at reducing symptoms of a worn engine/cooling system/transmission, only mask serious problems. I used Restore in my first car, an '87 Jetta with 250K, and it did reduce my oil burning slightly and had a very noticeable reduction in blue smoke. But that didn't stop the rings from going suddenly when I cranked it on the first really cold morning of that year. All the extra money at each oil change got me was.... well, absolutely nothing, I find it impossible not to think the engine may have lasted longer if I didn't use it. Sudden failure of piston rings isn't normal in a daily-driven car....

Now that my Touring Wagon's radiator blew a massive leak a week after I got it because it was fixed with Bar's stop-leak and epoxy before I got it, I believe that all "liquid fix" additives should be banned by federal law. And anyone caught using them in a car for resale shall be hanged by the balls until dead!!!

[SubaruNation]

Engine Restore doesn't add metal..... it's designed to seal across larger gaps, which is how it's supposed to reduce blow-by on worn rings and oil leaks. Think about what a large amount of metal in your oil would do..... it'd score the hell out of your cam lobes and bearings, and generally ruin your engine with the quickness. Unless it was mercury, which would give anyone who rode in your car cancer.

"Liquid fixes" (emphasis on "fix", this doesn't include cleaners, detergents, stabilizers, etc, just products that claim to give a quick breathe of life in dieing cars), even if they work at reducing symptoms of a worn engine/cooling system/transmission, only mask serious problems. I used Restore in my first car, an '87 Jetta with 250K, and it did reduce my oil burning slightly and had a very noticeable reduction in blue smoke. But that didn't stop the rings from going suddenly when I cranked it on the first really cold morning of that year. All the extra money at each oil change got me was.... well, absolutely nothing, I find it impossible not to think the engine may have lasted longer if I didn't use it. Sudden failure of piston rings isn't normal in a daily-driven car....

Now that my Touring Wagon's radiator blew a massive leak a week after I got it because it was fixed with Bar's stop-leak and epoxy before I got it, I believe that all "liquid fix" additives should be banned by federal law. And anyone caught using them in a car for resale shall be hanged by the balls until dead!!!

well in that case, i'll srick to seafoam