133,000 miles
I'm planning on changing to synthetic oil (first time to my knowledge of this truck) today or tommorrow. I have one can of Seafoam kicking around and was wondering if I should dump some in the crankcase and go for a drive before changing the oil. How many miles (mountain driving) should I drive to give it a chance to work? Do I need to do this? Any precautions other than not using too much?
Thanks

 

If you put the Seafoam in don't drive it at all. Just let it idle for 5-10 minutes. Driving with diluted oil is not good for the engine.
As to whether it's needed I don't know. Some people say yes it clears out some of the varnish and some say no better to leave the varnish where it is. I switched my 4Runner at 190,000 km and I used some. Didn't seem to do any harm.

 

I highly recommend NO SEAFOAM as many people have used seafoam and claim it to cause minor/major engine problems.

Do a search In General Tech to see info about seafoam wows others a talking about...

I would however reccomend a low powered detergent mixed into the oil each change such as "valvoline engine protector" to slowly and safely clean out the engine.

Better to be safe than sorry with Seafoam.

Tom

P.S. If I'm correct, Synthetic oil has more detergents already so it can help clean your motor better anyways.

 

Personally, I would just switch to synthetic without any additives. I cannot speak for Seafoam, but I can speak for Auto RX. It did nothing for me except remove a crisp $20 from my wallet.

Like Tom, I fear the Seafoam horror stories too, even if they are only comprised of a handful of engines (that had problems or self destructed).

 

Ya, simply switching to plain synthetic is just fine...

The reason I run Valvoline Engine protector is to help my engine cleaned out after a major engine sludge when my dad owned the vehicle about 10K miles ago along with the fact that it's cheap.

I also feel better mentaly with the additive cleaning my engine while I drive rather than an engine sludge trying to form.

Tom

 

thanks for the info! I'll just go synthetic, no seafoam. I appreciate the input.