I found out about it when I had my first car. It was a '97 Volvo 850 that I thought was fast as hell because it would do a nice little burnout if you did a neutral drop. Ofcourse I found this product because it said it restores power and that's all I wanted! Screw a clean engine!
That Volvo died when it overheated because I had no coolant in it and blew a headgasket. At that point it was running on four cylinders instead of five.
Yes, one of Volvo's best engines is their five cylinder engines. In the 850, it was normal to reach 300k miles because they were reliable. Throw a turbo on it and you got yourself the 850R which came with around 230 HP, I believe, and can be had now for $1500 or so.
People need to know about these more "obscure" quick cars (it's all Honda this Mustang that) but I went off on a tangent.
In an earlier post I mentioned that the LS400 was having problems starting. It would turn over but wouldn't fire up most of the time. I thought, initially, that the fuel pump was going bad but actually this is not the case - thank God.
You see, depending on what cylinder was next in line to fire, it might not while others fire right up. Lexy also didn't ever sputter or hesitate when I hit it which implies the fuel pump is working fine.
My conclusion was that it is something simple so I bought new spark plugs and because it was cheap, I picked up some STP Fuel Injector Cleaner because it was cheap. I didn't think it would do much but I was hoping.
Initially I used half a bottle of this stuff in a half tank's worth of gasoline. I thought it was a coincidence when it felt like the car was actually driving a little bit better. I tend to be a skeptic with these products unless I try them myself and the science is sound.
The results were that now, the car was firing up 70-80% on the first try - quickly too. I drove it for a little while before I used the rest of the bottle which helped as well. Today, I decided to use the rest of the Seafoam.
Half a bottle is how much I had left and also how much I used the first time.
Huge difference. The first time, there was barely any white smoke coming out of the exhaust which suggested to me that either the car was clean as a whistle (yeah right) or the product isn't penetrating. Seems I was right. Today when I did it, there was at least three times the amount of smoke coming out which suggests that the fuel injector cleaner not only cleaned up the deposits itself but made the rest more penetreble.
Knock on woodgrain but it seems like that cleared up the problem. The car suprises me sometimes as to how fast it fires up now.
I still have the spark plugs.
I definitely want and need to change them but considering the main reason I got them is okay, I'm gonna wait a little bit until I get some time. The reason is that it takes a while to get to the spark plugs in the first place because you have to take the air intake off completely and also some covers. What's actually going to take up more time, however, is that I'm going to start cleaning the engine going top to bottom.
It's the perfect opportunity to do it and I can not wait for that feeling of satisfaction.
The other day, a driver in the next lane over yelled out "Rocking the old school car! That's what's up!" as he poured out some of his beer in some gesture of respect.
Isn't that the reason for living when it comes to car guys? Maybe that's exaggerated but it feels good to know that someone enjoys your car like you do when most people don't notice.
All in all, I would like to say; use seafoam. Also no matter what old unreliable car you want - if that's really what you want and can take care of it - do it! You live one time baby.
I secretly want the Foxbody Firebird Turbo Coupe. Such a hot car! Who knows, maybe that will be the next project later down the road because I'm gonna need a sports car.
Take care.
(How could you not love that car?!)
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