Did the same thing to my GF's Nissan without telling her. Car smoked like crazy going down the street. She was Pi$$ed! LOL
So. After the seafoam journey. All clean. Below is a pic of plug before cleaning... Thr cause was a carb being rebuilt wrong till fouling killed it. then car sat 7 years till i got hands on it. I do think I'm going to do the valve stem seals just because of age. Great videos available on you tube for a way to do it without removing head using compressed air.
Plugs such as above indicate a engine/carb issue, miracles-in-a-can are temp fix at best. In 55 years of automobile ownership, I've never used the stuff. I once fixed a half motor, Turbo T-Bird that had a cold idle issue with injector cleaner. Used a professional kit that fed into injector rail, till emptied, engine ran on cleaner only. When I bought my 5.0, '96 F-150 beater pickup, it's oil would make black paint envious. I've changed better looking diesel oil. On top of that, had maybe a quart & half in it at most. Still it ran fine. I found three odd quarts of oil in garage I'd bought for lawn mower at various times & along with a cheap filter, flushed engine with that(Till it blew up, had a mower that used almost as much oil as gas). That oil came out darker than stuff I've ran in it for for two years, plus. Anyway used high mileage oil(crossed 175K, now bumping 200K), & it uses maybe a quart in 2500 miles. Generally change oil every other year, whether it needs it or not.
I have to agree with Krazy. Additives are for a temporary fix or to supplement fuel/oil to make things better like cleaning injectors or the carb or helping keep cylinders lubricated between starts. Lucas products do tend to help long term. I used to have an old Corolla for a work beater that used oil. Lucas cut my oil consumption in half so long as I kept using it at oil changes. That's the rub. You have to keep using the additive that seems to help long term unless you fix the issue.
the cynic's response .. the 'P.T. Barnum automotive aisle' with rows of proprietary additive, spray and even magnetic devices for all kinds of defects or improvements at WalMart , and national box stores gives me pause (and a smile): https://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/a310/1802932/ A non-mechanic friend showed me his trunk full of spray and formula bottles he uses for his car 'maintenance and repair'. Additives and supplements to oil and gas sometimes can improve an obvious defect - at least for a while. Info-merccial touted secret formulas and old-timey cures usual short-time benefits sometimes will contribute to longer-time problems. Still recommend simple proper maintenance and for actual defect repair of a car you want to keep; a real testing and repair procedure. ZDDP additives for 'modern' oils in our old flat tappet engines seems reasonable and Marvel Mystery oil does give that fresh minty aroma... hav efun
As I stated, a carb issue put the top end in the condition you see in picture. I just purchased car.. I just used the seafoam to clean it out.. which it did very well. Any cool liquid sprayed thru carb will blow off carbon deposits. Water ect. Looking at plug the cylinders needed to soak... rebuilt carb while soaking.. Found carb was damaged.. Rebuilt with parts from mikes carbs. And wallah.. its fine.. except exhaust weighs 2 lbs more! Hehe.
In the case of my GF's Nissan 300zx mentioned above, the IAC valve was sticking. Seafoam loosened it right up. But the smoke alone was worth the cost in entertainment value.
WD40 will fix that, washed out(removed) several Ford IAC with it. Spay a couple teaspoons, shake & rinse, reinstall... 99% good as new. Yeah I don't doubt Sea Foam would do similar but I still have $7 for a 6 pack of Bud. Or add $3 or so to it and buy Corona.
Got ya beat. In '76 I saw a local Ford dealer mechanic douche a 351 Windsor with plain ole water. Works better, what is blown out tail pipe is the debris cleaned.... And assuming you're not chugging, essentia, evian, etc is free. The engine was mine, in a just bought $100, '69 Torino parts car. Told him it was knocking, he listened & said "ain't nuthin but carbon on piston, get me some water in a pop bottle" He revved it to around 3000 RPM and started dribbling water down carb, gagged it a couple times & when idled down sounded like new. I installed engine in a '67 Falcon sw, drove it a couple years then sold it to a buddy, inst it in a '67 Mustang.
Yep, that's how we used to do it. Often the spark plugs didn't like getting steam cleaned and we had to replace them, but back then plugs were way less than $1 apiece. Actually read in Hot Rod or similar rag back in the day to do that.
The so called great gas we had back then carboned up engines & hastened exhaust system rot out. Let a carb set with gas in it, often had a bowl of varnish. I ain't sayin' today's fuels are fault free, no doubt have their own issues. Just good ole days aren't necessarily as good as everyone "supposedly" remembers.
New gas left sitting leaves a green film that drys and flakes off .. looks like fish food flakes. I rebuild motorcycle carbs with that damage all the time. ( run fuel out folks) Heres my carb off the mav. See the green nasty. Fuel injection has less problems because it's a closed system and does not evaporate as fast.
I have to pull mine off for a rebuild. Can't wait to see what it looks like inside. What amazed us was that it worked actually pretty well for being the original then and sitting for 20 years. I can tell it's running rich and idles rough. Definitely crap in it but the fact that it started up pretty easily the first time we got it running and runs pretty well now is quite surprising. Choke works just fine. That car has proven to be an enigma for sure.
I love the electric choke on the mav. I always count the turns on carb screws. Disassemble. Carb. Rebuild. Put same turns on mixture screw. And its always close. I soak my carbs in aussome cleaner from the 99 cent store. Use soft brush to scrub.. pipettes or guitar string to clean ports.. Blow dry ..
