First Go with SeaFoam

[93formulalt1]

Oh, another update, I don't know if it's the seafoam that caused this or not, but every time I start my car, it spurts out a cloud of blue smoke from the exhaust. . . Any ideas?

[MP81]

Valve seals.

Or it sounds like it.

[my95z28]

Valve seals.

Or it sounds like it.

Yikes man, sounds like Kyle was right. I think there was shit in your engine that was helping to seal your valves, and the seafoam did just what its meant to, clean the shit out. A puff of blue smoke on startup is almost always shot valve seals. The blue puff your seeing is the oil that has dripped down into your cylinder burning up.

[meissen]

My 3.4L does that every now and then.

[cjmatt]

you can put like a quart of brake fluid in your engine and drive it around for an hour before you do your oil change. itll cause the valve seals to swell up a bit and seal back up if there still ok...its an old trick

[93formulalt1]

you can put like a quart of brake fluid in your engine and drive it around for an hour before you do your oil change. itll cause the valve seals to swell up a bit and seal back up if there still ok...its an old trick

I already did the oil change. . . What do you suggest? Should I change the oil again? I was hoping to get new heads at some point, is it an issue that needs immediate attention?

[MP81]

No. Valve seals just make your car smoke on startup - that's it. I mean, it might make you need to change plugs sooner, but it's not really harmful.

My Camaro was embarassing, though - nice BIG cloud of smoke, which would then go away...except my valve guides were shot, too.

You can probably get away with putting in new valve seals (I'd recommend "umbrella" type), especially if the valve guides are okay. If they're not, you can replace the seals, and they'll work for a little while (mine were good for about 3/4 of a year), ultimately, you need to re-machine the heads or get new ones if the guides are shot.

[Boost Addict]

Throw a quart of ATF in the motor then drive it like a day then change your oil.

[93formulalt1]

I actually went to a machine shop today to discuss possible costs of rebuilding my engine. . . I'll probably go up there again on Monday to see how much they would charge to rebuild and P&P the heads for me. I plan to park the car this winter, maybe I'll find a way to get it inside a heated garage and do some engine work to it. . .

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. The car still runs fine, it just lets out a puff of blue smoke on startup. It's actually running stronger now than it did before the seafoam, so I'm sure it made a difference.

What do you think, have the heads rebuilt, ported, polished, and have a set of roller rockers and valvesprings installed, maybe a cam while the top end is off? It would be a lot easier to get a cam swap done with nothing on top of the block in the way . . .

[Boost Addict]

I'll have an LT4 Hotcam kit for sale this winter

[93formulalt1]

I'll have an LT4 Hotcam kit for sale this winter

PM me with a price, we might be working out a deal.

[twoolley08]

yeaaah, i did the seafoam today right...got two streets from the house and what do you know, got pulled over. luckily for me tho my gf was with me and knew the kid, he went to high school with us, and let us go. he thought i did a massive burnout hahaha, said "its unsafe to be driving across a main road while the car is smoking so much, how much longer will it be doing this? stick tothe side streets"

[Derek]

yeaaah, i did the seafoam today right...got two streets from the house and what do you know, got pulled over. luckily for me tho my gf was with me and knew the kid, he went to high school with us, and let us go. he thought i did a massive burnout hahaha, said "its unsafe to be driving across a main road while the car is smoking so much, how much longer will it be doing this? stick tothe side streets"

yesss

[93formulalt1]

Nice. I thought something was going to happen to me like that, but for some reason, the car didn't smoke much when I did the treatment

Maybe I'll get some video when I do this to the vehicle that is soon to be replacing my Sonoma. . .