Using Top Engine Cleaner on a Mazda

[Micha]

Hello! Good day and thank you for your reply. I confess that I am envious of your state-of-the-Art computer technology. I am running GPT4ALL with absolutely the minimum resources that it will run with. The response times can sometimes be glacial in proportion to the queries that I have put forward. Regardless of the meagre resources that I can spare GPT4ALL I am still impressed with it and I thank you for the impetus to poke and prod this amazing tool.

The Mazda is a 2011 which we purchased used in 2020. The car only had 57,000KM on the odometer when we took possession of it and it now has 120,000KM. I have done the basic maintenance such as oil changes, battery service, fluids maintenance and so on. We have had no issues or problems with the car other than the current situation with the DTC's. There hasn't been any deviations from the normal driving habits of my bride. The car has always been allowed to warm up for a minute or two before use and although my wife drives FAST she has never abused the car in any way shape or form. I drive the car with a little more gusto and have never pushed it anywhere close to it's performance levels. The car does a highway trip of 70 to 100KMS at least once a week and has been on several jaunts of 1,200KMS to visit our grandson.

I had noted an increase in oil consumption which I attributed to the plugged up PCV valve. Research on the WWW seemed to support my belief that a plugged or worn out PCV would cause increased oil consumption. I have monitored the oil level quite steadfastly and have added a couple of liters (quarts) over that last six months or so. The car is currently due for an oil change which I will do over the next few days. We have used only synthetic oil and synthetic specific oil filters. In conjunction with the increase in oil consumption I noticed the blackness on the exhaust pipes which has gradually gotten worse to today. I have gone over the engine in search of broken wires, disconnected hoses and harnesses and have tried spritzing the vacuum lines with WD40 in hopes of noting an idle change. No such luck, no vacuum leaks detected. I may try again with propane to check for vacuum disturbances. I do not have access to or possession of a smoke machine.

I think that this pretty much covers the history of the car. If there is any other information that you may feel useful please let me know and I will respond as quickly as I can.

Cheers and Many Thanks!

Mike

 

[mrrsm]

Mike... If you later decide and can afford an eventual Hardware Upgrade ...from Time to Time.... eBay has proven to be a place of marvelous economy in this regard. Stick with seeking out the Post 2010 Dell Precision Work Station Laptops with nVidia Cards there...Trust me...with some regular searches...every once in a while ...Seriously Affordable Bargains with these Dell Boxes arise... Because THEY are the Back-Bone of Big Business... and they cycle through Re-Sale Retail with the arrival of the Latest and Greatest Machines... with predictable frequency.

If you have no objections... I will Copy Paste your Latest Post right back into the same Chat we started in *GPT4ALL* ...and provide *IT*s responses in this Thread.

In the mean time...Regarding what you have covered above... I think you have provided enough Clues that might reveal the source of this problem... but it requires a bit more technical background for this explanation:

(1) The Black Carbon Soot Build Up in the Exhaust System arises because whatever portions of the combination of Carbon that is the residue of Combustion NOT being converted to Carbon Dioxide simply piles up inside of the Engine Cylinders, Piston Tops, Trapping Upper Compression Rings and cascading on down and through the entire Exhaust System as Solid Waste because the Engine Internal Operating Temperatures Do NOT rise to become hot enough for Carbon Soot...to BURN as Excess Fuel AND Motor Oil as per Long-Chain Hydro-Carbon Molecules:





"Carbon can ignite between 300 and 450 degrees Celsius (572 and 842 Fahrenheit)..."

https://firefighterinsider.com/carbon-flammable/

(2) All Motor Oils (including *Synthetic* brands) leave an enormous amount of Carbon Solids behind if they find themselves being accidentally ingested and mixed with the Fuel and Air during the 720 Degrees of the Four Stroke Engine Cycle. Universally... If enough additional Carbon Based Fuel and Oil makes its way through your Turbo-Charger and then down onto the CAT cans...it will perform an action that is called, "Poisoning The CAT". Its abundance and collection in and amongst the Ceramic (Rare Earth Metal Impregnated) Honeycomb Blocks will elevate the temperatures to an excessive degree ...and ruin it completely.

(3) Certain Mechanical Conditions can arise to cause the Motor Oil to be ingested in excess into the Combustion Stream. These include: Gas-Gum Trapped Upper Piston "LOW TENSION" Compression Rings that invite Excessive Blow By to bypass Ring Oil Slick Controls, enter the Crankcase-Oil Pan, mixing with Motor Oil, Lowering its Lubricity and thus, allowing the Fuel Contaminated Oil to By-Pass the Rings and get Burned in-cylinder during the Compression and Power Strokes. The other uncommon source for the Post-In-Cylinder Combustion presence of Motor Oil are Leaking Turbo-Charger Bearing Seals allowing the Oil to "Sneak" into the Exhaust Stream and get Burned once the Post-In-Cylinder Oil reaches the CAT Can.

(4) Carbon-Busting Treatment: For most Carbon Build Up In-Cylinder Treatments... the ONLY truly effective method for Dissolving all of that Black Carbon "MUNG" from around Low Tension Compression Rings, Piston Tops and Valve Seats inside of Modern Engines is through the use of of ACDelco TEC (Top Engine Cleaner). This is done by pulling out the Spark Plugs and filling the Cylinders with this Fluid for Three Hours and then "Turkey Basting" out the Black Goo afterwards. The Process will FREE the Trapped Upper Compression Rings enough to reduce Oil By-Pass from the Lower End entering the Cylinders. If you pull your Oil Dip Stick and can smell a Heavy Fuel Scent... the ACDelco TEC Treatment might be the best place to start. There are many such Threads available here at GMT Nation for your exploration:

gmtnation acdelco top engine cleaningoing at DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo. Privacy, Simplified.

duckduckgo.com

Until you can deal with the "Physical-Mechanical" issues First... Trying to Tune Out or Adjust other Fuel-Air-Ignition-EFI Stoichio-Metric matters... MIGHT have to wait...

More To Follow...

Your Latest Chat Entry added onto the Original Topic to *GPT4ALL* :





And *IT*s ...Response...(Notice the parallel similarities in its reply consistent with my empirical comments above? *IT* even stresses the oft-mentioned suggestion from @Mooseman to "Conduct a Compression Test..." )

 

[Micha]

Hi again. Although a bumbling neophyte with my new OBD scanner, I tried to take some screen shots of monitored sensors. There are two sets of four, one at 5 seconds of recording and the other at 48 seconds. There is also a link to a .pdf file on the Ediag server. The lion icon is used by the browser BRAVE. I don't know if this will be useful fot you to look at. I thought that it would give you and others a larger picture of the cars running data.

 

[mrrsm]

*Bump*...Post #139... Added the *GPT4ALL* Reply Screen Prints above...

 

[Micha]

WOW, lots of 411 to digest and understand. First of all, thank you for your leads to potentially upgrade to a more GPT4ALL friendly PC. I will pursue this through Ebay although I must confess that I am hesitant to shop there due to the abhorrent shipping charges that accompany most "deals".

I am always up for a challenge. I will pick up some TEC from our local GM dealer. It will take me a couple of days to get my hands on a compression tester as I sold mine years ago. I DO have a couple of long ago retired mechanics in my circle of friends and acquaintances. I will reach out to them and see if a compression tester is available.. I have to set this up so that I can complete multiple tasks while I have the intercooler and what-not stripped off of the top of the motor.

I will keep you posted on the work done and the results of tests and findings. I am truly grateful and appreciative of your help in trying to figure this out. If all else fails I will have to park the Mazda and let my wife use the Envoy until I have enough $$$$ to take the car to a dealer. Local labour rates range from $160.00 to $200.00 per hour. (we are not poor, just living on our pension income).

Cheers and Many Thanks!
Mike

 

[Micha]

My apologies for my sudden departure from our dialogue about my wife's Mazda. We have been dealing with some turbulent issues that have shifted my priorities. My bride was suffering from a bad flare up of her Myasthenia Gravis disease and was having many urgent health and care needs. I had a friend (mechanic) do a compression test for me. the values he came up with is:
Cylinder 1 - 155
Cylinder 2 - 150
Cylinder 3 - 150
Cylinder 4 - 153
It seems that these compression values are in line with the given "normal" range. I will dive back into the motor the week and am going to try and borrow a borescope. I am picking up some GM TEC upper engine carbon cleaner tomorrow, fill the plug holes and see what kind of goo I can get out of the motor. Cheers!

 

[Micha]

Well Shoot! I thought that I had posted last week about the adventure with my wifes Mazda and I must have buggered up the sending or uploading. My wife has been very ill over the last couple of weeks and working on her car has been difficult to do.

Update - good news! I performed the GM/ACDelco TEC treatment per the instructions from mrrsm (thank you). The spooge that I sucked out of the cylinders was pretty nasty. I changed the oil again and spun on a new filter. The engine definitely ran more smoothly. I purchased and installed a pre cat and post cat O2 sensor and had those installed by a local garage. Once I got the car back home I cleared the DTC's and did a couple of restarts and short trips. The codes did not return nor did any new DTC codes pop up. I monitored the O2 sensors performance as well as the LTFT and STFT. The STFT had already dropped from >+25 to +7-9. After cleaning all of the carbon off of the dual exhaust pipes we took the car for an 80km jaunt on the highway at ~70MPH. The car performed extremely well and felt incredibly more powerful and responsive. For now, at least, the problems all seem to be resolved. I hope to become more versatile with the KINGBOLEN E-diag dongle and software so that I can continue to try and fix what issues I can.

Cheers and many thanks for the input and guidance. Mike

 

[mrrsm]

Great News, Mike! You are a rare Member to coma back with a "Full Report" that sustains the idea that the Primary Enemy of Aging Engines ...is Black Carbon Mung ...and that your use of ACDelco TEC (Top Engine Cleaner) is worth the time and effort to "Chase Away These Mis-Fire Gremlins".

Don't abandon us Mike... You have Good Mechanical Instincts, a Willingness to L&L (Listen and Learn) and follow things to their conclusions without complaining about the efforts needed to do so. Such Talents can contribute much to GMT Nation with the addition of your other ideas...albeit... perhaps in New Threads some time in the Future.

Hope your Spouse can recover soon and avoid relapsing as much as possible. Best Wishes for you BOTH.

 

[Mooseman]

Moved these posts to its own thread as they weren't related to AI. Please use THIS thread to update regarding using TEC in the Mazda.

 

[dhanger]

Well Shoot! I thought that I had posted last week about the adventure with my wifes Mazda and I must have buggered up the sending or uploading. My wife has been very ill over the last couple of weeks and working on her car has been difficult to do.

Update - good news! I performed the GM/ACDelco TEC treatment per the instructions from mrrsm (thank you). The spooge that I sucked out of the cylinders was pretty nasty. I changed the oil again and spun on a new filter. The engine definitely ran more smoothly. I purchased and installed a pre cat and post cat O2 sensor and had those installed by a local garage. Once I got the car back home I cleared the DTC's and did a couple of restarts and short trips. The codes did not return nor did any new DTC codes pop up. I monitored the O2 sensors performance as well as the LTFT and STFT. The STFT had already dropped from >+25 to +7-9. After cleaning all of the carbon off of the dual exhaust pipes we took the car for an 80km jaunt on the highway at ~70MPH. The car performed extremely well and felt incredibly more powerful and responsive. For now, at least, the problems all seem to be resolved. I hope to become more versatile with the KINGBOLEN E-diag dongle and software so that I can continue to try and fix what issues I can.

Cheers and many thanks for the input and guidance. Mike

Are you planning to do another compression test after this? Really curious if it makes much of a difference there. I'm planning the same procedure for my 2004 4.2 in a few months--I bought a couple cans of TEC a couple months back and was going to do it then while the weather was cooler but didn't get around to it so now I have to wait for Arizona h*ll to subside in a few months.