I am looking forward to the possible litany of rebuttals, nonetheless I will make a case for my side of this discussion by asking a simple question.

What do you believe is actually being physically "cleaned" by adding a liquid to an air space for a very brief amount of time? I.e. induction cleaning...

As for adding detergents or petroleum based solvents to a gas tank or oil sump, the difference is somewhat obvious. In these applications you are creating a new solution which has far more time to act against varnish or burnt (sludge) oil. When you add to the gas tank you are passing that fuel / detergent solution over the deposits continuously over a prolonged period... 20+ gallons worth and tens of thousands of injector pulses under high pressure.

It's the same story when adding solvents to oil. Have you ever found that the best way to clean or remove oil stains, deposits or varnish is by using another petroleum product like Diesel? Like they say at the Seafoam site, what you are doing in this case is re-"liquifying" the oil / carbon deposits. Again, this is taking place over a long period of time (hundreds of miles) and under vigorous and agitated conditions. Shortly after adding treatments to the oil you need to change the oil because it has accumulated all that burnt petroleum residue.

When you merely suck the liquid solvent into the plenum chamber the Seafoam or 44K or whatever barely has time to do much substantive cleaning before being vaporized (hopefully), compressed, burned and expelled through the exhaust... much to the delight of your neighbors. If anyone cares to perform their very own experiment go ahead and suck up a can of seafoam and do that induction cleaning the way it has been described by others. Then pull the plenum, stacks, intake manifold and heads... you WILL see that not much has been done and you WILL still need to actually get in there and scrub-a-dub...

 

I think you are on to something here...

 

Stop talking to me like I know anything. Actually thanks but I don't really. I think I'm a good example of a guy completely new to this who has learned most everything I do know from this site. It's ok, I think I'm pretty good in other things in life so I can deal with being a newbie on this subject. It's like learning a language but the teacher not speaking your mother tongue....a lot goes over your head. Also there are a lot of differing opinions. I try and use my other skills to sort through them. SO, because you took the time to explain, i get:

"induction" - useless
"gas tank" - good
"oil", - say a day before a change - good

sincerely, thanks.

 

and......bro I hope so! i'll report back on it in a few days. by the way, this is the first 4 wheel vehicle i have ever owned and i hope to have it forever. the only other one is the D2. so basically that's maybe why i really enjoy learning about this stuff and doing it all myself.

 

Do you need to have your car induction cleaned professionally, or can you use one of the off-the-shelf cleaners?

Most off-the-shelf fuel system cleaners aren't effective enough to clean the fuel system properly. In fact, in many cases those cleaners can cause more damage than they correct.
Take a look at the label. Most fuel system cleaners offered to the DIY market use a base of kerosene, alcohol, methanol, acetone or ketones. These are highly flammable, highly caustic cleaners, which cause one of two specific problems:

• The cleaner's high flammability causes it to burn up long before it can become effective in the combustion chamber. This not only reduces its effectiveness, but also can create additional deposits, compounding the original problem.
• The caustic nature of these cleaners can damage the fine electronics, seals and coatings in many of today's injection systems.

Take the info for what it's worth...could be good ammo from service shops, but full of bull, or could be reality. Only you can decide.

 

stir the pot or confuse the issue....

chris-bro....are you referring to cleaning the outside of the truck. haven't tried that yet.

but, i just got a variable speed polisher that i'm gonna compound the hell out of it once i get around to figuring out how to use it and first fixing the roof rust.

 

LOL...I fixed it. Thanks for pointing that out for me. I need to do the same to my paint.

 

Perhaps the Seafoam could free up some of the gunk in your piston rings, allowing them to lubricate the walls better, but I don't think that has anything to do with your sound. Seafoam is much to thin to be an engine lubricant.

The sound you are describing seems like exhaust manifold gaskets, or a cracked exhaust manifold to me. As the manifold heats up, it will expand, closing up small gaps. Mine has a similar tick when the engine is cold and it took me several months to figure out it's just a gasket. Replaced the gasket and the sound went away for a while. Now it's back. I should probably tighten up my manifold bolts.

Granted, I do have a knock in the bottom end, I think at least one of my crank bearings is bad. But I had to use a scope to hear that the first time, I can only hear it now because I know what I'm listening for.

 

slangin Im right there with you brother. Brand new to the LR's, madly in love with my Disco and trying to soak up as much learnin from this site as possible

 

MB, im gonna put that on my list of possibilities. sounded really good today so we'll see. it's sounded its worst by the way at the end of an hour trip so the expanding and filling the crack concept doesn't apply here even if it is a crack in the manifold.

thanks filbs. actually i've had the truck since 2000 but I didn't have the interest or confidence to do anything myself until this past year. i let her go badly but I've been trying to make it up to her over the last year. I've had the D2 for a couple years and my wife has been taking her apart faster than I can put her back together.