1MZ-FE V6 no symptoms should I seafoam TB anyways

[tacosteelersman]

My parents 96 Avalon with the 1MZ-FE with 165,000 miles runs great and gets very good gas mileage. Should I seafoam the TB for maintence reasons, or should I leave well enough alone untill some symptoms appear?? Can I use seafoam in the tank and have good results on an already good running engine with no bad side effects?? Thanks to all contributers on TOYOTA NATION you folks are the best...

[AlmightyCamry777]

Yes and no. I have a 2002 with the same engine. I clean inside the throttle body and butterfly about every 30,000 miles, and sometime i even remove the square bolt at the other end of the plenum, and spray some seafoam through that. and that seems to be good enough (131,000 miles).

I know some people seafoam their engine by pouring the raw seafoam into the engine and it seems to work for them. Personally i am not a big fan of dumping any liquid into the engine through the brake booster hose. The engine is not really designed to burn anything but fuel vapor and dumping liquid into the combustion chamber seems to me, little more than asking for trouble. If one or more of the combustion chambers on a running engine fills up with liquid seafoam, then slams the piston home on that, the resultant pressure could concievably break the piston.
I know some people seafoam their engine like this and have no problems - i am not going to do it to my engine though.

[hill8570]

+1 to Almighty's post

Cleaning the TB, butterfly valve, and IAC is good preventative maintenance. Don't necessarily have to use Seafoam -- I just use regular ol' throttle body cleaner. Dumping mass quantities of Seafoam (or anything else) into your throttle body is a questionable practice, either for maintenance or as a "shotgun troubleshooting" tactic. As long as you're running a Tier 1 gas through your engine, I doubt that dumping a detergent into your gas has any value, although it's unlikely to hurt anything other than your wallet.

[chronoti]

i do it, you be surprised what builds up.

[darksparkz]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

That's an option, but if you do decide to use it, I'd say just use it in the brake booster hose and the gas tank, not into the crankcase, which can do the whole 'loosening the sludge that holds your engine together' theory.

[AlmightyCamry777]

Originally Posted by chronoti

i do it, you be surprised what builds up.

In alot of ways its probably a very good idea to burn this crud out, because the 1FMZE engine is very prone to sludging and dirt inside due to improper design of the PCV system. (Some people even plumb in a cheap clear plastic fuel filter into the pcv line, to catch the dirty oil vapors and this is a great idea.)
I think if i were going the seafoam-through-the-brake-hose route, i would use the aerosol spray through the hose, and not the liquid - or at least i would use a plastic spray bottle from the 99 cents store - anything but raw seafoam.

[tacosteelersman]

Thanks to all responders, their 96 is just before the sludge monsters it has the 95 valve cover and PCV design, no sludge to be found in this engine.. Any TN ers out there use a proper TB cleaner and had bad results on engine performance?? Or have a piece of crud move from a non harmfull spot to a harmfull spot and plug something up??Thanks again to TN users..

[zppeacock]

Originally Posted by chronoti

i do it, you be surprised what builds up.

Correct, I have seafoamed many cars threw the brake booster line with raw seafoam. Your only supposed to suck 1/3 of the can in threw the booster. That little amount wont hurt anything and cleans really well.

[73sport]

Slightly different/sorta the same. . .

Just my 2 cents. In the US they switch fuels to those containing methonal in the winter which are prone to sucking up moisture.

I run about 3 bottles of TECHRON sold at Chevron through my cars throughout winter to clean the injecters and pull some of the residual moisture out of the fuel system. Never been a fan of seafoam, but have used this for decades (did I say that) and never had a problem.

Something to think about:
Each time you turn the engine off, combustion gasses from the cylinders with valves open flood the intake with oils, carbon, unburned fuel, and burned fuel. This stuff clings to the intake system, injectors, t/v ect over time. It took time to get there and it'll take time to leave. Just try not to remove it all out at once as thats when bad things happen!

Moderation is the key . .

[AlmightyCamry777]

Originally Posted by tacosteelersman

Thanks to all responders, their 96 is just before the sludge monsters it has the 95 valve cover and PCV design, no sludge to be found in this engine.. Any TN ers out there use a proper TB cleaner and had bad results on engine performance?? Or have a piece of crud move from a non harmfull spot to a harmfull spot and plug something up??Thanks again to TN users..

Have i got a story for you, i think i will do a seperate post...SLUDGE MONSTER!
My my new (future ex-)girlfriend has a 2001 Toyota Sienna with the 1FMZE and she did not maintain it at all. I changed the oil for her and while she drove it home, the engine started smoking like crazy! She freaked, had the car towed, and she had the machanic talk to me.

He told me the engine oil pressure fluctuated from 60 lb at start up to zero at 3,000 rpm! (He knew about the sludge issue and i think he could tell i knew what he was talking about.) He said they had to pull the oil pan, clean the sludge, clean the oil pump strainer, and get out all the sludge they could and hopefully the engine would come back to life for a while. He then handed her the phone and i told her she should have them do it because it made sense - the engine was so sludged i could actually see it through the oil filler hole when i changed her oil!

So they took a day to fix it and cost her like $400, which was fair. and even though the mechanic told her my changing the oil just brought on the inevitable, but now she won't let me work on her car anymore (boo hoo ).

I have a 2002 V6 and i change that frikken' oil every 2500.

[zppeacock]

Originally Posted by AlmightyCamry777

I have a 2002 V6 and i change that frikken' oil every 2500.

I bought my 94 v6 with 112k on it, no history. Ive been changing the oil every 2k with mobile 1 and the valve cover is starting to clean up.

[tacosteelersman]

Well here is my conclusion. In moderation seafoam or other sensor safe TB cleaner sprayed directally into the TB is a good maintence decision.. Also seafoam through the brake booster when used as directed will also have no ill effects when used as a maintence item.. Does anybody disagree with these statements??

[LynchburgCSI]

Just do it. Stuff builds up, end of story.