When I started my '97 Nissan, 4 cyl, pickup after six days of it sitting ilde, I heard some minor valve train noise.
Is there a SAFE product that will not materially change the oil viscosity, yet will eliminate this problem ?? TIA

 

All of the oil additives claim to help stop that for the most part, STP, Motor Honey, etc. Do you leave it sit for that many days very often?
Another alternative, if you're really paranoid abou it, would be to install a pre-oiler like one of these:

http://www.king-cart.com/cgi-bin/car...ct_match=exact

http://www.syntheticoilnlubes.com/amsoil_pre_oiler.html

 

did the noise go away? or stayed? six days is nothing.
i start my silverado every morning with tapping noise. normal for pushrod engines.
anyways, lifters probably needed pressure restoration. usually, it works itself out on warm engine.

the best product totally safe to use out there is Seafoam. i love it. you can use it in fuel tank, via air intake, brake booster line, or - ta-da! - via cranckcase. so far, this is the only product that i am aware of that you can add directly to cranckcase oil and DRIVE on it. my personal record is 2000 miles on ford ranger with it in oil.
i contacted the manuafcturer and reconfirmed with them. they explained to me that Seafoam is an oil based product, thus is totally safe to use in running engines under load.
i routinely use it for a week before oil changes. i just plan on oil change, then pour it into the cranckcase, and drive for a week, then change oil.

 

Are you using Nissan oil filter? If not, I'd try the Nissan oil filter first and see if it helps.

I second the SeaFoam.

 

Not much info on gassers, but I just changed my oil in my Cummins 5.9 24 valve diesel and added a quart of DuraLube. Just from driving it home, I could tell a little reduction in valve rattle. Of course it has 352,000 miles on it, so the break in period is over, almost. Lucas makes a good additive, as well.

 

yes, lucas is said to be a very good additive. but i think he's more in need of cleaning agent than lubricant.
it'll take a while to find it, but i came across a research done by some very meticulous DIYfer. he bought every single filter available on the market, cut it in a half, and gutted it. then he measured things like length/width/thickness of the filtrating element, quality of assembly, safety valves, etc, etc. he had pics of every gutted filter, with parts neatly spread on a clean rag. he had virtually every one i have ever seen and many i have never heard of. when i emailed him on k&n oil filter, he bought one too (they just came out) and gutted it either.
anyways, per his conclusion, best filter ever is not available in the usa, it's for japanese market only. 2nd best is mobile1, followed closely by k&n, with fram closing at the end and many filters being identical to fram, just under different brand names. pretty much, any autozone/walmart/advanced/ etc/etc filter is fram knockoff.
just fyi.
i'll keep preaching my mantra: if car does not take oil, switch to synthetics. amsoil or royal purple. will take care of tapping noises, lifters, squeaks, additives, and all that.

 

Sounds like you have gunk in your lifters. My son was working on a motor that had sat for a long time, the lifters were stuck and it ran like heck. We used Marvel Mystery Oil and it cleaned it right up.

I have heard good things about SeaFoam too, what the heck, the smoke show is worth it by itself. Go to UTube and search for SeaFoam for a preview.

I am also a big fan of BG MOA, but that is more after you get it clean. I witnessed a friend roll a 2.0 Chevy Cavalier up on it's side and it ran for almost an hour with no problems. BG is available from a BG dealer and some car dealerships.

I use Lucas in my street rod and have had no problems with it, just be sure to warm up your engine to get it out. The stuff is like snot when you put it in or try and get it out.

 

Problem with that is it is most BG products are Commercially based, and without an "Inside Connection" may be very difficult for the Joe Diy-er to obtain. If you can get it..yes it works very well.

 

I had an insider for years but I see it quite often in car dealerships

 

If your vehicle has hydraulic lifters then after sitting for several days older vehicles will have a tendency to bleed down on the lifters. Oil additives might clean away more than you want . A certain amount of crud will build up in an engine over time and will actually accumulate in worn areas as fill. The old timie way of loosening hydraulic lifters was reving the engine in park and dripping transmission fluid into engine through carb. Do not recommend . If it is idiling okay and running okay without roughness of hesitation and the sound will disappear after a few minutes and your oil pressure is okay leave well enough alone. If you will stop and listen with your hood up even after 24 hours you will hear some lifter tick. Nothing to worry about. Oopsy59

 

Ive been hearing that one for years, But it still baffles me.

Dripping fluid into the carb, never reaches the oiling passage in a lifter.... So I would assume revving the motor to death in neutral, without adding the fluid to the carb would accomplish the same thing....?????

Point blank, Dont rev the engine in park or neutral, since the lack of "Counterforce " from the driveline can easily send your motor off in pieces, and NEVER...EVER... put liquid anything into a combustion chamber.........

As long as the ticking dissipates after warm-up...Leave well enough alone.

Ive seen many V-8's that tick horribly after extended cranking.......Just the nature of the beast.....Not to worry.

 

The trans fluid does not reach the lifters. The theory behind all that was to loosen the valves. That is why I do not recommend. It seems rather ironic that putting trans fluid on your hogs will also keep away lice also It is a southern thing!. OOPSY 59

 

Certainly don't try that on a car with a catalytic converter. I'd imagine that the trans fluid would kill the converter pretty quickly.

Anyone who has torn down a dirty engine knows that they aren't easy to clean even when they are apart - much less together and running. I find it hard to believe that pouring trans fluid into a carb/throttle body or anything else into a crankcase would magically clean a dirty engine. Heck I usually clean valves with a wire wheel on a bench grinder and that sometimes takes a little time!

- Joe

 

ive used rislone as an oil additive alot of times to remove lifter or tappet noise and you would be surprised at how often it does actually work, within a week or 2 of driving but there is always a chance that it has a mechanical problem and no oil additive is going to help and may actually need some engine work done to correct the problem.

 

Here is something I am experimenting with, that so far seems to be working as expected:

With lifter or lash adjuster noise, and perhaps a missfire on a cylinder, in the morning after the vehicle sits say for 10 - 12 hours or so without being started, the lifter may bleed down - then tick like crazy, and possibly missfire for the first number of seconds, until oil pressure builds up enough to refill the hydraulic lifter or lash adjuster.

What I am doing is going out to the car before bed and running the car for just a number of seconds, to let COLD thicker oil refill the lash adjuster. So far, no ticking or missfiring in the morning.

 

Everyone has their own ideas on additives.

I'd just like to share a bit of experience with the readers. A number of years ago I was involved with the marketing of fuel/oil additives (the name shall be kept secret to protect the guilty) that purported to do this and that and the other (big claims the sum of which is too lengthy to list here) with test results produced by the manufacturer that were done at Southwest Labs in San Antonio.

My partners and I tried to market these high end products to refineries in three different countries, which required new tests at their own facilities to confirm the Southwest Labs results. Southwest Labs has an excellent reputation for their quality services for those of you that may not have heard of the institution. Every single refinery test found that the products tested had no effect whatsoever contrary to the manufacturer's claim. I suspect most (if not all others) do likewise which may be the reason that automakers print in their terms of warranty that additives are not necessary and will void your warranty if used in your engine.

Just imagine what teflon (used by some pricey oil additive manufacturers) will do to an engine! have you ever seen what it does in a non-stick frying pan?

So the lesson to be learned is - save your money, don't blow it on useless additives that may do nothing, or worse yet, do harm to your engine.

QC

 

Yes. It makes burned on food slide right off.

I presume you mean that it starts coming off, after a while? But if it did in the engine, wouldn't you at least have the slipperiness, like the fry pan, before it came off? Or are these additives known to start plugging up passageways or something?

................

Update: My experiment keeps on working. Did it again last night/this morning.

 

My point was not that it is in fact slippery for a little while, but rather that the teflon comes off in a hurry. In the frying pan it ends up in your food and in your stomach (and who knows where it goes from there). In the engine it would add crap to the oil (at the very least fouling the oil). Doesn't solid matter in the oil contribute to engine wear? Isn't that the reason we need to change the oil and filter regularly to get the solid crap out of the engine? So why put it in, in the first place?

The only place I know of that teflon is actually good for is on snow plows used on the front of railroad locomotives to prevent snow and ice from sticking to the plows. Of course, there may be others I don't know of, but frying pans and engine additives are not good applications for it.