Technical Liquid Wrench in crank case oil?

We have a big production car race here in Australia called the Bathurst 1000 every year.
Many years ago some teams were suffering poor ring seal towards the end of the race so they poured Bon Ami down the carb while revving the engine ...... it must have worked because the smoke went away and they finished the 1000 km race.
Probably not appropriate for a daily driver though as the abrasive would imbed itself into the piston skirt and continue to hone the bore ...... longitudinally.

 

I have dumped plenty of Bar Keepers Friend into the intake of a fresh diesel overhaul , seats the rings almost instantly , Cat overhaul kits came with a box of 20 Mule Teem just for this purpose , years ago . I need to try this on my old Harleys . Only thing is if rings seat , I could never start the cantankerous bastards !

 

As a kid I watched my Dad pour some unusual stuff into his well used engines. He used to slowly pour water down the carburetor while holding the rpms up. It was supposed to help reduce carbon buildup. He also used “top oil” poured through the carb, Bardahl or Alemite (?). Being a typical kid, I liked the big clouds of steam or smoke.
When it was time to change the oil, he would add Motor Flush or (usually) paint thinner to the oil and warm the engine up thoroughly before draining it. He always drove low dollar beaters while Mom drove something much newer and nicer but he got a lot of miles out of each one.

 

Bought a well used pickup for the farm back in the 80's. Changed the oil first thing, pretty black. Filled it with diesel engine oil, 15-40, which we had in bulk for the tractors, and used in everthing. It must have been high detergent because next oil change when I pulled the drain plug nothing came out. Had to poke a nail in the drain plug hole to get through the gunk before the oil and a lot of black goo came out. Surprisingly that engine ran pretty good for several years after that.
B

 

Wasn't Bon Ami the ingredient of choice for bedding in the rings on Caterpillar engines?

 

And the infamous service bulletin Chevy sent to the dealers in '55. Often mentioned, never seen. Must have come with instructions to burn it.

Surprising that over the years non of the additive companies came out with a 'Ring Seating Powder'.

 

I heard it was a real thing with Caterpiller after they introduced hard chrome rings or somesuch and were having problems. Bon-Ami only, and it had a Cat part #. So the story goes:

Caterpillar Part No.7F5225 Break-in Powder [Bon Ami]

Caterpillar Serviceman's Reference Book for Diesel Engines (5 3/4" BORE 4-CYLINDER) D8800 Industrial, D8800 Electric Set, D8800 Marine, and D7 Tractor.

http://www.yesterdaystractors.com/cgi-b ... th=1262344

 

As a young kid, I couldn't find any oil for my bicycle chain. Dad had some liquid wrench on the shelf, so I tried that. Locked the chain right up until I got some oil back on there.
So I guess I'd say no.

 

I think a lot lot of what we are reading was because of non detergent oils years ago (40-50’s). Engines with solid lifters were said it was not needed and since detergent oils were more expensive they were not used. I know my mothers cars never got near operating temp long enough to get rid of condensation and oil changes were not done often enough.
Had my dad used detergent oil his YBlocks would have seen more miles between overhauls. He did have a friend that never had any problems with wearing engines and I learned he used 1 qt of ATF with every change and never went over 2000 miles on a change.
I believe oil filters were every other change also.
Oil blends today are way better for what they do. We with older engines screwed a round with zinc levels until oil companies found out there was and “old engine need” and gave use some good oils today.
I learned in my OT 2018 5.0 that the recommended oil actually cause use of oil and was involved in 2 Factory authorized tests just barely passing. An minor oil weight change stopped the use problem and all is good.

 

Someone said eggnog, Are we supposed to use eggnog on the crank case? I mix mine with fireball, do we think this would help???

 

I've probably rebuilt 100 engines from IH, Cummins, Deutz and others. Received OEM training from the same. I NEVER saw any 20 Mule Team or Bon Ami or and Comet or Ajax either in any overhaul kit. NEVER any mention of such a deed from ANY OEM trainer, nor in ANY manual or bulletin. I would've had my Service Manager's boot up my ass if I did that.

Sometimes this place is nuts. STP on bearings, Liquid Wrench in the crankcase, powdered cleanser down the intake. Where the fuck does all this crazy shit come from? Unfuckingbelievable!

 

Oh, and I forgot about the detergent & water in the crankcase to clean the inside of the engine!!!! Insane!

 

^^^ Can't speak to the rest of it, but the Bon Ami treatment is real: my late brother-in-law was the Northwest Regional (WA, OR, ID, MT) factory service manager for Chrysler for 25+ years, until his retirement. He told me it was the factory recommended 'last ditch effort' for seating rings in new engines, and he never had a failure in all the times he used it. It was used and WORKED on everything from slant sixes to hemi's, 413s, 440 magnums, etc. I don't know how it was dispensed, whether it was sprinkled in dry or mixed with something, but it WAS the factory cure!

 

You're way too young, that's why. The past is a different country.

 

I’m guessing , in the ‘40s and ‘50s it came from the local bar or barbershop conversations. Like “boiling out” a carburetor. My uncle Paul, not much of a mechanic, called my Dad and asked how long you’re supposed to boil a carburetor. Figuring that Uncle Paul was in over his head and would need help, my Dad arrived to find him in the kitchen with the carburetor from his ‘46 Merc in a pot on the stove. Dad was amazed that he managed to get the carburetor off without having any real tools.

 

I use Snake Oil Brand whenever I have a squeaky snake. They have been selling it since before they knew how to write stuff down so 74 billion customers can't be wrong. Right?

 

like everyone , ive heard that bon ami story my whole life. i always heard it was for the first 265 sbc but i guess you can ad your own twist . the water down the carb is real . dosnt some one make water injection ? iv sure pulled more than one head with a very clean cylinder !

 

I've seen ads from the 60's for water injection systems to keep the combustion chambers clean. Some dark corner of my brain implies it was meant for Saab twostrokes.

Present day water injection systems tend to be meant for performance instead, as injecting a small (carefully regulated) amount of water at full throttle slows & cools down the combustion, making the engine behave as if it's using a slightly higher octane rating, i.e. you can run higher compression/more boost on cheap low octane fuel. Too much water costs power, so it's important to get it right. A spray nozzle and a windshield washer pump triggered with a switch at wide open throttle is NOT suitable.

Methanol or toluol injection can be used with similar results. Methanol is less sensitive when it comes to the right amount, so that's plrobably what you want if you go for the most basic system.

 

ive always mixed 4 tbs. #30 grit sand mixed in a qt . of 30 wt. to the oil of new mtrs. . it embeds in the bearings and makes a very hard surface that is stronger than the steel . never failed me yet . try it !

 

When I was a kid and dad would buy some old high mileage beater that ran rough I remember him giving it a good tune up, rebuild carb and if it still ran rough then out would come a glass of water, Rev it up and down the carb with the water. A couple days later a little bit of atf down the carb. Seemed that just about all of them ran better.

Dad said the water turned to high heat steam to knock the carbon off the top of the pistons and valve faces and seats. Did it work? Don't know for sure but most ran better and never lost an engine in any car we owned. Infact a couple weeks after doing an old 318 dodge car we drove it from Kansas to Orlando Florida and back with the trip back a straight thru drive non stop. Old car had a lot of miles before we left and alot more by the time we got back. Drove it 3 more years before he replaced it.

 

I still have an Edelbrock Vari-jection I bought in HS and never used it. My recollection was it was supposed to cool the CC temps and stop pinging and it allow more advance. Dunno, never used it

Last time I did the “pour water in it” was maybe 15 years ago, OT Chevy V8 with TBI. Picked the car up as an”gross polluter”. After normal maintenance, still high on smog check. 4 Campells soup cans of water later it passed smog.
Related or luck? Dunno

 

My Bon Ami story that was passed along to me was that it was used by old school NASCAR teams that needed a fresh engine right away with no waiting.

 

MAYBE.........

 

There is a whole bunch of armchair engineering on this thread from people with zero experience or knowledge about the subject.....

I can say that I added a 1/2 quart of kerosene at every oil change (every 1500 miles) in my '56 Ford 312 engine. Ran the engine for about 15 minutes with no load. Drained and filled with new oil, and filter. Started this at about 20K miles on the clock to make sure the upper oil galley would stay open for rocker arm lube. I ran the clock up to 200K miles, towing my '60 'Vette up and down the East coast. The engine at 200K miles was as quiet as the day I bought it. Sold it to a guy who put it in his fishing boat.....never had any issues with it.

 

why not throw your laundry in there and kill two birds with one wash, maybe even cook your dinner on the manifold that would be three birds.

 

Haven't cooked dinner, but have heated grilled ham and cheese sandwiches wrapped in tin foil by placing them on the manifold. 50 miles was about the right heat time. Varied though with outside temps.

 

I have tried the acetone/atf mix to try to free some engines, 8 to be exact. It didn't do anything for 7 of them, stuck the 1 that was slightly free but I got it free after some work. Maybe I should try Bon Ami? I swear you got to have the right color socks on for some concoctions to work..

 

As we are veering off topic…do you recall ads for devices that attached on the engine somewhere (assume exhaust manifolds) and touted along the lines of “cook your meal as you drive”. ?

 

id never try it , but seems like a small amount of dawn in the oil could have some positive effect ? soap is slick and detergent is ggease solvent . one of yall should give it a shot !

 

Back when I started wrenching my boss believed in adding “ Esentulube” down the carburetor! Talk about smoke! It seemed to help some engines….some not so much!
One thing I always did before I overhauled an engine was to get it hot, operating temp, and pour several coke bottles of water into the carburetor fairly fast, while keeping the engine running at a moderate speed.
When I would tear the engine down, the tops of the pistons and the combustion chambers would usually be very clean!
I wouldn’t recommend it for an engine that you are not going to tear down, as all the carbon has to go somewhere and that would be through the exhaust valve! I’m sure it would catch some of those pieces of carbon! Leading to a burnt valve.






Bones