Grand Prix "Take a Break" Thread

[BNaylor]

Originally Posted by olopezm

Bob, those akita's remind me when I was a child, we wanted a puppet and every time we went to the store to see which dogs they had, an akita would always scare the hell out of me LOL; in the end we got an Alaska Malamute.

Oscar,

Check this out from the U.S. CDC. The Akita just made the top 10 most dangerous dogs on their list but look whats above that breed. But on other lists published Akitas are not on them. The dog breed that scared me the most is the little Chihuahua. One bit me when I was kid and it hurt.

1) Pit bulls
2) Rottweilers
3) German Shepherds
4) Huskies
5) Alaskan Malamutes
6) Doberman Pinschers
7) Chow Chows
8) Great Danes
9) St. Bernards
10) Akitas

['97ventureowner]

Originally Posted by BNaylor

Oscar,

Check this out from the U.S. CDC. The Akita just made the top 10 most dangerous dogs on their list but look whats above that breed. But on other lists published Akitas are not on them. The dog breed that scared me the most is the little Chihuahua. One bit me when I was kid and it hurt.

1) Pit bulls
2) Rottweilers
3) German Shepherds
4) Huskies
5) Alaskan Malamutes
6) Doberman Pinschers
7) Chow Chows
8) Great Danes
9) St. Bernards
10) Akitas

LOL, I own 2 of those breeds and they are some of the most gentlest dogs I've owned. A lot of the dog's disposition is in how's it's raised and trained. Too many people do not take the time to train or train their dogs the wrong way so the whole breed gets the bad reputation.

[olopezm]

Originally Posted by BNaylor

Oscar,

Check this out from the U.S. CDC. The Akita just made the top 10 most dangerous dogs on their list but look whats above that breed. But on other lists published Akitas are not on them. The dog breed that scared me the most is the little Chihuahua. One bit me when I was kid and it hurt.

1) Pit bulls
2) Rottweilers
3) German Shepherds
4) Huskies
5) Alaskan Malamutes
6) Doberman Pinschers
7) Chow Chows
8) Great Danes
9) St. Bernards
10) Akitas

Damn!

I wouldn't ever thought that, my dog was so calm; even when I bought mine the akita and the malamute were side by side and the akita looked so mean and kept barking all the time and would always make me go crazy!

In the end I agree with 97ventureowner, it's all about how you train your dogs and how much you care for them, where I live I can hear dogs barking all the time and will go crazy with the smallest noise, and all because their owners won't walk them which is very sad, those dogs seem to be confined to a backyard. it actually pisses me off.

On the other hand I don't like Chihuahua's, those are ugly nervous dogs LOL. Just my point of view.

I wanted to ask you guys what do you do to remove carbon build up, I've read lots about seafoam and auto-rx. But those products cannot be found here, searching the internet further I found some people uses water in the same way as seafoam some even add some kerosene. What do you guys think about it? Do you think it's a good idea? Has anyone ever tried it?.

PS. Just for the record I never meant to say "puppet" the last time, what I really meant to say was PUPPY .

[BNaylor]

Originally Posted by olopezm

I wanted to ask you guys what do you do to remove carbon build up, I've read lots about seafoam and auto-rx. But those products cannot be found here, .

Do you have Walmarts or Autozones? Not sure about in Mexico but Seafoam top-end engine cleaner should be stocked. Thats where I get mine. Also, GM makes a good top-end cleaner and you may be able to get it at a GM dealership.

I'd be careful using homemade mixes on the engine.

[olopezm]

Originally Posted by BNaylor

Do you have Walmarts or Autozones? Not sure about in Mexico but Seafoam top-end engine cleaner should be stocked. Thats where I get mine. Also, GM makes a good top-end cleaner and you may be able to get it at a GM dealership.

I'd be careful using homemade mixes on the engine.

Yeah I know they are more likely to hydrolock any engine than any other product, that's why I wanted to ask first if someone has ever done it, last night I saw lots of posts in other pages saying they successfully used distilled water and I was like WTF!.

Yes there are both stores, I asked a guy at Autozone and he just kept staring at me, it was actually funny to see his face. Most of the times they think they know it all just because they work there. I'll go and check at Walmart, the last time I was there I only saw octane boosters, oil and injector cleaner maybe I didn't look enough.

I'm scared to even ask at the stealership, here things are 3 times the price over there, the last time they wanted about 800 dlls just in parts for the rear struts and mounts. Go figure...

Thanks Bob!

[BNaylor]

You're welcome Oscar. Nothing is cheap in Mexico anymore.

Heres the new stuff that replaced the old. GM part number is on the bottle.

[olopezm]

I'll go and ask the dealer next week. In the meantime I went to Walmart and Autozone, and I took some pictures of the best things I could find at Autozone, Walmart didn't have anything similar .

Have any of you guys ever used any of these or at least hear about them? I remember my dad used one can of "Gunk Motor Flush" a long time ago but I can't remember if it made any difference or not!

[tblake]

Maybe I missed it Oscar, but how did you want to use it? Were you going to suck it into a vacuum line and clean your motor that way? Or just fuel tank? Right now seafoam is on sale around here so I stocked up. 6.99 a can and that includes both the gasoline additive and the trans additive. It usually runs around 12.00 a can, so a steal of a deal.

[olopezm]

That's a great deal Tim.

Actually I need it for the Town Car but if you take a look over there you'll see that is nearly like a ghost town; I did a compression test a few months ago and the readings from some of the cylinders showed what seems to be stuck rings, a guy in that forum told me about seafoam and auto-RX, and that's why I've been looking for those or any other product that might help.

Other than possibly bad valve stem seals (due to a design problem) I would like to stay away from having to take apart the engine if I can.

Just like Bob said FORD = Found On Road Dead, and I'm almost convinced about it mostly with the windstar, the lincoln has been very reliable so far...

Anyway, in short terms it doesn't really matters if it has to be sucked via a vacuum line or added to the oil/fuel system; after all this time I guess I'll just end up ordering auto-rx from their webpage, those guys will ship internationally.

Anybody has any comments on it?

Thanks in advance.

[tblake]

Never used it so I can't say for sure. When you pulled the plugs on the TC, what did they look like? Carbon fouled? What were your compression results?

[olopezm]

Actually they weren't that bad, but the car had been sitting for a long time and I couldn't find out when was the last time my brother did a tuneup (and there's no way I could have asked him anyway...) so I decided to replace all of the usual stuff (plugs,wires,filters,oil, pcv valve); in fact the problems started after the tune up, after about a month I started noticing a blue puff when I started the engine every morning and that's why I decided to do the dry compression test and the results were:

Cylinder Stroke 1 Stroke 2 Stroke 3 Stroke 4
1 60 90 120 130
2 60 90 120 125
3 60 90 110 110
4 90 110 120 130
5 60 70 80 80
6 60 70 80 80
7 60 90 110 120
8 60 70 80 80

As you can see numbers 5,6 and 8 are low compared to the rest, I know there is some tolerance for lowest and highest values but I don't know how much percentage that should be.

[tblake]

Usually about 10% variance is acceptable. 80psi is on the low side. I would run the test again if I were you Oscar. Try and find a way to block the throttle open, and connect a battery charger. When doing a compression test, I usually don't stop at just 3-4 compression cycles. I usually do 6 strokes at minimum, and up to 8 strokes on V8's. Look for first stoke about half the final reading and all cylinders within 10% variance.

[olopezm]

Thanks Tim, I guess I'll give it a try after all there's nothing to lose and the car is not driveable at the moment, I managed to bend the steering pump pulley (don't ask LOL) last wednesday Had to learn the bad way...

[BNaylor]

Originally Posted by olopezm

Anyway, in short terms it doesn't really matters if it has to be sucked via a vacuum line or added to the oil/fuel system; after all this time I guess I'll just end up ordering auto-rx from their webpage, those guys will ship internationally.

Anybody has any comments on it?

Nope. Never used that brand before. Note for the top engine cleaner to be effective it has to be drawn into the intake system normally through a vacuum line or other fitting. Just make sure you have plenty of ventilation because it will be blowing lots of smoke out the exhaust while running the stuff through. When added to the gas tank it will clean the fuel injectors or TBI, whichever it has. But the best way to clean the intake system is manually after removing the components.

[BNaylor]

Hey guys just so you know this thread has been renamed to the "Take a Break" thread. We don't want it moved out of the Pontiac Grand Prix forum to some B.S. area of AF where many of us either do not venture to or hate to venture to.


"Birds of a Feather Flock Together" ...........

If anyone has a better suggestion what to name the thread please let me know.