horsepower losses?

[sho4life]

I have a 130k engine that burns some oil. It has been sat for a few years and it seems to be getting better. I havent tried auto-rx yet but did pour Seafoam in the gas, intake and oil. Someone stated that it will eat away at the valve stem seals. I'm going to do an oil change today with some high mileage oil and hopefully that may help. But as for having gunk, carbon and not doing the valve adjustment will lose approzimately how much horsepower?

 

[shobote]

130k is low mileage for these motors. If you have owned it and changed the oil regularly, it shouldn't have gunk built up. Are you sure it is burning oil, and not losing it through rear main seal, cam seal..? My 1st valve adj. was at 125k and just a few were off a little bit, but it did make a difference, and there was no carbon or deposit build up at all under the valve covers.

 

[AREA 91]

I have a 130k engine that burns some oil. It has been sat for a few years and it seems to be getting better. I havent tried auto-rx yet but did pour Seafoam in the gas, intake and oil. Someone stated that it will eat away at the valve stem seals. I'm going to do an oil change today with some high mileage oil and hopefully that may help. But as for having gunk, carbon and not doing the valve adjustment will lose approzimately how much horsepower?

This is a hard question to answer, as every engine is different.
It's pretty rare to have the valves way out of adjustment. We are talking a few throusandths here.
In my opnion, cleaning the intake and head ports can make a definate difference in how the car runs. I have seen some pretty nasty carbon/oil build up in these engines. A catch can or filter's installed can really help keep the gunk out.

As far as power loss, it can definately rob a few. You just don't notice it because it happens over time.

 

[zak]

130k is low mileage for these motors. .

These engines are getting old, the youngest V6s are 15 years old this year. This age alone can cause the valve seals to shrink and no longer seal well, thus the oil burning issue. If it sat awhile as indicated maybe the rings got gummed up and are no longer sealing..

I would be curous of autorx helps this situation.

At the OP, does it smoke or smell like oil smoke on cold start up?