would it make sense for me to add K-seal or similar product to my jeep (about 190,000 mi) as a preventative measure to give my head gasket a few extra years?
I don t want to do this if it will damage other parts of my engine because it seems in good shape, but I do worry about my head gasket going soon. it seems about that time in the jeeps life.
I am working on getting this jeep ship shape and I have a good solid , well taken care of jeep to work with.
I bought brake shoes, valve cover gasket, transmission filter today, and ordered wheel well inserts to prevent rusting issues.
A gasket sealer for a non-blown gasket sounds like a dangerous proposition. If the sealer cannot find a breach, what will it find to seal? The coolant passages. Leading to persistent overheat issues.
A great many 4.0L Jeep engines have passed by me requiring various repairs and only 1 had a leaking head gasket. That gasket failure was quite obvious as was the cause. Head gasket failures seem rare on that engine. And I would strongly suggest not adding such a product as preventative maintenance on any engine. The radiator on your Jeep is just barely adequate to keep the engine cool when idling at summer temperatures when the flues are flowing freely. A dose of sealer will plug the radiator from the bottom up and eventually result in overheating and something failing.
I would never add any additive to the Engine, Trans, or Transfer case, if I didn’t have a problem that I was hoping it would fix.
I never have had luck with additives, except once in a steering rack that leaked.
But even that success was short lived when the next time I had a slow leak in a rack and I used the same stuff…it turned it from a slow leak to a gusher.
But it was worth the try.
I know a guy that had low oil pressure and he added 4 cans of STP oil treatment…the stuffs as thick as honey and within 100 miles he spun a bearing. I think it slowed the flow of oil back to the pan that he starved the bearings of oil.
Oh his oil pressure did go up!!!
Interesting post, Yosemite. The additive did what the label said it would. And then the “law of unintended consequences” took over. That’s the one law of physics that nobody has figured out how to counter. And nobody ever will. We can deal with inertia, we can deal with all the thermodynamics laws, but the one we can’t get around is the Law of Unintended Consequences.
And that’s one of the reasons I don’t like additives.
Yeah, I know, it isn’t anywhere in the physics texts… but maybe it should be. {
I was always a big supporter of Lucas oil treatment. Seemed to reduce engine noise and treated me fine. That was for my mustang I put on at least 100k on myself after being bought at 70k. When I had to replace the oil pan gasket, the internals looked like new. But in effort to be cheap, I stopped using it on oil changes for my truck.
There is no “time” for head gasket failure. I have had to replace 2 head gaskets in 62 years of driving and both times it was because I had waaay over revved a solid lifter engine.
When I traded my Riviera it had 530,000 miles on it and the engine had never been opened up. I did replace the oil pan gasket but it never leaked oil other than that. I used the regular Mobil oil and not the high mileage stuff. I’ve never used high mileage oil in any of my cars.
It was the 89 Riv. with the 3800 V6. At about 300,000 I had the transmission overhauled just because I was driving all over the state and didn’t want to have a break down. They said it didn’t look that bad. Mostly highway miles. I was the 2nd owner and bought it at about 100K on it about 4 years old. Not a scratch on it. I really liked that car but it developed stalling problems that no one could find so it was time to say good bye.
I had an 86 Riv. too that I actually liked better. Only put 350K on that one though. Never did any trans work on that one and the only engine work was a timing chain and gear set at around 250K. Had the touch screen and was getting hard to find parts. When my screen went blank, before I could find another one, I actually got by just touching the screen in the right places from memory. Sold it for $50 with a full tank of gas, new battery, and a wax and polish to help someone out. Of course I have pages of maintenance and repair history and am really tired of working on cars so I like a warranty now. When you drive 40-50K a year though you do what you have to do.
