Another P0011 and P0021 thread

[brickbox]

As the title states, I got P0011 and P0021 yesterday. This was about 100 miles after getting the VCGs, spark plugs and the PCV replaced. The passenger side VCG had been leaking pretty badly.
Cleared it and didnt get SES until about 70 miles later. This time only P0021.

1. Is it safe to drive the car as is this weekend? (about 350 miles between my commute and the short weekend trip I have)
2. Could there be something related to the work that was done on the car (listed above) that could be causing this code?

I have about 4,000 miles on the engine oil and was shooting to change it at 5,000 miles (per owner's manual) since 85-90% of my drive cycle is highway driving. As of today morning, I am about 2 short on the dipstick. Oil smells fine.

[Rockwood]

Quick answer: Yes, they may have knocked some dirt / junk loose in the heads when they pulled the valve covers. There is a sprocket assembly in the passenger side head that may have some dirt in it and be sticking.

For driving: In severe cases, you can have hard or no start, bad idle, poor performance. Since your codes took a while to come back, it may be a minor case.

The first thing they will tell you is to change the oil / filter to fix it. Try some high mileage oil - it has some more additives which may help.

Try pouring a half can of Seafoam (Advance auto or Walmart) in it, and run for 100 miles before you change oil. I would also make sure you are not more than a quart low on oil.

How many miles on it?

[brickbox]

Yeah there was quite a bit of dirt in the engine bay because the PO lived on a dirt/gravel road and my commute has about 3 miles on dirt road on it.

It's currently got the Valvoline high mileage/synthetic blend 5w30 in it. Can I run the sea foam about 250 miles before I change the oil? Pour directly into the filler cap? (Haven't ever used seafoam before).

The oil is now at 4,200 miles. Car itself ticked over 154k miles yesterday. How far does a quart measure on the dipstick? Trying to understand where the 2mm falls in reference....

[Rockwood]

I think they actually say 100 to 300 miles, then change the oil, on their website. Oil should be ok if you are close to the full mark!

These engines do 250k if you take decent care of them, so you have some miles left.

[brickbox]

Reaching 250k miles means I got about 3 more years on the car Perfect! That is assuming none of the rust takes it out....
I will add some seafoam today on the way back and let it run over the weekend. Maybe that clears the code out.

[brickbox]

Quick answer: Yes, they may have knocked some dirt / junk loose in the heads when they pulled the valve covers. There is a sprocket assembly in the passenger side head that may have some dirt in it and be sticking.

For driving: In severe cases, you can have hard or no start, bad idle, poor performance. Since your codes took a while to come back, it may be a minor case.

The first thing they will tell you is to change the oil / filter to fix it. Try some high mileage oil - it has some more additives which may help.

Try pouring a half can of Seafoam (Advance auto or Walmart) in it, and run for 100 miles before you change oil. I would also make sure you are not more than a quart low on oil.

How many miles on it?

So I ran the half can sea foam for about 300 miles. I got the SES light after the first 2 drive cycles. I reset it and its been gone now for about 200 miles. I should have the oil changed out today or tomorrow.
But thrilled that the sea foam was able to clear things out!