Using Sea Foam

[XfireZ51]

Just bought some Sea Foam to help clean out the valves. How does anyone use it?
Fuel tank, spray into plenum? I've previously used Marvel Mystery oil in fuel and oil.

[KILLSHOTS]

I ran a can through my '87 once. Just added it to the fuel tank. Seemed to smooth out the idle on that car a bit, if I remember correctly.

[mike100]

I helped somebody use it on a 25 year old clunker once. We fogged the running engine through the brake booster vacuum hose. turned the engine off while still spraying and let it soak for a few minutes. Restarted car and rid my block of mosquitoes.

I've heard some people also mix it in with oil, but I wouldn't ever put a solvent in the crankcase. The method reminded me of fogging my jet-ski two stroke with oil to displace the water after running it. Can't be great for the catalysts and I'm not even sure I'd run the same spark plugs after either. It probably does a decent job on intake valve deposits, but then so does bg-44 type fuel injection treatment.

for the crankcase, the best snake-oil product i have ever run into (that isn't a solvent) is the product by AutoRx.

[WVZR-1]

When used with older carbed engines I would think you would use it like the old GM Top Engine Cleaner and pour to stall, let soak and run balance through with a fast idle maybe like Mike mentions.


With an "injected engine" I would think you might use it like an injector cleaner and use it from a reservoir connected to the fuel rails and disable the fuel pumps. I don't know how you would duplicate the "soak" that we used to do.

If you know someone that has a BG injector cleaner system or any other remote reservoir system (I've used a GM system but years ago) I would think it might work well.

Does Seafoam maybe have a FAQ section that mentions a "how to" for injected engines? I haven't looked but might.

[LGAFF]

CRC has a dedicated product for it due to the issues with Direct Injection cars. I used it and some Berrymans and picked up 10PSI of compression on a few cylinders.

http://crcindustries.com/auto/intake-valve-cleaner.php

[Billy Mild]

I have used seafoam on a lot other cars. It does seem to make a difference. What I recommend is letting the car sit for longer than a few minutes. Chrylser came out with a procedure for their combustion cleaner. It is like seafoam but a bit more concentrated.

1. Run the car to get it fully warmed up
2. Take off a vacuum hose and run the combustion cleaner through the engine
3. Shut off the car or let it die out from running the cleaner
4. let the car **** for 4 hours
5. Start the car and proceed to drive on the freeway make sure to get a lot of WOT runs until the exhaust is cleared out.

Your idle should be a little smoother. I have thought about running it in the ZR-1 to help clean the secondaires out.

[Hog]

I would use these types of cleaners towards the end of your oil change period.
The only way I personally would add this to the oil, would be to add some and let the engine idle with no revving, and certainly no engine load, followed by an immediate oil change.

[Hog]

CRC has a dedicated product for it due to the issues with Direct Injection cars. I used it and some Berrymans and picked up 10PSI of compression on a few cylinders.

http://crcindustries.com/auto/intake-valve-cleaner.php

That makes sense esp. on DI vehicles due to teh fact that they no longer have port fuel injectors cleaning the valves anymore. Akin to a stock LT5 that never sees seconday injector/throttle activation.
Thats a nice boost in compression pressure for sure. Do you think this would help with carboned up piston rings?

Ive seen some Audi owners add methanol injection in order to gain power and keep their DI engines clean.

[Schrade]

In my opinion, it's Snake Oil.

Only snake oil that I ever saw that worked, is Trans-X. It saved me from a $900 tranny rebuild, by swelling the latex seals in the valve bodies of a Ford automatic. That stuff seems to integrate into molecular structure of rubber, and swell it uniformly.

Saw it do the same thing to new rubber LT1 valve cover gaskets, so much so, that they were almost too big.

Not to say that other snake oils don't work, but I've never seen another. And I did all maintenance / fluid changes on my delivery fleet for 20 years.

[pantera1683]

I have used it every year in May for the last three years in preparation for emissions testing. Last week I pulled my plenum to replace my starter and discovered all 16 holes inside my lower intake housing look very clean. I think it works pretty well.

[LGAFF]

I was talking with Marc once, he had a car in with no compression on one cylinder....was there for a rebuild. Turned out carbon was preventing the valve from closing, I saw that on the Vette Dr build. Leak down improved about using brake clean on a few valves

[ZRXMAX]

In my opinion, it's Snake Oil.

Only snake oil that I ever saw that worked, is Trans-X. It saved me from a $900 tranny rebuild, by swelling the latex seals in the valve bodies of a Ford automatic. That stuff seems to integrate into molecular structure of rubber, and swell it uniformly.

Saw it do the same thing to new rubber LT1 valve cover gaskets, so much so, that they were almost too big.

Not to say that other snake oils don't work, but I've never seen another. And I did all maintenance / fluid changes on my delivery fleet for 20 years.

I can understand your skeptisim. I just went through several cans of Seafoam on a LT5. It went from zero to 210 with much effort. I made a vacuum set up so I could run the motor and trickle it in at 2000 rpm or close to it. Then you dump a bunch and kill the motor. Let it sit for about 10 minutes then start it up and run it hard once underway. Wow ! Talk about fogging for mosquitoes. I also ran water through it while running it at high idle. The steam caused by combustion really makes things turbulent around the exhaust valves. We actually brought the motor all the way back and it runs like a champ now. We were getting close to pulling the heads off.. We got Lucky!

[Ccmano]

I helped somebody use it on a 25 year old clunker once. We fogged the running engine through the brake booster vacuum hose. turned the engine off while still spraying and let it soak for a few minutes. Restarted car and rid my block of mosquitoes.

I've heard some people also mix it in with oil, but I wouldn't ever put a solvent in the crankcase. The method reminded me of fogging my jet-ski two stroke with oil to displace the water after running it. Can't be great for the catalysts and I'm not even sure I'd run the same spark plugs after either. It probably does a decent job on intake valve deposits, but then so does bg-44 type fuel injection treatment.

for the crankcase, the best snake-oil product i have ever run into (that isn't a solvent) is the product by AutoRx.

I'm with Mike... had best luck with BG44 in the past also Techron. I suspect doing the Seafoam direct via a vacuum line is not anymore effective than using water. I've done both. I've seen some spectacular results with Techron via the vacuum method.
H
:cheers: