Seafoam

[kunar]

forgive me for sounding dumb.... but i thought this was only added to the gas tank... like B12 or Lucas?

its common to put it in through a vacuum line to coat the inside of the intake and cylinders. you put it in quick, kill the engine and let it soak. start it back up after a few mins (some say 5, some say 15 or more) and get a nice cloud of buildup burning off.


NOTE: when i did this in my car, it made it run really really rough once the seafoam started burning off. i had to pull the plugs and wire brush the crud off of them. after that, the car ran great. just keep in mind that this stuff can/will foul spark plugs.

 

[spdcrazy]

i bought some and put about a half a can in the vaccumm line, and the rest in the tank.

like everyone has said, it smoked like crazy, then i shut it off for about 10 min. but then when i started it up, NO SMOKE. thought that was kinda wierd, ran just fine, took a few cranks to start up, but thats been known to happen.

 

[t0x1k]

I did a little test of my own on a really old weed whacker. I pulled the plug, inspected the cylinder, black, plug, black. Deep creeped it and no difference in build up, just a lot of "carbon smoke".
I still use it occasionally, I did it on my "new" truck and it smoked pretty nasty afterward, but it still idles at 550 rpms. No difference in performance.
I would avoid it like the plague in the oil, unless you have pulled the valve covers and checked for build up, it can cause passages to be blocked by gunk that is loosened up.
As far as gas, Gumout Regaine apparently has more power at cleaning the system for the same price.


The person who tried lighting it on fire, things react differently to open flame and compression/ignition.

It's not the miracle in a can it's made out to be. It's just petroleum distillates, and other VOCs.

 

[pontiacfieroguy]

if you have an engine that is seized you can remove the plugs and pour some in the cylinders and after 20-30 minutes you can usually get it to turn over. and on my truck with the 2.9 there is a small vaccume port on the front of the intake and i put it through there as i beleive that it will reach all 6 cylinders more evenly.

 

[Desert Rat 23]

Just put a can in mine. 1/3 in intake, 1/3 in crank case, and 1/3 in a 1/2 full tank of gas. Didn't smoke too much, must not have had that much build up. But it did quiete a noisy lifter and cured a sticky throttle. Going to drive it for about 1k then change the oil. Funny, the autozone guy told me to poor a pint in the crank case and drive it for 1500 miles before changing the oil. Not so sure about that.

 

[geoff c.]

Tried it today after reading all 5 pages of this thread. Saw no difference, very little smoke, and now every time I start my truck it smells like butt for a few minutes. All I can figure is that the motor is in pretty good shape. I did skip on the crank case because I just changed my oil about 1500 miles ago, just did half in the gas tank and half through the booster vacuum line.

 

[ASMODEAN]

I use it all the time when winterizing my boat, and lawn equipments fuel tanks. (makes for a better fuel stabilizer than STA-BIL.)
I have also poured it in the vac lines like everyone else.
But I usually have someone trip the inertia switch while pouring it in that way all its getting is pure Seafoam.
Smokes like hell for about 15-20 minutes.