Seafoam?

[sKunkman]

So the other day I got some seafoam, my friend said it was awesome, he uses it on his Firebird every few thousand miles. He says you're supposed to put it in through your brake line booster - the only problem is, when i take that hose off the master cylinder, my car wont keep an idle (I have a 97 318ti). He also said I could put it in through the gas tank, which I did, and the PCV valve as well. If anyone knows where the PCV valve is, I would be greatly appreciative for that information.

Or if you know a better place to put the seafoam for maximum engine cleaner, I would more greatly appreciate that.
Thanks

[PENER]

[uansari1]

The brake booster line is ok, but will get more seafoam to the rear cylinders. The PCV hose is better, cuz it will get to all cylinders relatively equally.

You'll need someone inside the car maintaining a fast idle for you while you're giving it seafoam. Just be extremely careful not to let it suck up too much of the liquid at one time, cuz you could hydrolock your motor.

[Boondoggie]

And don't do it in your driveway if you have neighbors that ask questions.... lots of smoke will result...

[PENER]

excuse me, but may I know what the hell you are talking about

[uansari1]

excuse me, but may I know what the hell you are talking about

Seafoam is a product that is used to clean the internals of your head. It removes carbon build-up inside the head and around the valves. I've seen it used before, and the car will smoke for a while after using it (10 minutes or so) while the carbon is being broken up and shot out of the exhaust.

[M3 Mitch]

If your car is running OK and you don't have carbon buildup symptoms you may want to re-consider doing this. Maybe it would be wiser to use some Techron or Redline SI-1, BMW valve cleaner, etc. Seafoam has been around forever and I don't know of it damaging anything, but I wouldn't use it on my M3 since for one thing I'm running synthetic oil, and for another this type of treatment might screw up the catalyst (plugging)

If you do decide to do this de-carboning, I would suggest an oil change soon afterwards.

I would also suggest using one of the smaller vacuum lines, and pinching it to throttle the flow of Sea-foam into the motor.

[heifetz17]

Why would you put seafoam in your brake booster? Seafoam is not for brakes.

Seafoam is perfectly safe for the catalyst. I use it regularly in my e36. Don't take off the PCV valve, and disconnect hoses and so on and so forth. Just pour a can into your gas tank, and pour a can into your crankcase through the oil filler hole. Easy as that, and it cleans like a champ. Seafoam is an excellent product.

BTW: I use synthetic oil with Lucas stabilizer and I regularly pour in Sea foam. It's designed for use in the fuel system as well as the crankcase. It's safe for synthetic oil. You don't have to change your oil after using it. That would defeat the purpose of it, as it mixes with your oil to keep carbon from building up.

[RotaryBzzz]

How much is seafoam?

It's sounds like seafoam acts like ATF. ATF does the same thing > decarbonizes....and smokes like hell.

[uansari1]

Why would you put seafoam in your brake booster? Seafoam is not for brakes.

Seafoam is perfectly safe for the catalyst. I use it regularly in my e36. Don't take off the PCV valve, and disconnect hoses and so on and so forth. Just pour a can into your gas tank, and pour a can into your crankcase through the oil filler hole. Easy as that, and it cleans like a champ. Seafoam is an excellent product.

BTW: I use synthetic oil with Lucas stabilizer and I regularly pour in Sea foam. It's designed for use in the fuel system as well as the crankcase. It's safe for synthetic oil. You don't have to change your oil after using it. That would defeat the purpose of it, as it mixes with your oil to keep carbon from building up.

If you're doing all that with Seafoam, that's great... but you're foregoing it's primary use, and where it makes the biggest difference.

You need to get the seafoam into the cylinders. The proper method to do this is using a vacuum hose that pulls the liquid into the engine. The brake booster vacuum and PCV lines suck the Seafoam into the combustion chambers. Make sense now?

Also, I really hope you're not leaving Seafoam in your crankcase for an extended period of time. In the crankcase, it shouldn't be left for more than 50 miles or so. Just drive around with it for a while and it will break down the crud in your motor.

Also, an FYI for everyone interested in using this... Seafoam is just one brand. GM makes the same thing called GM Top End Cleaner. Mopar has a similar product as well, but the name escapes me at the moment.

To whoever mentioned the ATF... Seafoam does the same thing for fuel injected cars that ATF did for carburated ones. I wouldn't recommend using ATF in a fuel injected motor. It's fine in older carbed engines.

[M3 Mitch]

The reason I suggested an oil change after decarbonizing is because Chevron recommends it after a "clean-up" dose of Techron. Probably the reason I am shy of this sort of thing is I'm used to the S14 motor of the M3, and it has a high enough compression that I would worry about "hydralicking" it if I put much liquid into the combustion chambers.

But, whatever, if your motor is dirty enough (whatever that means) a decarbonizing treatment will probably help it.

I have found that Mobil-1 and avoiding short trips keeps my motor quite clean so I don't think I need to do this.

You will need an assistant to keep the revs up a little I think, and I still think the PCV hose is too big, I'd pick one of the small vacuum hoses. But I"m a conservative kind of guy.

[uansari1]

The reason I suggested an oil change after decarbonizing is because Chevron recommends it after a "clean-up" dose of Techron. Probably the reason I am shy of this sort of thing is I'm used to the S14 motor of the M3, and it has a high enough compression that I would worry about "hydralicking" it if I put much liquid into the combustion chambers.

But, whatever, if your motor is dirty enough (whatever that means) a decarbonizing treatment will probably help it.

I have found that Mobil-1 and avoiding short trips keeps my motor quite clean so I don't think I need to do this.

You will need an assistant to keep the revs up a little I think, and I still think the PCV hose is too big, I'd pick one of the small vacuum hoses. But I"m a conservative kind of guy.

Mitch, I only suggested the PCV hose because it will distrbiute the cleaner more evenly among all 6 cylinders. The brake booster line will get more cleaner to the cylinders in the rear.

As for your concern regarding hydrolocking due to the PCV hose's size... keep in mind you don't have to stick the hose into the bottle. You can use a funnel or something to slowly pour the cleaner into the hose.

[heifetz17]

If you're doing all that with Seafoam, that's great... but you're foregoing it's primary use, and where it makes the biggest difference.

You need to get the seafoam into the cylinders. The proper method to do this is using a vacuum hose that pulls the liquid into the engine. The brake booster vacuum and PCV lines suck the Seafoam into the combustion chambers. Make sense now?

Also, I really hope you're not leaving Seafoam in your crankcase for an extended period of time. In the crankcase, it shouldn't be left for more than 50 miles or so. Just drive around with it for a while and it will break down the crud in your motor.

Also, an FYI for everyone interested in using this... Seafoam is just one brand. GM makes the same thing called GM Top End Cleaner. Mopar has a similar product as well, but the name escapes me at the moment.

To whoever mentioned the ATF... Seafoam does the same thing for fuel injected cars that ATF did for carburated ones. I wouldn't recommend using ATF in a fuel injected motor. It's fine in older carbed engines.

The back of the can says to add it to the oil. That's just what I do. I haven't had any problems yet.

[Boondoggie]

The back of the can says to add it to the oil. That's just what I do. I haven't had any problems yet.

On the back of the can, they say you can add it to the oil, but the main method listed on the can is as we're talking about here.

Pics of can, as well as intruction for use from Seafoam: http://stevenbigler.tripod.com/scoutco/id12.html

[uansari1]

On the back of the can, they say you can add it to the oil, but the main method listed on the can is as we're talking about here.

Pics of can, as well as intruction for use from Seafoam: http://stevenbigler.tripod.com/scoutco/id12.html

Thanks... that's what I was saying.

[beatniks325]

On the back of the can, they say you can add it to the oil, but the main method listed on the can is as we're talking about here.

Pics of can, as well as intruction for use from Seafoam: http://stevenbigler.tripod.com/scoutco/id12.html

lol, I found that link when i was searching for more info on seafoam too!

[heifetz17]

That explains it. The cans of Seafoam I get use don't even look like that. And all that's written on the back is to either put it in the gas tank or in with the oil. Maybe I missed something, though. I'll take another look.

[AlaskaBlue]

I have heard that driving hard i.e. shifting high in the RPM range also help clean out the carbon. Is this true?

[beatniks325]

I have heard that driving hard i.e. shifting high in the RPM range also help clean out the carbon. Is this true?

yeah this will clean some of the carbon buildup off but if you have alot, then a product like seafoam or techron cleaner will help you get more of the carbon out.

[greatcasa]

Anyone have a picture of the PCV valve or of someone doing this treatment. Forgive my ignorance. Thanks!

Evan

[wheresmym3]

How does this compare to Auto-RX ??? I was thinking of running one of these products as a maintenance as I have almost 100k (88K to be precise) on the motor. I've heard good things on both. Anyone have experience with either??? I will be changing the spark plugs, coils, and clean the icv afterwards as it needs to be done anyways.

[wheresmym3]

How much is seafoam?

It's sounds like seafoam acts like ATF. ATF does the same thing > decarbonizes....and smokes like hell.

It's like $7 for a can at Napa.

[roninB4]

I've used Seafoam on the 733 by feeding into the vaccume lines and it works great. You're only feeding in 1-3 ounces gradually by using a pinch valve inline with the container holding the dosage so I doubt you're going to "lock" any engine by feeding in gradually. Whether it works as well as Techron or any of the others is up for debate, I use it because it's cheaper and many other professional mechanics I know use it on thier own vehicles. I don't use it in the crankcase but that doesn't mean you can't. Just use the pinch valve method for feeding or in the fuel tank every few thousand miles and it will be fine.

[greatcasa]

I did it today on my girlfriends accord. Worked great and a lot of white smoke came out that smelled like crap. I'm going to put a bottle in her gas tank tomorrow on the way back from our trip to NY. Then I'm going to feed some in the PCV type hose on the M3. Anyone got a pic of that line so I know for sure that I'm putting it into the right one? Let me know. Thanks!

Evan

[wheresmym3]

Well I ended up buying 2 cans of seafoam. One for my M and one for my 98 4WD 4Runner. Since my 4Runner has 151k on the clock I figured I would do it first. After reading about this product figured I got to try it. Well anyways I pulled my pcv and poured it slowly and then shut off the motor and let it sit for 5 minutes like the instructions say. Well after reading about all the smoke and crap your motor spits I invited my wife "to see the show". I start the motor up and nothing??? What the hell could cause this? I noticed when I pulled the PCV it was pretty gummed up but that could not affect this could it?