Seafoam engine cleaner..

[BlindMelon]

Hi everyone. I just bought the seafoam engine cleaner and wanted to know how I should put it in. My brother was saying put half in the gas and half in the oil. Now would I do one of them first and then the other one next? Should I do an oil change or had just done an oil change? And should I have full gas or does none of this really matter? Help would be appreciative.

[Toysrme]

Change the oil, and put 1/3 of the can in with the fresh oil. It does not change the interval.


Have someone start the car and rev the engine slightly so it won't have a hard time running (2000rpm is fine). Pull off a larger vacuum line (brake booster works fine). You want to pour 1/3 of the can into the line. If you suck it in, don't drop the hose in the can. The engine will stall.

As soon as you have 1/3 of the can done, shut the engine off and let it sit 15min. When you crank it, it will billow enough smoke to cover a couple city blocks.



Once the smoke starts dieing down some (normally about 10 min of idling) take the car for a drive until it stops smoking (at least for the most part). During that drive, you will want to hold it in a low gear and pull the engine through it's rev limit a few times to help burn the carbon out. Don't drive like that all the time, but be sure to do it.



You'll want to repeate the intake a second time with the remaining 1/3 of a can.





Buy a seperate can for the gas. Drive until the tank is near empty ( FYI It's an 15 gallon tank.), pour the can in, and fill with gas. It may smoke very lightly on that tank of gas... You *are* burning seafoam with the gas remember!








Seafoam does a great job at cleaning the fuel system, the oil in the crankcase, and some parts of the intake track, like the heads, and valves, and as good a job as anything else with cleaning carbon out of the combustion chamber (Nothing but water does that well).


It is still not a replacement for taking the upper intake off and cleaning all of that by hand.

[BlindMelon]

Whoa didn't know you had to do all that. I'll give it a try tomorrow. The 91 Camry 4 cylinder has an 18.5 gallon tank? I always thought it was around 12-15. Plus, I do not have a tach... so I can't tell really tell where 2000 rpms is, and I haven't really worked on any cars (except all I've done is change the oil in my car and have been driving for about 9 months now), but I'm not that experienced to tell where 2000 rpms is, so I'll just have to rev it slow. I guess you don't have to get that technical because you just want me to rev it slow.

[Toysrme]

Ah sorry, thouhgt you had a gen3+.

It's about 15.6 gallons from my understanding.

[Brian R.]

So Toysrme, do you think Seafoam is something that must be used periodically? or is it something to be used only when you have a deposit problem, like pinging or some other symptom of combusion chamber deposits?

[Toysrme]

Something needs to be used periodically to stave off power loss. Normally the entire v6 line runes 5-10hp under stated power because of carbon build-up from the EGR, the i4's are not far behind. Takes about 9 months to a year to develop a power loss from the carbon build-ups. If you clean it you can stave that off a lot longer.



There are a ton of different cleaners that can be used. Seafoam has become overly popular in most Toyota circles, because it works a little better than other things at cleaning carbon off, has other uses (one can covers everything), and it's $5 a can.



I've "brought" it's use to a few big forums - it's always a big hit.





Because stuff gets built-up and broken down over time, most people never notice until the EGR, or idle valve completely clogged.
Most people shy away from using it as an oil treatment, but it's awsome at it. Normally, the idle and throttle transitions are smoothed out.

[BlindMelon]

My brother said it's really hard to do the vacuum tube, like you need a vacuum hose to make it right or something, I forget, but how would I go about doing the vacuum tube? Is it really hard (for someone that really doesn't know anything about cars) or is it easy?


**I was also thinking that if the vacuum part was hard, I'd just do 1/3 of can in oil and rest 2/3 in gas tank.

[Toysrme]

You pull a vacuum hose off and pour the seafoam in it with it running. Suck it up if you want (Don't drop it to the botto of the can), or get a 10 cent funnel and pour it in.


Nothing complicated about it.

[erubin]

I was told by a mechanic that putting Seafoam or other fuel injector cleaner in the gas tank (it gets diluted in the gas) does not really do much for the injectors. i also noticed a lot of shops are advertising fuel injection cleaning with a machine while the injectors remain in the engine. I guess it uses a cleaner run pure through the injectors. My question is, how does the back yard mechanic get injector cleaner such as Seafoam to run through the injectors so they get cleaned. Finally (or rather firstly) is it a good idea to periodically clean the injectors or wait till they start acting up (and how do you know it is the injector(s) that is acting up).

Thanks.

[Toysrme]

Barring you do something completely stupid, like mix dirt with your gas, the injectors should never have any reason to actually be cleaned - which requires taking them off the car. That's assuming you use some additive at some point just to keep gunk from building up.

The only real reason to take fuel injectors off a car is when they wear out and need to be rebuilt/replaced. Over time the spring weakens, and the injector opens faster, while closing slower. The car runs progressively richer over a very, very long period of time.
Eventually the ECU is at it's maximum compensation and throws a CEL code for running too rich.
Like I said... Only a problem on very high mileage cars.


Don't get what dealers term a "fuel injection service" confused with actually cleaning shit. They don't do anything more than anyone else does. They do exactly what everyone else does. The head mechanic/garage man picks whatever fuel cleaner/additive he's comfortable with and they dump some in the gas tank.

Sound famillar?
In most places, all advertising dealers/mechanics do "fuel injection service" packages in late spring getting ready for high summer gas prices. Put in a new air-filte,r and sometimes change the fuel filter too.

Obviously, it's a sham that costs out the wazoo.


Why pay someone upwards of $100 to dump a fuel cleaner in your gas tank, when a $5 can of Seafoam (or anything else for that matter, I just like Seafoam) does the same thing. -> The same arguement I give against using things like Auto-RX. Who wants to pay $50 for Auto-RX when you can buy two cans of Seafoam for $10?