Sea Foam - yes, no ?

[ddax]

What do you guys think of Sea Foam?

If you like it, how do you use it?
I've read of several ways to use it.
Just run it through your gas tank?
Suck it in through a vacumn line?
Pour it in the carb?
Pour it in the crankcase?

Here's a couple descriptions I clipped from other forums.
Often people suggest the last 1/3 of the bottle go in the crankcase to be followed by an oil change anywhere from now to 500 miles later:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Basically, get the truck running nice and toasty. Pop the hood. Pop the brake booster hose off the booster (for me, channel locks to move the clamp back a few inches, then pop the hose off). The engine will instantly rev up due to the vacuum leak you've created

I just feed 1/3-1/2 can into the hose and let the engine sputter all crazy-like, then cap the hose with my thumb and the engine stalls. Shut off the key, and let it sit. Some folks say 10 minutes, some say 2 hours.

Take it for a nice smokey ride. Smoke usually goes away within a few minutes.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
ok here is the best most concentrated way to use this.AT YOUR OWN RISK IF YOU KILL YOUR CAT CUZ YOU USE DINO OIL THAT IS NOT MY FAULT.

You need 8 new plugs,and oil change supplies along with one can of seafoam. I did mine at night with high wind.Search youtube > seafoam

Locate your PCV valve
Take off the hose and turn up
With engine running SLOWLY pour the can down this hose
You will have to play with NOT stalling your engine til 1/3rd bottle is left
THEN DUMP WHATS LEFT...stalling the engine.
Replace hose to PCV
Go away for 1/2 hour....waste time as you see fit.
Come back and start car...It might not run the first time...thats ok try again
REV car to a comfortable high idle.ITS NOT AN RPM RACE just more then idle Continue this till its all clear
Wave off nieghbors who think your garage is on fire
I ran mine up and down the street after exhaust WAS CLEAR just to WOT
Change oil...too bad its hot you want it that way before the carbon settles
Change plugs that might have carbon fouled
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks,
Dave

[PeteA216]

What do you guys think of Sea Foam?

I personally have never used it, but have heard nothing but good things about it.

[silicon212]

I'd do the "through the carb" routine on it, much like GM Top End Cleaner. NEVER put SeaFoam or the like into the crankcase - this stuff is water based and water and oil don't get along too well, also the water would be the first thing sucked up by the oil pump, and bearings hate water.

[GreyGoose006]

i thought it was more alcohol based, but i am probably wrong

i ususally pour it down the carb and let it die and sit for about an hour, go back and start it up.
when you do this, its important to run it kinda hard.

another good use is dumping 2 cans into an empty tank and filling up.
seems to clean things out in a more gentle way

i also use it once a year or so in the crank case and change the oil after 500 miles or so

['97ventureowner]

Originally Posted by silicon212

NEVER put SeaFoam or the like into the crankcase - this stuff is water based and water and oil don't get along too well, also the water would be the first thing sucked up by the oil pump, and bearings hate water.

First off, let me say I haven't used Seafoam (yet) and have seen a lot of discussions on this site for years. I did a little more research into seeing what was in this product and this is what I found:http://www.seafoamsales.com/motorTuneUpTechGas.htm .
According to their website it is supposed to remove moisture in oil, and it can be used as an upper cylinder lube. It also claims to remove moisture from fuel and can be used as a de-icer. I couldn't find anywhere on that site what makes up Seafoam, so I don't know if it is water based.
I personally use GM's Top End cleaner like silicon212 and have also has good luck with BG products. I've used that for about 15 years now and am discovering more mechanics and shops in my area seem to be using it.http://www.bgprod.com/home.html

[GreyGoose006]

this might be a bit helpful
http://www.seafoamsales.com/pdf/MSDS_SFTT_US.pdf

SECTION II-A HAZARDOUS COMPONENTS
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
NO. COMPONENT EPC# % BY WT.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 PALE OIL 4229 40-60%
2 NAPHTHA 20 25-35%
3 IPA 125 10-20%
>> NONE OF THE COMPONENTS OF THIS PRODUCT ARE RECOGNIZED AS CARCINOGENIC.

obviously they dont give away all the ingredients, but i doubt that water is one of them
if you read the can it says that it is 100% pure petroleum...
as we all know, petroleum products tend to not mix with water

i am guessing that it is alcohol based, which would make sense because water is disolved in alcohol, and will evaporate at a much lower temperature than normal. this would back up their claims at being able to remove water from the oil.

[463]

see the link http://www.seafoamsales.com/products.htm add an average 1 ounce per gallon of gas in the tank. One pint treats 10 quarts of oil (avg. 1 1/2 ounce per quart). With warm engine running, SLOWLY poor 1/2 pint through carburator, throttle body or direct manifold vacuum line that will feed ALL CYLINDERS. Possible sources are P.C.V. valve or brake booster line. Turn ignition off. Restart engine after 5 minutes. Be sure exhaust is well ventilated. Fumes will be extreme for a short period of time.

[463]

it works good. just read the directions. i haved used 3 cans over the last 2 years in 2 & 4 stroke in the oil, in the gas & though the vac and inj/carb with real good results. you will be impressed . the seafoam trans tune i bought still sits on my bench as it requires a trans flush after you use it and i just did a pan drop and filter in the chevy van and decided not to use it. i use it in the snowblower, lawn mowers, power boat, cars , van new and older carb & inj. i also have a number of close friends that use seafoam with the same results. it gets in and cleans out the carbon . for a test try a little in the gas of a lawn mower for a tank of gas. look at the spark plug before and after for your own eyes. then on the next tank of gas just see how easy it starts. hope you have as good a luck as i have with seafoam.

[463]

note: when used in the crank case a oil change is needed with in a short time. i ran 60 miles and changed the oil. the chevy 350 (carb) had ran a lot ov cold short miles in -30of and was carboned up bad. so we did the sea-foam in the oil,gas& vac line. with a fresh oil change the engine has stayed clean and ran very well over the past year and 12-14000 miles. thats sold me on sea-foam.

[Blue Bowtie]

What do you guys think of Sea Foam?

Since you asked...

Of course SeaFoam "works." It does exactly what it was designed to do - Sell product and make profit. It can work in the combustion chambers, since water injection has been known to help remove combustion chamber deposits for decades. I wouldn’t advocate pouring it into a fuel tank or crankcase, however.

If you have a fuel injection system and insist upon using SeaFoam, let me hook you up with a few replacement injector suppliers. If you doubt the risk of damage, dion't take MY word for it. Ask some of the professionals like TPIS, Linder, or Cruzin' Performance. They KNOW what water does to injector discs, balls, pintles, and solenoids. It isn't good. If you have a carburetor, pour all the SeaFoam you want into it, since it will tolerate it a bit better. Besides, your carburetor is already 1910 technology, so it seems to fit right in with the philosophy.

For those of you who are using synthetic lubricants, and have used SeaFoam in the crankcase... shame on you. You have already recognized the superior lubricity and cleaning benefits of polyalphaolefin, and then apparently resort to a 1936-era technology of refinery waste poured in with the synthetic to “help” the situation. I could understand it if you were using Pennzoil/Quaker State or some other mediocre mineral oil as a crankcase lubricant, but not with synthetic.

The only thing possibly worse than using it is paying $6 for a can for it.

For those who aren’t familiar with the SEARCH feature of the board, you might have missed this kind of post:

SeaFoam is basically refinery "waste". About 50% light hydrocarbon oil (pale oil), 30% petroleum naphtha, (charcoal starter fluid/mineral spirits, whatever you want to call it), 10% isopropyl alcohol, and 10% water. With the exception of the alcohol (added to keep the water in an emulsified suspension), the components are the mid- to upper-tier byproducts of hydro cracking useful petroleum products from crude oil. Those that are usually hardest to separate (normally done through a centrifuge) are instead simply sold as a mixture with some alcohol added to keep it volatile and emulsified.

The alcohol mixes with the water(as does the naphtha to some extent) and the "murky" appearance of the liquid is due to the emulsion created by the water/oil mixture forced into suspension by those solvents.

It ain't rocket science, people. It's barely science at all. But it was a fair bit of marketing back in the '30s when it was first sold. And it's surely no secret any longer.

Its sellers and marketers have lots of suggestions for its use (of course), but because of the formulation, I'd never even think of putting it in my engine oil, even though the synthetic would tolerate it a bit more than mineral oils. As for dumping into an intake, plain water injection will do a far superior job of cleaning carbon deposits. As with any liquid administered to an engine, the rate is critical. Too little, and you're really not accomplishing anything. Too much, and you hydro-lock the engine, risking piston, rod, head, and wrist pin damage.

I'd almost guaranty that the majority of the cleaning is done by the solvents and water. You can buy SeaFoam if you'd like, or you can use the hydrocarbon solvents already available (gasoline or gasohol) and water to accomplish the same thing. I’ve had pretty good success with the 99¢ gallon bottles of windshield washer fluid - That’s right, the same stuff you might pour into your washer reservoir. It is a mixture of water and methanol, with a hint of blue dye. The alcohol is flammable and slows the combustion process, as well as helping clean some deposits, and the water in the combustion chamber finishes the task when it explodes into steam. And you can get a whole case of it for the cost of ONE can of oily water, er, SeaFoam.

Personally, I don't buy oily water and alcohol in $6 steel cans.

[97cv]

HEY WHERS MY CREDIT ??

This was mine

ok here is the best most concentrated way to use this.AT YOUR OWN RISK IF YOU KILL YOUR CAT CUZ YOU USE DINO OIL THAT IS NOT MY FAULT.

You need 8 new plugs,and oil change supplies along with one can of seafoam. I did mine at night with high wind.Search youtube > seafoam

Locate your PCV valve
Take off the hose and turn up
With engine running SLOWLY pour the can down this hose
You will have to play with NOT stalling your engine til 1/3rd bottle is left
THEN DUMP WHATS LEFT...stalling the engine.
Replace hose to PCV
Go away for 1/2 hour....waste time as you see fit.
Come back and start car...It might not run the first time...thats ok try again
REV car to a comfortable high idle.ITS NOT AN RPM RACE just more then idle Continue this till its all clear
Wave off nieghbors who think your garage is on fire
I ran mine up and down the street after exhaust WAS CLEAR just to WOT
Change oil...too bad its hot you want it that way before the carbon settles
Change plugs that might have carbon fouled

SEAFOAM in crankcase will clean TOO well in your crankcase. If enough carbon is removed it will block an oil-way and THATS BAD .Try AUTO-RX for that .

[GreyGoose006]

the pcv drains to the crank case, so it shouldnt stall your engine if you pour it down the PCV.

if you have a carb, follow this procedure, but pour it down the carb instead.
if you have fuel injection, you need to let it get sucked into the main vacuum line i think.

[silicon212]

The PCV valve does not dump into the crankcase, it dumps into the intake manifold under vacuum.

[PeteA216]

The PCV valve does not dump into the crankcase, it dumps into the intake manifold under vacuum.

Correct, the PCV is a valve to allow crank case vapors to be "sucked" into the intake via the carburetor and burnt. I'm most definately hooking mine up as Silicon had advised me to so long ago because under heavey throttle I actually get a light oil residue under the breather on the chrome valve cover.

[GreyGoose006]

i know that in my car, the pcv is simply a tube connecting the aircleaner to the valve covers.
there is no actual valve, and i am pretty sure that vacuum from the engine wont make it to the pcv tube.