So much talk of Seafoam around here, I was curious to hear the opinions in the form of a poll. Some claim that it revived a dead engine, others claim it killed a perfectly good engine, while still others fall somewhere in between. Personally, I've never seen a legitimate shop using the stuff (or anything like it). Not once have I been to a dealership and seen a car in the service bay belching Seafoam smoke or seen that as an option on their list of services. I'm not saying I don't believe the testimonials or at least believe that you believe, but I want numbers, good old fashioned, anonymous numbers.

So take the poll.

 

All places that do fuel injection cleanings use a very simialar product to seafoam. They have the roughly the same ingredients. My current shop uses gumout and our old gumout formula would smoke to all hell. But we recently got a new gumout no smoke product. That does the same thing just doesn't smoke hardly at all. But I use seafoam in oil intake and gas and it works pretty well. I have not had any issues with vehicles and they tend to run a bit smoother.

 

Good one F1! btw, what is "F1"? I'm a little wary of trying anything I could get addicted to.

Since alcohol mixes with both water and gas I could see that helping in the right application.
As far as in the oil, the high detergent in normal oil seems to normally keep engines allot cleaner than back in the dark ages. There, I might worry about going too strong and dislodging something that might clog up a lifter or mess with the pressure relief valve or something. Going gently to the filter or drain plug would be nice.

I was thinking of posting a question myself, (and Rrich might know something here). What about carbon in the combustion chamber it's-self? I guess there was a time when you could open all four barrels and pour diesel in there and free up a bunch of stuff and blow it out. Then just plane water can do the same thing? BUT do you want to do that to your cat? (assuming stuff really IS coming loose).

Anyway I think it all strikes a balance. Keep the detergents up, (and, if your oil "breaks down", buy some more), change the filters, and gap the plugs.

 

BG44K in the tank is way more effective than Seafoam. Tried Seafoam for a comparison to my old standby 44K and it doesn't compare.

 

Agreed.

 

LOL! Formula One... F1Addict has been my web handle for close to 15 years and while I don't obsess as much about getting up at 4:30am to watch the races live anymore, I haven't missed watching one (live, recorded, or in person) since sometime in the late 90s.

Regarding Seafoam, I'm reluctant to pour anything down the brake booster hose or in my tank that isn't universally accepted as a cure. I'll wait a couple days before summarizing my thoughts on the poll results but, thus far, it's not looking great for Seafoam.

 

Ha! ...I actually tried pushing the key on my keyboard to see what you were so thrilled about! Rooler has NSS issues in that NSS thread, IIRC you have some good stuff on that so I told him to look you up...

Yea, myself I've been fine for quite a while without pouring anything unusual in there. Some fuel additives aimed at water and maybe helping clean injectors, never noticed a difference.

 

Try BG 44K.

 

Yea, dummy me. I slapped in the JY 703's ..barely cleaned them. Now I have an intermittent high idle, and it's surging upon starting like there might be a little fuel there. Guess I'll need to finally chase down a vac leak in the dash and clean my IAC, THEN look for something to clean the injectors with. I'll look for the BG 44K for sure.

 

Picturing you hammering on the f1 key waiting for something thrilling to happen has caused me to laugh out loud.

I've responded to Roler and his NSS/Jumper issues.

 

Gives me something to do in my spare time^^


[/QUOTE]I've responded to Roler and his NSS/Jumper issues.[/QUOTE]

Yea, I caught that and bookmarked it. (thanks for the info there)

Maybe I'll sea-foam my keyboard and see if that helps the F1 key..

 

Be careful! Naphtha fumes kill brain cells

 

Plural??? Sheez, I will be careful, Idk whats left. Looks like the pole is about tied between helped and didn't help. Needs a control group, including parts guys providing "placebo" cans, that they themselves don't know are....??Air? I'm not sure there is anything to pour in there that will for sure so nothing.

 

It's been my observation that modern engines really don't have the carbon problems that were common to older motors. I own an older carb'd corvette that chokes, smokes and struggles until it warms up a bit... cold starts run so rich there's raw gas out the tailpipe, lol. That's the way they ran back then, it wasn't clean. De-carboning went with the territory.
These days it isn't uncommon to pull apart a 200K mile motor and not find a thing. Just a little discoloration perhaps.

 

I've been using BG44k on all my cars and it works great. I pour it in the gas tank and another in the TB, than take a drive around town. Then I change the oil when I get back home.