To all who live by seafoam...

[Pewter2K1]

Was reading on another board, from my area, Seafoam has been discussed alot lately, seems it has become the hot **** for cleaning the motor. Well, yes it does do a good job, and it will clean a severely dirty motor, but it has been found by a few people to cause a serious problem if used regularly, or especially on a cleaner motor.
One of the guys on this board is GM service writer, and he posted that a kid had taken his car to the dealership because it was running rough. After diagnosing the situation the techs had found 2 small holes developed in the pistons. the car was stock and the kid had told them that the only thing he does is change the oil and seafoam every 3000 miles.
To make a long story short, seafoam cleans the chambers by creating a hotter combustion and also has a chemical to eat away the carbon, well if there is no carbon to clean it just burns real hot, creating a "leanlike" condition and in turn starts to get hotspots, which can cause the holes to form.

So watch how much you do it, or you could be slowly degrading the pistons and combustion chambers. Not saying this will happen to you, but when a Tech says somthing like this, it may be somthing to not shrug off...

[Fredless]

Wow that is interesting news. I only do my car every 10k or so and I have never have gotten much smoke, even the first time I did it.

However, for example, I just did my friends 95 Grand Am Quad 5 5 speed, it worked WONDERS. It turned the all the time miss to a random miss at low rpms (know the miss problem now, cam housing gaskets leaking oil to the plugs), but point is the car runs WAY better after seafoam. Seafoam also cured a rough running problem on my exes grand prix.

From what I've read, people are scared to run it on cars with a ton of miles in fear of dislodging particles that actually stop leaks. I'm scared to run sea foam through his oil in fear of causing more oil leaks.

Good info. I'll keep that in mind; it does seem logical.

[ThatsMeGC]

Should I think twice about doing it on mine with 152,000 miles? I know it has never been done.

edit: I have ran some through the gas and oil..I just haven't done the good way yet.

[BLLDOGG]

it will be fin to do it with your 152K. this is for poeple that do it like an oil change which is kinda stupid, and that point is proven with this post

[ThatsMeGC]

Ok cool, I'm still scare to do it... I'm 99% I found the right line to put it in, I'll have the shop guy at work confirm it is the right one before I do it.

Brake booster - circular thing in back on the engine bay drivers side? House comes out on the side closer to the passenger side? Correct?

[BLLDOGG]

i dont know about the hose but you found the right part ;)

[ThatsMeGC]

I'm assuming its the right hose... but that something you don't want to assume.

I think I will do it on thankgiving...when I go to my grandmas house in the country so I don't piss any neighbors off. haha

[HBHRacing]

If you do it right with teh right equipment you could do it once a week and it would be fine. but pouring it into the booster like or sucking it in like a straw is NOT the way to do it and can cause sevear motor damnage. Shops have a kit that you pour a solvent into a bottle, hook the like to the booster and then adjust it so that it goes in ONE DRIP AT A TIME. takes 10-15 minutes to compleate. It will atomize in the intake and clean everything safely. This is the only way to know that you will not hurt anything. When you dump it all in you face several problems, hydrolocking a cyl is one, preiniting a large pocket of the solvent is another.


This is why I always advocate for having a shop do a top engine clean instead of using seafoam. people b!tch about paying 60 bucks for it... but how much more would a new motor cost? see my point?

[LwnGy83]

What is this seafoam you guys keep talking about? I've never heard of it. what's if for and how does it work?

[98Camaro3.8]

Originally posted by LwnGy83:
What is this seafoam you guys keep talking about? I've never heard of it. what's if for and how does it work?

Search.

[Pewter2K1]

I think a good way to go by is to Seafoam on a car that is
A: Nitroused
B: High mileage(mainly highway)
C: Anyone who knows their car is running extremely rich

I have done it to my car twice, once at around 45,000 miles which covered 2 track seasons, and when I took the nitrous off the car.

And yes, seafoam is not done by pouring a quart into the brake booster vaccum line, it should probably be used more as a fuel additive.. that will allow proper atomization through the injectors, and it will stick to the ports and the combustion chamber.

One of my part time jobs is at a Carwash that shares the same building as a Lube shop. they have this awesome fuel system cleaner that is 3 stage, one small bottle into a FULL tank of gas, another through the PCV valve, and a smallest of small bottles through the main intake vaccum line. you can see the cars that are being done cause they are left out back, running. they look some look they are literally on fire. Their process takes 2 hours to complete and is $59.99 and they will not do the same car twice in one year, or 20,000 miles!

[majeskyb]

Anyone every run toulene or xylene as a mixture in their fuel? Toulene is an ingredient in those fuel system cleaners, and from everyone who I've talked to that have used it, it works great. They reccommend using xylene over toulene because it's safer, but to run a 6:1 ratio of gas to toulene, and some said to add a little atf as a buffer.

Toulene thread

[MustangEater8251]

I seafoamed my car at 42k and it helped out on the top end...

BUt I don't think its neccessary to do it like every 3-5k even. Weather it hurst the car or not could just be expensive.

Just do it every like 15k or so.

[Need4Camaro]

I've never seafoamed my car. Well I mean I've used the fuel injector cleaner but I didn't notice any difference. If I used the real seafoam through the brake booster line, will it help and will I really notice a difference? I got a 1997 with 131K on the clock.

[wilkcamaro98]

Yah I sea foamed mine at 55k and I prolly won't do it again till about 85k at least. Like they say too much of and good thing can become a bad thing.