SeaFoam thru the throttle body

[herr_oberst]

Dateline, 92 Toyota PU 4WD. 150000 miles

On the advice of Project Farm, I squirted a whole can of SF into the intake manifold.

Seems to run better.

Might be placebo.

Might be the Italian tune up that's required after letting the liquid hot soak after application.

(My truck was running much, much better than this old Ford pre SeaFoam, but I don't drive it much lately and I thought I would treat the old girl to a nice, cool drink)

[drcoastline]

Put a can of seafoam in the tank of my 07 Xterra a week ago to see what happens.

[Scott Douglas]

That Ranger pickup sure sounded a lot better after running that SeaFoam thru it. Never would have guessed it was even the same truck based on b4 and after videos.

[jyl]

Did you get a big smokescreen? Any clear improvement?

[herr_oberst]

Huge smokescreen. Woo hoo!
It actually seems to run better. Placebo? Who knows, but I'll take it.

I did it while the neighbors had the yard crew out with their two (TWO!) 2 stroke leafblowers that they use to get every seed out of every crack in the sidewalk.
30 to 40 minutes of pure hell, I usually leave when the yard crew pickup shows up.

[Racerbvd]

That was a trick to quite Isuzu Troopers noisy valve trains.

[matthewb0051]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

I did it while the neighbors had the yard crew out with their two (TWO!) 2 stroke leafblowers that they use to get every seed out of every crack in the sidewalk.
30 to 40 minutes of pure hell, I usually leave when the yard crew pickup shows up.

Worst ever invention. I especially love it when the lawn crews just blow the stuff out into the street, as if that completes the job.

My neighbor just got a lawn guy. I went out one day and he was blowing stuff back into my yard. Nice

Interested to see how the seafoam works for you. Currently have three 20 year old Land Rovers and I'm sure they could use a clean out.

[craigster59]

I used to pour it into the vacuum hose to my brake booster on my FJ62. Boy that thing would start smoking! Shut the engine off and let it soak for an hour or two. Run it around until it stopped smoking and then change the sparkplugs.

Always worked like a champ!

[TimT]

Nothing magic about Seafoam...

You can make your own for much cheaper

seafoam anyone

[wdfifteen]

I'm skeptical about Seafoam. It was originally made for 2-stroke marine engines, which used to really build up carbon in the combustion chamber. I don't know if it has been reformulated for 4-stroke engines. You can put all manner of things down the intake that will make smoke out the tailpipe. Try castor oil for a real vintage experience.

[cabmandone]

It's a fuel stabilizer like Stabil isn't it? It keeps moisture from forming. Outside of that there isn't any special sauce. I use it in my Yamaha Timberwolf ATV and not much else because it doesn't get out much anymore.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by cabmando

It's a fuel stabilizer like Stabil isn't it? .

I don’t think so. It was something to clean carbon out of 2-stroke engines back when crappy oil caused buildups. One of the reasons we used castor oil in our racing carts was that it supposedly didn’t cause so much carbon buildup.

[jyl]

Isn’t this what people use “STP” for? And what Chevron said “Techron” did?

[herr_oberst]

If I'm not mistaken, yes on Techron, douches out the fuel system. I always thought of STP as the oil treatment to provide additional lubrication and clean deposits in the crankcase.

Who knows. People still swear that Marvel Mystery Oil is great for the fuel and lubrication systems. You can put it in the fuel tank and the crankcase. They might be right.

[LWJ]

Solvents dissolve.

Read an opinion where water was misted into a running intake. Just a mist, not a pour.

Supposed to decarbonize the pistons/ heads very well.

Love for someone else to report back. I’m not first.

[Ctopher]

Originally Posted by LWJ

Solvents dissolve.

Read an opinion where water was misted into a running intake. Just a mist, not a pour.

Supposed to decarbonize the pistons/ heads very well.

Love for someone else to report back. I’m not first.

I’ve heard the same thing. I’ve read posts many years ago where the 300ZXTT guys were doing water injection to run higher boost and they reported super clean intakes and combustion chambers. I also heard people using nothing more than a spoon full of water in the intake while revving the engine. Let it suck it in, keep the engine running a couple thousand rpm and then let stabilize and do it again. Then take it out for a Italian tuneup and have a clean running engine.
I’ve never done it myself. But I pretty regularly run seafoam or usually Techron in the tank on a regular basis. My 150k mile Civic Si still runs perfectly with that and minimal maintenance per the factory intervals.


CTopher

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by LWJ

Solvents dissolve.

Read an opinion where water was misted into a running intake. Just a mist, not a pour.

Supposed to decarbonize the pistons/ heads very well.

Love for someone else to report back. I’m not first.

Water injection has been a thing for a long, long time. Airplanes, hotrods, performance saloons like the BMW M4 GTS.

[fanaudical]

I still run some MMO in the fuel for my 911. I find it keeps the CIS working well. My old Audis used to start stumbling if they didn't have some MMO in the fuel.

I have used both the Sea foam and water in the intake trick to clean the top end of engines. Both work.

[otto_kretschmer]

I had a 93 Suburban K2500 with a 454 and one time I took it to smog (in california) and it passed, but barely. I don't remember if it was hydrocarbons or nox, but the limit was around 980 ppm and my truck passed with 977 ppm. Just barely passing.

So the next time, 2 years later, I did a few things before I took it to the smog inspection.

I bought a can of seafoam and poured half the can into the crankcase and with the engine idleing I poured, just fast enough for the engine to stumble, the other half down the throttle body. Then I turned the engine off and let the truck sit over night. The next day I would put a new air filter in and drive the truck for a half hour on the freeway. After the drive I would change the oil and take it to the emmissions test.

Every 2 years I would do the same thing and the test results would get a little better each time. I would also change the plugs, wires, cap and rotor every 5 or 6 years.

I think the Seafoam helped but I'm not positive it did. I wanted the Seafoam to get into the catalytic converter and soak.

[GH85Carrera]

Back when I still had my factory original 305 in my El Camino and was nearing 300,000 miles it had a lot of carbon in the engine. When going up a hill the engine would ping, and it would diesel run when I turned it off.

I tried the seafoam. I recommend doing that away from your house, as the smoke cloud is huge, and people will report a fire to 911. I did mine at an industrial area on a weekend. There was no magic transformation, but maybe a slight improvement. I used a bottle of Techron for every fill up for three full tanks of gas and then changed the oil and that helped more.

In the end, that engine was just worn out. It smoked from oil blow by of the rings and valve seals. The real cure was a brand new GM crate engine 350 for $1,700 and the long Thanksgiving weekend to do a swap.