Seafoam into a 3.2 intake?

[rusnak]

Good job Joe!

I think this thread will definitely help someone else later.

I have a spare length of tubing since I replaced some vac hoses this weekend, and my crankcase breather hoses. I'll use the fitting for the small u-shaped hose. This fitting must have been put there for "upstream" vacuum testing or somthing. This will be the best place to insert Seafoam since it will distrubute to all cylinders, rather than just one bank of cylinders.

I was thinking about pouring 1/3 into a clear bottle, and submerging one end of the tubing into the Seafoam, and incrementally (a little at a time) letting the tube suck the solvent up into the intake. I'll post my results. I'll have to wait until after work when the office parking lot is empty. I don't want to try this at home and scare the neighbors half to death.

[70SWT]

Well said.

You see some amazingly crap work done by so-called professionals who are mainly concerned with getting your car through the garage and out as quickly as possible, but are amazingly skilled at operating the credit card machine at the service desk...

Originally Posted by sig_a

I suffer under a common delusion that I'm a better Porsche mechanic on my 911 than the average professional Porsche mechanic out there. I spare no expense on the right tools and research, which are key to success. Same goes in investing money. So far, so good on both counts. Two thumbs up for those willing to dive into DIY Porsche projects. The rest are posers.

[84porsche9113.2]

Originally Posted by rusnak

My first attempt to add Seafoam to my intake failed today.

I tried to let the engine suck the stuff up through the thermo switch/ hose at the backside of the throttle body. I think the ambient temp must be too high or something because there is no vacuum there.

What did you guys do? I thought about pouring the stuff into the ICV hose, but that'll produce a dribbly mess and may not atomize well. Maybe I should get a small squirt/spray bottle and trigger spray the stuff in through the airbox??

I believe I used the vacuum hose off the fuel pressure regulator. It was plenty strong and didn't die down. On my car I've removed the blower for the heat and ducting so it was easily accessible.

Not sure if this method distributes to all cylinders but I thought it did... Very simple to do, worked fine and never had a problem with suction or getting enough product in.

[dshepp806]

From Joe:

"""I first tried the Seafoam on my lawnmower and Honda to prepare for the main event. I figured if I was going to ruin any motor, I'd start with the cheapest one first"""""

...FUNNY AS HELL!!!!!!!

Everytime I read these Seafoam threads, I laugh 'til I cry,..picturing each Pelicanites' story, the part where there's lotsa smoke.....keep 'em coming.

Best,

[rusnak]

Well here's my Seafoam experience:

I finally got the stuff into my intake. I tried the lower of the two looped fittings on the back of the throttle body, as Joe did. But mine were definitely not open. I had no vacuum at either port, so I connected a medical syringe that is used to flush post surgical sites in the mouth, and forcibly injected the Seafoam into the intake. No go, it came squirting back out when I disconnected the tube. I started thinking "don't listen to car gossip on Pelican. Let's call this one myth busted....". But I thought I'd have one more go.

So next, I disconnected the lower rubber pipe exiting the ICV. I then inserteded the small maybe 3mm tube into the intake via the open rubber pipe, and sealed the opening with a dry rag. I then poured half of the Seafom into a clear bottle and inserted the other end of the small tube into the bottle, being careful to let only a little of the Seafoam get sucked into the engine at a time.

Well the engine revs immediately took off like a scared cat. It went "reeEEEEEERRRR!" And talk about smoke. Do not do this at home. I did it in the office parking lot, which was still somewhat being used. There was so much smoke, it reminded me of the fog that rolls in on the beach during the summer. You might as well call this Seafog or Discofoam. I finally got so embarrased by all of the fog I was creating, I decided to drive away slowly so that I could see the road. I felt like Dick Van Dyke driving Chitty Chitty Bang Bang BEFORE the magical transformation. Anyway, the car loves Seafoam so much that when it all burns off, I think my 911 went through withdrawl like a new crack addict. On Seafoam, snappy throttle and revvy engine. Off Seafoam, I'd say the idle is definitely smoother, and throttle response is sort of improved the way a good valve adjustment might improve things. Overall, a good product but do not expect miracles the day after and beyond.

Oh, and the other half of the bottle of Seafoam? Into the gas tank. We'll see what happens when I go back to straight 91 octane.

[kach22i]

Someone needs to do a spark plug inspection before and after Seafoam.

Will they be cleaner or more dirty?

I did not have many hours/miles on my spark plugs. Seaform and a little wire brush work great together for cleaning them up for reuse.

First time I've been able to do that.

[oregonmon]

I know I have a vacuum hose just below my fan that is capped off with a screw for whatever reason. I don't really understand how the system works but does anyone know what this might be or how I could just trace it back to what it's connected too. I do know is has vacuum as I tried it. Would this be a good line to use for the siphoning technique.
I am on my second can in the gas tank hoping it might help with a stuttering above 4000rpms. I would say that it has helped some. The stuttering is not completely gone but doesn't start until about 5500rpms. Related, I don't know.

[Bill in OKC]

I bought my 3.2 Pcar with 117K miles on it - no maintenance records and just assumed the worst, I was mostly right on that one I put SeaFoam in my gas tank - I am not an instant gratification guy in this respect. I can say that when I removed my intake to replace gaskets that the tips of the injectors and the intake area around them were the cleanest things I saw. I used Rotella synthetic engine oil to replace the molybdenum fortified stuff that it came with. Moly was puddled in and around the drain plug first change but I don't think moly is magnetic it just settled out in the lowest areas it could find. Rotella synth is supposed to be a high detergent oil and after a couple of changes the moly stopped coming out. When I finally got around to adjusting valves the area under the valve covers was beautifully clean. I have no idea what it looked like before but I'm content and don't see any reason to add anything to the oil. I have been catching up on the maintenance and restoring for 3 years now and it is almost time to start wearing sunglasses.

[rusnak]

Originally Posted by oregonmon

I know I have a vacuum hose just below my fan that is capped off with a screw for whatever reason. I don't really understand how the system works but does anyone know what this might be or how I could just trace it back to what it's connected too. I do know is has vacuum as I tried it. Would this be a good line to use for the siphoning technique.
I am on my second can in the gas tank hoping it might help with a stuttering above 4000rpms. I would say that it has helped some. The stuttering is not completely gone but doesn't start until about 5500rpms. Related, I don't know.

might that be a vacuum advance tube for the alternator? I'm not familiar per se with the SCs. The instructions on the bottle say to make sure each cylinder gets equal treatment, so you'd want to find an inlet upstream of the throttle body. BTW, I think your shuddering may be due to improper ignition advance or weak spark. If your vacuum advance is disconnected, that would certainly lean toward improper advance.

[aj88cab]

I did the SeaFoam thing a couple of weeks ago using the same vacuum line location Joe described above. Sucked in half a bottle in 15 seconds. The video is the result at start-up. I then jumped in (before the neighbors came out) and went for a Sunday drive for about an hour, the smoking was gone in about 10 minutes. Butt dyno says it smoothed things out and feels more responsive, could be the placebo effect.

[rnln]

What u shape hose? I don't recall any y shape hose lead to the intake for air. But there are 2 oil breather hose (1 bigger and 1 smaller) which plug into behind of the big curve rubber hose between the butter fly and the air intake (AFM?). Can I use one of these oil breather hoses? If so, the seafoam goes into the intake system before the butter fly, which will clean the butter fly too.
Thanks.

Originally Posted by defcon65

I FINALLY did this over the weekend - with mixed results. The acceleration seemed smoother and sounded more throaty, but it still has a rough, uneven idle. I guess I'll order those twelve intake gaskets after all.

What I did was remove the U-shaped hose on the back of the throttle body and hooked a similar long piece of vacuum tubing to it. Then I took an old squirt bottle (ketchup bottle, actually) and squirted it in while it idled. If it started to bog down I reached up and pushed the linkage. After about half a bottle - 12 ounces?, I shut it down, waited twenty minutes and started it up. There was smoke, but not the insect fog I expected.. Maybe it takes two treatments? I'll try again.

BTW, if you are using the long hose that goes around the back of the airbox to the thing above the oil tank (sorry for my technical jargon), that's the wrong hose. The one you want to hook to is the lower fitting the small U-shaped hose fits to - that has a definite vacuum - you can hear and feel it.

I first tried the Seafoam on my lawnmower and Honda to prepare for the main event. I figured if I was going to ruin any motor, I'd start with the cheapest one first.

[aj88cab]

Its on the backside of the throttle body. There is a small hose that goes to a T-fitting and there is a U-shaped hose that loops from one nipple to the other, either will work I think. I used the fuel press regulator hose (T-fitting). You can find it by following the vacuum line from the fuel pressure regulator.

[rnln]

oh ok ok, are you talking about a little tiny curve rubber hose on top of the fuel regulator, which connect to a hard tinier hose lead to the back of the Throttle body (the butter fly)?

[aj88cab]

That's the one I am referring to, and that is the one I used.

Joe is referring to another hose that is on the back of the throttle body that loops from one nipple to another (both nipples on the throttle body). So it appears both hoses will work for ingesting the magic seafoam. And it appears there are at least three connection points on the back of the throtle body and we know for sure that 2 will work. Just make sure you can feel a vacuum on the hose and it should work.

If you feel around back there you can feel both hoses.

[rnln]

So any hose connected in the back of the throttle body (metal) will work. I was thinking of the big rubber 90% hose which connected to the AFM because the seafoam will pass through the butter fly, wihch clean it up too. but what do I know. Will do what you guys are doing... if I can find a place to kill mosquitoes.

Thanks.

Another thought, I also read somewhere people are using water instead of seafoam. The comment was water is the best to release carbon built up after soaked over night, and not as much smoke. Any thought?

[rusnak]

Hi Rnln and aj:

I think there is some confusion here.

U-shaped hose:
This is located at the front of the throttle body (towards the cabin). It connects the ambient air valve or thermovalve on the throttle body to a direct connection on the throttle body itself. The lower one should be open. Joe is correct. The top one opens at colder ambient temperatures. I'm guessing but I want to say about 50F or so. It's function is to let warm air from the oil tank into the throttle body to prevent it from freezing open during cold weather driving. The thermovalve has two nipples. one going to a second valve on the oil tank breather hose.

Fuel pressure regulator/ fuel pressure dampener:
connected via a t fitting to the left hand bank of cylinders. In my opinion, this is not as good because it's harder for Seafoam to travel to the right bank of cylinders via the vac hose to the intake manifold.

ICV: located between the boot for the throttle body and the throttle body downstream of the butterfly. It allows air to bypass the butterfly valve. I suppose you can disconnect the top hose, and have air suck back into the rubber boot if you want to have the Seafoam travel through the butterfly. I personally saw no need for this, and I'm trying to not damage the boot with 100% undiluted Seafoam. But if you use the ICV circuit, you have a choice. It has strong vacuum, but you have to block off the extra vacuum with your thumb or a rag to prevent the engine from dying. I think I'll make up a cork with a bung in it so that I have an easier time next time. If I do, then I'll post a pic for you guys.

[aj88cab]

rusnak

It's not hard to confuse me, so I did what I always do I went and stuck my head in the engine comparment and felt around. You are correct about the thermo valve, it sits higher on the throttle body, it has two nipples that are the "in" and "out" of the thermo valve. Lower on the throttle body are two vacuum connection nipples. One gets the U-shaped hose from the "out" of the thermo switch. The other nipple gets the "T-fitting" hose connection from the fuel pressure regulator and fuel damper.

The "in" thermo switch connection goes to the aux air valve. Interestingly this vacuum connection is the "control" line to the aux air valve. It opens the air valve allowing the warm air to enter the throttle body via a larger hose connection to the right of the two vacuum nipples. (Not suitable for SeaFoam infusion IMHO)

However, the connection to the left bank/left manifold you are refering to I believe is the power brake booster circuit.

This is a long way just to say - use either of the two lower vacuum nipple connections on the trottle body for SeaFoaming.

[rnln]

alright, now I completely lost. I will take some picture, if I can, and ask again.
Anyone has any thought about water vs seafoam?

[aj88cab]

rnln

Sorry no photo but here's a rough sketch of the back side of the throttle body with connections and where to put Seafoam. Can't comment to the use of water, so I won't.

[rnln]

Thanks Andrew