Seafoam

[DoubleV]

Us Tbrickers have also discovered this miracle:

http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=32217

http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=35053

[BeachRat]

actually i dont know what seafoam does or is, i just hear about it all the time.  whats the process. i have to have my down pipe made to match my new turbo and its turbine housing (hehe 3"?) but i guess thatd give me perfect chance. someone break it down for me......whats the procedure?

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The Turbobricks thread explains it quite well, but I'm still not 100% sure which vacuum line to use... I'm getting the impression there isn't a wrong answer to that.

Edit: From Three Fat Tigers, "Any small vacuum port (nipple) will work:" and he also mentions "preferable downstream from the throttle body".

[dons850t5r]

You can get Seafoam at Advanced auto parts now, i was there last week and i picked up a can.

All i can say is holy crap what a difference it made. My 96 855R has a wicked carbon buildup from all city driving.

I had a ton of white smoke for about 1/2 hour! . All you could see out the back window was smoke. Now the car is almost as fast as my T5-R.

One word of advise- have someone to shut the engine off quick as you suck it in cause you will set a code for misfire. this was no prob. for me i reset it with the auterra.

[billr99]

You can get Seafoam at Advanced auto parts now, i was there last week and i picked up a can.

All i can say is holy crap what a difference it made. My 96 855R has a wicked carbon buildup from all city driving.

I had a ton of white smoke for about 1/2 hour! . All you could see out the back window was smoke. Now the car is almost as fast as my T5-R.  

One word of advise- have someone to shut the engine off quick as you suck it in cause you will set a code for misfire. this was no prob. for me i reset it with the auterra.

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Holy crap is right! Seafoam is absolutely amazing stuff and I'm not a big one for promoting snake oil type products. I did SeaFoam in my R in all the variations, in the gas, in the oil and sucked in thru the intake tract. In fact, I run a third of a can thru the gas about every 3-4 fill-ups just to keep things all tidy in the fuel system. I also ran the stuff thru my son's old '89 744 and just like described; it smoked like a $itch, but it was like night and day performance-wise after we were done. In any event, if you use it according to the instructions, it is well worth the time/effort.

Cheers,

[beachnut]

Hmm, is this a product you guys would use for a car that seems to be running just fine, all stage 0 stuff done, 82K miles ... like mine I suppose I could see someone using it on a high mileage, rough-running, valve-ticking car when all else has failed, but as a general maintenance item? I'd hate to open up a can of worms ...guess I'm still a little skeptical.

[PullMyFinger]

I'm skeptical too!

But I am starting to get that cold start valve tick we all love so much. 112k miles, so maybe its time for me to try it out...

[Guest Guest]

Hmm, is this a product you guys would use for a car that seems to be running just fine, all stage 0 stuff done, 82K miles ... like mine  I suppose I could see someone using it on a high mileage, rough-running, valve-ticking car when all else has failed, but as a general maintenance item? I'd hate to open up a can of worms ...guess I'm still a little skeptical.

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Hey, my R runs just fine and has just shy of 190K kms on it. No ticking lifters, no oil leaks, plugs burn clean, etc. But I do run very dirty Ontario gas and Seafoam seems to help burn off the sulphur deposits that we get on O2 sensors up here as well as carbon off the piston tops. All the stuff is is tenacious oil, naptha, and alcohol (could probably mix it up yourself, I suppose) but its been around for 50 years and was orginally designed to be used in boat motors which are typically extreme duty powerplants.

Now with all this said, I don't throw it in the oil for more than about 5-600 kms and I don't get into the turbo heavy while its in there, but for running thru your fuel system or inducing thru the intake tract, it sure as hell can't be any worse than the gas itself. IN any case, I sure haven't seen any ill effects and I've been using it for quite a while and a lot of those 190K kms.

Hey, try one can and use it according to the instructions. You'll see what we mean and if you don't like it, don't use it again. And by the way, I do not get anything from anybody for saying this stuff. Its just after 35 years of messing about with cars, I just can't beleive that it works as well as it does.

Cheers,

[Paul33603]

Hey guys,

3rd day from use and still NO tick! I was talking to co-workers about replacing the engine and give a few of the guys a ride home every once and a while They were simply impressed! Smoother idle MORE boost. I dont get anything either for saying this stuff but better performance. I bought my 94 855T with 150K with records and all of the paper work, however I guess after that kind of milage you need to do something. Still tonight I am excited NO TICK at ALL!!! I cannot wait to get a compression test also.

I added Auto-Rx and am at the rinse phase. I will let you all know what happens with that. However I know the engine is cleaner just by looking in the oil cap, it was ugly and brown now its a shiny silver color again! These products seem to really work. Again I dont know what to say but I am amazed and will let you know my compression tests turn out.

Another WOW!

Paul

[Rooooney]

I need to clean my flame trap. Should that take place before or after using sea foam?

[Geevs]

Wow, thanks for a great article. Never heard of Seafoam til now and after seraching the 'net seems like it has it's own cult following like Auto-rx. I'd like to give this a try to clean the intake through the extra/unused port of the vacuum tree (turbo engine). How much of Seaform needs to be sucked using this method? I'm reading different ways - some say 1/3 can, others say shut off the car as soon as the liquid gets sucked in.

by the way, can throttle body cleaner (O2-friendly) be used with this method? I still have half a can TBC and would like to make use of it. Thanks!

[MBT]

Let's all stop SMILING as hard as we are and spell out what one needs to do to enjoy this miracle.

Steps.

Should you fill up with gas when you're doing this?

What needs to be disconnected? Prior to the proceedure?

How much smoke is there? Does it warrant doing this away from home? Mall parking lot after hours? Freeway? etc.

Which delivery method should be first? Which should be last?

What are the special steps for the turbo guys? Do they at all matter to the N/A crowd?

If used in oil how long should you wait before replacing oil again?

Quantity.

How much should one apply in every of the below listed methods.

Means of delivery.

I understand this can be used in the fuel system, intake tract and even oil. Are the dangers of using this in oil in older cars similar using synthetic oils in those cars (ie discovery of oil leaks that were covered up by oil buildups)?

Answers to these questions and concerns would be MOST welcome.

Thanks,

Mike

[Road Racer]

Let's all stop SMILING as hard as we are and spell out what one needs to do to enjoy this miracle.

Steps.

Should you fill up with gas when you're doing this?

What needs to be disconnected? Prior to the proceedure?

How much smoke is there? Does it warrant doing this away from home? Mall parking lot after hours? Freeway? etc.

Which delivery method should be first? Which should be last?

What are the special steps for the turbo guys? Do they at all matter to the N/A crowd?

If used in oil how long should you wait before replacing oil again?

Quantity.

How much should one apply in every of the below listed methods.

Means of delivery.

I understand this can be used in the fuel system, intake tract and even oil. Are the dangers of using this in oil in older cars similar using synthetic oils in those cars (ie discovery of oil leaks that were covered up by oil buildups)?

Answers to these questions and concerns would be MOST welcome.

Thanks,

Mike

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Hello experts, waiting for answers......... :unsure:

[Guest Guest]

Let's all stop SMILING as hard as we are and spell out what one needs to do to enjoy this miracle.

Steps.

Should you fill up with gas when you're doing this?

What needs to be disconnected? Prior to the proceedure?

How much smoke is there? Does it warrant doing this away from home? Mall parking lot after hours? Freeway? etc.

Which delivery method should be first? Which should be last?

What are the special steps for the turbo guys? Do they at all matter to the N/A crowd?

If used in oil how long should you wait before replacing oil again?

Quantity.

How much should one apply in every of the below listed methods.

Means of delivery.

I understand this can be used in the fuel system, intake tract and even oil. Are the dangers of using this in oil in older cars similar using synthetic oils in those cars (ie discovery of oil leaks that were covered up by oil buildups)?

Answers to these questions and concerns would be MOST welcome.

Thanks,

Mike

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OK, boys here you go; at least how I did it. Basically, read the directions on the can which are actually fairly clear. But with that said:

1) I first inducted SeaFoam thru the intake tract. I used about one half of a can altogether, but poured it in a small baby food jar so I could see what was going on. So step by step. First make sure that you use either an unused port on the vacuum tree or in my case, I have a piece of flex hose on the hard plastic vaccum line going to the evaporative emissions canister that I unhooked so I could attach a 6-8 inch piece of small vacuum line to that. This will be what you use to suck the SeaFoam from the glass jar. Start the car and adjust the throttle linkage to get about a 2000rpm idle (when you start sucking the SeaFoam in it will try and make the car die). If you have someone to help you, you don't really need to do the linkage. Pour enough SeaFoam in the baby food jar to fill about half of it or so. The point here is to see what you are doing, but you also don't need to use the whole can in one go. Using the small vaccum line that you have attached in some way to the tree, gradually suck the SeaFoam into the intake tract, again according to the instructions on the can. Don't get energetic. Just a gradual intake of SeaFoam until you have a baby food jar worth of it left. Now I'm going from memory here now, but I think the instructions say that once you induce the last ounce or two, shut the car off for about 15-20 minutes. This allows the Seafoam to sit on the piston tops and on the back of the intake valves and soak into any carbon that might be left there. In regard to smoke, I did not get much throughout this stage, but some folks get a fair amount. Perhaps its dependent upon the carbon buildup? Anyway, after 15-20 minutes, restart the car and keep it rev-ed to about 2000 until it runs out smooth. Now I did get quite a bit of smoke at this point initially, but it goes away as it burns off. Once everything is smooth running, shut the car down, re-attach your vacuum line, and re-adjust the throttle linkage (if you did this without an assistant). The whole process took me, 30-45 minutes including the 15-20 minute soak time.

2) As far as putting SeaFoam in the oil, its pretty basic here. Again, read the directions on the can. I put in a half of a can in the oil about 600kms before an oil change. Kept my foot out of it and did not use full boost during the 600kms. In other words, for me I just took it easy for about a week's worth of driving to work. Then I did an oil change. Although I did not see a huge effect as far as the colour of the engine internals, the engine did seem a bit quieter. On the other hand it had fresh oil in it as well. As far as whether this stuff has the same potential to be damaging in an older engine that has not been seeing synthetic or heavy detergents? Boy, that could be a possibility but I'd try just a third of a can for a short period in the engine especially if you are just trying to quiet the lifters. As I said, I did not see a huge cleaning effect either of the two times on my R, but when I did my old Range Rover, it was a bit dramatic on the effect. But Rover V8s are strange in how dirty they can look after a couple of 100K kms.

3) As far as putting it in the gas, again read the directions. Its as straight forward as throwing about a third of a can in a full to 3/4 filled tank, then running the tank to near empty. I do this maybe once a month which ends up being every 4-5 tanks of fuel, but we have dirty fuel in Ontario, so you may not have to do it that often.

In any case, I would not suggest doing all of these procedures in one weekend. Spread it out a bit and see which one works the best. Then you can use that particular one more routinely. Right now, I have found that once I did the intake tract thing a couple of times, the oil thing a couple of times, the use of Seafoam in the gas seems to work the best as a maintenance course. That is, once I cleaned up the intake tract and combustion chambers, having Seafoam in the gas seems to at least keep the chambers and piston tops fairly clean.

So, boys I hope this all helps. If you need anything more, again read the directions; but I can try and add more if you have more specfic questions. I'm no expert, and the stuff really isn't hard to use, but ask anyway and I'll tell you if I don't know.

Cheers,

[Guest Guest_billr99_*]

Sorry, boys but the forum is not accepting a log-in this AM and, of course, I didn't notice it until I posted the direction for SeaFaom use. Anyway, it was me, billr99. So if you have any questions, there you go. Just ask.

Cheers,

Bill

[G-Mick]

If someone can ship me, or find out how to send seafoam to Victoria BC, Canada, I would be extremely grateful!

Im tired of all you guys raving about how good it is when I cant even get it here. AND ALL BECAUSE THE WONT TRANSLATE THE LABEL TO FRENCH.

That darn bi-lingual law is really starting to get to me.

- G