i'm planning on picking up two bottles from work today, one for the fuel system and one for the crankcase. the fuel system is pretty self-explanitory, but the bottle has no real instructions on it, so i'm wondering what method to use for the crankcase. obviously i'll have to change the oil shortly thereafter, but how long do i let it run for with the seafoam in it? should i drive it around for like 5 or 10 mins, or just let it idle in the driveway for a while. any insight would be appreciated.

 

i dont know if i like the idea of seafoam for crank case oil.... but i have seen sofaking recommend ATF for the same purpose

 

i aggree i wanted to do this for my truck but i am afraid all the gunk that gets removed may clog the oil pick up.

 

ok, so i put the seafoam in the tank and it sputtered all the way from macon to warner robins (about 25miles) anyone had this experience before?

 

what kind of CR are you running? race fuel?

 

no, this is on my stock lb9 daily driver. i don't need to clean the system out on my race car. so this has 9.5:1 c/r and is run on 87 octane.

i'm beginning to wonder if my sputtering is timing related. i just threw my spare 3.45 posi disc 9 bolt under the car this evening to give it alittle more pep over the stock 2.73 drum 10 bolt that came factory. i really beat on it to get an idea of what to expect at the track this sunday. it banged back through the intake like a carb does if it doesn't have enough base timing. i haven't checked timing yet, but believe you me, i will tomorrow when i put my new accel super coil on. also, the dizzy cap won't secure all the way on the passngers side. i'm gonna have to tap the threads in the hole on the dizzy to put in a new bolt. i may just strap it down with some zipties till i can pull the dizzy. think this might be contributing to my hiccups?

 

is it possible that i may have clogged the fuel filter and now that's why its surging under load?

 

If you mix too much of the seafoam with too little of gas it won't run right (giving the hiccups). I've had this happen before, and the car wouldn't even idle, had to put more gas in it, then it was all good!

cj

 

Not too sure about your problems, but I have poured half the bottle down each throttle bore with good results. Also, I have never used it in the crankcase, but my buddy has an 98 Camaro SS with the LS1, and barely puts 3k on a year, so he changes his royal purple anually. He poured a can in with his new oil once, and ran it for a year untill he changed it again! He didnt even remember he put it in untill I reminded him. Car still runs great so it cant be too bad.

 

I had that happen last week. Simply replace your fuel filter. The seafoam did it's job and cleaned your fuel tank. Also - never run seafoam in your oil more than 50 miles. I remember I needed to know this years ago and I ended up finding a customer service number on a website and that's what I found out. As far as the best results - you want to suck two pints in through your pcv valve when your car is warmed up and idleing (angle the hole and let it slurp). Just before it's all gone drown the pcv valve to kill the engine - wait 15 minutes and then re-start and take a drive. It'll smoke like crazy and then you'll have a smoother idle and a better running engine and for some reason in my camaro it made the air colder too. Go figure. - Nate

 

ok, still having crazy stumble issues. i changed the fuel filter, o2 sensor (cause i had a code 13, still have it...) just put fresh oil in her. it's got a brand new accel super coil. it's now throwing a code 42, which is the electronic spark timing. i noticed on the way to my folks house today that the "gray" connector on the coil was loose (i found this after the car stalled on the highway). well, the connector is broken. for a quick fix till i can get a new pig tail, i zip tied it to the coil. not sure if this was the right thing to do or not.

i thought for a second that i didn't have enough fuel mixed with the seafoam so i filled it again yesterday morning. then i thought that the stumbling might be related to spark knock (i put 87 in her, previous owner only put 93) so i put some 104 octane booster in it. so now i've got a conglomeration of stuff in my tank and i'm beginning to wonder if i just simply have a bad fuel mixture now, lol! thing is, i don't really have the funding to justify pulling all the fuel out and putting fresh 93 in (which i'll use on my next full tank)

 

for the crank case don't drive it just let it idel. driving it with thin oil under load may spin a bearing. keep in mind if the seals are old removing the gunk may start new leaks

 

OK I hate to sound like a newb, but what the hell is Seafoam? What all does it do? Cause I'm headed back to the states in a month and my cars been sitting pretty much for the last years, and it sounds l;ike I might want to use some. Some basic info please. Thanks.

 

It's a can of magic liquid. You can add it to:
-A vacuum line while running to clean the intake manifold and combustion chambers (common use)
-gas tank to clean everything from tank to combustion chambaewr
-engine oil, to clean the lubrication system.
Comes in a white metal can, about 750ml I think, they say you need one cup per use, so one can would do do all three uses if you want.
Through the vacuum lines is the most common use I believe. The car will smoke like a banshee for a few minutes, then you know it's squeaky clean inside.

 

I love the stuff, I usually let it sit for a few hours.

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YES..........Let the engine suck it up from a vacum line

 

ANY vacuum line?

 

Yea, any one will do. I'd use a small 3/16" one rather than say, the 3/8" brake booster one... You want to let it suck it up at a rate that WON'T let the engine stall. Let it drink slowly, while you hold the RPMs up so it won't stall. Then once you're almost out of the stuff, FLOOD THE ENGINE with the fluid so it stalls. Let it die.
Let it sit for a minute, then crank it over and get it started. It'll smoke like a chimney for a little bit.

 

you will get better results letting it sit for 1/2 hour beofre restarting. It will give more time to soak/loosen the carbon.

 

I've used Seafoam for years. On newer engines (OBD2) when the "multi cyl misfire" code shows up, add seafoam and it goes away.
It may take 2 times too get all the misfires to stop.
It will also show if you have a problem cylinder which keeps missing (bad plug or wire). If on the other hand it doesn't help, the problem is mechanical in the cap/rotor/wires/coil/pic-up.

 

subscrib

 

According to Sea Foams site, this is the stuff to use to clean combustion chambers.


DEEP CREEP Carbon CleanerGives smoother idle
Cleans intake valves and pistons Cures hesitations and pings
Restores power and pickup


With engine warm, keep on high idle and spray through carburetor, or throttle body throat. If engine is port injected, use only vacuum lines that feed all cylinders. When engine is loaded up, turn off ignition. Restart engines after 5 minutes. Make sure exhaust is well ventilated as fumes will be extreme for a short time. Ideal for small engines. Use a Schraeder Valve hose attachment if needed for outboard motors. For further cleaning, use SEA FOAM MOTOR TREATMENT in tank.

 

There's nothing magic about it. It's just light oil, naphtha, and alcohol.

 

i might do this before my car sees the garage for the winter. I used it on my old Elky. poured it through the carb (whole bottle) and let it sit for 15-20 minutes. Started it up and the engine threw out all kinds of black crap. it works well but for a crab i found water poured slowly down the carb works better. never did it through a vac line before though.

 

hmmm may look into this one for my ultra high mileage L98 haha

 

Something like that. I think it might actually be mostly acetone, and like you mentioned a light oil for lubrication and some alcohol (probably methanol) to give it the “drying” characteristic.

The reason I suspect acetone is that my uncle is a bit of a small engine guru and recommends against it and berryman’s B-12 on newer small engines because they use plastic tanks and parts that acetone dissolves and he’s found that seafoam does the same thing.

mw66nova, I wouldn’t be surprised if you found that you’ve dissolved some plastic or rubber diaphragm/seal other small bit and possibly even plugged up something downstream of it with the bit left over.

 

Just seafoam'd my car, the results are drastic. Increased throttle response, a hell of a lot smoother idle, and the butt-in-the-seat dyno says ive increased acceleration too (by a little bit, probably psychosematic).

About to go change the oil, drove it for 20'ish miles.

 

Which part of the carb should I pour it in?

Also if I put it in the crank case and then drive straight to get my oil changed will it work right? should I put a whole can in the oil and one into the carb?

If im doing it in the carb should I do it into a vaccum line too? whole can?

Or should I just use one can amongst those places?

 

hold up, when pouring it into a throttle body, do you do it slowly while the engine is running, or like dump it in with the enigne off then let it soak in and try to start it? cuz i think that would kill it

 

While it is running, through a vacuum line. Once the can is all in, shut it off, let it sit for 15 minutes, then restart.

 

i picked some up and read the directions on the can and it said 1/3 of the can, so i just slowly poured it into my throttle body through the top, scared me though cuz it started choking for obvious reasons lol, i let it sit for 10 minutes cuz the bottle only said 5 (i think) and then i started it up and saw all that nasty smoke come out...it was pretty cool actually. RUns better, my idle is smoother too, now ijust have to get my timing right and it'll be good

 

hey matt did you ever get this fixed?

 

MAN! I just got some and tried sucking it through a vacum line, but it wouldnt suck it out so I just poured it into the carb slowy and WOW!, so much smoke, way more than I was expecting. It was kind of cool though, Im about to go start it again and go down the road......How often should you do this and when i put it in the crank case will it be fine to drive straight to get the oil changed and how much should I pour in there?

 

could you poor it into the TB?

 

I just did this to my 02 chevy silverado and my wifes ws-6 and wow what a diff. I put it in the crank case in the T/a going to leave it in for a few miles then change the oil. seeing if it helps out a tick I have in the TA.

 

whoa there fella slow down, are you trying to say magic does NOT exist? If magic doesn't exist how do you explain santa being able to visit all the children of the world in one night? Huh? Does it involve light oil, naphtha, and alchohal? I THINK NOT!

 

I dont see why now, plus it says too on the bottle......


how much should I pour into the crankcase?

 

i have used sea foam on a few different cars and it has done me good. i wouldnt recommend dumping a whole bottle in the gas tank unless it is full (from past experiance). it has always worked well going down carbs and vacuum lines on fuel injected cars. the only thing i havent done is use it in the crank case, i have heard horror stories about spun berrings and leaks after seafoaming the crank case. if i were to do it i definietly wouldnt leave it in there for more than ten minutes.

 

putting any cleaner, ATF, Diesel in the oil has always had mixed reviews, as said before some of that gunk is preventing leaks, if you run a good oil and change it regulary with a good filter, it will adventually get some of the nasty stuff out, just dont run quaker mistake.

As for pouring it into the intake or a vac line, its like a bottle of magical potion that holds mysterious powers, LOL , BTW you can also pour some in bump the motor, pour, bump, etc etc, just DON'T use alot, this will break up carbon on top pd the pistons and on the back of valves

 

Just finally used it through my intake and I'm definitly SOLD. Works great smoothed out my idle (which definitly helps when shutting it down from 70+ MPH), and gave me a little better throttle response. I've done the tank also, but theres just something that doesn't seem right about sticking this stuff in the crank. Maybe it's just me, but I also don't want to find every oil leak this this thing ever had all spouting up at once.

 

I did do it to the wifes WS and it seemd to help out. the engine had only 80k on it and was wel maintained just wanted to see if it would help and it did. I did the full treatment and would do it again. GREAT stuff

 

i love it, this stuff is god like to me lol, my dad didnt believe me so i put some into his turbo diesel ford and he freaked when he saw the smoke totally flipped out and i was like no shut up chill out for ten seconds! Then he was fuming over the smoke and we took it for a drive after it stopped and he was just like...well....its smoother...i guess... haha best thing i've heard out of him yet

 

thats awesome, you just made my night...

 

Once I buy it, I usually just use it, hate when you let it sit and it expires on the table lol

 

I bench cleaned some injectors with seafoam, and it seemed to work well. Although I tested some on an intake valve with lots of miles and crud (week long soak), and it seemed like it had a hard time breaking up the gunk.

 

I have heard of seafoam but could someone please explain exactly what it is good for?

 

Did you read this thread?

 

i did, but it had a bunch of small ignition issues. i've gotten it all squared around now. it's a full bolt on lb9 with a 3.45 posi disc 9 bolt, it's a FUN car to drive, lol! i'm planning an l98 camshaft swap and i wanna talk my dad into a 5spd swap...then it'll be well on it's way to the ultimate lb9 camaro!

 

glad to hear it matt, sounds like it has realy turned around since you have had it

 

any pics of that there maro?