fun with seafoam!

[ScottyB]

ok, so i've heard all this good stuff about seafoam and how it can clean your engine out. after reading a bunch of testimonies from audi guys i figured 6 bucks for a can...why not try it. pictures really don't do much justice because the sun was low and washed out the smoke a bit. the results:

immediately after firing up my car after letting it sit for 15 minutes after ingesting the seafoam:


10 seconds after:


20 seconds after:


no more pics of the car after that, because i realized my door was left open and my interior filled up with what is probably toxic smoke :lol:

so i drive around, and it smoking a bit but after 2 minutes or so, its done -- definitely smoked the most on start up. i guess my engine was fairly clean, but then again its my first time doing the procedure so maybe i didn't put enough in the engine, or let it sit long enough.


THE GRAND FINALE

so i tried it on the explorer. i figured that if the audi smoked a bit, the explorer would be x10....and boy was i right. 95k miles of gunk must have really made a home in there....

right after start up...not much at all. the calm before the storm.


i pulled out of my apt. complex and looked behind me...oh man this is embarrassing. the photo does no justice, it was a WALL


5 minutes later...still going...i had resorted to pulling into back roads because people were literally swerving around me. i felt bad but that didn't stop me from laughing the whole time


anyway, i guess it was worth it. the audi doesn't feel much different except now i have a nice annoying CEL light on, but on the other hand the explorer feels like its idling as if it came of the assembly line. seems to fit the bill, because i drive the audi kinda hard but the explorer never sees any kind of hard driving at all, rarely goes above 2500 rpm. the drama was fun though

[D_Eclipse9916]

Watch out, seafoam is highly abrasive and can cause leaks to develop in a lot of gaskets.

[.RJ]

Watch out, seafoam is highly abrasive and can cause leaks to develop in a lot of gaskets.

What types of gaskets? I've never had a problem with seafoam.

[Maengelito]

scotty, did you put it in with the oil, with the gas, or suck it in through the intake?

[ScottyB]

scotty, did you put it in with the oil, with the gas, or suck it in through the intake?

just intake.

in the past i've tried it in the tank and the oil in the A4. tank didn't do anything i could percieve and when i put it in the oil, i did not notice the lifters get any quieter, which i was expecting because they are quite loud (thought they might be gunked up and causing the loudness).

Watch out, seafoam is highly abrasive and can cause leaks to develop in a lot of gaskets.

i did a good amount of research before doing the intake treatment because i was skeptical and did not hear anything like that. thanks for the heads up though, i'll be keep an eye out for fluid or vacuum leaks.

[Jeff]

I've always wondered about this stuff. A lot of products like this, additives in general, are "not for use in turbocharged cars." What exactly is it supposed to do? The van smokes like that at idle anyway...no need to help it

[ViPER1313]

So what you are saying is that the lifters are not any quieter, you don't see any extra performance and you have a CEL now?? Makes me want to Seafoam my engine :? . Any product that claims it can be mixed with gas, oil and be ingested in the intake gets a big :bootyshake: from me.

[xvxax]

I've had a can of Seafoam for like 2 or 3 years now. I'm honestly too afraid to put it in my car.
It clears carbon deposits off your valves and such, right?

[Jeff]

It sounds like snake oil to me.

[ViPER1313]

I've had a can of Seafoam for like 2 or 3 years now. I'm honestly too afraid to put it in my car.
It clears carbon deposits off your valves and such, right?

STP Complete fuel system cleaner has been proven to do that, without all the smoke and CELs. My intake was not all that dirty after 150k??? miles, so I don't see a need to use Seafoam.

[ScottyB]

So what you are saying is that the lifters are not any quieter, you don't see any extra performance and you have a CEL now??

lifters in these cars are always loud...i was just hopeful it would do something. performance...no seat of the pants gain really. and my car always gets CEL's, damn bosch ecu is so sensitive (i gave it a little too much into the intake and it stuttered a bit -- misfire code. user error i think, and i already cleared it).

now the explorer...it DID make a difference in that car.

i'm not really praising seafoam or knocking it, just sharing my experience because many people swear by it (at least what i've read). my conclusion is skip it unless your car is really old, and even then a tune up should be more helpful.

[Andy]

Most "cleaners" are unnecessary as there are detergents in gasoline. However, it's pretty much all the same stuff. Napthenic acid is the generic name but it is the key ingredient. They smoky effect can be replicated by spraying the throttle plate with carb cleaner, if enough builds up inside the manifold, it will pour out white smoke as well.

[PDenbigh]

I used Seafoam in our 1992 Explorer with 151k and it made a big difference in idle, running RPM smoothness, and MPG.

Used it in my '92 E36 and it also helped idle and running smoothness, but didn't have a good basis to compare to regarding performance.

Used it in my buddies A4 and he reported improved idle but not much else.

So, it's good for idle ;-).

The amount of stuff it blows out makes me "think" that it is doing something at least.

[Kaan]

i had ZERO smoke when i seafoamed the CRX... intake, oil and gas... so its not seafoam that is buring and making the smoke.

[BLINGMW]

I was pretty dissapointed! The only car I was willing to pour that crap in was my cane dented beater 318, and it didn't smoke at all! Just dribbled out the tailpipe.

[Andy]

i had ZERO smoke when i seafoamed the CRX... intake, oil and gas... so its not seafoam that is buring and making the smoke.

It only smokes when you add it through the intake and if it didn't smoke, then you didn't put enough in.

[BLINGMW]

In my case, I measured out at least what it called for, warmed up the car first, sucked it all into the intake as fast as it would take it while barely running, shut it off, wait, then startup again. Just like the instructions indicate. Not a whisp of smoke. :? Guess that 230k mile, unmaintained, poor running 318 was squeaky clean in there! :lol:

OTOH, my coworker did it to his old Jag and it dissapeared in the cloud. :lol:

[Kaan]

1/3 of the can in the intake, 1/3 in the oil, 1/3 in the gas....

1.6L, 4 quarts of oil, and 10 gallons of gas... i would think one can would do the job.

[Evan]

seafoam is fantastic. You should see the mosquito fogging I gave my old neighborhood on multiple occasions. It was so bad I couldnt see out the back window.

[Andy]

Wait till it's really cold outside, like around freezing. The smoke hangs really low like a smoke machine except toxic.