Anyone tried Seafoam?

[Stinsok]

We bought a 1998 Ford Explorer for my kid. It's got 178,000 miles. No knock or ticks, doesn't smoke and runs reasonably well. Other than oil changes I am sure noting else has been done to the engine with the exception of (what used to be called) the distributor.

I am torn on trying Seafoam. Should I skip it, or does it rock?

[Mike N]

Never used it.

If all seems well, leave well enough alone, imo.

[Jay Ralston]

I used it in one of my vehicles. It does okay.

[hdracer]

It NEVER hurts to run a can through the fuel system now and then. Dump 1/2 a can in the oil and drive it around a little (enough to get the motor hot) before you change the oil will help clean out some sludge.
40 years of building racing and high performance street engines, I swear by it.

[L-A]

My brother says it helped a bunch on his last car (a pretty nice 190E)

[Nappa]

We sell a lot of it at work.

[Truktek2]

Originally Posted by Mike N

Never used it.

If all seems well, leave well enough alone, imo.

+1

[Mike N]

Originally Posted by Nappa

We sell a lot of it at work.

Snake oil sales is a big business. Not saying Seafoam specifically is snake oil, but I see an awful lot of products on shelves claiming to do this and that to your tired, noisey and inefficient engine. If people maintained their cars, 95% of these magic products could be removed from shelves.

[Mike N]

Originally Posted by hdracer

It NEVER hurts to run a can through the fuel system now and then.

Agreed to a point. You certainly won't hurt anything, but anyone looking for some miracle performance or economy gains by simply running this (or any other) stuff is simply fooling themselves.

[Linas]

I used to run it through my old turbo volvo. Half a can would go in the gas tank, half a can i would suck into the intake. Not really sure if i noticed any specific gains or better fuel economy, but the smoke it makes was always fun.

[Wyrm74]

I used to have problems with the gas in my motorcycle "going bad" or gathering moisture, whatever, over the winter. I would always have to drain the gas and put in fresh stuff. I started using seafoam a few years ago and I don't have to do that anymore. Not sure how it works or what it does, but it works!

[hdracer]

Originally Posted by Mike N

Agreed to a point. You certainly won't hurt anything, but anyone looking for some miracle performance or economy gains by simply running this (or any other) stuff is simply fooling themselves.

I have found it to work as good as the top of the line fuel & intake system cleaners. I use some in every other tank in my performance engines and about every 5-10 tankfuls in my production vehicles . It does a very good job of keeping the injectors and valves clean. The ethanol in the gas these days will mess up the injectors in a motor that sits a lot ( Hot Rod). When the port side of your intake valves build up with carbon and crud it kills the air flow through the intake system. The trick hi performance heads on a performance engine will turn to new stock air flow numbers with a bunch or crud on them.

It will not give you more horsepower (I have found that using a little in the gas will allow me to run a couple of degrees more timing, that can help build a little more HP & torque on the dyno)

It will help you keep the power that you have, or restore lost power from intake build up and cleaner injectors.

I just pulled the heads off my motor to check the valve springs and valves. The springs were sacking but the valves,seats and ports looked like I had run the motor on the dyno and pulled the heads. That is after 20,000 street miles.

[MJ5150]

I ran it through my Dodge Ram went I got it. It had about 85,000 miles on it. I wouldn't say it made a huge difference in performance, but the smoke show was way cool for about 15 minutes. Actually, I did notice it ran smoother and acceleration was smoother as well.

Edit....I sucked it in through a vacuum hose.

-Mike

[AciDBatH666]

I wrote a big How-To for doing a Seafoam flush years ago on S-Series.org where I'm still a Tech Editor. I've Seafoamed a few of my older S10s and it really helped to clean them out a bit.
Like previously mentioned, I'd usually buy several cans at a time once a year or so.
Put half a can in my gas tank, half a can in the oil about 100-200 miles before I needed an oil change. I'd take another half while the motor was running, and take off the brake booster line. It'll idle kinda crazy, but put the seafoam in a cup and let it suck it up thru the brake booster hose. Don't completely submerse it or it'll kill on you.
Let it drink it up without killing it. Let it run for a bit. Then turn it off, let it sit for an hour or so.
Crank it up, and idle around your neighborhood to let the smoke billow out. It'll last a few minutes. From there let it cool down and then change your oil.

I'd also pull off the EGR because that was usually where the biggest clog is. If you've got the means and can get a new upper manifold gasket, crack the manifold off the motor and look for buildup near where the EGR attaches to it.
The EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculator) throws air back into your mix and builds up with carbon pretty bad on higher mileage engines.
I took mine out on two of my S10s and soaked em overnight with seafoam (with the electronics not submerged of course), and used a wire brush to get out what I could by hand.
Worked wonders clearing out those cavities. Better throttle response, mileage got a little bump. It was worth it to me just for a few bucks each time.

[MJ5150]

I should add......on the Dodge forum I visit, some guys reported problems after Seafoaming a motor with that many miles. Something about breaking up those deposits, then having them get stuck in other parts of the motor. I am no mechanic, so I am starting to talk over my head. I better stop now.

-Mike

[Mike N]

Originally Posted by AciDBatH666

I'd also pull off the EGR because that was usually where the biggest clog is. If you've got the means and can get a new upper manifold gasket, crack the manifold off the motor and look for buildup near where the EGR attaches to it.
The EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculator) throws air back into your mix and builds up with carbon pretty bad on higher mileage engines.
I took mine out on two of my S10s and soaked em overnight with seafoam (with the electronics not submerged of course), and used a wire brush to get out what I could by hand.
Worked wonders clearing out those cavities. Better throttle response, mileage got a little bump. It was worth it to me just for a few bucks each time.

The EGR introduces exhaust gases back into the combustion chamber to reduce oxides of nitrogen, or NOx.

High mileage or not, an S-10 seems to always carbon up the EGR passages, just like Ford 3.0 DOHC, 4.6 SOHC and 5.4 SOHC engines always do. Design flaw perhaps, but pulling parts and cleaning them is the way to go, I don't think any amount of Seafoam or equivalent is going to clean those areas.

[Mike N]

Originally Posted by hdracer

I have found it to work as good as the top of the line fuel & intake system cleaners. I use some in every other tank in my performance engines and about every 5-10 tankfuls in my production vehicles . It does a very good job of keeping the injectors and valves clean. The ethanol in the gas these days will mess up the injectors in a motor that sits a lot ( Hot Rod). When the port side of your intake valves build up with carbon and crud it kills the air flow through the intake system. The trick hi performance heads on a performance engine will turn to new stock air flow numbers with a bunch or crud on them.

It will not give you more horsepower (I have found that using a little in the gas will allow me to run a couple of degrees more timing, that can help build a little more HP & torque on the dyno)

It will help you keep the power that you have, or restore lost power from intake build up and cleaner injectors.

I just pulled the heads off my motor to check the valve springs and valves. The springs were sacking but the valves,seats and ports looked like I had run the motor on the dyno and pulled the heads. That is after 20,000 street miles.

Are you doing more bike or car work? We're still playing with carbureted hot rods here, and we will never see the carboned up intake runners and valves because were running wet manifolds.

Even on an injected car, you'd be surprised at how much crap can build up on the floor of an intake or the back of an intake valve before airflow and/or performance would suffer. Not that having crap in your engine is ideal to begin with, but I think you get my point.

[Mike N]

Originally Posted by MJ5150

I should add......on the Dodge forum I visit, some guys reported problems after Seafoaming a motor with that many miles. Something about breaking up those deposits, then having them get stuck in other parts of the motor. I am no mechanic, so I am starting to talk over my head. I better stop now.

-Mike

Like anything, Mike, you're always going to have someone somewhere that subscribes to the "if a little is enough, then too much is just right" mentality. If you let the engine suck an entire bottle of any intake type cleaner in too quickly, you're going to have problems. My guess is operator error versus product induced failure.

With that being said, I'm still not a fan of cranking all sorts of chemicals into a high mileage (and quite possibly neglected) engine.

[hbarcat]

In my experience of working on both newer and older engines I will simply say that no aftermarket chemicals or products are ever needed if the engines and related systems are properly maintained. The original owner and I once pulled the head on a 1.9L Ford Escort GT engine with 240,000 miles on it and the engine looked like new because it was well taken care of and never abused. The measured wear was minimal and I kept the car in great running condition until I sold it with over 330,000 miles. I expect this to be more or less typical of all modern engines.

If you have an engine that has been abused for awhile and is all gunked up with deposits, simply cleaning it with chemicals might clean out the crud, but it won't do anything toward fixing all the worn out parts and that are most likely also present and possibly ready to fail.