Proper use of Seafoam

[Grog6]

Several people have mentioned sluggish performance, pinging, and generally blah performance.
Our cars accumulate carbon, due to the EGR reflux, the leaky valve stem seals, and leaky rings, which stack up over time.
The best cure for this, other than a brand new motor, is seafoam.
Before you start, you need:
Oil and filter for oil change
1 can of seafoam

To properly do this, you start with a warm engine.
Pull the brake vacuum line off, carefully, while the car is running. stick it down into the can, barely sucking any into the line. Do not feed it enough to hydrolock your engine. you may have to manipulate the throttle a bit to keep it running.
keep going until the can is half full, or slightly less, then dunk it in deep, killing the engine with the liquid. Please don't give it a cylinder full at once, that will be bad.
Leave it for 15 minutes; Pour the remainder of the seafoam into the oil. The oil will come out black as hell. After 15 minutes of soak time, start the car.
If you have done it correctly, when your car starts it will Smoke like a motherfucker, and fog the entire neighborhood. Warn your neighbors beforehand, you don't want the FD showing up. It smells like damp kerosene. It goes away quickly.
Change your oil, all the crap that didn't go out the exhaust is in the oil.
Take your car for a drive, and drive the rest of the carbon out.

 

[Grog6]

One note:
If you get an egr flow message right after, it means a glob of carbon shit is plugging the orifice in the egr tube,between the two small lines from it to the egr sensor.
The pressure drop across the orifice is how it measures flow, and if it pegs due to being blocked, you get an error. I cleared mine by loosening the top fitting and pouring chemtool b12 into the egr. This is not good for cats, but removing the egr tube is risky, they are unobtanium.
You may have O2 sensor probs, depending on how much crap is stuck to them. It could burn off or not. Give it a few days before you replace them.

 

[Boston-Bull]

I put a can in our tanks about every other month here, depending on use.

 

[Grog6]

That can help, I've heard. But when I cleaned and rebuilt injectors, it did not remove nearly as much as the chemtool B12 did. The chemtool made black crap drip out.

 

[LukesCougar]

That can help, I've heard. But when I cleaned and rebuilt injectors, it did not remove nearly as much as the chemtool B12 did. The chemtool made black crap drip out.

I remember watching a video of someone explaining how good b12 is vs seafoam. The conclusion was one serves a good purpose in 2 strokes, and the other out preforms in just about anything else

 

[Grog6]

My 2 strokes got the carbon chipped out when I replaced rings/ pistons and often, the jug, lol.
Never seafoamed a bike, or other car. But none had EGR, either.

 

[White Lincoln]

Grog, what is the difference of putting the seafoam in the Intake as apposed to the vacuum line? Unless your process is to clean the engine, valves, etc and the intake version is clean the upper intake?

On a side note: as I had mentioned earlier in one of the post, using Lucas Fuel Treatment made a big diff in how my car preformed. But that was driving the car non-stop for several hours at high speeds, which I think was a basic factor in how well the fuel system was cleaned.

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[Grog6]

Grog, what is the difference of putting the seafoam in the Intake as apposed to the vacuum line? Unless your process is to clean the engine, valves, etc and the intake version is clean the upper intake?

To clean out the intake, pouring seafoam in it isn't going to help, it's likely to hydrolock your engine, and break something. Unless IDK what you're saying. You use the vacuum line to thee brake booster. If you want the oil out of your intake, you take it off and pour it out, on a 4.6. Yes, there's that much in the plenum on bottom.

On a side note: as I had mentioned earlier in one of the post, using Lucas Fuel Treatment made a big diff in how my car preformed. But that was driving the car non-stop for several hours at high speeds, which I think was a basic factor in how well the fuel system was cleaned.

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[1997ThunderbirdLXV6]

Seafoam makes an aerosol version. Wouldn't that be easier to use?

 

[Zep5.0]

Seafoam is great to add to your gas, and also to your oil. I was able to free a sticky lifter using it in the oil. I think I used 1/4-1/3 of a can in place of a bit of the oil. I did it with a few hundred miles to go in the oil change, that way I didn't run on thinner oil for a long time.

I didn't know they had an aerosol version, but that might work well as an intake cleaner. Generally speaking, I would take the TB off and clean it. I wouldn't worry about a little oil in the intake. If you are, a catch can makes a lot of sense.

 

[Grog6]

IMHO, 4.6 cars need a catch can; I'm trying to figure out a 'full' light. The pass vc fillsWhile hooning,lol.

 

[Grog6]

I've never used the aerosol, but I doubt it will work. If you don't get the neighborhood smokescreen, it didn't work.

 

[Kurt K]

When I was a teenager and old school mechanic friend of the family had me change the oil in my camaro with 4 qts of oil and 1 qt of transmission fluid. Was told transmission fluid cleans out the gunk in the oil system. I don't remember the mileage limit was, either 100 or 500 miles, but it did help my camaro. I've never actually tried Seafoam.

 

[Grog6]

Adding atf when your seals leak helps.