sea foam

jimwjarmour · Sep 21, 2019

Hi Guys, I was wondering has anyone used seafoam, to clean the carbon from pistons and valves?,I will strip my r100s engine heads and cylinders this winter and wanted to start with a cleaner engine internals so run it for a about 1000 kms with seafoam in the gas tank, before stripping her, what do you think, thanks in advance Jimmy :scratch

20774 · Sep 21, 2019

A few past threads on sea foam are shown in the Similar Threads pane below.

eurotourer · Sep 21, 2019

I tried it on my barnfind R75/6. The left exhaust was smoking a little.
I added 1/2 cup of sea foam + 1/2 cup marvel mystery oil to the engine oil after
I sucked out one cup of engine oil. Ran it for about 100 miles. Smoking is gone
and a leak down test showed 10% leakage. (Left and right).
I am glad I tried this rather than taking half the engine apart.

toooldtocare · Sep 21, 2019

I use it in engines that have sat around with gas in the carbs. Most recently in our neighbors generator that they put away a couple of years ago without draining the gas. About a cup of Seafoam to a gallon of gas or so and a couple of hours running had it running like new.

nickrides · Sep 21, 2019

I watched a YouTube vid a couple of months ago where a guy ran a test running Seafoam, Marvel Mystery oil and Techron and plain gas through a lawn mower, took off the head each time, cleaned it and put on a new head gasket and reran the engine with different additives. I saw very little if any difference in any additive vs plain gas.
That said I do run Seafoam and Techron through my vehicles and bikes every year, trying to stave off any injector clogging.

nickrides · Sep 21, 2019

A few years ago Paul Glaves wrote in his column Benchwrenching about his wife Voni riding into a downpour and her bike shut off. Turned out the water ingestion caused a piece of carbon to lodge under the exhaust valve causing the engine to lose compression.
In my old VW days there was discussion about this "water injection" carbon cleaning of the combustion chambers, at full throttle.
So apparently there is some credence to this theory.
How you would get water in there is a interesting question.
Coors Light anyone?
That's like making love in a canoe
Fu@#ing close to water.
Sorry couldn't help myself.

mlytle · Sep 21, 2019

seafoam is either snake oil or a miracle depending on which internet forum you are reading. its virtues or failures have been debated ad nauseum for decades with zero conclusive evidence either way from what i have seen.

BC1100S · Sep 21, 2019

mlytle said:
seafoam is either snake oil or a miracle depending on which internet forum you are reading. its virtues or failures have been debated ad nauseum for decades with zero conclusive evidence either way from what i have seen.

I think its miracle snake oil - or a waste of money.

I can provide anecdotal evidence that Techron, on the other hand, actually works as intended.

(I sense a thread similar to synthetic versus dino versus diesel oil starting.

)

Omega Man · Sep 21, 2019

nickrides said:
In my old VW days there was discussion about this "water injection" carbon cleaning of the combustion chambers, at full throttle.

In the days of older design engines it was reasonably common to hold the throttle at half to three quarters and pour a cup of water slowly down the carburetor. IIRC, it did some good. With the sensors and the catalytic converters I would have to do some thinking before I tried it on a modern engine.

As far as Sea Foam, I'm not familiar with it reducing any amount of carbon in an engine that is already carboned up. I always saw it as an additive that would help stave off the effects- or at least some of the effects, of ethanol. I use it along with Stabil and Techron when storing engines for the season.......along with 105 octane no ethanol racing fuel. :burnout

I also add Mystery Oil to fuel tanks (in the gas) that are made of steel to slow flash rust. The regular pump fuels seem to be "iffy" although brands like Mobile claim "cleaner engines" if you use their fuel. Perhaps they will stay "cleaner" but as for cleaning up what is already there, maybe a little.
OM

pglaves · Sep 21, 2019

nickrides said:
A few years ago Paul Glaves wrote in his column Benchwrenching about his wife Voni riding into a downpour and her bike shut off. Turned out the water ingestion caused a piece of carbon to lodge under the exhaust valve causing the engine to lose compression.
.

Yes indeed with about 300K on the bike.

swall · Sep 22, 2019

If you check the MSDS, you will see the Sea Foam contains IPA ( isopropyl alcohol) and a small amount of secret ingredient. IPA is also used in Heet additive. Heet has been on the market for decades.

jimwjarmour · Sep 22, 2019

thanks everyone

thanks Guys , will hold off for a while, I want to strip the engine to fix oil leaks pushrod tubes and cylinder base not quite in mood yet maybe next month,once again thanks to everyone ,Jimmy

mlytle · Sep 22, 2019

Omega Man said:
As far as Sea Foam, I'm not familiar with it reducing any amount of carbon in an engine that is already carboned up. I always saw it as an additive that would help stave off the effects- or at least some of the effects, of ethanol. I use it along with Stabil and Techron when storing engines for the season.......along with 105 octane no ethanol racing fuel.
I also add Mystery Oil to fuel tanks (in the gas) that are made of steel to slow flash rust.
OM

with all those additives, is there any room in the tank for gas? :ha

Omega Man · Sep 22, 2019

mlytle said:
with all those additives, is there any room in the tank for gas?

Yeah I know.....It sounds goofy but I have good luck with the mixture. I have a John Deer 2E blower (essentially an Echo 210E) circa 1988 with the original carb (pre CARB :ha

) still running.

Looks like this-

Damn messing with Ethanol and "starvation" jetting.

OM

mlytle · Sep 22, 2019

Omega Man said:
Yeah I know.....It sounds goofy but I have good luck with the mixture.

need to add STP and Slick50 to round out the complete mixture.... :dance

BC1100S · Sep 22, 2019

mlytle said:
need to add STP and Slick50 to round out the complete mixture....

Omega Man · Sep 22, 2019

mlytle said:
need to add STP and Slick50 to round out the complete mixture....

I remember when STP had a “coin” dollar inside each “dealership” can as an incentive for those servicing vehicles to “sell” STP. :gerg

OM

FELAW · Sep 22, 2019

Seaforam, humm?

swall said:
If you check the MSDS, you will see the Sea Foam contains IPA ( isopropyl alcohol) and a small amount of secret ingredient. IPA is also used in Heet additive. Heet has been on the market for decades.

Isopropyl, as in alcohol derived additives, apparently combines with water to make a combustible solution, hence winter/storage fuel additives that are basically alcohol. Up here in the great white north, they change, with additives, the composition of gas from summer to winter to facilitate cold starting and running. Sea foam, like Techron, works to, among other things, neutralize water in the fuel and add a bit of lubrication. I use it in my snow blower and garden tractor because I'm too lazy to drain the gas tanks and waste what's in them. In the old days, we used to have fuel get "skunky" from sitting around too long, but in this day and age that doesn't seem to be a problem. It seems that gas, especially treated with Sea Foam, will sit for several months and still be ok (all anecdotal and not at all scientific).

1074 · Sep 23, 2019

mlytle said:
need to add STP and Slick50 to round out the complete mixture....

Reminds me of Ez Berg of the seat making fame. He used Castrol R (bean oil) as a gas additive. I don't know if it did anything or not but you could sure smell it when he started his bike!

jimwjarmour · Sep 23, 2019

oil thread !!!

Boy it seems like I have started something !,well some I nodded my head at, some I scratched my head at ,and others I laughed my head off !!!but I thank all for the input, will put some in the tank this week as my son and I are off to the Haliburton highlands ontario, this weekend hope there,s no smoke trail, we used to put cod liver oil captules into the gas tank of our british twins back in the day mine a 1962 bsa RGS replica, to make them smell like castrol R racing oil ,once again thanks to everyone Jimmy :wave

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