Just Sea Foam'd my engine

[cooljess76]

Pretty easy to do. 2 cans of Sea Foam $6.98ea and about 8 gallons of gas $3.49 gal. All you need is a piece of hose and a really foggy day with no cops on the road.

I poured 1 can in the gas tank, and half of the other can in the oil. Then disconnected the brake booster hose @ the intake manifold, connected an 18" length of clear hose to the fitting that the brake booster hose was connected to, started the car and had a friend keep the RPMs around 1500 while I let the motor suck down the other half of the second can. I was pretty suprised at how much suction the intake manifold produced. I never actually had to submerge the hose into the cocktail as the engine litterally inhaled it from about an inch away. The car started smoking pretty bad about halfway through the drink. Once it was finished consuming the 8oz of Sea Foam, I shut her down and waited about 45 minutes.

I timed things perfectly as 8:00pm rolled around, the fog rolled in from the beach and the sun went down. Took her for a 10 mile stretch down the 101fwy and back, no more smoke and she revs smooth and evenly.

The motor only has 28k miles on it since it was replaced under warranty by BMW when the original owner had it. Tomorrow I'll put about 100 or so miles on it delivering pizzas, Thursday the o2 sensors that I ordered from KO Performance should arrive at which time I'll install them, change the oil and take her in for a smog check. Not very exciting and no real noticable results. Probably didn't need it, but I feel better knowing that my engine is clean on the inside. Especially since I stretched this oil service interval about a thousand miles further than I usually do.

[Diego318]

what is the perpose of Sea Foam? just to get it to rev smooth and evenly?

[cooljess76]

It cleans the gums, carbon and varnish off of engine internals, and helps pass emissions tests. The bottle says it cures hesitations, pinging and rough idle. It's functions are: injector cleaner, carburetor cleaner, fuel stabilizer, frees lifters & rings, de-icer anti gel, upper cylinder lube and dries oil & fuel(removes moisture). It also states that it increases RPM's, vaccume and compression, lubricates upper cylinders, cleans intake valves and pistons and restores power and pickup.

It's been talked about before on here and other forums. I haven't heard anything negative about it. My engine's practically new, but if anyone out there has a tired engine I'd say give it a shot. It's relatively inexpensive and a pretty painless operation. It took me all of 1hr and most of that was waiting for the chemicals to do the work. It's recommended to follow with an oil change after about 100 miles and the bottle says it's safe for the o2 sensors.

I just figured that since one of my o2 sensors has been bad for a while, I'm due for an oil change as well as an emissions test, I'd "flush the system" while I'm at it.

[Diego318]

cool. I'll have to try it out some time.

[PettitWC]

never heard of it but now i want to do it

[pnosker]

There's an article in the KB about it. It helped my engine a lot in 0-60 times (I have around 100k on it).

[pdxmotorhead]

As a side note its originally a marine product (Obviously from the name) and the guys that use it religiously would likely die if it did bad things.
Since they use it on offshore fishing boats in places like Alaska...

Many refer to it as fogging oil...

Dave

[cooljess76]

I've been delivering pizzas for the past couple of weeks (just a side gig, don't worry). All of the short trips in the city really take their toll on an engine. I'm also due for a smog check which is why I decided to clean things up a bit. This morning I changed my oil with Castrol Syntec 5-30W, filled her up with premium gas and installed my new oxygen sensors which I purchased Here. The check engine light went out after my fifth delivery and the car runs smooth as silk! Needless to say, I'm very stoked.

Sea Foam is awesome and like Patrick said, it's been around for a while and a lot of old school mechanics swear by it. The biggest benefit besides breaking loose and burning off all of the crud, is the moisture removal. Moisture is your engine's worst enemy! That's why they use it on marine equipment. It's safe for ALL 2 cycle, 4 cycle gasoline and diesel engines.

Most of your engines have 100k+ miles and it's probably a good idea to try this if you haven't already. It only takes a few minutes and on a DIY difficulty scale of 1-10, it's a 1! All you have to do is pour a 16oz can in your gas tank, pour another half a can in your oil and let your intake manifold suck down the other half. Wait a few minutes and take your car for a spin while she smokes like hell for about 10 minutes.

All that's required is 2 cans of the stuff, 8 gallons of gas, a piece of hose and perhaps a new hose clamp. It's also recommended that you change your oil after about 100 miles. The hose that needs to be disconnected is the "brake booster to intake manifold hose" and it's located right on top of the motor. So it's easily accessable and there's a tiny clamp holding it on which I replaced with a regular 25 cent hose clamp. If anyone needs me to take a picture of it I will, otherwise it's pretty hard to miss.

It's important to feed it into your intake manifold SLOWLY! There's a substantial amount of suction and if you go too fast you run the risk of hydrolocking your engine.

I used a clear piece of hose because I'm weird like that and I wanted to see it going in. I also poured the second can into a 20oz clean/dry Pepsi bottle with the neck cut off(every mechanic has one) so I could get a visual approximation of what half a can of Sea Foam looks like. I never submerged the hose into the drink as I was being extremely careful not to feed too much too quick into the system. If you place the hose about an inch away from the liquid, the suction will pull it up into the hose.

It helps if you have a friend sit in the car and keep the engine reved at around 1500rpm. Or you could remove the plastic cover on top of your intake manifold to expose the throttlebody cable and rev it by hand. The car will want to stall when you disconnect the vacume hose and begin feeding it the juice. It will also start smoking really bad about half way through. Don't worry, there will be plenty more smoke once you take it out on the road.

7 bucks a can and worth every penny.


yes, I noticed "DANGER: FLAMMABLE" and I had a cigarette in the same hand

[pnosker]

Instead of using the brake booster, I suggest getting a 1 foot vacuum line from Autozone or something, removing the current line running into the upper intake manifold and sealing it and plugging in the new line to suck the Seafoam in. You won't hydrolock this way since the flow is too little, but it still works. It's also easier to put back.

[L84THSKY]

You are referring to the thin vacuum line just above the oil filter, right?

Originally Posted by pnosker

Instead of using the brake booster, I suggest getting a 1 foot vacuum line from Autozone or something, removing the current line running into the upper intake manifold and sealing it and plugging in the new line to suck the Seafoam in. You won't hydrolock this way since the flow is too little, but it still works. It's also easier to put back.

[ATF]

I'm curious what both these lines that you guys are sucking SeaFoam into look like
Mind snapping some pictures pnosker / cooljess?

[Mothman]

Can you take some pictures for us? Thanks

Originally Posted by ATF

I'm curious what both these lines that you guys are sucking SeaFoam into look like
Mind snapping some pictures pnosker / cooljess?

[cooljess76]

The top hose going into the intake manifold, right next to the dipstick.

Diconnected it here, plugged the brake booster hose with a ratchet handle and attached the clear hose to the intake manifold


Closer view


The clamp I replaced


And here's the piece of hose I used, it was a tight fit, but it did the job

[ATF]

Just to clarify further, the seafoam is traveling into the top of the intake manifold right? (See picture for direction of flow)

[cooljess76]

Originally Posted by ATF

Just to clarify further, the seafoam is traveling into the top of the intake manifold right? (See picture for direction of flow)

Yes, thats correct.