"Sea Foaming" your engine??????

[b5blue]

Researching Neon's I found on you-tube, people who unhook the brake booster line and let the motor slurp up Sea Foam gas treatment as they rev up. The motors mostly knock/ping and shake/sputter then blow white smoke all over. What the heck? Remove carbon? Rev the crap out of it? Anyone here do this? 

[FLG]

Honestly,

I have.

No need to rev the crap out of it. Suck some into the brake booster vac line, car will sputter and die..sometimes wont and will have to turn it off with the key. Let it sit for 5 minutes...than start it back up (will take some cranking)

Seems to clean things up good. I than throw the rest into the tank.

[66FBCharger]

Is there any risk of damage to the engine?

[FLG]

Nope.

Basically it just like putting injector or carb cleaner into your cylinders directly instead of putting it in the gas tank.

[dpm68]

 

[Cooter]

 

[b5blue]

Back in 70 my buddy's dad, a mechanic, told use to just dump tranny fluid down the carb slowly to clean out a carbonized engine. But he was referring to a little old lady who never when over 30 miles per hour and crept up to speed at that. She came to him 1 or 2 times a year to "fix" her car and that's all he did to it, he charged 2.00 she waited. done.

[Cooter]

Might have been water as tranny fluid turns into carbon which would not be good....Water breaks up carbon on top of the piston's a Tea spoon at a time.....

[moparstuart]

sea foam is great stuff to clean out your fuel and injection system .  We use it all the time .

[FLG]

Might have been water as tranny fluid turns into carbon which would not be good....Water breaks up carbon on top of the piston's a Tea spoon at a time.....

A lot of old timers told me that. Never could bring myself to try it.

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

Might have been water as tranny fluid turns into carbon which would not be good....Water breaks up carbon on top of the piston's a Tea spoon at a time.....

A lot of old timers told me that. Never could bring myself to try it.

We used to do that at the Chevy dealer I worked at back in the late 80's early 90's   (remember BK Chevrolet on 16th & 86th Frank? )

We also used GM Top Cylinder Cleaner down carb.....in severe cases tech told us to use walnut shells to loosen carbon!

[b5blue]

I do remember reading about Chevy's Bon Ami fix that was odd. Seems in the 50's some engines cylinder walls glazed over as they broke in. It was a real problem as they were under warranty still. Someone figured out to dump abrasive cleanser in the carb. while revving the motor. Reportedly there was a service bulletin issued instructing to do so when needed.     

[Corellian Corvette]

I'm a huge fan of Sea Foam. I reccomend it quite frequently to people with engines who are running rough, pinging, or engines loading up. I can tell you first hand that there is 0 risk to your engine - if you don't need it then the worst you did is clean off your pistons. If you DO need it, you will notice a difference. GM sells the same product as their "top engine cleaner"

It's easier in carburated engined then FI ones.

Procedure I use is to put the car on fast idle, get your RPM's up a bit (not crazy). Make sure the engine is fully up to temp - you need the cylinders nice and hot. Slowly pour the can down the throat of the carburator (you can also put the hose from your PCV valve into the bottle). 

Make sure the car keeps running - keep your hand on the the throttle lever and increase the RPM to keep it going. Pour it slowly - and keep the engine running. Shortly a bunch of white smoke is going to shoot out of your tail pipe.

When you've poured about 1/2 of the can - get more aggessive and start pouring it down the carb until the car starts to die. You want to flood the engine and kill it with the liquid - you want the cylinders to flood but you want to suck the fluid into each cylinder.

With the engine dead - let the car sit for about 10 minutes. You want the fluid to percolate a boil in the cylinders. After 10 min start it up again. a TON of smoke is going to come out for a LONG time. After that, you're all clean!

[wayfast1500]

Sea foam does work great, I as well have used it.  A lot of people, myself included clean their harley engines out with water.  Really does work great since your steam cleaning the engine.  You get a small spray bottle, set it up on mist and get the engine real hot.  Mist the water into the carb real slow until it starts to smoke black, keep going a little more then run it real hard.  It steam cleans the inside.  Boiler guys sometimes do that on the boiler during a cleaning.

[elacruze]

I do remember reading about Chevy's Bon Ami fix that was odd. Seems in the 50's some engines cylinder walls glazed over as they broke in. It was a real problem as they were under warranty still. Someone figured out to dump abrasive cleanser in the carb. while revving the motor. Reportedly there was a service bulletin issued instructing to do so when needed.     

True story for some old Yale forklift engines.

We've dumped everything down the carb from SeaFoam to water to beer to ... other stuff... never hurt anything.
Harley-Davidson still sells a top end cleaner, smokes like the devil but gets the junk off the valves like nothing else.
A little Marvel Magic oil in the gas tank does the same thing over time, but tends to reduce the octane a little. I use it in all my stuff on easy road trips.

[Rolling_Thunder]

my grandfather told me once they used to use some called "Wanabe" or something of that nature - apparently it is like some type of OLD cleaner ?     No clue

Modern engines use Seafoam...    The only danger to the engine is hydraulic lock but i don't see that happening

[Tilar]

Back a "few" years ago, around the time they changed from leaded to unleaded gas, The transmission fluid was poured down the carb and acted as an upper cylinder lubricant. As a resullt the car would run and idle a lot smoother. I told all my customers to add a quart of tranny fluid to every 2nd or 3rd tank of gas.

Water was used to break up carbon. We would take a car out and get it hot. Run the crap out of it. When I got back to the shop, I'd remove the air cleaner and pour a little cold water down the carb while raising the throttle a bit above idle and every now and then crack the throttle open. This will break up any carbon. You can use a pump sprayer sort of like a windex spray bottle full of cold water and spray water down the carb too.

[b5blue]

If they reformulated motor oil and put us through hell with our flat tappet cams how can this be any good for the newer cars catalytic converters? 

[SeattleCharger]

          

[DodgeByDave]

It's not a miracle fix, but it does a great job of breaking up carbon and crap that go with worn out engines. IE 1985 Dodge DyNASTY, 3.0 V6, goes through 02 sensors. I started running half a can of seafoam every oil change and hasn't thrown the code or crapped a sensor since (typing that was as tough as saying it).

I use a Nalgene vacuum bottle http://www.nalgenelabware.com/default.asp



The 500 ml bottle is what I use, start engine, pull the Booster hose, thumb over hole, slip the tube past your thumb, regulate flow with the cap.

Certain models of stuff make it a pain to pull off the Booster hose, with that application bottle all you need is manifold vacuum.

[charger Downunder]

I do remember reading about Chevy's Bon Ami fix that was odd. Seems in the 50's some engines cylinder walls glazed over as they broke in. It was a real problem as they were under warranty still. Someone figured out to dump abrasive cleanser in the carb. while revving the motor. Reportedly there was a service bulletin issued instructing to do so when needed.     

Ajax powder is what people use over here to DE glaze.

[SeattleCharger]

if pouring water in carb is good way to break up carbon, then
  why is water in the gas such a big deal?    serious, just curious

[Tilar]

Water won't go through the small jets in your carb.

[Tilar]

I do remember reading about Chevy's Bon Ami fix that was odd. Seems in the 50's some engines cylinder walls glazed over as they broke in. It was a real problem as they were under warranty still. Someone figured out to dump abrasive cleanser in the carb. while revving the motor. Reportedly there was a service bulletin issued instructing to do so when needed.     

Ajax powder is what people use over here to DE glaze.

Ajax will scar the cylinder walls where Bon Ami wont.