Seafoam

[Kaotic Lazagna]

Has anyone used Seafoam in their cars yet? Do you think it's a good idea for the Yaris? Mine has ~34k miles on it. I drive like a granny, so I'm worried about carbon buildup.

[MadMax]

I've put it in my Jeep and one of my motorcycles, and in the Jeep I did record better mileage for that tank of gas but it returned to the usual figures on the next tank. I don't think the effects are lasting, and I also don't think carbon buildup is as much of a problem as the advertising claims it is!

Cheers! M2

[YarisSedan]

Ive done many seafoam treatments for many cars. Easiest way is get a long vacuum hose and try to find a vacuum line that feeds all ports and dip it into the can slowly sucking it up. Once you suck up about half a can let the car sit for about a hour. Then do the rest of the can. Then take the car on the freeway and drive it like you stole it to blow out all the carbon. The car will smoke like something terrible so make sure there are no cops around.

[detroiter]

Isn't it true that you want to change your oil after using it? Or is that only if you add it to the oil case.

[YarisSedan]

I would still recomend changing your oil soon after doing the service. Since it will get your oil dirty very fast. Also if you see a lot of smoke id advise removing the plugs and spraying them down with carb cleaner too.

[MadMax]

Oh, I though the OP was just asking about dumping it in when you filled up the gas tank...

Cheers! M2

[MUSKOKA800]

A buddy uses it in his snowmobile in place of gas-line anti-freeze which is what I used.
He swore by it, however I'm not sure he could explain why.

[Kaotic Lazagna]

I won't be doing this until this October anyway, if I choose to do this.

[YarisSedan]

Ill post a DIY on this later once it stops raining with pics. Just FYI if done too fast or incorrectly you can possibly bend valves or a chunk of carbon can break off and redeposit itself on a valve and cause a miss. Also i have my friends car in my garage when he did this on his lexus with 190k miles. There was so much smoke it went back up the intake and contaminated the MAF sensor. The sensor was 1080 dollars from the dealer. So we are waiting for it to come from ebay. Got it for 35 dollars lol.

[detroiter]

One thing though I've heard very often is that it shouldn't be used on cars with over
100k due to the fact that carbon and other stuff might be helping seal things together. If the seafoam breaks down whatever gunk is holding good seals together, it can make things worse.

[YarisSedan]

One thing though I've heard very often is that it shouldn't be used on cars with over
100k due to the fact that carbon and other stuff might be helping seal things together. If the seafoam breaks down whatever gunk is holding good seals together, it can make things worse.


That only really happens if you are using seafoam to try to correct a problem or fix something. If you are using it as part of your general maitanance then you should have no problem. Same thing people say about synthetic oils causing oil leaks at high milage.

[hatchbackkid82]

How do you use it? Do you just dump it in the crankcase?

[YarisSedan]

there are a few ways of doing it i did it through the vaccum hose.you start the car unplug the vaccum hose and let it snort up the seafoam about half the bottle. then turn off the engine , reconnect the vaccum hose, restart it let it run for about 5 min. there will be a crapload of smoke so don't worry. shut off the car again disconnect the vacum hose and let it snort the rest of the seafoam. then just reconnect the hose and let it run for 10min, shut it off let it simmer for a couple of hours and then restart and let it run until there is no smoke coming out and you're done.


Actually i read several service bullitens by the manufactures they reccomend running half a can first. Then shutting the car off and letting it soak int he engine for atleast 1 hour but not more than 12 hours. Then running the second can to push out the carbon. letting it soak helps break down the carbon and the other half helps clean it out.

Thats the best way to get the cleanest treament.

[ka0sx]

sea foam is great but i would wait untill you get to higher millage, say 75k. however if you use cheep gas, maybe sooner.

[Yaribhini]

I would utilize the BG44K (not sure if it's still called that) every 5-10K miles. This is the stuff that you run through your gas tank. Either than or Redline makes a product. I haven't tried it but I have tried almost all of their other products and like them. As mentioned earlier, if you purchased the car new it is better to use these items as preventative maintenance than using them to either resolve a problem or hope for some sort of change in performance. The goal being to, of course, not get to where you actually have a change in performance.

[Kaotic Lazagna]

Nope, I only use Chevron, and at least one tank of premium a month. I drive like a granny, so I'm not sure if there is carbon build up anywhere.

[jamal1984]

i just drained a whole bottle into my gas tank, 57K on my yaris now.

I do noticed my car run a little lighter and smoother for the last 3 tanks.

One of my friend....friend took his 04 maxima to get the emission check and failed, he said it's got around 150K on the maxima, he heard seafoam from a friend and decided to give it a try, he pour 2 bottles into the oil, 2 into the gas tank, and he pass the emission check after that :iono:

[rningonfumes]

2?+2???? One bottle should have been plenty nuff for the crank case, brake booster, and the tank.

Wowzers.

[Kaotic Lazagna]

Wow, 2 bottles for the crank and 2 for the fuel tank sounds a bit overkill.

[Tonavi]

If you live in the midwest (or at least around here), they use at least 10% ethanol in all the gas, 20% isn't that far away. Ethanol might be clean and renewable but causes carbon buildup like crazy.

I'm at 21k and notice a big decline in performance since a couple months ago. I plan to run some seafoam through the brake line and gas tank (50-50), but not the oil.

Has anyone seafoamed their intake with relatively low miles? How much smoke?

[talnlnky]

used it on a 454 in a chevy.... restored a TON of power that was missing due to carbon build up.

Yaris... ehhh... i wouldn't worry about it until 100,000 because its not a utility vehicle. Trucks and SUV's seem to have much worse issues with carbon buildup than small cars like ours. If your MPG's start to drop, or your car starts to feel like its not getting full power, and wasting gas... then check your spark plugs... if they are good.. then, yeah.. maybe a can in the intake would be good.

If you use top tier gas like Chevron, then there is no need to put it in your gas tank.

[ka0sx]

he pour 2 bottles into the oil:iono:


wow.... that would dilute the oil..... possible damage imminent.

[Tonavi]

I just got done running some in the brake line only mine with 21k. Holy smokes! There was TONS of carbon in there!

[YarisSedan]

Found a good place to introduce seafoam i did a treatment on my car the other day. Remove the engine cover and follow the hose fromt he pcv to the intake. Disconect it there and use that vacuum source. Feeds directly to the intake manifold. I had little over 20k miles the amount of carbon buildup inmy car was insane. I only use good gas too.

[RedRide]

I've gotten into the habit of adding a can of Seafoam to the gas tank in my cars about every 5k miles.
It keeps ther fuel sys clean.

BTW, Seafaom is also fuel stabalizer for up to two years.

[Hard_Yaris]

Found a good place to introduce seafoam i did a treatment on my car the other day. Remove the engine cover and follow the hose fromt he pcv to the intake. Disconect it there and use that vacuum source. Feeds directly to the intake manifold. I had little over 20k miles the amount of carbon buildup inmy car was insane. I only use good gas too.



Yes Photos of this vacuum line would be great!

[127.0.0.1]

Ethanol might be clean and renewable but causes carbon buildup like crazy.




huh ? ethanol CLEANS carbon and deposits.

what do you think is in half of the engine treatment formulas ?

ethanol ALWAYS means reduced soot and buildup. always.

[talnlnky]

Found a good place to introduce seafoam i did a treatment on my car the other day. Remove the engine cover and follow the hose fromt he pcv to the intake. Disconect it there and use that vacuum source. Feeds directly to the intake manifold. I had little over 20k miles the amount of carbon buildup inmy car was insane. I only use good gas too.

unless you opened up the intake manifold and took a look see, I doubt you had anywhere near what you thought you had for carbon buildup. Seafoam will burn dark even if you don't have carbon buildup.

I plan on using seafoam some day... but am hoping the day won't be until I reach 100k... tho, it may be sooner (like 60-80k)... I will continue to monitor my mpg's to make sure they don't start to slide for no apparent reason.

The day I do seafoam, i'll probably do a gang of other stuff too... MTF, Spark Plugs, Coolant...maybe even brake fluid. Good thing I know I have at least 1-2 more years before I even need to think about that.

[Kaotic Lazagna]

Yeah, it'll smoke white regardless of how much carbon buildup you have. You'll know more by looking at your exhaust tip and seeing how black it gets.

Anyway, here are the possible vacuum lines. Red circles are courtesy of Thomas. Yellow circle is the line I used.

[Hard_Yaris]

Sweet!

Thanks you guys!

[Hard_Yaris]

WOW what a smoke show the seafoam provides.
Did the seafoam soak/carbon blowout today.
Shes purring real steady now.
i have about 108,000KM
I used the Yellow circle vacuum line.

[marcus]

i wonder how effective this is??

[RedRide]

huh ? ethanol CLEANS carbon and deposits.

what do you think is in half of the engine treatment formulas ?

ethanol ALWAYS means reduced soot and buildup. always.

Correct.
Gas with 10% ethenol will burn cleaner even though it will reduce MPG slightly.

Another common ingredient in engine treatments is jet fuel (sans the aditives) which is just high grade kerosene. This is what they usually mean by "petroleum distillates"

Let's not forger that IC engine was originally developed to use a throw away by product of the distilling process (gasoline) that was thought to be mostly useless at the time.

I use Seafoam myself but, I do wonder exactly what is in it.

[Betrivent]

Little input from me (sorry for thread res) I used the yellow line today. Works great.

The moment you pull it out from the module, thing, the car will start to sputter and die. If this happens either insert the tube into the can of seafoam (I just stuck the tube right in there, slowly, so it didn't flood out the hose), or place your finger partly over the hose - this should bring the revs back up.

I just did half the can tonight, I'll do the other half tomorrow morning before work and then drive it out to work.

[LuisPRTRD]

anyone used the seafoam spray??? it's the same right??

[yaris2010RS]

i used seafoam on the new engine i put it. Mind you, my 120,000km engine i removed was very clean inside considering.....

it does smoke like crazy and i have used it on my mothers camry in the past and the camry is still going strong

[bairjo]

I did a spray Sea Foam treatment to my 2010 with 55k miles as PM. No vacuum lines to mess with. I threw a video together to show how easy this method is. Hope it helps someone...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cJD-xOSY-w

[mirapatec]

Just to add a little more to this old thread, I have been using Seafoam, as well. I have added half a bottle to the fuel tank at every oil change (three oil changes as of today), and really cannot notice any big difference. However, since my Yaris only has 15k miles on it, and using quality gasoline and Seafoam twice already, perhaps there is not that much carbon to burn out. I suppose this could be considered preventive maintenance.

[Kaotic Lazagna]

Just to add a little more to this old thread, I have been using Seafoam, as well. I have added half a bottle to the fuel tank at every oil change (three oil changes as of today), and really cannot notice any big difference. However, since my Yaris only has 15k miles on it, and using quality gasoline and Seafoam twice already, perhaps there is not that much carbon to burn out. I suppose this could be considered preventive maintenance.

Yeah, doubt you will see anything with only 15k miles on the clock, and using top tier gas. The biggest improvement was the first time I used Seafoam. Now, I'm not seeing a big difference due to annually using Seafoam (and actually going WOT a few times a week :laugh:)

[Klink10]

I did a spray Sea Foam treatment to my 2010 with 55k miles as PM. No vacuum lines to mess with. I threw a video together to show how easy this method is. Hope it helps someone...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cJD-xOSY-w

Thanks. Great video and I like the music.

[alanwagen]

I did a spray Sea Foam treatment to my 2010 with 55k miles as PM. No vacuum lines to mess with. I threw a video together to show how easy this method is. Hope it helps someone...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cJD-xOSY-w

After watching the video and all that smoke. I am curious if your catalytic converter will prematurely fail due to being clogged. I am afraid to try this.

[bairjo]

Your concern is a valid one that I had as well before using it on my Yaris. However I had used this procedure on a few other cars with no long or short term ill effects on the cat. I did speak to one of the mechanics at the local dealer and he told me they have in fact used the stuff at the dealer at times. He also said don't use to much of it and don't don't do it to often. I guess that means follow the directions on the can. But, if I do have issues, I wll not keep it secret. I have put 6000 miles on the car since and have not thrown a code as of yet. I hope I didn't just jinx myself by saying that..LOL. Like I stated in the video, I almost wonder if the smoke is actually the product itself burning off....

[Kaotic Lazagna]

^ the smoke is a mix of the Seafoam itself and any carbon build up. The last time I Seafoamed (either July or August of last year), I didn't have very much smoke. So I think it was just the Seafoam, and barely any carbon build up; nothing like when I first used Seafoam.

[Revsson]

Nice video. I used to do that on my old Geo Metro. I don't think it hurts the
catalytic converter, but that's just my opinion. Never had an issue with the Geo.

You obviously are in a warm climate. It's about 0 F here, with windchills of -15 F, so I'll wait for warmer temps to do this outside. :biggrin:

[mattymo]

I use seafoam a lot...via vacuum. Theoretically it can overheat your CAT by rich condition...chemical reaction. I've never had any issue except for the ridiculous cloud making it look like my house is on fire. It's good stuff. Not a fan of the spray though, personally.

[caper26]

Here is a decent write-up. I used seafoam last year on my Xterra and plan on doing it before my oil change on the Yaris this spring (soon).
The only thing I will add is not driving as far (100 miles) after you add it to the oil. Probably 25-50 miles tops, and really drive it (WOT) to losen up gunk.
Then change the oil.

http://diysrc.com/how-to-seafoam-your-cars-engine-to-clean-and-dissolve-carbon-buildup/

[draftpunk]

Seafoam... Single handedly increasing carbon in the atmosphere one oil change at a time. You probably would put a lifetime of engine emissions out in one session of this than you would in the life of the engine normally. My 2 stroke motorcycle smokes less.

Sent from my A1-810 using Tapatalk

[nookandcrannycar]

Seafoam... Single handedly increasing carbon in the atmosphere one oil change at a time. You probably would put a lifetime of engine emissions out in one session of this than you would in the life of the engine normally. My 2 stroke motorcycle smokes less.

Sent from my A1-810 using Tapatalk

:rolleyes::rolleyes:

[90tsi]

I was told by a few buddies at toyota never to do an induction cleaning like this cuz of the cats and o2's would get hosed. They used bg products (I did as well at the shop I use to work at). I had there master tech tell me it would imstant death to exhaust side. But from.the success I'm seeing I think it has something to do with injection. The bg induction uses a lot.of pressure to cram down the throttle bodies throat. Seems like I have a new thing to add to my 100k service now. Thanks guys glad to see it helping.

[why?]

Seafoam... Single handedly increasing carbon in the atmosphere one oil change at a time. You probably would put a lifetime of engine emissions out in one session of this than you would in the life of the engine normally. My 2 stroke motorcycle smokes less.

Sent from my A1-810 using Tapatalk

Good, maybe that will finally warm up this horrid weather. It is May, it damn well should feel like it.

[esse10]

I was told by a few buddies at toyota never to do an induction cleaning like this cuz of the cats and o2's would get hosed. They used bg products (I did as well at the shop I use to work at). I had there master tech tell me it would imstant death to exhaust side. But from.the success I'm seeing I think it has something to do with injection. The bg induction uses a lot.of pressure to cram down the throttle bodies throat. Seems like I have a new thing to add to my 100k service now. Thanks guys glad to see it helping.

Nope it won't hurt the cat or the O2 sensors either. I did it on a Vw new beetle using the vacuum intake a couple months ago and it threw a few codes but all cleared after you reset the codes and drive the car for a while. car runs really good now.

[spookybathtub]

Seafoam... Single handedly increasing carbon in the atmosphere one oil change at a time. You probably would put a lifetime of engine emissions out in one session of this than you would in the life of the engine normally. My 2 stroke motorcycle smokes less.

This is exactly my concern. I'd love to restore some fuel efficiency in my old car, but if this product puts massive amounts of noxious gases into the atmosphere, maybe it would be more eco-friendly to just let the car burn dirty. Is there some way of capturing all the gunk after using this?

[mattymo]

I think the improved mileage and performance outweighs atmosphere concerns. You can do it during the rain....which would capture some.

Sent from my GT-P5210 using Tapatalk

[bairjo]

Well this guy doesn't like Seafoam...any thoughts on the product he is pushing?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg9ppeUMpK4

[tmontague]

Just to chime in to those worries about it damaging the cat converter. I used it in my Echo (spray type) and it worked to temporarily clear a P0420 code (cat performing Under 95% efficiency). M cat was slightly clogged due to oil burning from a previous owner not cleaning the pcv.

It cleaned the cat long enough to clear 3 of 4 error codes before engine light went on. Using my ultra gauge I was able to pass an e test in ontario on on car w/ a constant check engine light.