Sea Foam, internal engine cleaner.
Discussion
Never even heard of this before. Supposed to clean/ de-carbonize the internals of your engine. It looks a strange process and smokes a lot. I guess you do it just before you change the oil.
Anyone on here used it or know anything about it?
Snake oil?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW5Rf1Wg-Vs&fea...
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AFICT Sea Foam is not snake oil, the RX-8 owners use it to decarbonise as the apex seals have a tendency of sticking with carbon build up which can kill engines.
Also on Audi/Mazda GDI's (and plenty of others) its needed to clean deposits off the inlet valves, can regain quite a bit of power!
Not sure how much use it is on a 'normal' engine though, unless really bad carbon build up isn't a problem.
Also on Audi/Mazda GDI's (and plenty of others) its needed to clean deposits off the inlet valves, can regain quite a bit of power!
Not sure how much use it is on a 'normal' engine though, unless really bad carbon build up isn't a problem.
I know of at least one person who uses it while rebuilding engines to remove the carbon so it does remove it. As to how effective it is when used in situ I don't know.
If it was available in the UK (apart from at stupid imported prices) I would have given it a go to clean my inlet manifold.
If it was available in the UK (apart from at stupid imported prices) I would have given it a go to clean my inlet manifold.
It seems that it does do a really good job of cleaning off any carbon deposits!
These would be the carbon deposits which, over the years, have formed around the valves and the piston rings.
Once removed you will then lose all that lovely compression which they were providing!
If, however, you use good quality oils and fuel the valves and rings will not get clogged and will do their jobs properly!
I learned this many years ago when giving my car the full Redex treatment. Lots of smoke!
Loss of power! 
These would be the carbon deposits which, over the years, have formed around the valves and the piston rings.
Once removed you will then lose all that lovely compression which they were providing!
If, however, you use good quality oils and fuel the valves and rings will not get clogged and will do their jobs properly!
I learned this many years ago when giving my car the full Redex treatment. Lots of smoke!
Loss of power! Bit of a bump, but I bought a can of this for a motorbike which was hard to start and had a rough idle and have been really impressed. I put a whole can (430ml) into a tank of fuel (17l), and the effects after an hour of riding have been great. It's noticeably easier/quicker to start and before it used to bog down for a second or 2 after firing up but now gets to a fast idle much better. From reading online it seems the higher concentration you use in the fuel the better the cleaning performance, so maybe in hindsight using it with half a tank might have been better.
It seems to have a couple of verified uses/benefits
1) Fuel system cleaner for indirect injection systems. The last bit is really important because it won't clean off carbon deposits from injectors which go straight into the cylinder, but for older cars and bikes which have carbs or injectors which go into the throttle body and have issues with gum or varnish it will clean that up.
2) Fuel stabiliser for engines not used much over winter.
3) Oil flush used before an oil change - the detergents remove sludge and clean out oil pathways and it can be useful for higher mileage engines or engines run on longer service intervals.
What it won't do is clean out modern high pressure injectors which squirt fuel into the cylinder as it doesn't have the right chemicals to remove carbon deposits when used diluted in fuel. It can remove carbon if used neat, but there are better fuel additives out there for that.
It seems to have a couple of verified uses/benefits
1) Fuel system cleaner for indirect injection systems. The last bit is really important because it won't clean off carbon deposits from injectors which go straight into the cylinder, but for older cars and bikes which have carbs or injectors which go into the throttle body and have issues with gum or varnish it will clean that up.
2) Fuel stabiliser for engines not used much over winter.
3) Oil flush used before an oil change - the detergents remove sludge and clean out oil pathways and it can be useful for higher mileage engines or engines run on longer service intervals.
What it won't do is clean out modern high pressure injectors which squirt fuel into the cylinder as it doesn't have the right chemicals to remove carbon deposits when used diluted in fuel. It can remove carbon if used neat, but there are better fuel additives out there for that.
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