Bought a can of Seafoam...but having second thoughts

[cptnsolo77]

My Vibe has 144K no issues with idle or MPG. Will it do any harm to my car if it has no issues ? Seems like its a product that people use on high mileage neglected vehicles. My car has been VERY well maintained & just thought i would use it for the peace of mind. I have read instances where loose carbon has blocked fuel filters & giving problems. Im going the easy route & adding it to the gas tank...how much fuel does my tank need to have? Im at 1/4 tank right now & thought with 1/4 tank the seafoam will be more concentrated. Or add it to a full tank of gas? Thoughts ?

[SnowFish]

I run a little SeaFoam, occasionally, in every engine I own. Full can, in the gas tank, at every oil change. I also run 1/8 - 1/4 can in just about every tank on my snowmobile, outboards, and other small engines.

I do not run it, in the oil, on vehicles that I know the history. Meaning have been regularly maintained with good synthetic oil.

I don't see a problem running a whole can in your 1/4 tank. Just a little extra fuel injector cleaner. If the car doesn't like it (CEL), then fill it up and it will go away.

I have gotten some real beater cars to run pretty darn good by doing the full meal deal. 1/3 gas, 1/3 oil, and 1/3 down the carb or throttle body. Good stuff. I wouldn't worry.

[zoomie]

I wouldn't use it if it were free.

Consider trying the Oil System Cleaner and the Water Removal Additive at http://www.toyota.ca/cgi-bin/WebObjects ... 0001e.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Chiadog]

I've injected seafoam into the air intake according to the directions twice (once in my vibe) with no ill-effects. The cloud of smoke produced when you drive off is awesome! I have to guess all that smoke DID come from carbon removal. I am not sorry I did it.
However, I would never put any solvent into an engines' oil again. I destroyed a Firebird V8 doing that with Engine Flush.
good luck,
chiadog

[SnowFish]

That stuff is Definitely not free. Probably repackaged SeaFoam or Techron. When one can't find a MSDS, that's usually a flag meaning repackage/more $$.

Again, if it's been maintained, no reason to put in the oil. It is a great fuel injector cleaner, water displacer, carburetor soak, and preventative maintenance product.

[cptnsolo77]

Thanks guys. I will give it a try then. I will wait until i get about half tank & put the whole can in the gas tank. I was going to buy a bottle of Techron, but I figured I would buy this instead.

[Vulcan05]

The Water Removal Additive sounds like HEET, which is just alcohol. A tank of E10 would do the same thing, but I wouldn't run it all the time.

[trb]

I've used it a few times on my 306K mile Mustang. The last time I ran it in the vacuum hose intake when i was trying to get it to pass inspection. It barely passed after 3 tries the last time, so I was doing everything I could to clean it up.

Well, it smoked like crazy, and my usual plan is to change the oil like the next day or two to get any crud that might have gotten into the oil drained out. Well, that did not happen, for various reasons. Fast forward to 4 days later. As I was leaving the Hyundai dealership after looking at a new Sonata Turbo, the motor blew. BAM! Broke the crank around the front cylinders, as the balancer wobbles easily in your hands. A connecting rod punched a hole in the oil pan, and I left a long stream of oil off the feeder road and onto the side street. @#$%^&!

Now I don't know for sure if it directly caused the carnage, but I know I should not have kept driving it without changing the oil. My car's time could have just been up, afterall 306K is a lot of miles with a 100% stock motor. If I do use it again, I will for sure change the oil promptly!

[cptnsolo77]

Ok I put the can in 3/4 tank of gas. After a week I have noticed a slight drop in idle & when I switch the AC on the idle doesnt jump up as much as before. It must have done something for the better LOL ! If it didnt & its all in my mind....no harm done anyhow LOL.

[vibolista]

Seafoam is a great product. It will clean the sludge out of a poorly maintained engine. I used it by adding it to the gas when it was down to a quarter of a tank in conjunction with an oil additive that cleans out the lower crud and then changed the oil and filled the gas tank right afterwards. Engine ran like it was new again. I was very impressed by the product.

[Kincaid]

Not sure if anyone said this as I skimmed the responses pretty quick, but I would think that if you have always used, or mostly used, top tier gasoline, your engine should be pretty clean already. Top tier fuels have lots of additives to keep the valves clean of carbon deposits. On my '97 Civic I always bought the cheapest gas possible and rarely ran any kind of gas treatments through it. Somewhere around 100k or so the car wouldn't start one morning. Had it towed to a dealer and they found a lot of carbon build up in the valves. I would think that SeaFoam would have prevented that if I had used it. If you are running with good gas brands I would guess using it in the tank is a good way to go. I still buy the inexpensive gas, but now regularly run Lucas Gas Treatment through the tank.