Man this stuff is great! To anyone who's never heard of it or tried it, it's a fuel system/intake tract/oil system cleaner all in one. The official site is http://www.seafoamsales.com. I did it to our '01 Escape (which at the time had nearly 100K on the clock) last weekend - 1 bottle in the fuel tank, 1/2 a bottle in the crank case and 1/2 a bottle sucked through the BBVL (brake booster vacuum line). I'd first heard of it a couple of years ago when a buddy of mine put some in his '97 Cobra and he said it put on one heck of a smoke show So I pretty much forgot about it until I came across this thread on Stangnet http://forums.stangnet.com/showthrea...hlight=seafoam and read the whole thing (which I recommend you doing before doing this to your car(s)) My particular post in that thread is here http://forums.stangnet.com/showpost....&postcount=609 Why do this? Ever see what the factory CMCP plates look like after a few thousand miles? That's sludge on there. It's also on the tops of your pistons and valves. Seafoam gets rid of it, dissolves it and burns it off. This stuff has been around for decades. Some people say that simple water will also do the same thing, but I can't speak on that. So here are a few pics I took, and a video of the smoke show afterward The car seems to rev a bit smoother, but not nearly as noticeable a change compared to the Escape. None the less, I'll be adding this to my car every oil change. Now, to the nay-sayers/snake-oil proponents - I'm only basing this on my personal experience, and yes there are other products out there that either do the same thing, or claim to do the same thing. I really couldn't care less what nay-sayers think If you're gonna come on here and ***** about it being snake oil, or wasting money, do us all a favor and go get laid for once in your life and STFU.
Here's the stuff:


Here's where I fed it into the intake: Make sure the car is at least at normal operating temp, then shut it off. Pull the hose and start the car. I poured 8oz of the Seafoam into a measuring cup and let the hose slowly slurp it up. DO NOT SUBMERGE THE HOSE INTO THE SEAFOAM! If you do this, the engine will probably die, and you could run the risk of hydro-locking the engine The engine will not die if you gradually let it slurp it up. It will shudder and act like it's gonna die, but if you go slow enough you'll be fine. This isn't rocket science. Once it's all gone, shut the car off and let it sit for at least 5 minutes, then fire it up and rev the snot out of it or take her out and let her rip (i.e., don't take it out for a granny shifting, shift at 2500RPM drive) and blow all the stuff out


And the resulting smoke show


If you need more info, I'd direct you to do a search on Stangnet, svtperformance.com (the Lightning guys use it), or any other forum

 

How many miles do you have on your car? I have about 15,000 miles and have wondered if I might have a little carbon build up. I had been using 91 octane on the stock tune to get rid of pinging for about the last 10,000. The 91 worked OK but fortunately I have a new tune now that runs fine.
I will definitely give sea foam a try as there are just so may people that rave about it.

 

I used to use GM Top engine cleaner on my old camaro, similar stuff I think (maybe a bit stronger?). I would actually let the cleaner (through the brake boost hose) kill the engine after about 3/4 of the bottle was eaten up, then I'd let is sit for 10-15 minutes, then start the engine up (which takes a few times), once it was idling on it's own I would trickle the rest down the carb. Let it idle for a bit, rev it a bit, let it idle, then I'd just drive it like normal once most of the smoke cleared away. Might be different for older engines, but thats what old-school guys told me to do with my camaro. Can't say I ever noticed much of a difference, but I'm sure it did something as it left alot of crud in the air! haha (alot more than yours did, but I guess tahts to be expected, yours is new) I did mine about twice a year, can't hurt :-)

 

It's good stuff. It also works good as a fuel stabilizer for your lawn mower gas or, for those down here with limited electricity when it get rainy and windy, for gas storage for the generators.

 

Good find Dave. What's weird that I hope someone can explain, is that I have seen the stock CMCPs being replaced and the pictures of the black sloot\sludge all over the plates. These cars having 5000k+ miles. I took mine off a week ago at 15k and they look brand new. I mean there wasn't even a spec of black on any of them. I have pics, but I'm not at home. Ran 87 octane for the first 5k and have been running 93 octane ever since. Sooo, would this cleaning be beneficial at 15k if I'm not seeing any buildup? And why do mine look like they're brand new?

 

Do you run your car hard or easy?

 

Way freaking hard. Real hard acceleration throughout the whole power band. I do 100mph+ daily on the way to work and home. If I have to go run errands and I need to get on the autobahn, I'm doing 120mph+ and that's two to three times per week. Pretty much been driving like that for the first 15k miles.

 

That's very interesting, because as far as I know, the sludge buildup on the CMCP's isn't from any particular type of gas (since you're in Europe), but from the driver's side PCV system actually introducing oil into the intake. I have 30K on my car and have no idea what my CMCP's look like, but like you, I've seen the pics and do they ever look nasty! As for the cleaning being beneficial at 15K miles, I'd say it couldn't hurt, since the tops of the pistons and valves can have crap on them too.

 

Curious about that. Would installing an oil separator in line with the PCV system (before the intake) reduce that crap? I think Steeda among others has something like this... At a certain unnamed GM-branded dealership where I used to work, the techs used something similar since the throttle bodies would get dirty, except the cleaning fluid was in something that looked like an IV suspended from the top of the hood prop rod! The cleaning proceedure and the smoke from the exhaust was about the same though.

 

Too funny, this stuff has been out for years.................

What took you so long ???

ATF or water does the same thing but cheaper.

Gramps

 

Good write up Dave. I've been using seafoam for years (along with marvels mystery oil but thats another thread).

I ran it in the cobra at the 120k mile mark. Shoulda seen the smoke show from that one. I had taken the intake and IMRC's off at 60k to replace the IMRC controller so I cleaned it all then, but 60k miles later, ran the seafoam through. It makes a HUGE difference in a really gummed up motor.

Btw, I wouldnt use ATF or Water through an engine personally. Seafoam is flammable which means when you crank the car and start pulling it through, you know its going to burn off/out 100% when it hits the combustion chamber. Water and ATF I wouldnt be so sure about.