Be carefull, I thought i was doing a good thing and put half a can in my Explorer gas tank but then it sat for a week. When i ran it after that and ever since then it is missing at all speeds like mad. I think it loosened everything in the tank and tried to shove it through an injector. I hope to pull them this weekend and clean them if thats possible. Has anyone cleaned fuel injectors before?

 

I have never used seafoam for anything but a gas additive.

How are you guys cleaning the engine? Sticking a vacuum line in the bottle?

Educate me. I have a couple of high mileage Fords that the kids are driving and may want to try this.

 

The general instructions are on the can. Yes, you let a vacuum port suck up 1/3 (per the can) to 1/2 (what I've had best luck with) the can once the engine is up to temperature (2 minutes at 2000 rpms should be sufficient). Select a vacuum port that is near the throttle body so that it feeds both cylinder banks pretty evenly. Then shut the engine off for 5 minutes. Oh, you should be a well ventilated area. After the 5 minute wait, start the engine and you will most likely see a lot of gray smoke from the exhaust. If not, rest assured your engine is quite free of carbon.

I don't know the history of this Aviator, and it seems every time I do a decarb on it I get significant smoke. On the first car I did a SeaFoam decarb on (wife's 2002 Lincoln LS) I got quite a lot of smoke the first time. Suspecting it may be the SeaFoam rather than just carbon causing the smoke, two days later I did another treatment and got no noticeable gray smoke, so I'm confident saying it does what it says.

-Rod

 

Been using Seafoam for years. More for a treatment (particularly if you let a tank set without running)
Works great as a treatment and been a while since running some thru my vehicle carb... not sure why not but might give it a try this weekend on my Explorer....
FYI I used to use kerosene and that worked great as well, even use water on some old tractors before. I am sure this is better

 

My concern is with the smoke cloud using Sea Foam, all that crud and junk is billowing into your catalytic converters, possibly filling them up, needlessly, when using the vaccum port treatment procedure. The cats don't magically filter all of that out!

I'd rather add a can of Sea Foam at 1/2 tank, run it close to empty, then add another can with a can of Chevron's Fuel System Cleaner w/ Techron. This way, you get a better "burn clean" of the injectors, it's safer, and much easier on your catalytic converters.

I've seen plugged and partially plugged cats due to a rich running condition, or faulty 02 sensor. I have also read where using the Sea Foam vacuum port or similar procedure that produces massive exhaust soot, will trip the "CHECK ENGINE" light. sometimes it resets, but most other times it does not. Somewhere on the internet is a post where a guy does a SEA FOAM vacuum decarboning procedure in order to pass a state emission test. Driving over to the SMOG TEST Station, the CHECK ENGINE light suddenly pops on, to the 'HORROR!' of the driver. Vehicle immedediately is disqualified / fails the smog test with the Check Engine light glowing proudly.

Be carefull with Sea Foam. A good product, when used correctly.

 

Next time I do the decarb I'll try to remember to throw the scan tool on it and monitor the S1 and S2 O2 sensors to see how the catalytic converter reacts. Having done the decarb method (which is using Sea Foam correctly) several times on several different vehicles, I've never seen a check engine light from it. I cannot say that a pending code was never set though since I've never checked immediately following a decarb. Also, with the exception of one vehicle (Mom's Caravan that happened to have a bad valve), I've never done the decarb to attempt to fix a known issue, only as maintenance. My Aviator I decarbed initially because I noticed some pinging when towing our camper up slight grades.

Considering how much exhaust I'm getting from using Sea Foam as a decarb, I don't think the fuel system treatments would do nearly the job cleaning carbon from the engine as quickly (if ever) as the Sea Foam. But once the engine is clean of carbon, fuel system treatments may do a good job keeping it clean. I've had small puddles of water below the tail pipe after the Sea Foam treatments, but never any layers of soot in the garage or piles of "crud" so I don't think sizable particles are traveling through the exhaust, but rather the carbon is being softened and burned.

I always throw a bottle of fuel injector cleaner/gas treatment in as maintenance when I perform oil changes, but not with the idea it's going to clean out years of carbon (on vehicles that I don't have a history with).

There are some people that caution against using fuel injector cleaners as well. It's never bad to understand the possible risks when using any product, but I feel I have sufficient personal experience with Sea Foam to consider any risks from using it as designed as minimal.

-Rod

 

Good post, Rod! I will also say this. Earlier this summer, I added some Sea Foam to my lawnmower, a workhorse 6 HP Briggs & Stratton powerplant. I was noticing it was taking me up to 10-12 pulls of the starter rope, to get the engine fired, after the lawnmower would sit unused for a week or more.

Ran the Sea Foam through, about 2/3 of a tank until empty during a front and back yard cutting session at my house.

Lawnmower sat another two weeks, until a late saturday morning. Low and behold, a cold engine now starts on the second or third pull! It never had done that before!! The only difference was my addition of Sea Foam that must of really cleaned out any carbon / deposits from the lawnmower. That made me a beleiver from Sea Foam, in which I then performed a complete tuneup and service on the 6 HP B&S, oil change (using 10w30 Mobil 1), new air filter, new cutting blade ect.

Ed

PS You can really see the difference too, in how a quality synthetic oil stands far and above using a common dino oil in the harsh, abusive, high heat and shearing conditions found in any air cooled small displacement engine. How? A dino oil quickly turns black, that itself is not bad, but it breaks down sooner. Using a synthetic oil, the oil is only slightly darker than new, but still looks and feels like new oil. At the end of a cutting season, I would always change the oil because it looked spent. Now, with synthetic oil, I feel I could easily go another season, maybe two, with a synthetic oil.