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seafoam?

Here are some pictures I took when I did it.
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I used aquarium tubing from Wal-Mart and wrapped the end with tape to make it the proper diameter to fit in the vacuum hole. Do one at a time, you might have to open the throttle a bit to keep the car from sputtering and dying. Also, be sure the wind will take the exhaust away from you. Breathing those fumes will give you quite a headache.
 
Thanks for the input fellas. I might just take pics to show how dirty/clean it got after Seafoaming it.
 
guys i went to see foam my car car today, and i took out the vacuum like in the picture above and the car immediately died is this normal? and do i just pour it in the wait 5 minutes then start it or what?
 
Well duh the car died, you pulled a vacuum line while it was running! And no, you don't just pour it in, that'll do absolutely nothing but maybe clean wherever it pools up. You need the manifold vacuum to inhale the cleaner into all the runners. What you need to do is exactly what has been shown and explained...insert a hose into where you removed the vacuum line from the UIM and make sure it's at least somewhat snug with tape or something, put the other end in the Seafoam can, start the car and let is suck up half the can (careful, takes less than a minute!), immediately shut the engine off, reconnect your vacuum line, let it sit for 10 minutes, then start the car and create a smokescreen. If you want, you can use the other half can on the other UIM vacuum line.
 
Wow this is a very informative Seafoam thread. Quite helpful. However, I know this is the Duratec forum, but what about the Zetec? Where would I be able to suck up the Seafoam? I'm not sure which hose is which and whatnot and I currently don't have the tools to take lots of things apart to get to where I need, so a little insight would be wonderful, so that way I know what I'm doing when I actually decide to do this. TIA :)
 
zorrex said:
Wow this is a very informative Seafoam thread. Quite helpful. However, I know this is the Duratec forum, but what about the Zetec? Where would I be able to suck up the Seafoam? I'm not sure which hose is which and whatnot and I currently don't have the tools to take lots of things apart to get to where I need, so a little insight would be wonderful, so that way I know what I'm doing when I actually decide to do this. TIA :)
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I did it on my zetec about 6 months ago, there is a vacuum hose on the brake booster that you can pull off to do the same kind of work, pull the vacuum hose, and get another piece of hose to add to that. Then use a C-clamp on the attached hose (like pictured above) to SLOWLY suck sea foam from a small dish, too much sea foam is bad for the motor, if you suck to much of it in you do risk hydro locking the motor, the chances of this happening are very low, but its still there.

the motor will smoke a little bit, and the exhaust will smoke a lot as well as it is cleaning out the motor. I should do a How-to on it sometime soon.
 
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zorrex said:
Wow this is a very informative Seafoam thread. Quite helpful. However, I know this is the Duratec forum, but what about the Zetec? Where would I be able to suck up the Seafoam? I'm not sure which hose is which and whatnot and I currently don't have the tools to take lots of things apart to get to where I need, so a little insight would be wonderful, so that way I know what I'm doing when I actually decide to do this. TIA :)
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don't even bother ... the zetec intake is so different that it doesn't gum up like the duratec. first the zetec uses a plastic intake manifold, next the vavle cover is vented before the airfilter so the oil that does come out it doesn't go back into the engine like the duratec because its valve cover breathers come back in after the airfilter. I don't recall but I don't think that the zetec has egr passages like the duratec behind the tb either.
 
this is a good threat...I just subscribed to it.

wouldn't sea foaming clog the cat?

and please do post more info on how we do this for zetecs, there must be a way to do it.
I need to clean this reliable beast a bit also, and switch to synthetic.
 
BrApple said:
don't even bother ... the zetec intake is so different that it doesn't gum up like the duratec. first the zetec uses a plastic intake manifold, next the vavle cover is vented before the airfilter so the oil that does come out it doesn't go back into the engine like the duratec because its valve cover breathers come back in after the airfilter. I don't recall but I don't think that the zetec has egr passages like the duratec behind the tb either.
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the Zetec doesn't need EGR since it has VCT.
 
I didn't see anyone mention anything about the spark plugs... I've never used Seafoam though all over the Honda forums I see that it's standard practice to replace the spark plugs after using Seafoam. Something about the Seafoam doing something to them? I don't know, I'm just wondering.

I can tell you that I don't think any amount of Seafoam would have helped my motor. I posted some pictures of my heads, one dirty and one clean here...
http://contour.org/ceg-vb/showthread.php?t=25612 I don't think Seafoam would have helped me. Don't know if it's ever been done but my motor has 130K miles on it.

I am having a oil separator made so that I can vent the PCV and valve covers into a box rather than back into my engine.
 
Seafoam vacuum cleaning

Seafoam vacuum cleaning

If you are trying the vacuum cleaning method, rather than injecting it into the plug on top of the intake manifold, try disconnecting the vacuum hose to the IAC and feeding it in there. This way you clean the IAC in addition to the other downstream parts. Use as small a diameter clear vinyl hose as you can find, and build it up to fit the vacuum hose inside diameter.
 
i really think this is a bad idea. clean the intakes by disassembling them.

if you run seafoam through the thing, your just caking the exhaust valves, and the whole exhaust system with the carbon buildup. in essence, your just pushing the carbon buildup further into the engine.
 
TRicker said:
i really think this is a bad idea. clean the intakes by disassembling them.

if you run seafoam through the thing, your just caking the exhaust valves, and the whole exhaust system with the carbon buildup. in essence, your just pushing the carbon buildup further into the engine.
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Interesting. You know many ASE qualified dealer techs and well versed techs do a similar procedure for de-carboning etc?

Caking the exhaust system? Have you seen the crap that will come out of the exhaust after the initial treatment? Insane. Subsequent treatments are far less smoky. That would lead me to the narrow conclusion that most of it is coming out. If you kept getting the same amount of crap billowing out, then I'd tend to agree more with your statement. That said, I would consider disassembly the best method for an initial cleaning (say you just bought the vehicle used etc...) and the seafoam for maintenance cleanings.

If you don't like the idea, don't use it, but your logic seems flawed here. The fact that the Toyota Landcruiser guys swear by this stuff (king of all Tech Weenies in my experience...) says something LOL.

RJ
 
tozovr said:
Interesting. You know many ASE qualified dealer techs and well versed techs do a similar procedure for de-carboning etc?

Caking the exhaust system? Have you seen the crap that will come out of the exhaust after the initial treatment? Insane. Subsequent treatments are far less smoky. That would lead me to the narrow conclusion that most of it is coming out. If you kept getting the same amount of crap billowing out, then I'd tend to agree more with your statement. That said, I would consider disassembly the best method for an initial cleaning (say you just bought the vehicle used etc...) and the seafoam for maintenance cleanings.

If you don't like the idea, don't use it, but your logic seems flawed here. The fact that the Toyota Landcruiser guys swear by this stuff (king of all Tech Weenies in my experience...) says something LOL.

RJ
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Your logic is flawed. Spewing out all that carbon at once is most definitely bad for the exhaust...However I do agree with doing seafoam as regular maintenance.
 
How is it bad for the exhaust? I'm not being argumentative, I'm curious. If we're cleaning the valves etc, what are we harming? The cats? can't be much worse than running rich I would guess.

RJ

ps...Sox pitchers and catcher report this week!

zorrex said:
Your logic is flawed. Spewing out all that carbon at once is most definitely bad for the exhaust...However I do agree with doing seafoam as regular maintenance.
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I really disagree that you are just pushing the carbon around. Once it is liquefied, it burns and blow out the exhaust.

When I needed to tear down an engine for a valve job, I eventually learned to decarbon it first. It made the clean-up much easier than when I didn't.
 
TRicker said:
i really think this is a bad idea. clean the intakes by disassembling them.

if you run seafoam through the thing, your just caking the exhaust valves, and the whole exhaust system with the carbon buildup. in essence, your just pushing the carbon buildup further into the engine.
Click to expand...

I've never been a supporter of the vacuum method for cleaning intakes, either. I know that many folks have used it and stand by it, but I'd sooner do the extra work of dissasembling the plenum to ensure that nothing gets harmed. Wouldn't be that hard to wash down a valve and cause damage while pulling cleaner into the intake. I also don't trust that stuff, even in small amounts, to be floating around in the oil with the crank and other key components.

The shotimes.com method took this one step further -- it included washing the stuff out with water. How this could have ever have seemed like a good idea I don't know -- the description, as I remember it, made mention of the fact that the car will "burp, spit, heave, etc." or something like that. No kidding. The idea, I believe, was to introduce the water slowly enough that it could vaporize in the heat. Add too much, and, well, you can probably guess the rest.
 
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