Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Duratec Maintenance Seafoam,I need some help and pics!

I guess this belongs in d-tec maintenance,anyways i'm going to be putting seafoam into my car 2marrow I have never done this before so I have a couple ?'s.I heard it's better to have it sucked down a vacuum line, if so what vacuum line?PICS would help A LOT!Do i need to change my oil or anything afterwards?Is there anything special i should know about thats gonna happen before going into this?I have seached this subject a bit and didn't come up with exact answers.Thanxs in advance!

Here is the How-to off of the main site:

How-to

No pics, but it's pretty descriptive so I don't think you will need them.

How many miles on the car? If it's very many, it's probably not worth doing. It doesn't do much at all, and if there's a lot of buildup it's pointless.

Picture No. 8. Below this statement.
"You now need to remove the two vacuum hoses on the TOP of the UIM. Hold your fingernail against the tiny round plastic circles that are around each tube. While holding, pull up on the tube itself.. like buttah, it'll slide right out." But you remove one at a time to seafoam it one at a time.
http://www.contour.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=v6maint&Number=931756&Forum=v6maint&Words=UIM%20aide&Match=And&Searchpage=1&Limit=25&Old=allposts&Main=931756&Search=true#Post931756

From my experience, Seafoam does next to nothing on a dirty intake. If there's just a thin film of buildup, then regular use can keep it clean. But once the crud gets built up and caked on, a mist of solvent in the intake won't do a thing.

Imagine your intake is that bowl of oatmeal you had for breakfast. If you walk over to the sink and rinse it out every day, it'll be fine. If you make oatmeal in it every day for a week, you're going to be using a jackhammer to get through the build-up. Sure, carbon deposits don't solidify quite like oatmeal, but it's more similar than you might think.

My experience: I started with a 100k+ mile engine. Looking in through the TB I saw serious buildup on the UIM and TB plate. I ran a can of Seafoam through the taps, and scrubbed the TB with carb cleaner. Looking in again, I saw no difference in the amount of crud. After several thousand miles (6k?), I opened the induction system, and found massive buildup. I soaked the UIM/LIM in Seafoam overnight, and then wiped it off: there was little to no effect. I wiped the TB with Seafoam, and the thin coating came right off. I then soaked the UIM/LIM with B12 Chemtool, and with a little wiping it was spotless.

So this tells me that without serious scrubbing, scraping, and chipping, you can't clean the buildup of many thousands of miles. However, running Seafoam through before each oil change may actually work. Doug (Digital Slacker) is trying this now, we'll see how it works.

So, don't waste your time running it through a dirty engine. You'll only foul up your plugs and oil at worst, and make a negligible difference at best. The scrubbing of a very dirty throttle plate may actually provide a difference in throttle response, but you're not doing a darn thing to the manifolds and heads with this method.

The conventional wisdom on this site is that the vacuum suck IM cleaning method is best for maintenance cleanings every so often, either on a newer engine, OR after the full tear down/ clean/ rebuild.

But you seem to want to try it, and I've done it several times (I am planning on doing the full tear down clean in the next 2 months) I think it helps a little.

Yes, do it prior to an oil change. You do run the risk of fouling your plugs, but I've never had any troubles.

There is the FAQ link for the How-to from the Main Site That will get you started. I do it a little differently though. More simple.



How I do it: Get a piece of aquarium tubing, ($2 at WalMart for MORE than you would ever need). Cut a piece about 2-3 feet or so. Pop and prop the hood, start the car. Make sure you know where your throttle is and that you are able to rev the engine by hand from beneath the hood.

Open the SeaFoam/ Berryman's B-12 can and set it somewhere stable on the engine near the vacuum ports. (I usually use the battery) Stick one end of the hose all the way down into the cleaner can. The next step takes some juggling... Pull the vacuum hose out, you need to hold down the black round seal with your fingernail, and then pull up on the hose CAREFULLY! The seal and hose can be brittle.

Now the juggling. As soon as you pull the vacuum hose out the engine will want to die, so get on the throttle and rev it up a little. Now take the other end of the hose and put it into the open port and inch or so. Rev the engine up until it is running smoothly with no risk of killing, and you can see the cleaner flowing. The engine will suck the cleaner in VERY quickly, so be careful or the whole can might be gone quickly. Do 1/4 - 1/2 of the can in one port, replace the vacuum hose, then do the other.

Once you've run the cleaner through shut down the engine. Let it sit for a while, an hour or overnight. The theory is that the cleaner is in there soaking the crap off... Once you start it up, it will run rough for a few minutes and there may be some extra smoke from the exhaust. Mine did the first time or two I did this, but hasn't much since. I'm thinking that this sort of cleaning only goes so far, and everyone's experience on this site is similar. But I've done it as a substitute for the full cleaning, and figured this method was better than nothing.

It doesn't hurt anything as far as I'm aware. It also is only a light cleaning, certainly not complete.

Good luck!

I just did this cleaning with B12, and I can't believe the increase in power! I think maybe my secondaries were stuck (or just sticky) but now it runs through the RPMs much more smoothly. Thanks for the info and pics, it helped me out a lot