cleaning carbon out

[dj bally]

i took my car to a local shop and told them i wanted to the carbon cleaned outta my engine using something like seafoam. he used some other stuff since seafoam isnt sold around here anywhere but when he did it no smoke came out the exhaust....usually when ur cleaning carbon doesnt a crap load of smoke n stuff start pouring out the exhaust?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQP51...eature=related


i thought my car should do what the above video is like but it didnt....maybe he didnt do it right?

the guy at teh shop also said that it doesnt necassarily smoke out the exhaust and that it will still clean it out.

[nickmak]

go to canadian tire and get a can of "tune up in a can" or mopar makes something called "combustion chamber cleaner". they're the same thing pretty much. start the engine, let it warm up then unplug a vacuum hose and spray the entire can into it. make sure the engine is idling as low as possible without stalling. once the can is empty, shut the car off and leave it over night and go for a good drive the day after. the chemical will get blown out of the exhaust if the engine is idling too high when you spray it in.

[BoS_DC2]

they sell seafoam at napa

[00EM1]

When I seafoamed my car it smoked out the whole block.
You are suppose to put a third of the can in the gas, a third in the oil, and a third through a vacumm line. It wont smoke unless you put it directly into your engine through a vacumm line. I used the brake booster line, seemed like it was the easyiest way. With the engine running as it sucked in throught the brake booster line it started smoking right away, then I drove it and I couldn't see a thing behind me.
Make sure you get the liquod bottle can that you can pour, not the spray type, and when you suck it in to the engine its a lot easyer to pour it into a cup then attach a hose or straw to the vaccum line. The engine will idle weird while it sucks it in try not to let it die you have to regulate how much is sucked in you can just dip the whole line into the bottle.
Remember to change your oil and your plugs after seafoam.
Other than Napa, most autosense part stores carry it such as B&J in poco.

Theres a few write ups about it on honda-tech.com that are quite detailed 2

[mazdaboi]

so how does your car feel? Do you feel a difference?

[00EM1]

My car had 85,000 km when I seafoamed it, the real diffrence was a smoother idle. My friend saefomed his moms corolla with higher km and he noticed a big diffrence. When I was debating to seafoam or not to seafoam, I found 50/50 feedback. I said screw it and tried it on my b16a2, seafoam is now a must for every car I buy and I use it for prevenitive maintence.

here is a good write up
http://www.yotatech.com/f105/sea-foa...-truth-160613/

One side note if your car burns oil the carbon can seal things up after years of build up, with all that carbon cleared there is a chance of burning or leaking more oil. The only time I have seen this happen is on a 400,000 km d-series, we seafoamed a 300,000 km v6 4runner and no problems. You could still put seafoam in your gas and oil if you worried about this happening.

[mazdaboi]

anyone know of any garages that uses seafoam?

[godwin]

Have you guys ever use an endoscope to look at the engine valves/ combustion chamber BEFORE you add the cleaning detergent? or even just the spark plugs?

If the car is late 90s, coil over plugs and you have been diligently using cleaners like techron.. you really don't need Seafoam etc.. heck my oldest car is a 350k km 92 e36.. granted there is a bit of varnish here and there on the top of the chamber.. there is no carbon build up on the valves.

[00EM1]

When I seafoamed my civic it had seen nothing but 94 octane chevron its whole life, even with low km of 85,000 it still benifited from a seafoam job. It smoked just like that youtube video of the vette, I really didn't think my well maintaned low km car would, but it did. I have a friend that buys seafoam by the case and constantly use's it in his toyota as a preventitive maintence. It keeps his injectors clean and quiet, his idle normal, the truck is going on 350,000 km with no sign of stopping the frame will probally rust out before the engine goes.

anyone know of any garages that uses seafoam?

Just DIY!! I see going to a shop for anything other than an alignment, or tires as giving up. Every dollar you spend on labour is a dollar that could be spent on a mod

[sonick]

Originally Posted by 00EM1

When I seafoamed my civic it had seen nothing but 94 octane chevron its whole life, even with low km of 85,000 it still benifited from a seafoam job. It smoked just like that youtube video of the vette, I really didn't think my well maintaned low km car would, but it did. I have a friend that buys seafoam by the case and constantly use's it in his toyota as a preventitive maintence. It keeps his injectors clean and quiet, his idle normal, the truck is going on 350,000 km with no sign of stopping the frame will probally rust out before the engine goes.



Just DIY!! I see going to a shop for anything other than an alignment, or tires as giving up. Every dollar you spend on labour is a dollar that could be spent on a mod

Using high octane doesn't make it burn 'cleaner.' In fact it has the opposite effect (i.e. burns WORSE!) as higher octane has a HIGHER resistance to ignition/detonation. So for engines designed for regular 87 fuel (i.e. typically lower compression engines), high octane fuel will leave MORE undetonated crap behind vs. running regular fuel.

You're doing more harm than good by using 94 Octane; on both your wallet and your engine.

[00EM1]

I know were starting to get a little off topic here but if you read my early post it says I have a b16a2. A b16a2 has a 10.2:1 compression ratio and calls for etleast 91 octane. Seeing as im tuned on hondata s100 with advanced timing the slower burn time of a higher octance is called for to avoid detonation.

[sonick]

Originally Posted by 00EM1

I know were starting to get a little off topic here but if you read my early post it says I have a b16a2. A b16a2 has a 10.2:1 compression ratio and calls for etleast 91 octane. Seeing as im tuned on hondata s100 with advanced timing the slower burn time of a higher octance is called for to avoid detonation.

Understandable then, just didn't want others to get the wrong impression. Sorry for the derail.

[00EM1]

haha just giving you a hard time^^^ I know I didn't explain that my car required higher octane

anyways DIY it people here's a thread, if you can use a cell phone you can follow these instructions
http://honda-tech.com/showthread.php?t=1016891

[Kymoti]

I've have a 90 Nissan 300zx with about 130,000 K on it it's never had the carbon cleaned out of it... i've noticed when i run it at about 5000 rpm's i can smell some carbon. But a friend of mine cleaned his 4runner out with over 300K on it and all of a sudden the engine started to fall apart. I was thinking about cleaning mine out but im kinda nervious after what happend to my friend.

[sonick]

There's anecdotal evidence that use of Seafoam and other cleaners that supposedly clear out carbon deposits may break loose deposits that actually are actually "holding a seal" in high-mileage, abused and/or dirty engines.

From personal experience, I've used Seafoam on 2 of my cars, one with 190k and one with 130k KMs and neither showed any problems afterward.

With 130k, I wouldn't recommend AGAINST it, although there wouldn't be much to burn off I would imagine. I'd use a bottle of Techron the second fill-up before every oil change, and give it a good old-fashioned 'Italian tuneup' every week or so.

[00EM1]

I will personally Seafoam every car I ever own that has or I put on over 100,000km. That is my opinion though from my experiences with the product. There are people whose experience with the product will lead them to never use it again. There are usually 2 main reasons why someone doesn’t like Seafoam;


The first is there engine was “high mileage,” as sonick said there is proof that carbon will “hold together” an engine. The theory is as carbon builds up it plugs holes where oil would normally leak from, so after the carbon is removed the engine will now leak oil. I have even heard accounts of carbon lining the cylinder walls helping fried piston rings seal better. Do not use Seafoam if your car already noticeable burns oil


The Second is improper use, Seafoam is a petroleum product so if you use seafoam change you oil after because PETROLEUM WILL CHANGE THE CONSISTENCY OF YOUR OIL INTO WATER. The Seafoam usually never cause any problems over usage and not following instructions cause’s these problems. As long as you only use a third of a can and change your oil your motor will be fine. If you’re that paranoid drive 500 km and change it again to make sure it is all out.


If you use it smartly, it can really help your engine smooth out and get rid of some nasty idle problems


I have a friend that adds Seafoam to his oil 100 km before every oil change, adds it to his gas constantly he throws entire cans in with fill-ups once a month and his 300,000 km plus (I think it’s near 350,000 now) Toyota v6 runs amazing and burns 0 oil. As for adding it through a vacuum line I would only do that once every 50,000 km and only use a third of a can.


One last thought, I have heard opinions that Seafoam did nothing for me other than a smoke show, I felt no diffrence. If this happens that is a good thing it means you are using it as a preventitve maintence such as changing your oil!

[sonick]

^ great info and detail there!

[mazdaboi]

Picked up 2 bottles of seafoam last nite!!! I'm excited to try this stuff out...

The one thing that worries me is that there are some people that say you need to change the sparkplugs and some that say you don't need to.... I just had mine change 2 months ago so I'm not shelling out more cash to replace them. I think they'll be fine...

[sonick]

I've done it without replacing spark plugs later and i had no issues. Of course it would be best to, but if the engine wasn't super dirty to begin with, should be ok.

[Kymoti]

So once you put seafoam into the engine do you have to wait over night or just a few hours?

[mazdaboi]

^ you let it sit for 5-10 mins, start the car and rev the engine and watch the smoke show, take it for a drive, change the oil the next day....

Seems simple enough....

[sonick]

I wouldn't do it for more than an hour if via the intake. I do it for about 10-15 mins as I heard stories about one person messing up the engine letting it soak in overnight.

What you do is let it suck up slowly while holding up the idle so it doesn't stall. Then once you get some through the engine, let off the throttle so that it stalls out. Then you let it sit for whatever amount of time to let it soak in, then you start it up again and rev it up.

[gsxr7]

Originally Posted by dj bally

i took my car to a local shop and told them i wanted to the carbon cleaned outta my engine using something like seafoam. he used some other stuff since seafoam isnt sold around here anywhere but when he did it no smoke came out the exhaust....usually when ur cleaning carbon doesnt a crap load of smoke n stuff start pouring out the exhaust?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQP51...eature=related


i thought my car should do what the above video is like but it didnt....maybe he didnt do it right?

the guy at teh shop also said that it doesnt necassarily smoke out the exhaust and that it will still clean it out.

I have used seafoam a few times and it works very well.

[03aspec]