Sea Foam

[Plays_with_Toys]

I hadn't read anything here about sea foam. So I thought I'd put out the only info I have on it:

http://www.yotatech.com/showthread.php? ... ge=1&pp=25 (http://www.yotatech.com/showthread.php?t=62165&page=1&pp=25)
http://www.yotatech.com/showthread.php? ... ht=seafoam (http://www.yotatech.com/showthread.php?t=35112&highlight=seafoam)


I haven't done a "through the vacuum line" treatment, but I've been thinking about doing it. My engine slightly knocks back and forth (I can feel it through my shifter). I've read that's just how subaru's run, but it feels heavier than it should. I've read on NASIOC that this helped some people's idle's.

Anyone have any experience?

[Tris_STi]

I have close trusted Subaru folks, and I hear it works great for legacies, although I've never had time to do it, myself. Put it in anywhere it says it can go, and let it do its magic, but don't expect HUGE gains unless you're sure there's a lot of gunk holding things up down there...

[Reason]

We talked about this a few times. I'm not sure if it was before the site crashed or not. Ryan did it and liked the results, so I did it and I didn't really tell a difference. Either way you can't go wrong.

[Pwise2326]

Yeah unfortunately the discussion on Seafoam was lost in the crash, so I'm glad to see it come back up as I had forgotten all about it. Put a good amount of it through the vacuum line (use the EGR line that goes in through the top of the intake manifold so it gets distributed through all cylinders, let it run at high idle for a couple minutes, and follow the rest of the instructions on the bottle. Dump half of the rest of it in your motor oil and the other half into the gas tank. Take your car out for a run, and do some "spirited driving" -- aka make sure those valves get opened! Stay out of residential areas (unless you don't give 2 ...cents...) because you will have some seriously awful smelling fog coming from your tailpipe. Then make your engine do some work...go from first to second to 4th, or 3rd to 5th, and make the engine struggle a bit. Make sure to change your oil 1000-1500 miles after putting it in, the seafoam will free up a whole bunch of gunk and buildup that has been sitting in there for god knows how long, if you wait until your next "scheduled" oil change the freed stuff may start recirculating again and cause some problems (think blood clot breaking free and clogging an artery in your brain....bad news). You'll notice your old oil will be nice and chunky. If you want to be thorough, wait until you have about 1500 miles left until your next oil change after that and add more seafoam in there for another treatment. You'll notice a little more pep (as per butt dyno) from less resistance and years of buildup being dissolved away. Its good stuff! Speaking of I'm due for another round of it soon. My engine had 130 something thousand miles when I tried it out, the thing ran better then it ever had (under my ownership). Also get yourself a can of the deep creep aerosol spray and pop off your intake tubing or plenum box to clean out your TB...if you want to spray it through while your running the car, its easier with 2 people -- have one person start the engine and keep it gassed cause without the main breather hose sucking anything in (aka no vacuum) the car will stall out...you'll also get a CEL from the MAF not reading anything which should go away once you put everything back together. Have the person keep the throttle good and open (around 3-4k rpm's and spray away inside there. You'll clean out the TB and upper intake manifold. With the car OFF spray some on a shop towel and open the TB all the way and carefully/gently wipe away the visible build up from just below (or above) the blade. Give it another good spritz, hook everything back up and run it high idle again to get some air pressure on it to suck it in and burn it up. If I ever get the chance to pull my engine out and take it apart to give it a good cleaning I'll be using that stuff, and lots of it.

[Wiscon_Mark]

Can we place this in the DIY? Nice information Ryan :D
At 172k, i could probably use this stuff....

[SubaruGenki]

Works great, can't go wrong.

[legacy92ej22t]

Yep, works great and makes a huge white cloud which is always fun. I run it into my PCV valve.

I wanna design a Seafoam injection system so that my car has smokescreen capabilties, Spyhunter style. :)

[Wiscon_Mark]

Wow, if you do that, you could open up shop and sell it to a lot of people. That sounds pretty awesome :-D

[SubaruGenki]

PCV is the way to go.

[ooberdoob]

i love seafoam. i have 2 empty cans in the car right now.

[Wiscon_Mark]

I read quite far through the toyota forums and some people said stuff about replacing your spark plugs....which we've already had done! Now, I wouldn't mind getting myself some real nice NGK Copper plugs (best conductivity) but i heard that plugs are a bitch to change (apparently my dad tried it once) :?

[Plays_with_Toys]

Actually the subaru plugs aren't too bad to replace. Like was said in the yota forums, its all about doing the sea foam treatment right before an oil change/tune up so you can save yourself the hassle. You only really need to replace the plugs if you do a vacuum line treatment.

I have used the NGK v-power plugs for the last 3 years in my yota and now in my subaru with no complaints. To change the plugs, you'll want to take out the windshield wiper reservoir and possibly disconnect the air intake. Unless you have alot of extensions/joints, then you don't have to take anything off.

[Wiscon_Mark]

So they're right on top? Where the wires go into the block? that's what I thought...my dad was talking about crawling under the car....maybe he thought that would be the easiest way. I'll see if I can get one out and reinstall it and then I'll make a decision.

[ooberdoob]

i did the vacuum line treatment in my truck and didn't replace the plugs, i had no problems at all.

[Wiscon_Mark]

that's good to hear...I'll do seafoam when I'm done with all the stuff I'm doing right now...lots of custom electrical things...grounding mod, glowing badge, and wiring a nice new 750 watt power inverter for more pimp accessories.

[2deadlegs]

Bella...

Get yourself a small windsheild washer res with pump and mount it in front of your aircleaner box. Install a momentary switch in the vehicle wired to the pump. Then thru the use of plastic "T's" and different size rubber tubbing available at all parts stores, plumb it into whichever system creates the smoke.

At the push of a button...POOF....smokescreen.


I only know this because when I was in highschool I had a car with a water leak that I could not find for the life of me. I did the same procedure but made it so I dumped water into the cooling system when the needle would go up. It would't harm the block because the water was warm from being under the hood.

I'm actually going to be doing the same for my legacy except I plan on misting water onto my A/C condenser on those super hot days.

[Wiscon_Mark]

That reminds me of the time on Seinfeld, when Kramer was driving Jerry's car, and it was overheating, and he had to put his blood from the bloodbank in the coolant resirvoir to cool the engine off...

[2deadlegs]

Thanks for reminding me as to why I didn't watch that show..insert barfing smiley here.

[Plays_with_Toys]

Alright, picked up a can tonight. Going to do the PCV line tuesday, I'll let you know my results. I'll prolly let it soak 4-5 hours.

[Plays_with_Toys]

So here's my tip. Unless you have really steady hands, have someone help you. I was trying to keep the engine RPM's up with one hand and pour with the other, every now and then it'd get real scary where I poured way too much in and the engine would bog WAYYY down.

Anyway, soaked it for 4 hours, and holy nuts. White smoke, just pouring out. I read about the white smoke, didn't really believe the claims. But it just billowed out into the street.

Anyway, the idle seems a little smoother, a little more power delivery, but not much. So far gas mileage seems fine, needle hasn't moved after 30 miles, so thats good.

[legacy92ej22t]

Stick a quarter in the throttle to hold it open, then it's no problem.

[Plays_with_Toys]

I thought to do a screw driver or similar after I was done... Sometimes, I can be an idiot.

[Wiscon_Mark]

Can someone get me a picture of where they're injecting this stuff into the intake? I'm a visual kind of guy. :D

[ooberdoob]

stick a quarter in the intake? you're kiddin right?

[legacy92ej22t]

stick a quarter in the intake? you're kiddin right?

I didn't say to stick it in the intake, I said to stick it in the throttle and no, I'm not kidding at all. Stick a quarter in the throttle linkage, on the driverside side of the throttle body, to hold the throttle open. Then you can concentrate on feeding a steady amount of Seafoam into the PCV without trying to multi-task by manually working the throttle. :wink:

[Wiscon_Mark]

Pictures? Anyone? Even just a general pic with arrows painted in pointing out the places where I want to put the sea foam in?

[ooberdoob]

my bad, throttle /= throttle body....

time to get some sleep huh.

sorry man! :oops:

[Plays_with_Toys]

I'll get some.

The only thing about the quarter, and not operating throttle by hand, is if you do get a bit too much in, its harder to get over to the throttle to blip it higher to burn out the stuff.

Anyhoo. Its really easy mark, there are two cables at the top right of the manifold, and there is a metal piece that allows you to move both at once. The PCV is on the opposite side of the motor, almost the same place. There is a large hose and a small penis shaped thing which points out of the manifold. Thats the PCV valve. I used the hose, tilted upward to pour in the seafoam.

[Plays_with_Toys]

Hey check it out, I'm using your pic!

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2005/07/JunctionBolt-1.jpg

Ok right under the bundle of red wires on the right, you see cables running through. They then go up above the big thing of electricalr tape. Well there s a piece of metal, kind of looks like a hand with a finger pointing to the left. That's the throttle.

Now, on the left, under the bundle of wires is a rust brown thing screwed into the manifold. Bingo, PCV valve, with the hose I used to pour the sea foam.

Remember, very little at a time. Mine made a sucking noise (like you when drink with a straw from a cup and you hit the bottom, its that slurping noise) and that was a clue it just guzzled alot in, and I was going to have to blip the throttle.

[Reason]

Anyway, soaked it for 4 hours, and holy nuts. White smoke, just pouring out. I read about the white smoke, didn't really believe the claims. But it just billowed out into the street.

What do you mean when you say you let it "soak"? The car is running while you do it and as you pour it in the smoke comed out the tail pipe. When the smoke stops the stuff is gone isnt it? So what soaks? Marks setup is a little different than mine, I pretty much did it like Ryan explained. I'm just lost on the soaking part. :smt017

[Plays_with_Toys]

I was under the impression that it would get burnt out to. What I did was let the engine bog down a little and when it returned to normal, ran and shut the engine off. I didn't restart the car for 4 hours, and the white smoke was just pouring out of it, at idle and especially when I revved the engine and started driving. I know alot of people report minimal smoke after 1 hour. With how old my car is, I figured 4 hours would be good.


I'm at 55 miles and have only use maybe 1/16 of a tank. Usually I'm at 1/8 or 3/16 of a tank. :twisted:

[Wiscon_Mark]

yeah, we'll have to see your results after a couple of tanks of gas.

[Plays_with_Toys]

Well, after 2 tanks, here are my results so far. My driving consists 95% of city driving. I will take it easy 50% of the time and do spirited accelerating most of the rest of the time.

Before seafoam: 21-22mpg
Seafoam through PCV and with sea foam in the tank: 21mpg
Tank after seafoam treatment 26.1mpg :shock:

We'll see how this next tank goes. I have a feeling it won't be as good... That humming noise I've reported elsewhere feels like its dragging the motor. My next idea is to check belts, maybe they're too tight or something.

[SC00BS]

Oh so you guys are talking about the upper engine cleaner. I had no idea what sea foam was, I was like wtf? Subaru make an upper engine cleaner themselves. I did it last year when I was getting the car back on the road, blew heaps of smoke until I gave it a big squirt down the road then cleared and ran really well. A lot of the subaru workshops use it here in Oz

[Wiscon_Mark]

just did this, 1/2 bottle in the PCV valve, 1/4 in the tank, 1/4 in the oil.

We shall see :D

[Plays_with_Toys]

Make sure to check your plugs in 2 weeks. Mine didn't foul, but others had theirs foul. How long of a soak did you do?

[gil_ong81]

a few things.

1. after adding seafoam to the engine oil, can the oil still be safely recycled?
2. why would running a cleaner in the gas foul the plugs?

[Wiscon_Mark]

1-yes, you can recycle it. Its just mostly junk from the engine (which oil is designed to remove), and if its not, oh well, whos' going to know?? ;)

2. shouldn't do anything, probably just someone spouting BS...maybe if it got carbon on the plugs, (ie: soap doesn't usually deposit dirt elsewhere on your body...) so its probably not the usual case.

[Plays_with_Toys]

Usually the plugs foul from the vacuum line/soak, but it isn't apparent until later since your gas mileage will drop with seafom in the tank, and then should bounce up nice and high after that tank.

[gil_ong81]

1-yes, you can recycle it. Its just mostly junk from the engine (which oil is designed to remove), and if its not, oh well, whos' going to know?? ;)

i'd like to look into this a bit more. the DEC is very fussy. straight oil is comsidered "usable pdt" if you intend to recycle it. but even if you have a little bit of water in it, then the oil is contaminated and considered "Hazardous Waste".

[Wiscon_Mark]

I just take it to the recycling center where they have a big 300 gallon+ tank for putting your oil in...pour it in, no questions asked, that's it...

[belladonna]

gil - how are they going to know? do they test your oil before you try to recycle it...i've never heard of people having to jump through such b.s. to recycle oil. the places around here take it without questions asked.

mark - you might want to get ready to replace some gaskets...

[Wiscon_Mark]

dammit...anything major?

[belladonna]

nah, my valve covers starting puking a little...nothing big...

[Wiscon_Mark]

whew...

[gil_ong81]

gil - how are they going to know? do they test your oil before you try to recycle it...i've never heard of people having to jump through such b.s. to recycle oil. the places around here take it without questions asked.

i guess i might be over-reacting. i'm still in "EHS" mode after working in that field for a year. i guess they typically would not check the content of the oil you bring in, but they could. at the advanced auto parts i go to, they ask for your name and number.

oh well. forget i brought it up.