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No Smoke with Seafoam Spray

6K views 18 replies 5 participants last post by  amc49 
#1 ·
I sprayed it in my car today I'll buy myself. The ideal dates better if you times. but I didn't have a partner to keep it revved up. I don't have any sensor lights coming on so I don't think I missed anything up. But I don't know how much the stuff helped also. maybe next time I'll use a break on the gas pedal.

I think I like the brake hose method better. but I couldn't seem to get to it on my versa. looking at the pictures below which one of those hoses is the break hose line?
 
#4 ·
Please don't flame because my back already on fire....................but....................I used to sell seafoam by the gallons in parts. Like most other maintenance chemicals it takes far more from your wallet than it gives back to the cars. Not only will the few truthful people out of the many tell you the truth, it doesn't do anything, the many that say it does come with wildly impossible stories of how much better it runs.

Take it from somebody with a long line of fuel injected and carbed cars over 40 years and never having used products like that ever. Those products fix owners a lot more than they do cars.

If you have a true problem you fix it.
 
#7 ·
Im a newbie to seafoam and love it. I use 3 cans in the tank to clean the fuel system and a can to the pcv tube for the engine.

My odyssey has a lean bank 1&2 error. This stopped the error and now I cant feel the van idle. I have to look down at the dash to tell if the engine is running.

Did it to my 95 sidekick. No longer get a ping at light loads in 5th gear. Seems to love WOT and I notice a bump in power vs before.

Both vehicles emited white smoke.

Used a can to flush manual tranny on my sidekick before going to fully synth fluid. I let it drip drain for a few days to get it all out.
 
#8 · (Edited)
Never, if you're asking me. Most GOOD mechanics won't either. The ones I knew wouldn't. That stuff is sales incentive material, you bump up sales to DIYers with it.

To Cobb, how do you have all those problems to even begin with? The FI system has been 100% flawless on every MPFI car I've ever had.

I still feel 95% of that stuff is owner-in-head invented. 45+ years now driving cars with none of those issues................how do ya'll have them? And all the people that told me typical stories......if I could get close to the cars I could tell no way were they running as well as they said. I'm an expert on self bullsh-tting, having had to wade through tons of it for a long time. Not saying that here but saying as an overall picture................take it or leave it.

You DO realize that regardless of what the company says that anytime you flood the cat enough with ANY petro distillate to smoke heavy out the pipe you ARE damaging the cat in some fashion. They won't tell you that of course, the problem does not show right then unless cat on its' last legs. Like the guy last week saying Bon Ami didn't scratch glass because they said it wouldn't. The MSDS proved otherwise. You're in a Republican business prosperity ONLY world, wake up.

In my world I don't waste a penny on that stuff. Fuel system cleaner? The gas itself is required by federal mandate to have cleaners already in it, if you got issues change where you buy gas. Change your fuel filters, they are now water collectors like diesel ones if you use ethanol in your local area. Once filter filled with a lot of water some of it pushes through to engine and then problems (pinging).

And why flush MTX oil to go to syn? Unless ATX fluid vs. oil they mix readily with no issues.

If you knew what was in seafoam you'd realize you can use other things at 1/3 the cost or less. Change gas to get more fuel cleaners for the lean code. Water (free) instead of seafoam in the engine and very carefully in small amounts, ping gone.
 
#15 ·
Its a ten year old van I purchased used with 100k miles on the clock. :surprise You think Id take such lousy care of a vehicle to get in that shape if I owned it since new? >:D

To Cobb, how do you have all those problems to even begin with? The FI system has been 100% flawless on every MPFI car I've ever had.
+1 on higher octane fuel and top tier. I like BP myself as they sell 93 octane and use nitrogen. You know, the same stuff thats in my tires. :smile

Next time yaw get low on gas put a few gallons of premium top tier and go for a short drive and tell us what your butt dyno reports, especially the stick shift drivers.
 
#16 ·
I've absorbed a lot of information from discussions like this on many many forums, at this point my conclusion is simply that there are too many complex systems interacting with too many variables and too little data/tests to ever confirm what any individual *thinks* a product did or didn't do for their motor.

The biggest two problems are
1) The number of tests/sample size is too small. Any one treatment you give a motor that happens to coincide with the abatement of an issue is not proof of anything in the complex system of a computer-controlled ICE.
2) The external observations of a user are limited and easily skewed and/or misunderstood. This one comes in two parts:
2a) - When no change or effect is actually present: The mind is so incredibly easily fooled, the senses so unreliable, that in these cases what your brain *thinks* it perceives is totally self-manufactured. Ask any individual and their ego will likely have them saying "Maybe some people, but not me! I'm amazing!". Sure you are... the computer says the running temperature is the same, the timing being pulled on the ignition unchanged, the readings from O2 no different, etc, but YOU are far more sensitive than the computer somehow, and you can miraculously detect some change that the computer and all its sensors can't even read. Riiiiight. I'm sure you can also *see* auras and detect the rotational direction and speed of the planet, and the gravitational pull of the moon at night. Good for you.
2b) - When a change or effect IS present, but the cause and effect is misunderstood: You've got some bad gas in the tank. Happens all the time. You drive a couple hundred miles with the crappy gas thinking "boy, the poor car sure is running rough these days". You go to the gas station, put in 7 gallons of fresh fuel and a bottle of STP or whatever your favorite donation to the industry is. "WOW! It runs so much better! That additive is really amazing!" Yeah or probably just having fresh un-tainted gas is amazing.


If a computer sensor or dyno can't detect the change, I know I don't have the audacity to claim that I can detect it. If there is a change that the computer or the computer and I both can detect, a grain of salt and some critical thinking about how many variables and factors go into how well any engine is running at any given moment is in order and without laboratory controlled conditions, disassembly & inspection and A-B-A testing, no conclusion is fully supported BUT I will happily drive the car as long as it seems better and not worry about it too much.

Long and short, there is nothing wrong with throwing a little money away (I mean at) a problem in the way of additives or whatever to see if it helps and if the car is running good when the smoke clears then great, all done. The issue is taking that anecdotal evidence and unreliable butt-dyno reading and claiming with absolute certainty that it did what you think/hope it did and pushing it on others, and/or throwing it out there on the internet in hopes that the other believers will chime in and support you to further make you feel better about the money you spent. Group mentality and all... =P
 
#17 ·
I did notice my fuel economy improved bit until I burned through that seafoam in my gas. The average mpg meter jumped to 39.9 and normally runs 38.5 to 38.7 (real world 34-36 mpg). it might be good to add to the gas tank on a long road trip.

It does seem like in the long run it would be cheaper you're a fuel injectors cleaned by hand instead to keep adding chemicals.
 
#18 ·
EXACTLY post #16 , anything else is self-bullsh-t. Nothing wrong with a wee bit every now and then but I choose to not even do that. My head needs no fix from it. If you firmly think you have to run additive all the time the car problem is one that can actually be seen by looking in a mirror.

People HATE being told that but that in no way changes the truth of it. Ask the car if it knows when you are running additive..................the major separation of fault that has to happen anytime a car needs to be repaired...................what part is car and what part is owner.
 
#19 ·
Premium fual generally DOES have a bit more detergent in it as a selling point but the thing to remember is that even the lowly regular blends have to have a certain amount in them and it has to be enough to pretty much keep parts like injectors clean or you would see lawsuits like nobody's business.
 
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