y0itzCARL

I recently saw seafoam up on the shelves, and I was curious to get it, but I wanna see if anyone has gotten any performance or it feeling different. Does it work?

spectacle

Depends on how gummed up your motor is, but yes it works.

doug44

I have used Sea Foam for years as a gas stabilizer & injection cleaner. I didn't notice any big boast in performances but my cars did seem to over all run a bit better. I also use it for winter storage on motorcycles, lawn mowers, etc in place of Sta-Bil YMMV.

zeroptzero

Ask 5 different people and get 6 different answers on this one. Also what are you trying to achieve by this, do you want to clean up engine deposits or free up frozen/seized piston rings ?. Here's my personal opinion:

Seafoam is one of those products that has a big following, along the lines of Auto-RX, Marvel Mystery Oil, and perhaps Riselone. I personally would trust these four products if you think your car needs it.

Most of these are designed to give gentle cleaning to an engine that may have some deposits within it. If you know your engine has some varnishing, sludge, or carbon deposits I'd definitely use the products. Auto-RX might be the best formula, but Seafoam is right up there too. I like Riselone too because it's suspended in a 30 weight oil base, no thinning effect.

I recently used Riselone in a reduced maintenance dose to try and clean up my S2000. The top end of my engine had a bit too much varnish for my liking when I bought the car, so I ran a reduced dose of Riselone in an attempt to clean it up before I ran my dedicated oil brand. A gentle cleaning over time without reducing oil viscosity and without clogging oil filters with removed particles is what I like to see in such products. I ran a 1/2 bottle of Riselone over two oil change intervals, in conjunction with a high mileage motor oil. HM oils have been reported to be quite good at gently cleaning engine internals and seals.

I also like running a maintenance dose of Lucas Upper Cylinder lube (UCL) in the fuel, it's designed to address some internal issues as well.

Try searching over at www.bobistheoilguy.com in the forums- oil additives and fuel additives section, lots of additive oil freaks over there and seafoam has been discussed there in the past.

I haven't looked in my valvecover after the treatment. But I had a lot of black residue extracted from the engine after two very short oil change intervals. The oils were extremely black when I dumped them with only 400 miles on them, with lots of residue in the oil collection pan. A good sign of cleaning IMO. My current oil is staying much cleaner than the last two oil runs, so there has been some sort of change.

TheMuffinMan

For a newer car treated right? It won't do much at all.

For an older car that's been beat up on? It can work wonders.

I SeaFoam'ed my roommate's 1996 Thunderbird that's been through hell and back and it helped smooth it out ridiculous amounts.

I'll see if I can find the video of his.

JackS

I have no opinion on any additives but I do assume something should be used from time to time. On that assumption I purchased a can of BG 44K last week from HandaAccessories based on the theory that since they cater to Honda and Acura there is at least an implied endorsement. I haven't used it yet because I don't feel the need for it yet. My car has about 15k on it now and my plan is to use it at 20k. Arbritrary I know,but probably as good as anyone elses guess. I did run a bottle of the Techron additive at about 10k. In the last year I have purchase 3-4 bottles of fuel injector cleaner from Dollar Tree at 1$ a bottle. I used this stuff in my '91 Celica because it absolutly needed something. The Celica always did run very well even though it began stumbling and bucking with acceleration. The Dollar Tree stuff did a great job of eliminating this problem. Hopefully I'll be using the BG 44k as a prevention rather than a cure and if your not having any problems at present I think I can safely recommend the Techron since Chevron does add this stuff to their pump gas and have been doing so for years.

The Gent

Jfusion, I enjoy reading your posts, very informative!

starchland

I dont believe seafoam is all that effective in such a short period of time. mostly a smokeshow imo. I would try something like autorx or even Pennzoil Platinum as its supposed to have excellent detergent and cleaning properties. Keep a regular oci with a good oil and you wont have any issues with varnish,etc.

zeroptzero

Thanks for the kind words The Gent. I just try to share my experiences if it helps others, I've certainly been aided by many threads on this site in such a short time of owning my car.

I guess we need to really find out what the OP is trying to achieve. In my case I thought it was worth pursuing. I don't recommed the instant oil "flush" kerosene type products, but I like the gentler cleaning approach.

IMO piston ring deposits are a legitimate concern, particularly on low tension ringed Hondas where oil consumption issues may be present. Deposits will form greater with Group 1,2, & 3 oils, and less so with Group 4/5 synthetics, thus changing your oil every 3,000 miles isn't necessarily a prescription for a clean engine. If you physically see varnish or sludge in the engine, or if you have oil consumption issues I'd try one of these products.

rob-2

I've used seafoam on a TL. It was presented as a solution for many issues.

TL had about 110-120K on the motor at the time of use. 1 can in the tank, 1 in the oil and one sucked into the motor when running.

I ran the 100 miles on the oil. Changed and the filter was about twice the normal weight (no scale used).

My car didn't notice any improvements. MPG was unchanged and the idle felt the same. If it's possibly it might have felt a little more powerful but about that time I had a K&N filter dropped it. The wife commented on the power increase.

I believe the product to work well on dirty motors. I've not used it on the S because it runs on 91 and I use syn high mileage oil. I suspect there would be little to no gains. It will ruin mid to end of life spark plugs with a coating.

That said I'm at 69K and haven't lifted the valve cover to check for deposits.

If you run it. I'd advise avoid the redline. Stuff can be broken free and 8K is asking for trouble.