Fuel system cleaning

[JERRYS04GT]

I decided to do some preventive maintenance on my car and I want to run some Sea Foam through it. I'm not sure witch vacuum line feed all the cylinders, on my other cars I would use the brake booster line but I don't see one on this car. Would the PCV line work?

 

[Bornstanger]

here's a video showing you how to seafoam your stang. figure it's better than trying to explain it all with words and what not. the end of the video is just the guy driving his stang around so you really don't need to watch the entire thing. hope this helps.

YouTube - How to seafoam a 96-04 mustang GT

 

[JERRYS04GT]

Thanks for the video

 

[trinity_gt]

Modern cars run so cleanly that I just don't understand the "sea foam" movement. Combustion chambers always stay clean. Even intake ports are cleaned by the port-injector. And the manifold runners only move air so they stay clean too. Pull a plug out and you'll see it's near white or tan -- perfect, as it should be. This is a reflection of how clean the whole chamber is.

In the old days when crude and unreliable choke mechanisms provided carbs with a cold-start enrichment it wasn't unusual to see soot coming out the tailpipe and black spark plugs. Things are so different in these days of acutely accurate fuel delivery control and mixture feedback.

As well, I guarantee that a lot of that fluid simply puddles at the bottom of the intake manifold deep in the plenum. The Seafoam MSDS data sheet says:

"...Flammable liquid and vapor. Will ignite when exposed to heat, flame and other sources of ignition. ..."

There's a risk the stuff could ignite in the event of a backfire and pop the plastic intake manifold. As well, there are expensive catalytic converters that have to deal with the "...Sulphur oxides; Phosphorus compounds; other unidentified organic compounds..." combusting the stuff produces.

So what's the point?

 

[trombonedemon]

Modern cars run so cleanly that I just don't understand the "sea foam" movement. Combustion chambers always stay clean. Even intake ports are cleaned by the port-injector. And the manifold runners only move air so they stay clean too. Pull a plug out and you'll see it's near white or tan -- perfect, as it should be. This is a reflection of how clean the whole chamber is.

In the old days when crude and unreliable choke mechanisms provided carbs with a cold-start enrichment it wasn't unusual to see soot coming out the tailpipe and black spark plugs. Things are so different in these days of acutely accurate fuel delivery control and mixture feedback.

As well, I guarantee that a lot of that fluid simply puddles at the bottom of the intake manifold deep in the plenum. The Seafoam MSDS data sheet says:

"...Flammable liquid and vapor. Will ignite when exposed to heat, flame and other sources of ignition. ..."

There's a risk the stuff could ignite in the event of a backfire and pop the plastic intake manifold. As well, there are expensive catalytic converters that have to deal with the "...Sulphur oxides; Phosphorus compounds; other unidentified organic compounds..." combusting the stuff produces.

So what's the point?

Any gas that burns leaves some kind of residue, right?! SeaFoam might not be worth doing for cars that are semi-driven and have lived a so-so life. But, for a car who has been driven hard and burned off a lot of blowby, the stuff is worth doing. Blowby is nasty, nasty, stuff. And will ruin an engine. The detergents in gasoline only do but so much, and will continue until the gasoline creators find a way to make a more volitile formula to burn quicker w/less substance and ash residue.

 

[trinity_gt]

Any gas that burns leaves some kind of residue, right?! SeaFoam might not be worth doing for cars that are semi-driven and have lived a so-so life. But, for a car who has been driven hard and burned off a lot of blowby, the stuff is worth doing. Blowby is nasty, nasty, stuff. And will ruin an engine. The detergents in gasoline only do but so much, and will continue until the gasoline creators find a way to make a more volitile formula to burn quicker w/less substance and ash residue.

Blowby is combustion gases getting past the piston rings and into the crankcase. Every engine "suffers" this to some degree which is why draft tube and later closed positive crankcase ventilation was developed.

Frequent oil changes and PCV maintenance are the proper way to fix this, not pouring some extra-low viscosity naptha into the sump. And if the engine has so much blowby that the PCV system is being overwhelmed, Seafoam is the last of the concerns.

As I said, pull the plug on any modern fuel injected engine and you'll see it basically white. Engines burn so cleanly now that even the old-school "tan" colour is rarely seen. Combustion chambers don't get carbon-fouled any more. And if the valves are getting fouled, one should be looking at valve stem seals, not pouring liquid solvent into the plenum.

Just seems like a gimmick to me.

 

[trombonedemon]

Blowby is combustion gases getting past the piston rings and into the crankcase. Every engine "suffers" this to some degree which is why draft tube and later closed positive crankcase ventilation was developed.

Frequent oil changes and PCV maintenance are the proper way to fix this, not pouring some extra-low viscosity naptha into the sump. And if the engine has so much blowby that the PCV system is being overwhelmed, Seafoam is the last of the concerns.

As I said, pull the plug on any modern fuel injected engine and you'll see it basically white. Engines burn so cleanly now that even the old-school "tan" colour is rarely seen. Combustion chambers don't get carbon-fouled any more. And if the valves are getting fouled, one should be looking at valve stem seals, not pouring liquid solvent into the plenum.

Just seems like a gimmick to me.

Gimmick, yes. Whether this stuff works is up to the owner. From my experiences w/this stuff, before and after, the car seemed to have smoother revs. After the smoke screen show. I did the same a 6 months later, no smoke screen show, but the car retained the same performance. Snake oil, maybe. I agree w/you on the cleaning burning cars though. I won't put the stuff my intake again though. Seems like it would foul up my plugs that way, I'd rather mix the stuff w/fuel.