:freakdanc

 

consider google of: youtube
or try this link.

 

consider google of: youtube
or try this link.

He removed the hose from another location.. pulling it straight from the brake booster is much easier.

 

Thanks guys...this is great. Great way to teach others... teach me in fact.

I have a 2002 325i with 60k miles. It is very clean and runs great and strong.

Questions: Seafoam appears to be to clean the engine of carbon. Will I have to worry what this will do to my 4 Oxygen sensors? What other issues will this create other than resetting my engine OBD codes?

Thanks for educating me.

 

The bottle says it is o2 sensor safe. I haven't used it yet though, so I don't know.

 

ive used it, i dont have any scientific data to back it up, but the car does feel smoother, and i cant imagein it could hurt

 

I have a 2016 X3 Diesel.with 65k miles. the engine light kept coming on indicating #4 injector almost plugged. the BMW dealer (parts guy) said BMW doesn't recommend using any type injector cleaner and bring it in for them to investigate or replace.... i have used seafoam for years with good results through several diesels and gas engines i have owned.. anyway, i reset the code, added a can of seafoam to the tank, filled it with fuel and took a road trip punching it when i could and after several months no engine light. i'm not sure if the BMW dealer just wants you to come in or if there is really an issue with using seafoam or other injector cleaners in BMW's..I have read that its not good to put seafoam in the diesel crankcase, but it as BMW literature also.

 

I have a question. Is this THE way to use Seafoam in your car? I have heard of putting it in a full tank of gas, and I have also heard of adding it to your oil in the crankcase to remove carbon deposits in the crank (note: only about 200 miles before an oil change). Can this be done as well? Or is the method shown the ONLY way of using Seafoam?

BTW...I did a treatment of Marvel Mystery Oil in my gas tank and I believe it helped my MPGs by maybe .5 MPG...

 

There are a few ways.
You can drain 1 quart of oil and put 2 cans of seafoam in its place and run the engine for 15-20 minutes. Do-not drive the car with it in there. This is similar to flushing with diesel fuel.

If you want to clean the injectors, you should run the fuel tank empty. Put in a quart or less of gasoline with a full can of sea foam. Drive to the gas station and run the engine until theres no more fuel/seafoam in the tank, then fill up.

 

...run the engine for 15-20 minutes. Do-not drive the car...

You are saying to let my car idle for 20 minutes? Isn't that horrible on a car?

 

No, not idle.. vary the throttle. It won't hurt the car and it will really clean the internals.

 

If your car doesn't sit for long periods of time there will be minimal debris in the tank. There are several filters to stop junk from entering the fuel system, and you are over-dramatizing. I would not suggest hooking a fuel pump up to power and running it for any length of time, but you can tell when your car is getting low on fuel.

It will not have a satisfactory cleaning effect unless it is mixed strong, sea foam suggests a 50% mixture with fuel. You want to empty the tank then put in a small amount of fuel with the seafoam. If there is a gallon or two left in the tank the injectors will not be thoroughly cleaned.

 

Debris in your fuel tank has little to do with how long a car sits... however, the amount of debris that can enter the fuel tank is highly dependent on the cleanliness of the delivery system... ie that tank sitting in the ground at your local gas station.

Yes, there are filters in the system (both the delivery pump as well as the fuel filter on the car) but they will not prevent all the sediments (or water for that matter) from getting into your engine.

If someone followed your suggestion of draining the tank then putting in a quart or two of fuel system cleaner in and then driving it to the gas station while running it dry again, I doubt they'd get very far down the road before the car sputtered and stalled to a halt leaving them stranded and embarrassed.

 

You must be a master certified mechanic. Thanks! Not.
Any car that is regularly run (gas tank filled up and emptied regularly) can be run out of fuel and filled up without incident.

 

So it sounds like the vacuum line method for applying it to the fuel delivery system is the best way. And for this method, you would run the car at varying throttle for 15-20 mins.

As far as cleaning out the crank case...has anyone done this? Do I just drain out about a quart of oil and then add it directly to the oil fill? How long to I run it for? 100 miles? 200 miles? Seafoam's website is NOT helpful...

 

If you drain a quart of oil and put in sea foam I would run it stationary at varying RPM for 20 minutes. I would not drive it, but that is my preference.
You can do the same thing using diesel fuel instead of sea foam.

 

Do not run the car until the fuel tank goes dry. You run the chance of destroying your fuel pump. Fuel serves as a coolant and lubricant to your pump.

 

Who do you guys think you are?
Trying to scare people into thinking they're going to burn up the fuel pump.
Run the car until it starts sonding like its running out of fuel and turn the key off.

The only way you'll burn up the pump is if you continue to run it, as in trying to start a car that is out of gas for a prolonged period of time. Nobody is suggesting this.

 

...soooo, vacuum line method it is.

 

Maybe we can agree to disagree and just say that "it's not a good idea?"

I can say that I've seen some pretty funky stuff end up at the bottom of a fuel tank, but there is a filter on the fuel pump pickup to guard against that. Further, I used to work in environmental remediation, so I saw a fair number of fuel tanks cracked open. There's a bunch of crap in there most of the time. Gas pumps do have filters on them, but they don't stop everything.

There's also the fact that many manufacturers say that running out of gas can harm your catalytic converter, though I have no idea how.

My $0.02, anyway.

 

You should put some in through the vacuum line and in an empty tank with an equal amount of fuel. The vacuum line method will NOT clean the fuel injectors.

 

What does the vacuum line method clean? :dunno:

 

Do you shut the car off when adding the Sea Foam into the vacuum line or should it be idling?
After the Sea Foam has been added, then do you reconnect the vacuum line back to the booster?

 

Well, according to the video, it looks like you do all the steps while the car is idling.

 

Ah, Youtube is blocked here at work. Thanks.

 

Oh, sorry to hear that! You need my job! ;-)

 

Since there's some disagreement on wether or not it's a good idea to run a tank dry, I have first hand experience. I ran the tank dry in my 325i and it caused my fuel pump to fail (immediately). It sputtered 3 or 4 times, I turned off the ignition, and when I tried to turn it back on after adding fuel- no dice. The pump was shot. I had to replace it which was both messy and expensive.
It is indeed abad idea. I try to never even let the night come on in my M3.

 

Just did the Seafoam down the vacuum line trick. Car was warm. About 5 oz. sucked in. Shut it off. Let it sit for 10 minutes. Fired it up expecting a magnificent smoke show and....hardly anything. Revved it up. Let it idle. Got out and checked....very little smoke coming out of the tail pipes.

And that was it. Drove to get gas waiting for the smoke to start pouring out. Never happened.

 

Just did the Seafoam down the vacuum line trick. Car was warm. About 5 oz. sucked in. Shut it off. Let it sit for 10 minutes. Fired it up expecting a magnificent smoke show and....hardly anything. Revved it up. Let it idle. Got out and checked....very little smoke coming out of the tail pipes.

And that was it. Drove to get gas waiting for the smoke to start pouring out. Never happened.

I did the same thing last weekend but tried it on my wife's Lexus that has 100K on it as a guinea pig. No magnificent smoke show to be seen. :dunno:

 

I guess this means your cars are clean...?

 

The smoke is supposed to be loosened carbon buildup, I guess. There certainly was a ton of it the last time I did this (though on an old Ford 3.6L, so carbon buildup was a certainty...). I second that you just have squeaky clean combustion chambers.

 

Boooyah!

 

Probably too early to tell but I used seafoam this last weekend, in a full tank of gas, and really noticed no difference. Perhaps my injectors were clean sooooooo now I have another SES light come on yesterday. Hmmmmmmm. Tonight will stop by shop to find code and go from there. It is not a vacuum leak because I just replaced all that stuff because of a big rip at the elbow. I am wondering if seafoam affected an O2 sensor or two. I'll stay tuned.