Where do I put Seafoam?

[Tiamat-red]

Which vaccum line should I "inject" my miracle can of Seafoam into?

It suggests the brake booster line, but that seems to go to only one side of the manifold.
I would use the PCV valve, but of course that's where the sun don't shine...

[Tiamat-red]

Weeel, nevermind, I hope.
I ended up putting it through the passenger side hose on the very top of the TB.
The one that goes to the charcoal canister...

There was a fair amount of white smoke from the driver side of the engine...I assume that may be an exhaust leak at the manifold?

I will climb under the car tomorrow and see what I can see.

Anyway, I hope that vaccum line feeds BOTH sides of the engine?
If not I have one veeery clean side...

[mohrds]

Did it raise your vacuum levels at all?

I've often considered Sea Foam, in fact, I have a few sealed cans on the shelf, but I could never decide if it was useful or just another snake oil.

Doug

[immortal_suby]

I had never heard of it, and after searching I can't find a bad thing said about it anywhere.
Might have to try it myself.

[benebob]

Only bad I know about it is it isn't real good for the cats and o2 sensors. The Seafoam tranny stuff works wonders for weird shifting subies according to my mechanic.

[Tiamat-red]

I don't know about the vaccum pressure as I don't have a gauge hooked up to it.
It's supposed to get rid of carbon build up in the cylinders, manifold, etc...

It also says it won't affect O2 sensors on the can which is one reason I tried it.
Of course I realize that's just a "claim".

It sure does smoke alot though

[Tiamat-red]

As far as I can tell, it's the same as "Mopar Combustion Cleaner".
Which I've used on previous vehicles with no ill effects.

Other than those temporary billowing clouds of course...

[87f383]

Sea foamed my engine before in my SVX. Hehe... get ready for a smoke show. It is also similar to GM top end cleaner which is why I use it on my cars. Its worth it... I do mine twice a year. It always runs happier afterwerds. I use the little vaccum line under the beauty cover on the top of the throttle body.

[Tiamat-red]

Ok, good, that's the line I used as well.

[Manarius]

A word of caution before you use the SeaFoam again...

I had the same question you did. I was told to run it through the PCV valve. The reason for this: In my Legacy, if you were to run it through the vacuum line, the SeaFoam would go into the intake, and the intake on our cars has a special coding that could be eaten away by the SeaFoam. However, I'm not sure if it is the same with the SVX.

I will say though, since I ran about 5 oz through my car it's run a lot smoother and my accelerations aren't nearly as rough as they were before.

[Beav]

Almost every manufacturer now states they have a 'special' coating inside their throttle bodies to eliminate build-up concerns. I gotta tell ya, I work with guys that still believe that crap, and that is exactly what it is. For the past ten years or better I've been cleaning t-bodies from all manufacturers with carb clean, brake clean, t-body cleaner, etc. and using a brass brush to scrub the insides of the really nasty ones. I have yet to see, even on the ones with warning labels attached, any kind of coating. Hey, if the thing can stand up to gasoline and all the chemicals that can entail it should be able to handle a little carb cleaner. Can you imagine some crap coating peeling loose and not allowing the throttle to close? I can smell Dan Rather's shoe leather burning...

Now fuel systems are another matter. Some vehicles have fuel lines (and some have coated fuel tanks) that are internally coated and additives can attack the coating and become the cause of your worst nightmare. Imagine the coating peeling away from the inside of your fuel rail and clogging the fpr, injectors, rubber lines, fuel pump and screen and leaving other loose bits swimming around in the gas tank forever. Funny thing is the few times I've seen this happen is on a vehicle that is normally considered to have the most reliable fuel system - 4.0 Jeeps. Each time the customer confessed to adding some form of system cleaner.

[Manarius]

Originally Posted by Beav

Now fuel systems are another matter. Some vehicles have fuel lines (and some have coated fuel tanks) that are internally coated and additives can attack the coating and become the cause of your worst nightmare. Imagine the coating peeling away from the inside of your fuel rail and clogging the fpr, injectors, rubber lines, fuel pump and screen and leaving other loose bits swimming around in the gas tank forever. Funny thing is the few times I've seen this happen is on a vehicle that is normally considered to have the most reliable fuel system - 4.0 Jeeps. Each time the customer confessed to adding some form of system cleaner.

Very informative. I'll keep that in mind. Also, I thought to myself "are my vacuum lines built to carry gas? not really." so I went with the PCV. Smoked not as much as I thought...must have not had a lot of buildup.

As for the fuel system...I ran some seafoam through that and I think I'm still ok. However, I may be coming back to you with a different story sooner or later.

[Beav]

Personally I'd be a bit scared to add any liquid to the PCV line as it has a rather high flow rate. That could lead to sucking a huge quantity of liquid in and possibly creating a hydro-lock condition, especially if the liquid decided to run through the manifold and dump into one particular cylinder.

I don't think the SVX has an internally coated fuel system as there have been a number of members here state that they have dumped some rather rude things into their fuel systems, in high concentration, on regular occasion, and not reported subsequent disaster. However they may have experienced some O2 sensor degradation as a result...

p.s. Using products such as Seafoam may be well and good for clearing the maniflod and combustion chambers but it won't have any affect on the IAC or t-body, the two most common engine performance issues.

[immortal_suby]

So Beav - do you recommend against using the sea-foam on the svx?

I bought a bottle today but have not tried it yet and I may not try it at all.

[Beav]

No, I don't have any problem with Seafoam. I just wouldn't introduce any liquid through the PCV, without some sort of restriction/flow reduction.

p.s. I wouldn't advise using it in da 'hood. This is the kind of thing you would do in an AutoZone parking lot.