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Old 02-23-2011, 07:31 AM   #11
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Re: Sea Foam or Marvel Mystery Oil

Use the Sea Foam like I stated erlier to cleanout your intake manifold and intake runners. It will also work on an EGR valve if you still have one and any EGT or oxygen sensors as well. You can do all that your selve. For injectores find a shop that carries BG products and have that shop clean your injectores. After that use one take of fuel a month w/ Lucas Fuel Treatment added.
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Old 02-23-2011, 07:42 AM   #12
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Re: Sea Foam or Marvel Mystery Oil

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Originally Posted by PhileasFogg View Post
There guys are all way off base. I've seen what Seafoam can do. BTW dont add it to your fuel tank. Oil companies are selling is the cheapest stuff they can get by with and calling it gasoline. And our cars are tuned to worry about emissions. That equals carbon build up inside your engine. Period. Drive your car and get it up to operating temprature. Have some one sit in it at idle. Take off a vacume hose and drop it in the can of seafoam. The vacume will pull the saefom into you intake system. The person behind the wheel will have to bring the RPMs up to keep the engine from dying. You may have to take the house in and out of the can a few times. You may have to rev the engin to 2500 rpm or so. The car will smoke like you have never seen. Do this until you get half the can in the engine. Then turn the car off and let it sit for one hour. Go to the car after one hour and start it up and drive it hard until it stops somking. The smoke is carbon buildup burning off. Wait a week and use the other half can in the same fashon. Then about once a month add Lucas Fuel Treatment to a tank of gas. That's it and ALL cars that burn US gas can benifit from this.
I think the original question was how to clean out the fuel system. This is cleaning out the carbon from the combustion chamber.

That being said, I drove older cars for years. At first, I was adding a bottle of fuel system cleaner around the time I changed the oil. Then I found out that the crap was not dilluting well in the fuel, and was causing it to run worse.

My 2nd car had 280,000 miles on it when I sold it. I used one can of fuel treatment at 250,000 or so, and it made no difference.

My VX I just sold had 232,000 when I sold it. I used NAPA fuel injector cleaner on it at some point, but it did not make any difference on how the car ran. I still say that the "Italian tuneup" is worth it. In other words, if you give your car full throttle once in a while, the fuel itself keeps the injectors relatively clean.

I did use Seafoam on my VX sometime in the low 200,000-mile range. The car seemed to run a bit smoother. I put 1/3 can in the fuel, 1/3 can in the crankcase (the day before an oil change), and I sucked 1/3 can into the brake booster vacuum line. Don't just drop the hose into the can of Seafoam; the product instructions actually recommend against this. Instead, pour the contents into a cup and soak it up SLOWLY. That will keep the car from stalling, and you won't need a 2nd person in the car to keep the RPM up. Let the car idle for a bit, then drive it like you stole it until it stops smoking.

Not all the smoke is caused by carbon buildup; the product itself causes a good bit of the smoke.

I believe Seafoam works. I just don't think that Seafoam or other products make much sense except in a higher-mileage engine. It takes a long time to build up enough carbon buildup to cause the engine to run poorly. Just keep the oil, air, and fuel filters changed, and you shouldn't have any problems. For that matter, the fuel filter probably will be OK for 100,000+ miles unless the tank starts to rust or you are the victim of vandalism.
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Old 02-23-2011, 09:05 AM   #13
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Re: Sea Foam or Marvel Mystery Oil

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In other words, if you give your car full throttle once in a while, the fuel itself keeps the injectors relatively clean.
Agreed. Gasoline is an extremely effective cleaner when I can't get something clean using any other chemical...it should work well to clean injectors too!

Amend that to "full throttle at high RPM" though, that way they're forced to flow as much as possible...full throttle at low RPM barely uses any more fuel than part throttle. Besides, a WOT high RPM run can help clean carbon from the combustion chamber too.
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Old 02-23-2011, 09:11 AM   #14
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Re: Sea Foam or Marvel Mystery Oil

I really don't like the idea of STALLING the engine ON PURPOSE with SeaFoam, but if you poured it slow enough to start some basic cleaning...alright then. Just go drive and never have the car off with a liquid over the cylinder head.

Some guys remove the spark plugs and have some sort of process for top-end cleaning that way, too...but you really have to know what you're doing not to break something.

Back on topic: For the fuel, SeaFoam on occasion is 'okay', it seems to be on sale at most places around here lately with Napa carrying it for the cheapest($6.49 for a can so dont pay more than $8 since there HAS to be a deal near you right now)...

Other than the occasional use of SeaFoam(maybe once a year for the fuel system...I would not add it to my crankcase any more since there are better alternatives and adding SeaFoam to the oil really calls for you to drop your oil pan)...use MMO instead for semi-regular(every other fill up?) treatments to your fuel. Perhaps one tank of premium a year for overkill.

And like Fetch said, get up to operating temp and drive the car hard every now and again.

ADDED: HC is right, WOT and high RPM. Get on a local highway or interstate(preferably) and drive it like you are racing a Ferrari next to you. Only every now and then. It's not so much about speed as it is high rev/WOT, which if you can achieve OD or use a lower gear in a manual, you can drive this way and not be speeding.
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Old 02-23-2011, 04:30 PM   #15
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Re: Sea Foam or Marvel Mystery Oil

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Originally Posted by theholycow View Post
Agreed. Gasoline is an extremely effective cleaner when I can't get something clean using any other chemical...it should work well to clean injectors too!

Amend that to "full throttle at high RPM" though, that way they're forced to flow as much as possible...full throttle at low RPM barely uses any more fuel than part throttle. Besides, a WOT high RPM run can help clean carbon from the combustion chamber too.
I agree with this statement.

Todays gasoline is a great cleaner.

You do need to run your car at WOT at higher rpm to keep the carbon
build-up around the ring land area. Once the rings glue themselves to the piston your start to kill the cylinder walls and the rings themselves. Then massive blow starts. Then you end up with more carbon deposits.
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Old 02-23-2011, 08:48 PM   #16
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Re: Sea Foam or Marvel Mystery Oil

Seafoam is great stuff. Use as directed. I do a seafoam treatment every 3rd oil change. I love that stuff and now buy the gallon jug. Acetone,toluene and xylene will clean out fuel system too for 10 bucks a gallon
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Old 02-24-2011, 07:56 AM   #17
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Re: Sea Foam or Marvel Mystery Oil

BTW: If someone wants a deal on fuel system cleaners, right now Advance Auto Parts has $7ish dollar bottles of Shell V-Power Fuel System Cleaner on sale for 0.95c a bottle, it's an item they are discontinuing.

So, that's a CRAZY awesome deal if you have an AAP locally see if they have it red-tagged yet. We picked up a case worth at one AAP, and I figure with the rate I use the stuff it's a supply for 4-5 years on all of our vehicles for about $8. I typically use MMO every other gas tank with regular unleaded 87, and for every 10 gallons it costs me 0.45 cents to use MMO.

Regane and the Techron additives from Chevron/the Pro Guard fuel injector cleaner etc, are also favorites on sites like BITOG.
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Old 05-26-2012, 05:48 AM   #18
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Re: Sea Foam or Marvel Mystery Oil

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Originally Posted by PhileasFogg View Post
Use the Sea Foam like I stated erlier to cleanout your intake manifold and intake runners. It will also work on an EGR valve if you still have one and any EGT or oxygen sensors as well. You can do all that your selve. For injectores find a shop that carries BG products and have that shop clean your injectores. After that use one take of fuel a month w/ Lucas Fuel Treatment added.
You can use Marvel Mystery Oil in the same manner with the same results for 25% of the cost.

I've been using MM oil for 30 yrs in the carburetor and now in fuel injectors.

Don't pay 4 times the cost of MM oil for the same results!
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Old 05-27-2012, 11:01 AM   #19
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Re: Sea Foam or Marvel Mystery Oil

Marvel is a good lubricant for the top end and a carbon remover but it sometimes does not do much for the injectors. I have 48.5k on my Scion xB and use about 3 Oz per 10 gallons of acetone since it was new and I notice without it once in a great while when I don't have a bottle of it with me it idles a little rough. Long highway driving will pretty much clean out the carbon deposits as will a good motor oil in the crank case and water ... Fog . . . Rain ... marvel oil ... So just drive it and let it rev a little without too much full throttle because if the rings are fouled up with carbon then pushing it too hard will do more damage than good. Check your plugs for the amount of carbon in the cylinders first then try whatever cleaners you want and then check the plugs again. Getting clouds of smoke out the tail pipe can't be very good for the cat?
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