Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

   SeaForm makes many claims about what it can do. 

 

Injector cleaner

Carburetor cleaner

Carbon cleaner,

Fuel stabilizer

Frees lifters – rings

De-icer anti-jell

Upper cylinder lub

Dries oil and fuel

Cleans carbon as you drive.

Cures hesitations ,stalls, pings, and rough idle due to carbon buildup.

Cleans dirty engine part internally by removing harmful gums, varnish and carbon.  WORKS AND PERFORMS INSTANTLY. 

 

   That’s quite a versatile list of claims.  Given the repeated claim for carbon it should do something when contacting carbon.

 

  SeaFoam says 1 pint treats 25 gallons.  That’s a mix of 200 to 1.  If it can clean at that mix it should dissolve carbon easily at full strength.  Below is a picture of carbon put in a class with full strength SeaFrom for several hours with occasional shaking.  There is no breakup of the particles. 

 

   The other picture of a head and piston with carbon.  The loose carbon was wiped off and the rags dipped with SeaFoam and rubbed on the head and piston.  The rags are slightly discolored but not from dissolved particles.  The discolor is just picked up particles of carbon a rag without SeaFoam will pick up. 

 

   Given that it did not dissolve carbon full strength and would not remove carbon with a rag directly on a piston and head it seems doubtful that at a mix or 200 to 1 it will do very much rushing over the head and piston of an engine. 

 

   SeaFoam does not seem to do anything. What went wrong here?  No dissolved carbon in the glass and only slight smudging on the rags with no removal of carbon from the head or piston after rubbing.  What’s going on?  If it does not do anything at full strength how can it work at 200 to 1 where only slight fraction of the 200 to 1 mix will actually contact the carbon when an engine is running

Works for some, no denying that. Not sure about the role Seafoam plays in these success stories, though. Many mechanics regard it as a decarbonizer, but the cocktail of additives muddies the water a bit. Whatever the mysterious substance is composed of, it sure does have a dedicated following. I'm not here to poke the tiger, just relating my personal experience.

Over the years I've read several stories about equipt that Seafoam revitalized after prolonged periods of storage or neglect. Maybe that's what the ad copy should say? I honestly didn't observe any gains in performance whenever I used it. Regular maintenance tends to keep problems to a minimum, though - maybe that's why I didn't see the results.

Seafoam did help an old street bike start easier, but I eventually had to remove the head for valve replacement. The head was really crusty, even after all the Seafoam. I had the head hot tanked, honed the cylinders, ring job, and treated the carbs to a kit. Nothing radical, just routine repairs. You want to talk about a performance gain! In my 2-strokes, it didn't dissolve the carbon as much as I had hoped, at least not in the two motors I later broke down. To be fair, both these engines were pretty tired, and had a lot of hours on them.

Take it for what it's worth. If your machine screams on this stuff, then buy it by the barrel. Can't hurt to try a can before removing any parts. Just don't get your hopes up too high.

I have used Seafoam many times along with a brass wire brush clean off carbon inside cylinder heads and pistons.  It works much better than a brush alone, or a brush with carb cleaner.