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Seafoam through the Intake

Old Jun 2, 2007 | 09:52 AM
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Seafoam through the Intake

Ok, well I went to my local autozone and picked up a bottle of seafoam for $5.99. Anyhoo, I just poured about a 1/4 of the bottle through the vacuum hose on the brake booster. Though while I was pourin it, my engine revved up instead of wanting to stall like I heard it usually does. Now I'm waitin for the 30-60 minutes I was told to let it sit before I start it back up.

How much smoke is it supposed to make? Crazy-illy tuned diesel truck smoking up the entire neighborhood to where the fire department gets called, or just enough to make your next door neighbor wonder wtf's wrong with your truck while he's cuttin his grass? And how long is it supposed to smoke for? Should you drive it around while smoking, or just let it sit while on and smoke itself out?

And how many times should I repeat the whole process, and do I have to let it sit a full 30-60 minutes every time I add more through the intake system?

I'll let yall know if I notice a difference.

EDIT: A worthy 600th post eh? Better than my usual nonsence huh? Lol...

Last edited by SwampThing; Jun 2, 2007 at 09:55 AM.
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Old Jun 2, 2007 | 10:05 AM
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From: TN native stuck in AL
Originally Posted by SwampThing
Ok, well I went to my local autozone and picked up a bottle of seafoam for $5.99. Anyhoo, I just poured about a 1/4 of the bottle through the vacuum hose on the brake booster. Though while I was pourin it, my engine revved up instead of wanting to stall like I heard it usually does. Now I'm waitin for the 30-60 minutes I was told to let it sit before I start it back up.

How much smoke is it supposed to make? Crazy-illy tuned diesel truck smoking up the entire neighborhood to where the fire department gets called, or just enough to make your next door neighbor wonder wtf's wrong with your truck while he's cuttin his grass? And how long is it supposed to smoke for? Should you drive it around while smoking, or just let it sit while on and smoke itself out?

And how many times should I repeat the whole process, and do I have to let it sit a full 30-60 minutes every time I add more through the intake system?

I'll let yall know if I notice a difference.

EDIT: A worthy 600th post eh? Better than my usual nonsence huh? Lol...
When I did mine, it didn't smoke much or long. It may depend how much crap is in there. I did it twice, waited about a day and tried it again, still not much smoke. I assume the longer you wait, the more time it has to work. I used the PCV line once and then the small line middle of TB and sucked it right out of can. Then I remembered it was supposed to go in the truck.
I let it sit and burn off, did notice smoother idle afterwards. My exhaust was a little oily afterward, err trucks was.

600! I'm still playing catch up. I need to post more 2 or 3 word responses.

Last edited by JEBSR5; Jun 2, 2007 at 10:13 AM.
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Old Jun 2, 2007 | 10:15 AM
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theres no need to wait that long. 5-10 minutes will suffice. But if you want to wait that long I guess like Jebs said, more time for it to do its thing.

As far as smoke. Well that depends on how much crap there is in there. I wouldnt drive it with a whole lot still coming out. At least let it sit running for a good 5 minutes to get rid of most of it with a few hits of the throttle.
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Old Jun 2, 2007 | 10:37 AM
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Cool. Bout to go start-er up.

Bah, 2 or 3 word responces are lame. I try to always have at lease this much text in a reply...
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Old Jun 2, 2007 | 10:40 AM
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so you just undo the little U shaped hose to the PCV from the top or the bottom ?? the top goes to the intake so i would think you would undo the bottom then pour it in from there right?? Ive been debating about this and if its worth it
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Old Jun 2, 2007 | 10:48 AM
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Wow. It smoked pretty darn good. Enough to piss off 3 or 4 neighbors if they cared instead of saying that's awesome.

But it only smoked for about 20-30 seconds... It's real hard to guage how much you've poured in there. Poured more in there. Think I've got half a bottle left.

Did idle real nicely after it got done smoking. Throttle responce seemed a bit snappier too. Tell yall more after I wait another 10-15 mins and re-evaluate. Haven't driven it yet though.
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Old Jun 2, 2007 | 10:49 AM
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From: TN native stuck in AL
Originally Posted by 4Runner92sr5
so you just undo the little U shaped hose to the PCV from the top or the bottom ?? the top goes to the intake so i would think you would undo the bottom then pour it in from there right?? Ive been debating about this and if its worth it
I thought the middle hose on top of TB from fuel vapor cannister did a better metering of the fluid, don't have to worry about hydrolock as much. But PCV is good as well. I unhooked that one from intake and slid on a spare hose with a little funnel on it and slowly poured. Harder to hold all that and blip the throttle though. That's why I like the TB hose.
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Old Jun 2, 2007 | 10:56 AM
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yeah i think ill try it through the TB hose sounds a little easier deffinetly don't want to hydrolock thats not a good situation haha thanks for the info
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Old Jun 2, 2007 | 10:56 AM
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Hydro-what!? Aint nobody told me about that! More prone to do that going through the brake booster than the pvc or tb, or...? Oh well, it's been fine so far... Gonna go start-er back up and drive around for a few.
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Old Jun 2, 2007 | 11:02 AM
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yeah let us know how it goes by the description of the smoke hopefully a good difference
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Old Jun 2, 2007 | 11:06 AM
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Brake booster is by far the easiest place to dump the stuff in.

even though you guys are all using diffrent vaccum lines you have to remeber it all goes to the same place. Brake booster is nice and thick and easily to take off and put back on.
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Old Jun 2, 2007 | 11:09 AM
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I did mine through the brake booster. I noticed minimal smoke. Didnt notice much difference.
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Old Jun 2, 2007 | 11:10 AM
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mac you make a very valid point
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Old Jun 2, 2007 | 11:26 AM
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I did it through the brake booster. I put a finger over the can opening and poured it in slowly. I think where people run into problems useing the brake booster, is when they shove the hose in the can.
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Old Jun 2, 2007 | 11:27 AM
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From: maple ridge, British Columbia, Canada
Originally Posted by slosurfer
I did it through the brake booster. I put a finger over the can opening and poured it in slowly. I think where people run into problems useing the brake booster, is when they shove the hose in the can.
Exactly what I did ( finger over the can )
I heard of people just feeding the line into the can and sucking the whole thing up, thus hydro locking their engine..
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Old Jun 2, 2007 | 11:29 AM
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Originally Posted by SwampThing
Hydro-what!? Aint nobody told me about that! More prone to do that going through the brake booster than the pvc or tb, or...? Oh well, it's been fine so far... Gonna go start-er back up and drive around for a few.
PCV theoretically, because it would have the highest flow rate(biggest tube). However, it would be like hydrolocking with gasoline. Not to likely, due to flamability first. But, I've poured so much Seafoam as to stall my engine on many occasions, with no trouble. On purpose, I might add. You'd probably have to pour the whole can into a single cylinder, in the period of a single stroke, to truly hydrolock the engine, any air in the cylinder WILL compress. It will stall first due to the improper fuel/air mix, in theory.

Pure water can be used instead to "steam clean" the valves/upper cylinder in the exact same procedure. I would not let my engine stall there, for not just the hydrolock factor(minimal w/o pumping it in there quick enough to nearly fill a cylinder before the others quit firing), because water needs heat to steam. Yes, I mean pouring water into your intake at a slow rate. It's been done for decades by seasoned mechanics, my grandfather (WWII aircraft mech.) taught me that one. He didn't know about Seafoam I'm geussin'. He did modify the practice by using rubbing alcohol, which is a "safer" method than 100% water, with inherently better solvent action.

Last edited by MudHippy; Jun 2, 2007 at 02:49 PM.
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Old Jun 2, 2007 | 12:27 PM
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the first time i did mine it smoked really really bad for about 10 min. bad enough that i had to run into the garage to get away from the smoke. ran pretty well for a lil while after that. but the next two times i did it didnt do anything and i dont notice a thing when it comes to response.
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Old Jun 2, 2007 | 02:30 PM
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Smoked alot for about 2 minutes. Ended up using about 2/3 of the can in the vacuum method, and the other 1/3 in the gas tank. Seems to be running great. Better idle, restored pickup, and better throttle response. I'm very pleased.
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Old Jun 2, 2007 | 02:45 PM
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When i did my 4runner it didn't smoke too much (didn't even get to the end of the block before it was done). When i did my wifes MR2, it looked like a coal factory was burning up behind me for 2-3 minutes. It all depends on the amount of junk in there.

As far as letting it sit, i read (on here i think) that the reason that they recommend letting it sit for a while is so that it can soften up the carbon deposites enough that they cause fewer problems with clogging up the cat/muffler. Of course, that could be false.
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Old Jun 2, 2007 | 02:49 PM
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Lmao... What cat?
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