Seafoam and alcohol in gas

Merc4ever

Petty Officer 1st Class
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Feb 14, 2009
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I read all over the internet that Seafoam has alcohol and people don't trust it in their boat tank because that's what they are trying to protect it from. I don't know if I believe them because,

At the Seafoam website they say: Sea Foam has been tested and proven to work well in Ethanol blended fuels since they first appeared in the 1990s ? even the newest E-85 blend. Ethanol has the effect of stripping the protective layer of motor oil from the cylinder walls, so the addition of Sea Foam Motor Treatment to your fuel actually helps to combat this drying effect by adding upper cylinder lubrication that helps to prolong the life of your engine and its fuel system components. Additionally, Ethanol can absorb moisture and when ethanol reaches its saturation point can cause what is known as (phase separation) this is when the moisture and ethanol can separate from the gasoline causing drivability problems and potential engine damage. Sea Foam helps control moisture in fuel caused by condensation by breaking moisture into molecules and dispersing it throughout the fuel, if moisture can not pool or collect ethanol can not absorb the moisture and renders the moisture harmless.

They also say: Regular use of Sea Foam in your fuel tank will help to ensure your injectors remain free of harmful deposits that can adversely affect your engine?s performance and fuel mileage.

Any thoughts or better product like Stabil marine?
 

frantically relaxing

Senior Chief Petty Officer
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Nov 19, 2011
Messages
699
Re: Seafoam and alcohol in gas

Just looked up the MSDS sheet for Seafoam:

by weight:
40-60% "pale oil" (light mineral oil)
25-35% Naphtha
10-20% IPA (isopropyl alcohol)

Baby oil, lighter fluid and rubbing alcohol--- Kinda takes the magic out, doesn't it? But if you're afraid of alcohol in your gas, then don't use it!

Something that IS good for your gas, and everything else in your engine is Marvel Mystery Oil... Hot rodders who make their own high octane fuel using Xylene or Toluene add it to their gas to make up for the lack of oil in those ingredients. It's good stuff, and a little in the gas tank helps with valve and cylinder ring oiling, it's supposed to be good to add a little to your engine oil too. It's wonderful for oiling control cables, or anything else that needs oil... Whether it helps counteract any effects of alcohol, or helps prolong the life of gasoline, not sure about that...
 

roscoe

Supreme Mariner
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Oct 30, 2002
Messages
21,657
Re: Seafoam and alcohol in gas

SeaFoam has isopropyl alcohol, not ethanol.

The feet you put in your car/truck gas tank in the winter, has isopropyl also.

I use Seafoam and Sta-bil in all my boat gas, as I never know how long it will take to consume it all.

I go thru about a gallon of Seafoam and a quart of sta-bil, per year.

I don't use the marine/ethanol sta-bil, as I buy ethanol free gas for the boats.
 

Merc4ever

Petty Officer 1st Class
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Feb 14, 2009
Messages
232
Re: Seafoam and alcohol in gas

SeaFoam has isopropyl alcohol, not ethanol.

The feet you put in your car/truck gas tank in the winter, has isopropyl also.

I use Seafoam and Sta-bil in all my boat gas, as I never know how long it will take to consume it all.

I go thru about a gallon of Seafoam and a quart of sat-bil, per year.

I don't use the marine/ethanol sat-bil, as I buy ethanol free gas for the boats.

I don't know if you need the Sta-bil because Sea foam is suppose to keep fuel fresh for 2 years according to thier web site.
 

Merc4ever

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Feb 14, 2009
Messages
232
Re: Seafoam and alcohol in gas

Just looked up the MSDS sheet for Seafoam:

by weight:
40-60% "pale oil" (light mineral oil)
25-35% Naphtha
10-20% IPA (isopropyl alcohol)

Baby oil, lighter fluid and rubbing alcohol--- Kinda takes the magic out, doesn't it? But if you're afraid of alcohol in your gas, then don't use it!

Something that IS good for your gas, and everything else in your engine is Marvel Mystery Oil... Hot rodders who make their own high octane fuel using Xylene or Toluene add it to their gas to make up for the lack of oil in those ingredients. It's good stuff, and a little in the gas tank helps with valve and cylinder ring oiling, it's supposed to be good to add a little to your engine oil too. It's wonderful for oiling control cables, or anything else that needs oil... Whether it helps counteract any effects of alcohol, or helps prolong the life of gasoline, not sure about that...
The light mineral oil must be what protects your engine, read my first post about what the web site says.
 

Merc4ever

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Messages
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Re: Seafoam and alcohol in gas

Why can't we mix out own? Anyone have a recipe?
 

MH Hawker

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Jul 13, 2011
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5,516
Re: Seafoam and alcohol in gas

I am sure you can mix your own. If you have the time and don't mind experimenting with your motor or you can buy it ready to go.

Personally I have been using their product for a number of years and it works very well. :rofl:
 

Home Cookin'

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Re: Seafoam and alcohol in gas

an often-debated topic, but one of the primary problems caused by ethanol is the phase seperation described in the first post. This occurs (a) over time and (b) with the introduction of water (including humid air) which is why the problems do not seem to occur in the frigid north as they do in the humid south, so don't compare the Minnesota guy's experience with the Louisiana guy's. High temps and temperature fluctuations add to the water intake.
The time factor is what makes boats different than cars: we tend to run our car fuel out but boat gas can sit around--especially off season. if you use all your boat gas in two months, the gas won't have time to have problems.

The alchohol in ethanol also breaks down and loosens up crud in the system, from the tank to the carb bowls, so the intitial introduction of E10 can cause those problems. But to the OP's point, isn't that what you do with a shock treatment? it also eats up old fuel lines--not a treatment issue but part of the picture.

If you have ethanol-free gas, you usually won't have the problems in typical boating situations, so you really don't need to add the products constantly any more than you do your car. Just watch for long periods of idle fuel.

The products are overlapping or sometimes redundant, so you don't need to use all of them. I use startron which is equivalent to stabil as far as I can tell, both in the motor I use frequently (Yam 150 carbed) and the one that I use every three months (old 70 johnson). I use ethanol (E10) in the Yam so I also use Yamaha's "Ring Free" which I am told is the equivalent of sea foam. Since I put no-ethanol gas in the Johnson, I only use the startron. So far so good, and I think I have solved old fuel problems and avoided new ones with this practice. All are stored outside on or near salt water in coastal Virginia: humid with big temperature swings.

Remember there are two different functions: the shock treatment and the daily dose. Different purposes.

Also remember that you can get bad gas from the station, sometimes mixed incorrectly with too much ethanol, sometimes with too much water in it (often at marinas).
 

Texasmark

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Re: Seafoam and alcohol in gas

The story I got was that Ole Evinrude, Mr. Johnson or both (OMC) needed something for outboards back in the 50's to take care of 2 cycle outboard problems. Seems they hired some chemist to come up with the secret. The oil is in it due to it being designed for 2 cycle engines which as we all know need oil with the fuel to lubricate the engine. 2 cycle engines don't need upper cylinder lubrication like 4 cycle engines as there is no upper cylinder if you will. I think the Naptha is to clean out the crud, like varnish and carbon, and the alcohol may be to attack moisture.

On mixing your own, have at it. For the little it costs when weighed against what it has done for me in the 8 years I have been using it, I'll stick with a proven winner. That way I don't have to worry about what kind of alkie or specifically what Naptha (a generic term for a lot of different hydrocarbons) I need to use.

This additive vs no additive discussion will go on forever. Take engine oil for example. WWs around here usually have an isle that is 6' high and some 30' long with nothing but 4 cycle engine oil. Apparently they are selling it because if it doesn't sell they don't keep it on the shelf. Some swear by using this, others that, others just grab the cheapest, others the highest price, some are new cars, others older cars with xxx miles and on and on.

Oh, and the Sea Foam, like the Sta-bil is always stocked in every WW in my shopping circuit. Actually every auto parts store I shop has it stocked along with Sta-bil and others.
---------------------------
Now a short story. I had a boat I bought new in '72 with a built in gas tank. I worried about water in gas and all considering the fuel that was left in my 18 gallon built-in tank over the winter. I bought some kind of product that was said to eliminate water from the fuel. Fine. In it went. One day I was blasting across this large body of water with the usual wind blowing and all of a sudden my engine quit.

In short, upon removing the fuel line from the fuel connector at the engine and squeezing the primer bulb, this enormous blob of milky looking stuff came out initially and finally clean fuel. Put the line back on the connector, primed it up, and away I went.

Soooo, I figure what I had was water soaked alcohol, but water soaked alcohol is everywhere. It's in your mouthwash, in rubbing alcohol, and other places. It doesn't turn milky and gooey. To this day, not being a chemist although I had a year of it in high school, I haven't figured out the relationship.

My 2c and worth every penny you paid for it. Grin.
Mark
 

WIMUSKY

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Re: Seafoam and alcohol in gas

I've been using Seafoam in every motor that I've owned for years. The isopropyl alcohol ingredient should take care of any moisture no matter where you live....
 

Silvertip

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Re: Seafoam and alcohol in gas

A few years back I was visiting my sister in the Denver area near DIA. Since she lives in a flying community there is an abundance of aircraft around including a neighbor with a "Breezy". Doesn't make one iota of difference if you know what that is or not but when the lady pilot decided to go for a spin with it, step one was to check the fuel for water. Let's see now -- Denver is not known for high humidity but when she sampled the fuel drained into a glass jar, guess what -- lots of water. So do not compare the humid south with the tundra of Minnesota. Humidity up here is just as unbearable in the summer as it is down south. Been there - done that. People simply need to stop worrying so much about E-1o and the soon to arrive E-15. We've been using E-10 for decades in everything from weed whips to airplanes and if properly treated it is not a devil fuel. Lack of fuel system maintenance is the issue whether you run real gas or blended fuel. Treat the fuel and go boating. If there has been a switch recently in your area from regular fuel to E-10, then all the gunk that has build up over the years will be loosened up and deposited in filters, with some it making it's way into the carbs/injection systems. So much for no problem with regular fuel huh? That garp would have come loose sooner or later. Replace the rubber parts in your fuel system if they are not ethanol tolerant and go boating.
 

OllieC

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Messages
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Re: Seafoam and alcohol in gas

I hope Seafoam is the right stuff....... I loaded it up with ethanol free gas before storage......

Also, in regards to MN. We do have a high humidity issues in enclosures. (I rep outside plant pedestals and fiber enclosures for telephone companies) A gas tank would be an enclosure.

How you get water or humidity in enclosures is when you have high fluctuations in temperature, cold to hot or vise-a-versa - not necessarily with a steady ambient temperature. We have, in MN, at times, 50+ degree shifts in temperature overnight. I've opened up enclosures full of water and/or frost that are suppose to be dry. It will draw it from the stale air and/or in this case, from the ethanol.
 

kfa4303

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Re: Seafoam and alcohol in gas

Generally speaking, Sea Foam is good stuff. While it does have a bit of isopropyl alcohol, it can't/won't damage your motor in any way. Seafoam essentially pure petroleum and is essentially an organic solvent that you add to the fuel help remove built up carbon deposits that can form on the pistons and head. It can also be used in your car/lawnmower, or virtually anything with a motor. It will, however, smoke like hell when you start it up, but that's normal. All the blue smoke is just the old carbon deposits burning away. Warn the neighbors (seriously), then take the motor out on the water and run it at WOT for a bit to bring it up to temp and burn off the remaining crud. You should notice better compression, smoother idle, and better overall performance. Check out youtube for tons of vids using it on their car/boat/etc...
 
Joined
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Messages
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Re: Seafoam and alcohol in gas

I agree with kfa4303 100%. I just started using Sea Foam in all my 4 and 2 cycle gasoline. It helps clean the carbs and injectors and carbon out and now all my engines are running like new.
 

roscoe

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Re: Seafoam and alcohol in gas

I don't know if you need the Sta-bil because Sea foam is suppose to keep fuel fresh for 2 years according to thier web site.

Yeah, I don't generally use them both at the same time.
Use the Seafoam to keep the fuel system and carbs clean.
 

Outsider

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Re: Seafoam and alcohol in gas

Why can't we mix out own? Anyone have a recipe?

Just call Seafoam, I'm sure they'd give it to you ... :facepalm:
 

tomhath

Master Chief Petty Officer
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Dec 5, 2007
Messages
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Re: Seafoam and alcohol in gas

Why can't we mix out own? Anyone have a recipe?
See the post by Frantically Relaxing:

by weight:
40-60% "pale oil" (light mineral oil)
25-35% Naphtha
10-20% IPA (isopropyl alcohol)
Baby oil, lighter fluid and rubbing alcohol

Ratio probably isn't critical/
 

bruceb58

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Messages
30,454
Re: Seafoam and alcohol in gas

All the blue smoke is just the old carbon deposits burning away.
Actually its just the oil in the Seafoam burning off which is why you don't want to use it in a car with O2 sensors.

If you want to dry your gas, get a gas drier product that is all isopropyl alcohol and save your money.

If you want to use a fuel cleaner that actually has the best active ingredient in it, use the Techron product. It will do way more than the naptha that is in Seafoam. the Society of Automotive Engineers did a study and found that it was the most effective fuel cleaner.
 

Merc4ever

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Feb 14, 2009
Messages
232
Re: Seafoam and alcohol in gas

See the post by Frantically Relaxing:

by weight:
40-60% "pale oil" (light mineral oil)
25-35% Naphtha
10-20% IPA (isopropyl alcohol)
Baby oil, lighter fluid and rubbing alcohol

Ratio probably isn't critical/

What if I get the wrong kind or they lie about ratios to throw off copiers and I ruin my engine? I think I'll just keep buying it until somebody else swears by the mix and it worked good for them. It would be a lot cheaper to buy that stuff and mix your own. I'd probably go in the middle on percentages.
 

Merc4ever

Petty Officer 1st Class
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Messages
232
Re: Seafoam and alcohol in gas

We're in luck somebody has tried it:
Homebrew Sea Foam (SeaFoam) Motor Treatment Recipe

Disclaimer

This page is not affiliated with Sea Foam or the Sea Foam Sales Company nor am I liable for how you use this information. Fixing an engine is certainly a lot more expensive than original Sea Foam, so be careful if you decide to do any experimentation on your engine.
Recommended Recipe

4 parts Diesel 2 parts naphtha 1 part IPA


Initial Experimentation

All references to ounces (oz) refer to fluid ounces volume, not weight or mass. I used Sea Foam Motor Treatment in the gas tank of our vehicles as a fuel system cleaner as part of my oil analysis testing and I thought they ran smoother afterward. When I read about this stuff, I discovered that it could be used in many more ways than just pouring it into your gas tank. When it is used in the gas tank at 1-2 oz/gal, it cleans and lubricates everything from the fuel pump and fuel injectors to the back of the intake valves in addition to stabilizing and drying fuel. Sea Foam Motor Treatment may be used as an engine flush by adding it to the crankcase oil at 1.5 oz/qt and running for 30 miles. This usage sounds very similar to the AMSOIL Engine Flush that I ran at a high idle for 20 minutes. I would probably run the Sea Foam as an engine flush at a high idle for 20-30 minutes and not run the engine under any sort of driving load. Sea Foam Motor Treatment may also be inducted into the intake manifold to clean the intake and valves. Sea Foam Trans Tune is a transmission flush, cleaner, and stabilizer product. The documentation says to add 1/2 pint to the transmission fluid, drive around for 30 minutes in all gears, and then perform the flush. It then says to add the other 1/2 pint to the new fluid for prevention.

I would like to keep some of this versatile and useful stuff around, but it is about $10/pint at my local Auto Zone, which works out to 62 cents/oz. Luckily, the MSDS is available online and the composition is relatively simple: pale oil, naphtha, and IPA. Sea Foam Motor Treatment and Sea Foam Trans Tune are both made of the same three components, but they use slightly different ratios. Luckily, I can purchase these types of ingredients myself at many local stores. Also, this interesting excerpt was on the Sea Foam FAQ: "Sea Foam is composed solely of three specially blended petroleum oils each having specific functions such as lubricating, cleaning or moisture control. There are no other chemicals (not even color dyes) included in the formulation. Being of the same basic petroleum chemistry as the motor oils and gasoline you already use in your engine, Sea Foam is completely compatible with all engine components, fuels, lubricants and other additives you may have in your engine. Sea Foam will not damage gaskets or seals, and will not interact in a negative way with motor oil or fuel, or the additives used in them."

I chose to make a 45-35-20 mass ratio oil-naphtha-IPA solution for initial testing, which falls in the MSDS ranges specified for the two products. This solution maximizes the non-oil components within the specified ranges, but it is impossible to tell if this is closer to the motor treatment product or transmission treatment product on the first try. This DIY homebrew solution has similar composition to the commercial stuff and costs much less. This preliminary testing recipe is approximately: 6.5 oz pale oil, 6 oz naphtha, and 3.5 oz 91% isopropyl alcohol.

The naphtha and IPA are pretty specific ingredients not open to much interpretation, but the generic term "pale oil" does not offer many clues. The term generally means oil refined until it has a straw yellow to clear color, which encompasses a wide range of petroleum products. However, the Sea Foam FAQ quoted above tells us that this component is probably for lubricating duty and is most likely thicker than naphtha and IPA. I mixed up batches using 20W-50 motor oil, pharmacy heavy grade mineral oil laxative, ATF, and Diesel fuel as the "pale oil" component, but the final viscosity and mixing abilities varied quite a bit. I used a small water bottle with a 3/32 hole drilled in the cap and the bottom cut off as a funnel to measure relative viscosity. I filled the bottle to a given line (about 6 oz), removed my finger from the hole, and started a stopwatch to measure the seconds until empty. I measured water at 58 seconds and gasoline at 54 seconds at 50 degrees F for comparison.


Here are the results of my initial 45-35-20 mass ratio testing with different oils:


Notice the clear separation line in the mineral oil and motor oil batches. This line would appear in a matter of minutes after shaking. The ATF did separate some, but it resulted in more of a wide gradient than a clear line and only appeared after a day or more. The Diesel batch showed little to no separation in the same time frame and looked closest to Sea Foam in color. The ATF and mineral oil batches were closest to the Sea Foam in terms of viscosity. The Diesel batch was less viscous than Sea Foam. So, the Diesel batch would not provide as much fuel system or upper cylinder lubrication as the other formulas with this mass ratio, but that may not be important for many uses. Using Diesel fuel as the "pale oil" component is also the cheapest option I tested. I tested a 50/50 mix of the Diesel and 20W-50, but the end solution's mixing ability was somewhere between 20W-50 and ATF.

Revised Experimentation

Next I tried a 4-2-1 volume ratio using Diesel, which brings the viscosity up to 59 seconds, is still within specified mass ratios, and is easier to mix. I used a single half-cup measuring cup to make the first test batch, but you can use any size container. The viscosity of this ratio is very close to the original Sea Foam and this batch has similar composition.

msds component purpose msds mass % homebrew component source component cost $/oz density g/ml volume mass mass ratio solution cost $/oz solution cost $/pint
pale oil lubrication 40-60 diesel fuel station 0.0215 0.85 4 3.40 0.60 0.0123 0.20
naphtha cleaning 25-35 naphtha Klean Strip, Home Depot 0.2100 0.75 2 1.50 0.26 0.0600 0.96
IPA drying 10-20 isopropyl alcohol 91% pharmacy 0.0900 0.81 1 0.81 0.14 0.0129 0.21
total





7 5.71 1.00 0.0851 1.36
This recipe costs about 9 cents/oz and $1.36/pint instead of 62 cents/oz and $10/pint for the original stuff. The price jumps slightly to about 10 cents/oz and $1.65/pint when you use high quality Iso-HEET instead of watered-down IPA from the pharmacy. This recipe is not Sea Foam exactly, but it is similar.

Potential Substitutions

Now, what about substitutions? If you still care about the drying component, you could replace Iso-HEET IPA with HEET, methanol, denatured alcohol, or grain alcohol as long as the percentage is high enough. The 91% pharmacy IPA has a little too much water in it to achieve good mixing with the other components, so I highly recommend Iso-HEET, which is much more pure. You could skip the drying agent if your application does not need it. I used Klean Strip VM&P Naphtha, which is an intermediate or medium naphtha. You could try a light naphtha like camp fuel (white gas) or you could try a heavy naphtha like charcoal lighter fluid. You could most likely substitute gasoline for naphtha considering that they have similar densities and are composed of many petroleum compounds with similar numbers of carbon atoms. Many gasoline components are derived from naphtha. You could substitute kerosene for Diesel in a pinch, but that would reduce the viscosity of the final mixture considerably. Many oxygenated gasolines have some (under 10%) alcohol in it already, so you could certainly reduce or eliminate additional drying agent if you use the right gasoline. The ultra-cheap-out two-part recipe would be:

2 parts Diesel - 1 part gasoline



This simpler two-component recipe matches original Sea Foam color better than any of the other recipes. The viscosity is very close to the original. You can smell the IPA in the original, but the two-component mix smells more like gasoline for obvious reasons.

Results

So, how well does the recommended 4-2-1 homebrew DIY SeaFoam recipe work? That is difficult to prove without tearing down an engine or running it on a dyno. I have run the homebrew in the fuel system of all 4 of our vehicles (2 Land Rovers and 2 motorcycles) at least once. I felt it made our two SUVs run smoother and I felt it had no noticeable effect on the 2009 motorcycle with only 3000 miles on it. It had a dramatic effect on our carbureted 1994 Yamaha FZR600R with 33000 miles on it. It sat most of the winter and was running really rough in the spring. I ran a tank with homebrew through and it ran dramatically smoother afterward. I am going to continue to use it in the fuel system of our vehicles at every oil change like I had previously with Gumout and real SeaFoam. I have not inducted or sprayed it into the intake manifold because I feel the fuel injectors and carburetors of our vehicles do a good job of spraying at the back of the intake valves. I might think differently if we ever get a direct-injection engine. I have run some homebrew through the crankcase of one Land Rover as an engine flush when switching oils and noticed no ill effects. Finally, I used it most recently to stabilize the last full tank of gas in one of our motorcycles before parking it for the winter.
 
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