Seafoam. good bad or ugly?

[appleo]

Have a 70 hp 2 stroke sat for 4 years. seems to idle a little low or rough

Any value in running a tank with seafoam in gasoline?

Mix ratio? Duration.?

Ive never used Seafoam

 

[harringtondav]

My pal said Seafoam brought his 4 stroke snowblower back to life. Like any fuel system cleaner, follow the label mixing instructions.

Duration: Until it helps, or you decide it is snake oil. It won't hurt a thing, except maybe your wallet.

 

[The Force power]

[QUOTE

Duration: Until it helps, or you decide it is snake oil. It won't hurt a thing, except maybe your wallet.[/QUOTE]

Man!! could not of said it better! But snake-oil will give you a nice smoke-show

 

[The Force power]

Have a 70 hp 2 stroke sat for 4 years. seems to idle a little low or rough

Check/test timing / Clean & adjust your carburetors / check RPM in gear and set to 750 in water not hose

Run in hard on the lake, sometimes; that's all it needs but verify RPMs

 

[tblshur]

if i had your motor i would put 1/2 to 3/4 bottle of seafoam into 1 gal of gas unhook fuel line from tank stick it in the gallon container and go for a very serious ride it will smoke a lot this is not a replacement for good maintance clean carbs etc but i think it burns some carbon and cleans some JMO:joyous:

 

[roscoe]

Seafoam will clean up some of the built up unburnt oil residue, especially in the midsection and gearcase.

It will stabilize fresh gas for long term storage.

It will help to maintain a clean fuel system.

It won't clean a dirty carb.

It probably won't do anything for stuck rings, unless poured in the cylinder and allowed to soak.


So, as it says above, "Check/test timing / Clean & adjust your carburetors"

 

[Mr. Asa]

Seafoam is ethanol, naphtha, and one other ingredient I cant remember right now. That's it. Once upon a time it might have had a benefit, but with modern fuels? Meh.

I would save your money for a tune up and a new tank of gas, then give it an "Italian Tuneup"

 

[dingbat]

Sea foam is good for one thing...decarbing a 2 stroke.

Thee are a couple of methods, but the one I use is to mix 1/2 a can of sea foam in a gallon of gas. Start the engine and let it run until the gallon of mix is gone.

Let it sit for and hour to two then take it out and run it hard until it stops smoking. Do it a second time if you get a lot of $rap out of the motor.

I was religious about decarbing once a year until I switched over to Evinrude XD50 and pennzoil Premium Plus oil exclusively. XD50 has carbon cleaner in the formulation. No needed for secondary treatments.

Seafoam is a crazy expensive fuel stabilizer, 1 oz. per gallon of gas. Almost three times the price of Stabil

 

[Chris1956]

Let's see...good bad or ugly was the original question. I vote for good and smoky!

I have used it and it smokes a lot. Does it decarbon and motor? Does it clean the fuel system?

I have no direct evidence of either. However, it is a good solvent, so it might just clean the carbs a bit and decarbon the motor a bit. I try to use it once a year. It has never hurt anything, and both of my older carb OBs run very well.

 

[Faztbullet]

Best stuff made to cause engine repairs... I have had customer use the death mix (1 or 2 gallons of fuel to a near full bottle) and wipe out the upper or lower bearing on crank as they did not let it run long enough to flush itself.

 

[jimmbo]

There are much better Snake Oils than SeaFoam on the Market, some of which actually will soften Carbon, and dissolve Gum and Varnish in a carb

 

[QBhoy]

I must admit...I was a doubting Thomas over it. But it did sort out a rough running carb on a 2 stroke ski I had. But I’d also add that despite advice to pour a concentrated amount straight into carb when running...this idea terrified the hell out me, for fear of running the 2 stroke motor lean of oil. I put half a bottle of it into half a gallon of 2 stroke mixed fuel and did it that way. Think the bottle instructions will say similar or along those lines anyway.

 

[racerone]

I vote for inspection / trouble shooting to see what attention the motor needs.

 

[The Force power]

I vote for inspection / trouble shooting to see what attention the motor needs.

Snake oil is all it needs:rofl::bolt:

All we need is to ingest Clorox so we can get together & socialize

 

[DeepCMark58A]

I worked wild land fire for 20 years, we used small portable 4 stroke honda motors with a pump head called a mini mark. We used the pumps in mop up operations so when they got used they got used a lot. We would have to take the pumps out of service after around 8 hours of run time. There would be a white gummy substance in the carb and intake area. I suggested adding Startron to the fuel. Never had the gummy build up in the carbs since Strartron is added to the fuel. You can call it snake oil all you want I have personally witnessed the product prevent fuel issues.

 

[whosmatt]

Sea Foam is mostly harmless but IMO is the first step of denial. Try it and then when it doesn't work you can move on to the next step, which is accepting you have a problem.

 

[achris]

Not keen on the 'add to fuel' solutions, for a variety of reasons.

One product I used extensively when I had a dealership workshop was Merc's Power Tune. Run the engine, at idle on flushers until warm, then increase the throttle while spraying this stuff straight into the carbs. Then, while still spraying, let the engine stall out. Let the power tune sit for 20 to 30 minutes, then fire up the engine. Smoky as billy-o! And watch the run off water. It'll be black with carbon. If you want to de-carbon a piston/combustion chamber or have a few gummed up rings, this stuff is the real deal, but if the problem is a worn engine, or any other damage, nothings coming out of a can will fix that...

Chris......

 

[flyingscott]

There is no such thing as mechanic in the can. Pay someone to do it or tackle the job yourself. And if that boat has old gas in you may want to get rid.of that.

 

[jimmbo]

A lot of questionable Transmission, and other Repair Shops have cases of 'Overhaul-in-a-Can', in various Colours as need be

 

[matt167]

spray some water in the carb while it's running. Has to be a warm motor when you do it. That will work as well as Seafoam as a decarbonizer will and water is free.. There are better products that will work as a fuel system cleaner.

A few years ago, I had a worn out 1965 Rambler American with the 195.6" 6cyl ( Not the engine that became the Jeep 4.0 ).
It was just an unrestored car that was neat to drive. valves so worn out that it could not pull fuel out of the carburator just off idle. Acceletator pump was the only way to get it going. No vac whatsoever and it held about 10HG at idle.. Pouring the old ATF elixer down the carb every 100 miles brought the vac at idle to 15 HG and the hesitation went away