Seafoam changed my life.

[nrgetic99]

Just wanted to share. I finally bought some Seafoam and admit I was a little skeptical at first. However, I can now report that Seafoam has done the following for me :

* Defragged my hard drive
* Smoothed out and slowed down my idle
* Re-grew the hair on my forehead
* Added 4" to my biceps while taking 6" off my waist
* Taught me to play the piano
* Allowed me to appreciate long walks on the beach at sunset
* Increased my net worth by 31%
* Added 50 yds to my drives at golf
* Taught me to buy property with no money down
* Given me total recall
* Waterproofed my basement
* Given me six pack abs while working out only 20 mins per week
* Reduced the cost of my long distance service
* Increased the speed of my downloads by 500%
* Given me "Bob's confidence" :thumbup:
* Improved my abilities with the ladies to allow me to date supermodels
* Treated my dog's heart worm
* Cleaned the leaves out of my gutters
* Shaved me closer than a wet razor
* Reduced my cholesterol by 50 points

Of course, results not typical, your mileage may vary, not available in all states, not all buyers will qualify, Elvis lives.
David


P.S. I did buy some, I used it in my upper intake area and in my crankcase and I am evaluating the benefits . Also, I am currently having it analyzed on my own dollar ...

Watch this space...

[MTL_4runner]

P.S. I did buy some, I used it in my upper intake area and in my crankcase and I am evaluating the benefits . Also, I am currently having it analyzed on my own dollar ...


David, I'm dying to know what you find out regarding what exactly is in it.

Did you use any in the gas tank at all?

[nrgetic99]

It will go in the gas tank at the next fill up as I used the first pint in the upper intake area and in the crankcase.

My guess is now, as it was before is that it is 95% solvent as a good solvent will in fact do most of what seafoam claims...certainly, the upper intake tract and combustion chamber clean up can be cleaned very effectively with solvent.

David

[MTL_4runner]

When you say solvent, what types of solvents are there that they put into these fuel cleaners?
Methylene chloride? Toluene? Xylene? Naphthalene? Methanol? Acetone? MEK? Naptha?

It would be nice for you to school us on some of the lingo we can look for on these products and what percentages are good. :D

I found a good link for someone who seems to have done some sort of simple cleaner comparison:
http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/t54232.html

[MTL_4runner]

I also found this which seems to show the various breakdowns of each cleaner (it would be nice to verify these and add more):



I made this file to show the differences between Injector cleaners.
Some cost $2 others cost $13, the mid priced bottles are a best buy.
This method does not come close to sending all your injectors for a clean and balance.

Most cheap injector cleaners are just
pure kerosene or alcohol., like $2 GumOut.

Some MSDS forms say trade secret, but tell what chem. that is not toxic and would clean an injector?
The top brands , tell the truth here.


MSDS data

Techron Concentrate ingredients:

< 50% Distillates, hydrotreated light (Aka: oil based paint thinner)
< 35% Stoddard solvent (Aka: dry clean solvent, white solvent)
5-10% Solvent naphtha, light aromatic (zippo lighter fluid)
1-5% Benzene, 1,2,4-trimethyl-95-63-6 (powerful toxic solvent)
>1% Xylene (powerful solvent)

Basically Techron is naptha and 3 kinds of benenze.


GUM OUT INJECTOR CLEANER ingredients:

< 1 Trade secret or proprietary formula (gotta love these trade secrets!)
40-70% Petroleum distillate(s) (unspecified) (most likely paint thinner)
1-10% Detergent/Inhibitor mixture (gotta love these trade secrets!)
30-50% Isopropanol (rubbing alcohol, GAS DRYER "CH3CHOHCH3")


Seafoam ingredients:

40-60% PALE OIL 4229 (A base or process oil refined until its color = yellow)
25-35% NAPHTHA 20 (solvent powerful , common in all good injector cleaners. Zippo lighter fuel)
10-20% IPA 125 (Isopropyl Alcohol - rubbing alcohol)


GM Top Engine Cleaner ingredients:

2-BUTOXYETHANOL, a paint and ink solvent , used even in Clorox cleaner 409
Naptha, raises octane rating of gas, , simular to Zippo ligher fluid or Coleman camp fuel.
4-METHYL-2-PENTANOL, (aka:Methyl isobutyl carbinol) used as a lacquer paint thinner
9-OCTADECENDIC ACID.(aka:Oleic acid, found in Olive oil) (this acid is interesting)


GM Piston and Ring Cleaner ingredients:

2-Pyrrolidinone, 1-methyl
Benzyl alcohol
Poly (oxy-1,2,-ethanediyl), .alpha.-(4-nonylphenyl) -.omega.hydroxy-, branched


BG-44k ingredients: ( madly popular but little different than old Chevron Techron)

Light Aromatic Solvent Naphtha , (Zippo lighter fluid)
1, 2, 4-Trimethylbenzene , commonly found in up to 7% by volume already in Gasoline.
Xylene ,(1,2-dimethylbenzene & 1,3-dimethylbenzene & 1,4-dimethylbenzene), xylol , powerful solvent
Cumene ,(isopropylbenzene, ) powerful solvent,raises octane of gasoline.


GUNK FUEL INJECTION AIR INTAKE CLEANER ingredients:

30-60% 2-Propanone (aka: Acetone)
>10 % Ethylbenzene (a powerful solvent)
1-10% Hydrotreated Heavy Paraffinic Distillate (weak solvent)
1-4% Methanol (solvent)
10-30% Propane (gas used in BBQs)
15-45% Toluene (powerful solvent)
5-20% Xylene (mixed isomers)


Red Line SI-1 ingredients:

1-5% Alkenylamine - (a detergent ,even used sometimes,in baby shampoo)
1-10% Isoctanol - ( C8H18O , aka, 2-ethylhexan-1-ol, or Octyl alcohol)
1-10% 1,2,4 Trimethylbenzene , (C9H12 )
5-20% Aliphactic Napthta , zippo lighter fluid. , aka: white gas, low octane)


Valvoline Complete Fuel System Cleaner ingredients:

52-62% Kersosene
28-38% Light hydrotreated petroleum distillate
6-16% Stoddard Solvent ( stoddard is the name of the man who invented dry cleaning)


Warning, some of the chemical names have 20-30 synonyms.

[drguitarum2005]

i put seafoam in my PCV one night and noticed just a slight idle difference. i dont think my system was too dirty to begin with. next time i do it im going to get more and do it in the PCV, crankcase, and gas tank and see how that goes.

[mkgarrison5]

if you have done oil changes like you should do 3-6k miles tops then you shouldnt need a cleaner for the crankcase..

[cooldry]

i put seafoam in my PCV one night and noticed just a slight idle difference. i dont think my system was too dirty to begin with. next time i do it im going to get more and do it in the PCV, crankcase, and gas tank and see how that goes.



Be careful about putting too much into your PCV. I could hydro lock your engine.

[MTL_4runner]

Here's another bit of info I dug up which ties into to my previous post:


Yes, I did do a fairly scientific comparison of the cleaners, as much as I could do in my house, but I am a chemist with experience in the petroleum industry. Here's a summary of my results:

For the following tests, I tried to use a wide variety of products, well known and unknown, expensive and cheap, and also some pure solvents. Note, Carbon itself (such as soot and thermally decomposed material is not soluble in any solvent but solvents like dimethylformamide and N-methyl pyrrolidone do a good job of breaking up clumps and dispersing the fine particles but some of these are too harsh to use freely in the fuel system.


Relative efficiencies at which various cleaners will dissolve high boiling residues and carbonaceous deposits found in used motor oil: (10=best)

10 Gunk Gas Treatment
10 Toluene (a common ingredient)
9 Castrol Syntec Power System
8 Duralube Fuel System Cleaner
7 Gunk Fuel Injector Cleaner
6 Redline SI-1
5 Gunk Air Intake Cleaner
4 Naphtha (a common ingredient)
4 STP Fuel System Cleaner
4 Seafoam Motor Tuneup
4 Trak Fuel Injector Cleaner
4 STP Intake Valve Cleaner
4 CD-2 Emission Cure
4 Prolong Fuel System Treatment
3 CD-2 Fuel Injector Cleaner
3 Techron Concentrate
0.5 Butyl Cellosolve (a commonly used "auto industry detergent" for oil and grease)


These cleaners do not hurt nylon (listed randomly) (letters in parentheses indicate how well they dissolved crud from used oil, A=best):

Trak Fuel Injector Cleaner (C)
STP Intake Valve Cleaner (E)
Techron Concentrate (D)
Duralube Fuel System Treatment (B)
Seafoam Motor Tuneup
B-12 Chemtool (B)
CD-2 Emission Cure
Prolong Fuel System Treatment
Naphtha
Aromatic distillates
Butyl cellosolve
2-Phenoxyethanol (A)
Toluene (A)
Acetone


The following cleaners will decompose the nylon sock in the fuel tank - listed in order of increasing severity:

STP Fuel System Treatment
CD-2 Fuel Injector Cleaner
Gunk Fuel Injector Cleaner
Castrol Syntec Power System
Redline SI-1
Gunk Gas Treatment
Monoethanolamine
(The monoethanolamine is the worst, and it is significant that the "best" "detergents" in use today are similar, strongly alkaline organic solvents. Someone in one of these forums told me that when the auto industry looks for good cleaners to use, they mostly look for solvents that will not attack the plastic and rubber parts in the system.)


(Note, when the nylon decomposes it forms a gooy substance which is not soluble in gasoline or other organic solvents usually used to clean out the fuel system. It is very soluble in water so you have to clean your tank, fuel lines and injectors with water, alcohol or some other similar solvent. If you use "pure" gasoline, the goo will stay in the gas tank but if you fill up even once with gas that has alcohol added, the alcohol will flush the goo throughout the entire fuel system. Expect to pay a few thousand dollars to the mechanic as he tries to figure out what keeps plugging up the new injectors he'll have to install.)


Dimethylformamide is listed in literature as being a good engine cleaner and is "especially good at dissolving carbonaceous deposits". I haven't used this myself because it is a bit more toxic than N-methyl pyrrolidone.

In the tests, actual carbonaceous solids were used that had accumulated in my oil. I use Mobil 1 5W-30 which is more resistant to formation of these materials than most other oils. I have a large container I put old oil into and for the tests I scraped up the gunk that had settled to the bottom of the tank.

Also, the brown deposits that you see coating carburators, and I'm sure collect in fuel injectors and on intake valves, are the highest boiling components in gasoline. They are tar-like materials. The best solvent I've ever seen for these was methylene chloride, but it is expensive and I'm sure is being phased out to protect the ozone layer. If you used it on a modern car the chlorine freed from the combustion temps would corrode the oxygen sensor. Amoco advertises a cleaner gasoline and I'm sure it's because they've reduced these tar-like compounds. All gas these days contains at least a little detergent of some sort to help keep deposits from building up.

Another use for the current bunch of organic amine "detergents" is cleaning deposits out of cylinders, so I hear.

One more thing, most cleaners (the safer & slightly less effective ones) usually have common solvents in them like toluene and other poly-methylated benzenes, alcohol, acetone or methyl ethyl ketone, and naphtha. If you want to use these to clean your system, you can get more for your money by buying the pure solvents at a hardware store and mixing them yourself. I have never had a problem adding toluene, acetone, alcohol, or naphtha to my gas tank in quantities up to one quart/16 gallons.

[mkgarrison5]

so Gunk Gas Treatment is considered one of the best?? but at the risk of eating the lining in the gas tank? making sure i read that right.. i only put cleaner in my tank/ pcv valve right before i change the plugs (30k). so i would think that stuff would be too bad in my tank concentrated at 1\2tank?