speedemon90

So i talked to my dad today and apparently he said that we never changed out the spark plugs yet, so they have around 160,xxx miles on it. You still think its safe to do sea foam, or you think that these old spark plugs might not be able to handle it if that makes any sense. Cause i remember reading somewhere some guy said that its not good to run sea foam if you have over 100,000 miles on your sparkplugs. How bout if i run some fuel system cleaner other than sea foam would that be ok too??

Rajca

iTrader: (8)

just do seafoam, then change the plugs when the engine is cold to touch.

niju321

the plugs are rated for 105k, some say that you should replace before that, but 160k is realllyy pushing it

speedemon90

is it better to reset the ecu??

niju321

the seafoaming cleans up a lot, so it's good to reset the ecu--that way the computer can do its thing based on a clean engine, not a dirty 160k mile one..i noticed a big change in responsiveness after resetting mine

Eddystone

So one can into crankcase?

speedemon90

so can i just to seafoam in the vac line, im gonna use some other kind fuel injector cleaner since seafoam is not the best for that. The vac line and gas tank dont have to go at the same time right??

speedemon90

alright just did the sea foam through the vacuum line. And i put this other fuel injector cleaner in there. It didnt smoke that much, does that indicate something but there was a distinct smell whenever i had to stop at red lights and stop signs.

niju321

niju321

that is correct, but it's better to do them both at once so you have seafoam hitting your engine from all angles.

did you follow the exact procedure outlined in earlier pages? if so maybe you just have a clean engine

speedemon90

well it could be taht there wasnt smoke since there was seafoam only coming through the vac line. Next time ill do gas and vac line and ill see if it makes a difference

niju321

the vac line way is what makes the smoke

speedemon90

Hmm well i know for a fact my car shouldnt be clean inside, im trying to think if i did something wrong. I did do the warm up drive when i had to go out and do some errands, but then i did have the car turned off for like 10 min before putting in the seafoam. Could that be the issue? Or is my car to bad that seafoam wont help, since this is my first time doing it and i do have like 160xxx miles on it.

twistedwedge

warm engine, seafoam through the vac line..take car out for balls to the wall passes..should smoke like a mofo when you first crack on it..

Let it suck an entire can, went out for a drive held it in each gear until the redline...never let the RPM get less than 3K. Went through the gears 3 times...

when I put it in the gas tank I didnt notice any smoke..

niju321

you don't need to change gears and you probably shouldn't redline it, because you should drive it like that for 10-15 min. revving from 3-5500 in 1st for 15 min works just fine

twistedwedge

^^meh, thats your opinion..and where the hell are you driving around in first gear for 15 minutes at? No way my neighbors would let me get away with that without the popos being called. I have to hit the rural highway just outside my subdivision, and its 55mph speed limit...

niju321

you went through the gears 3 times...how long did that take you? you're supposed to take a while to get all the gunk out, even if it's not smoking much

i followed the instructions outlined earlier in this thread to the letter, which includes revving it from 3-5500 rpm for about that length of time. shifting gears doesn't really affect your engine except for rpm. so if you keep the rpm the same, isn't it logical that the result will be the same? plus i did it at night on a very empty road...

as for the popo...

niju321

It is quite possible that your turning the car off before putting in the seafoam is the issue. The engine needs to be at full operating temperature so that when you get the seafoam in, it's hot enough to dissolve the crap in your engine. i don't know how fast the engine cools down when off though.

how did you do your burnoff drive?

definitely not too bad for seafoam to help...i helped a friend seafoam his lexus es w/175k miles....that thing smoked like a mofo and is now much smoother.

speedemon90

for the burn off drive i popped it into second gear and did runs from 4-5.5k and every so often went down to like 3k and pushed all the way till 5.5k. There was the occasional stopping at a red light

twistedwedge

long time..my car is sloooow

niju321

that sounds fine assuming you spent at least 10 mins doing it.

at least you have an -s, i have -p.

speedemon90

yup i went for like a ltl more than 15 min. I dunno, well i got the new spark plugs in today. Ill try the seafoam in a month or so and see what happens

03TLDayton

Hey I just drove to Kentucky (400 mi) with 6 oz. of SeaFoam in the crankcase. Is that to far to drive whilst SeaFoaming? What happens when you over-Seafoam? with 2500mi oil? Is over-SeaFoaming even possible? What should be the punnishment? So many Deep Seafoaming Questions...

The car runs great at 125K. Or I am I just in a Seafoam Nirvana at the moment, but I will pay for my zealous behavior in the future?

But still, I wonder..what are the legal limits for Seafoam Usage.

niju321

well it really depends on the condition of your filter--the reason it's recommended to drive sparingly after seafoaming the crankcase is because all the gunk freed by the seafoam may clog up the filter. so if i were you, i would change the oil and filter ASAP. other than that it should be ok...

punishment....drop down and give me 50?

have you put seafoam in gas and vac line? you haven't lived until you've seen enough smoke for a forest fire come out of your tailpipes

03TLDayton

Thanks niju321, Yep. I changed the oil/filter (Mobil1 oil) after my 400 mile SeaFoam-in-the-crankcase binge. I admit, I'm a habitual Seafoam user, so my engine's veins ought to be used to it by now. Yeah, there must be some gunk in there, but probably not as much as the SeaFoam neophyte just beginning their habit. I noticed that the oil darkened a few shades, but I don't think (maybe it's denial) that the filter was ever blocked. Hmm. Would a blocked oil filter result in a Oil Pressure Warning?
I was thinking of potential Seafoam (solvent) damage to internal organs, like the oil pump vanes, seals, headgasket, etc.
Not wanting to look back, my car and I decided that we would stay "clean". But we'll control our Seafoam binges in the future.

And yes, I've had two extreme Seafoam experiences. I admit it , my car inhaled...through the vac line. It was great fun, but my memories are a bit "cloudly" about that night.

All kidding aside: The car (~124K)really runs great. A mild idling problem disappeared. My Engine Light has never come on. I think I preempted a EGR problem with a simple cleaning of the EGR port channels. (On my 03TL, I just remove the silver intake manifold plate and cleaned out the carbon that was blocking the channels on the underside of the plate, then I cleaned the EGR manifold ports. Very easy to do!)

My Seafoam/Manifold weekend was easily my most cost-effective maintenance mash-up by far (2 bottles of Seafoam, and a small wire brush)
The car drives like new again. It's great. Really fun to drive. I've even redicovered my inner-VTEC once again.
My TL got its mojo back.

niju321

good to see your car lives better than ever! the seafoam is not a solvent, it's actually a bunch of detergents like soap for your car, so it doesn't kill the seals in your oil pump, head gasket, etc. i don't think the oil pressure light would turn on with a blocked filter because there is a bypass valve for that possibility....

congratulations on rediscovering your tl's mojo! i hope to get the egr cleaning done this month on my 99

webmastir

so there are like 30 fucking seafoam DIY threads.
look...i get how to do it after reading thousands of posts, but i have 1 question to the way i'm going to do it. (posting here b/c i think it's the biggest thread?)
anyway, ima do the crank/vac way some other time. i really don't want to put much more strain on my shitty tranny that i have to, b/c of the way you guys say you need to drive. so, ima just pour 16oz of SF into my half filled gas tank.
question is:
can i just do this like before i head to work? i drive about 45-50miles & 85% of it being on the i-state where i'll be driving 70-90mph. i don't need to do anything special if i'm JUST doing the gas tank, correct? once i get to work, it'll be sitting for about 10.5hrs. i didn't know if that made a difference.
i'll just be driving for about 30ish min once i do put the SF in

niju321

that's absolutely fine, no special handling needed w/SF in the gas, just drive the car normally. i would suggest that if and when you decide to do the vac/crankcase, put some more in the gas, so that when you're doing the burnoff drive you have seafoam hitting everything at once for maximum effect

webmastir

though so...thanks!

webmastir

so i did the seafoam in the gas tank, but my father-in-law, who is good w/ car stuff, said i should probably change my fuel filter. I don't remember reading anything about doing that. Is this something I should be doing? I don't remember seeing a DIY on that either.

Rajca

iTrader: (8)

u dont have to change the fuel filter

webmastir

ok. why wouldn't i need to? & do i ever need to worry about doing that on this car (03 TL)?

webmastir

ok after further searching the forums, i don't see anyone saying to change the fuel filter after using seafoam. so i guess i won't worry about it

twistedwedge

^^seafoamed my gas tank about 3 months ago, never changed my fuel filter...on either of my vehicles.

Youll be fine.

I need to do the intake again and also the crankcase on both of em. The first round seemed to do a good job, especially with smoothing out the idle.

AdamType-S

how many cans of seafoam are recommended to use on my girlfriend?

FlacoJ

make my plugs red, my mechanic said I was hot doggin it, but the old NGKS had white bottoms and within the 2 months they were on the car they some how turned red, thank u seafoam

webmastir

ima do sf thru my vac/gas tank next week after i buy some new ngk-ix-iridium spark plugs (still runnin original ones at 150k(wtf, right?))
how long do i need to wait before i put the new plugs in after doing this? will the original ones really last me however long i'd need to wait, given how old they are?

webmastir

so saw that on an old post on one of the 20 spark plug threads. this still can apply to me given my old ass plugs, yes?

AdamType-S

seafoam your engine and tank first.. then wait a week or two to install the plugs.. seafoam again 2k miles after 1st treatment if its your first time

webmastir

sweet. thanks. means i get to sf/dc fri, hoping it doesn't rain