01tl4tl

luan- besides the plugs- air filter- cabin air filter- oil changes- ---there isnt much to tune or maintain on the TL,,,everything else is monitor condition and replace as needed

01tl4tl

i forgot the fluid changes for brakes and steering~ as maitenance items

luan87us

thanks. Man i seafoamed my gastank today and already feel the different in how the car run. Seen smoother than before. Haven't done the vac line yet because I couldn't find my 1/2" drive for the 10mm socket -_- gotta go to store tomorrow and grab one.

luan87us

seafoamed the vac line today. About half way alot of smoke start coming out. Stalled my engine like 3 times inbetween but yeah no big deal. went on spirit drive and everything seen like new now.

01tl4tl

Its gets even better over the next few days, and as that tank of gas goes thru it will clean the injectors- return their misting ability. Have sone fun on thios tank then resume normal driving- by the 2nd or 3rd tank a gain should be noticed
Stalling it was no big deal- happens to all of us, next time you will know how slow is slow and how much is too much!

Repeat the gas tank and vac port method in about 2000 miles- a month or 2 is good.
That will catch any remaining crud and then you are set for a year or 15k miles
With gas prices this really does pay you back in savings quickly

luan and all- make sure to get the TB butterfly plate- with TB cleaner or carb cleaner spray (its safe for use in the TL).
Open the air filter box cover and lift slightly- start engine and spray cleaner thru the rubber snout that goes to the intake manifold- the big hose
Rev the engine slightly- and do it at idle- and again slight rev- 1500 rpm-2000 rpm max- no need to go crazy- you just want the edges of the plate turned slightly open so the cleaner gets them.
The engine vacuum-suction will get the cleaner to where its needed.
Why do this?
If you look at the rubber snout- there is a metal tube runs from it down to the valve cover- it's smog equipment- it sends partially burned gasoline vapors and oil vapors from inside the engine up to the TB to be reburned.
That deposits oil and crud residue on the TB plate and can affect idle and disrupts airflow in general

01tl4tl

to be clear for others- you DID use the metal nipple vac port at the throttle body- correct?
NOT the old method of small rubber vac line on fenderwell- thats not correct place
The ONLY suitable vac ports that for sure feed all 6 cylinders by going into the direct manifold itself- the main port located at the TB or on gen3 its rigfht on top of the throat of the intake manifold- cant miss it- hose with squeeze clamp on it, about the size of a finger.

If you have installed a S/C or other intake- an alternative place is the brake booster vac port- follow the large tube from the big round thing behind the brake master cyl- at the end where it connects to the intake manifold- its pulling absolute full vac pressure there!!!

totaledTL

Are you certain any/all carb cleaner is ok- can't some of them damage the o2 sensors? Seems like I read that somewhere, not sure.

01tl4tl

the problem isnt the O2 sensor- you can use Deep Creep- seafoam spray and its fine too.
Some cars have a heater wire in the TB inlet,,,- carb spray messes them up
We dont have that- so carb spray works fine. TB spray is more delicate~
The O2 sensor is so far downstream that all cleaner has combusted by the time it gets there.
With seafoam- you can get gooey crud stuck on the O2 IF you fail to do the afterdrive soon enough, or with enough gusto~
A day or two and it burns itself clean and the CEL goes away
If you have 90k miles and had that occur- its time to replace the spark plugs

luan87us

can you show me a picture of whereon the TB plate i should get it clean? and Yeah i did the new method using the metal nipple in the front. Yeah i know alot more on doing it now and how much to get in at a time and when to let it off so it won't stall. Thinking about doing this to all my family cars. After just about an hour of driving on freeway and off the CEL turned off and from there the engine feel like a brand new engine. and this is really painful to do in the summer because how much heat you will be in contact with lol. i was sweating like hell doing this but it was worth all the trouble =). To everyone that will be doing this for the first time. don't dip the tube into the fluid or touching the liquid surface, just leave it close enough to see a stream coming up and stop ever 1-2 min to let it dissolve. Good luck everyone on getting your lil missy to brand new condition.

01tl4tl

Inside the TB assembly is a ~3" diameter round plate with a swivel/pivot shaft going horizontally across the middle. The plate is vertical -nearly `sealed` at idle speed.

When you open the throttle, you open this air plate-- allowing more air to the engine. When they say Wide Open Throttle- thats the part thats open

By spraying in the intake tube with engine running- it will get cleaner on the face and edges
Doesnt have to be perfect since the engine constantly pumps vapors to it- just clean it now and then. For perfect result, remove all the intake snout stuff and spray clean directly-with engine off, wipe residue runoff- then start engine and spray directly at plate and edges

edesoto

Well I seafomed over the weekend following the procedure. First I cleaned the TB, I sprayed seafoam through the intake hose and later dissasembled the whole thing to get to the buterfly directly and sprayed some more as well to really clean it (It wasn't too dirty). Then I did the vac line, car didn't stall, but there wasn't much smoke either, the can was sucked in about 3.5 minutes. While I was waiting for the 15 min before the drive I poured 8 oz of seafoam into 1/4 gas tank.
Then after 15 min. I turned her on and took her on a hot drive and saw real smoke for the first three 5-60 mph sprints (in d3 to keep the revs on vtec territory) then did three more sprints and that was it. I haven't felt a dramatic improvement yet neither in performance nor economy. What I did see today was a cel and tcs light up. Took the car (99 TL) to a friend with a scanner and the code was P0325 knock sensor malfunction bank 1 or something like that.
Could this be a result from a misapplied treatment or just a weird coincidence? Anyway, I will be looking into the KS over the weekend since the whole intake manifold will have to come off to check if the wires are OK.

Will keep you posted...

totaledTL

That's the sort of thing that I'm concerned about happening if I do this. Especially when mine is running as smooth as silk now, can't even feel it idling.

01tl4tl

3.5 minutes to suck the can up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHOOOOPS!!!!!
Can you have misread the DIY any more?????????!!!!!!!!!!!!

It should take at least 10 minutes to get most of the can in! 15 or more is even better~
You use the sip sip stabilize method, and it takes time to do. You also want the engine at idle speed as much as possible - you may have to catch the revs as you learn not to put tooo much stuff in at once- but idle is the way to go.
That allows the seafoam to penetrate the goo and crud, and get it soft and loose to
be blown out the exhaust with the high rpm run and the throttle romps

Smoke is a factor of heat in the cat and oils in seafoam reacting- does not indicate relative amount of cleaning taking place

Its helpful to add seafoam to the gas BEFORE the initial warm up drive, so its doing its thing the entire time you are working on it.
I would suggest you buy a can of deep creep, seafoam in a spray can, and redo the vac port- not a rubber line- the actual metal nipple vac port at TB assembly as in the pics

For the gas tank its 1, 16 oz can seafoam to 1/2 tank of gas, for a 2 oz to 1 gal cleaning ratio

noobs should repeat the vac port and gas tank methods in approx 2000 miles to do a final cleanup -touch up, and then good for a year or 15k miles before next treatment

01tl4tl

those codes will clear as you drive and get the crud off the O2 sensor
Following the directions is very helpful when seafoaming- it prevents CEL issues
No damage will occur when done properly

If you are scared- go to a shop and let them do the same thing for 150 dollars

01tl4tl

edesto- you cleaned the TB plate by spraying thru the snout- THEN you removeed the snout, and it was fairly clean correct?
So for those that dont want to take it all apart -they are ok - correct?

bass222000

will it be ok if since I just did 8oz of seafoam in the intake and 8oz in the fuel tank a few days ago to go ahead and do 8oz more in the intake and 8 more in the gas tank?? I dont' think I used enought the other day to get any results.

What im getting at is... it won't be overkill to use 8 more oz in the intake and 8 more in the gas tank today since i did it a few days ago with the same amount? It was the first time the car had it done in 75K miles???

luan87us

edesoto I got the CEL light as well after about half the can (8oz) in my vac line and that was when alot of smoke started to come out. I mean alot. And 3 min for that whole 16oz can? o.o that a little too fast i wonder why your engine didn't stall at all o.o are you sure you were doing the right vac line? o.o anyway back to the CEL topic. After driving about 10min at high rpm (4000+) no more smoke from the exhaust, and after about another 40-45min of driving normally on and off the freeway in D5 the CEL went off and at that point the car began to show actual improvement. Lighter acceleration, smoother idle, my car really feel like brand new now, the RPM can jump to 4000+ like nothing in D5. I think the best way to control the flow of the seafoam is to not actually touch the liquid surface leave the hose high enough to see a small stream coming up, at first i was trying to barely touch the surface and it sucks in really fast so i move it up and it seen to suck in the right amount.

01tl4tl

The best method is to buy seafoam in its aerosol spray can- DEEP CREEP
same amount same price!
With a push button and a straw- you can easily control the amount going in- you can see whats happening! The engine suction will pull it into a tornado and in the vac prt from an inch away!!

For clean engines touch up, 8 oz is fine in the manifold
For 1st timers as much of the 16 oz as it will take- most cars start running pretty rough at 12 oz and may get the rest in- whatever you can do helps!

So yes its ok to immediatly repeat the procedure correctly, and if on the same tank of gas- throw 16 oz in it now

thescoundrel

I just did the the sea foam at work. its so cool. took like 5 min to suck from the TB. and 30 sec to the tank. I used two 12oz on the project. the car died a couple times because I let it swallow to fast. lots of white smoke. When the car was shuttering during the suction, I just pull back the can from the suction line and let it get to a higher rev then let it suck again. after the 10min wait I had to rev for a while because it would idle rough and die. Took it on the local freeways real quick and the rough idle went away.

I got to admit, at first I thought you guys were talking about seafoam (stuff from the ocean) but realized you guys meant Sea Foam (R). This project is hella easier than changing the oil or cabin filter.

totaledTL

Lol, no, not scared- I know everybody's heard of the old saying 'if it ain't broke don't fix it'. That's just what comes to mind with mine because it's running great as is.

edesoto

01tl:
Thanks for the feedback. I used 8oz on 1/4 tank and 8oz on the vac line. If by saturday the cel hasn't checked out I will inspect the KS.

edesoto

Correct! But,
I would strongly recommend to take it all apart and clean the snout separately as the sucking action could get more loosened dirt into the intake manifold and we don't want any more dirt than what's already in there right?

edesoto

Luan, I didn't use 16oz can I used 8 oz can, still, 01tl is right. It should take longer than that to properly do its job.

nevTL

Did seafoam treatment today in my 2003 TL-S with 70,500 miles. 8oz in the vac line, 16oz in half tank of gas. VERY little smoke. Did the hot foot run for about 20 minutes afterward.

Tom, Should I repeat another 8oz tomorrow in the vac line? I followed the DIY EXACT to your specs, and does no smoke mean that my engine was not as dirty as others?

Elijah J

You offer excellent advice/directions but do you own a camera???

e30cabrio

iTrader: (6)

You do realize he is being nice taking his time to help people?


What do you need a picture of? There are numerous pictures of this process already posted.

01tl4tl

We did a VIDEO and some still shots at the Sacramento meet 8-9-08, good pic of the smoke there- working on new DIY so that ~anyone~ can do it

I recommend everyone STOP using the liquid can for the intake vac port, and use DEEP CREEP aerosol spray seafoam instead- use the liquid seafoam in the gas tank as usual-
1 can to 1/2 tank of gas

Doing the warmup drive is critical- 10 minutes of 4000 rpm- just put it in SS and use 2nd gear- 45 mph is fine- you want heat in the cat and the engine
Smoke is relative to HEAT in the cat- not engine cleanliness

You also did not use enough in the intake- 8 oz is for the clean engine maintenance in 2000 miles you will do-

1st timers 12oz to 16 oz - as much as the engine will take
ChicoOG- who had never done it before- watched me for 2 minutes- then took over and got 16 oz in- using DEEP CREEP- simple- never stalled the engine- had no smoke while doing it- then waited 10 minutes- got on the road and left a trail
He reports smoother throttle immediatly and possibly better mileage- running heavy does in gas still.

01tl4tl

nev- yes repeat the procedure tomorrow using Deep Creep- it should take 10 minutes OR MORE- 20 minutesis even better~~ to get the can in, using minimum spray amount and letting it run for a minute without adding more

When the fan kicks on- step back from the car!!!!
Why you ask????, as some did at the diy class
Because its frikken realllllly hot air blowing on you!-
wait a minute- let the engine just idle- its fine, fan shuts off-resume dribble seafoam into vac port- it will pick up the spray from an inch away- really fun to demo science in action~

Bklyn02TypeS

So easy to do! the hardest part of this for me was taking off the engine cover.

Also the 5/16 tube didnt fit on to the metal nipple for me??? not sure why, but I just took the tube and inserted it into the black tube that has the metal clips on it, worked fine for me.

The black tube, it wont expand right because the seafoam went through it or will it??? Should I get a new tube?

I didnt have any smoke coming out of my car when the seafoam was being sucked up, however there was some nasty odors coming out of the exhaust. Put almost about the whole can into the vac line and a whole can into the gas take with 1/2 take of gas.

After the 15 minute wait, some nice smoke clouds came out. Glad I did this in the evening, the cloud was real thick, and could cause an accident for sure!

Another DYI from acurazine which was helpful!
Thanks people!!

Bklyn02TypeS

Also had my g/f in the car and she noticed a difference pretty quickly as did I after the "spirted" runs.. no more sluggish feel to the acceleration

nevTL

I haven't been able to find Deep Creep in my area, but I have two more cans of Seafoam left.

So basically, my question was after sucking in 8oz into the vacline, waiting 15 min, then doing the hot foot run I did not see much smoke at all. Nothing compaired to the countless videos and descriptions I have seen here on the forum/youtube.

Does this mean my engine was not as dirty as others?

luan87us

Nev I don't think you will be able to actually see smoke with only 8oz of seafoam in the vacline, I put the whole 16oz in and only a bit of smoke came out while driving only the first few min. I'm guessing because most of it burn off while i'm sucking it in, i did this part very long and damn my entire front of my garage was like a pot house lol, it was all foggy. And everytime when I have to restart my engine because my stalled it, alot of smoke come out when it starts up. And i'm not sure you're suppose to wait that long after sucking all the seafoam in o.o? Doesn't it get all goeey if you leave let it cool down too much? after sucking all 16oz in i let it idle for about 2-3min then turn off my engine, start putting everything back where it used to be, go wash my hand, then go for that spirited drive. And 01tl4tl said smoke has nothing to do with how dirty your engine is so it was probably you didn't have enough for it to reach the catalyst or something similar.

01tl4tl

I really wish you both would read the DIY again- we worked hard getting detailed specific info and pics together---- so anyone can do this-

your not warming the cars up first long enough or well enough- then rushing the seafoam in - then not allowing correct percolate time- then not burning off correctly

Couldnt find the vac port on top of the intake manifold? are you actually allowed to drive?!

I do not think they MAKE an 8 ounce can- in the past I mistakenly said they did but it was 16 ounce-- I got confused on how many is a pint and a quart,,,, metric math and....

Check pepboys and autozone under the various different names they use, for deep creep- CALL some parts stores- especially the smaller import specialist shops often stock honda fluids as well as seafoam in both versions

check out the pic from Sac meet 8-9 in gen2 threads-- for great shot of a gen3 as it first hits the gas on the after foam run- its first time getting treatment and the owner did it after a minutes worth of DIY DEMO on the spray amount- if you stall the engine its getting too much too fast

01tl4tl

dirt from the snout harming the engine?
The snout is clean inside- its after the air filter!
The grunge on the TB plate gets moistened with cleaner and sucked in just like everything else the seafoam is cleaning
That TB grunge is mostly getting pumped into the engine! the plate just catches some along the way

You can do the entire seafoam thru the TB plate if you want- may take longer...
but maybe you LIKE standing over the heat

edesoto

But before that, I looked into that knock sensor and it was damaged, the plastic conector part was detached from the screw in part, so that was it. The hardest part was getting to it. Had to take air filter snout that goes into the TB, then take the cover off and then take the whole intake manifold off. I had a mechanic friend do it while I assisted whenever I could since the work was done whenever my friend had some time off.

Anyway, I warmed up the car by going on a 10 min, 4000 RPM drive, used 16oz can and took my sweet time doing it (15 min or so, unfortunately, no deep creep in my area), waited 15 min and then went for a hot drive and saw a lot of smoke coming out, I drove for about 15 more minutes, really fast in d3 at about 5000-6000 RPM and then disaster struck.

The upper radiator hose blew up and all hell broke loose amidst a cloud vaporized coolant and whooshing noise!! Fortunately, since it was still early (7:00 am) there weren't many cars out on the street where I was. At the same time, this was also a problem since it was rather difficult to get a tow truck to get the car home. Took about an hour to get one, but after that everything went OK. Tomorrow I'll be getting both upper and lower hoses. I urge you if you have more than 65k on your cars to check your hoses to prevent this from happening.

Later...

edesoto

Forgot to mention I used another 16oz can in 1/2 tank of gas...Let's see if I see some improvement after I fix the hoses.

01tl4tl

Fix things like sensors before seafoam-

2nd gear 4000 is fine- 45 mph is easier on the car than 90~

To check your coolant hoses- with engine off and cold- squeeze the hose along its length
If there are any soft spots- thats where its going to fail- the hose should be firm~~~
Replace ALL the coolant hoses you can reach- the 2 radiator and the 2 small ones to the throttle body- use honda 50/50 premix coolant or whatever you like, as long as it says Aproved for Acura.
Drain the engine block too- see owner book and remove passenger side wheel for better access,,, with skin remaining on your hand

I wonder what conditions you drive in?, and if the timing belt is in the same shape as the hoses
Do you qualify for extrme conditions and driving style?

edesoto

Thanks 01tl, and if by extreme you mean hot/humid weather (avg 95f/80%), mostly stop and go traffic and never a long distance commute, dusty city too, then yes. The previous owner replaced timing belt at 50k so I shouldn't worry about that for now.

edesoto

"Replace ALL the coolant hoses you can reach- the 2 radiator and the 2 small ones to the throttle body"

01tl:

In my 99 TL the only small hoses coming out of the radiator are going into the reserve tank and the auto tranny, were you referring to these ones?

Check this link:
http://www.hondapartsunlimited.com/s...itch=&hidIrno=

Later...

5daddy13

I know most people on here use seafoam, that includes me, but years ago I used Berryman's B12. What, if any, are the benefits to using seafoam and not the B12?