Seafoam and "piston slap"

Willscary · Jul 17, 2004

Well, after reading all of the "piston knock" pinging posts on the net that I could find, I accepted Chevrolet's 6yr/100,000 mile extended warranty. I have heard this noise on all of our company trucks, and they still run great with no oil usage after well over 100K miles. We have about a dozen of these trucks, and as timex used to say..."they take a licking and keep on ticking"!!!

Anyway...I decided to use Seafoam to clean the motor after the guy at Chevy customer service blamed the noise on minimal carbon build up. Today I sucked a can of it through the PCV vaccum hose into the manifold. The motor did not stall out, but slowed and ran rough. Towards the end I let it go quicker and then shut off the well warmed motor for a half hour. It took several seconds to refire the motor after it sat, and a white smoke plumed from the exhaust, although not nearly as much as I had expected after reading others who posted on this subject.

I limped it out of the driveway and down the road across from my house. It is a two mile long straightaway with very few homes. I pushed the truck hard and it began to smooth out. It took about 10 minutes of hard acceleration and slowing down to clear the motor of the seafoam.

I brought it back to the driveway and left it sit for about 6 hours. It is now about 7PM and it has cooled down considerably here. I fired it up and I guess I am happy with the results. The motor had a very slight vibration at warm idle (at a stop sign, etc.) that has vanished. The motor is smoother (it was very smooth and quiet except for the pinging, and now it is even more so). The pinging is still there at acceleration, but is only MAYBE 20% as loud as it was before.

This was top engine only. I will add a bit to the crankcase and the rest to the gas tomorrow. In about 200 miles I will be needing gas, and I will change oil at that time. I am considering switching to synthetic, but am not quite yet sure if I should.

This is the first time I have used Seafoam in an auto. I have used it on my boat motor with great results, and now I am sure it helped my pinger quiet down.

One more observation...my warm idle was about 500-550 rpms on the tach. Now it is about 100 rpms faster. I know the Seafoam literature says this will happen, but I am not sure why or how. Any insight on this would help.

Willscary · Jul 17, 2004

Drove the truck again and it is MUCH quieter. It still pings under acceleration, but not nearly what it did, and only above about 2300 rpms, where before it happeed at everything above about 1500 rpms. What this means is that during normal in-town driving the motor is nearly silent! Great news. Now I will try some in the crankcase and see how that fares.

Blue99 · Jul 17, 2004

Sounds like you have mastered the method of applying Seafoam thru a vacuum line. Hopefully, the fog emitting from the tailpipe also did in a few mosquitoes!

To me, Seafoam in the crankcase makes the most sense as a 5-10 minute engine flush prior to an oil change. It has fairly volatile components & will begin to flash off after the oil reaches operating temps.

As reported in previous threads, Seafoam is basically naptha & isopropyl alcohol in a mineral oil carrier.

Willscary · Jul 17, 2004

As far as mastering...I doubt it! I found the PCV vaccum line and was going to SLOWLY dump the Seafoam into it. The 6.0L Chevy engine pretty much sucked the liquid in, so by pouring it into the tube slowly, I got a good vaporization of the Seafoam (it looked more like a dense fog being sucked out of the can than a liquid being poured in).

You don't think I should put the Seafoam in and leave it for a few hundred miles? Just wondering because the manufacturer says to pour into crankcase and that it won't harm anything. I have never put this into anything other than my Mercury outboard. Is this stuff really going to attack seals? Is there really a coating left on the metal after 36,000 miles that can be eroded by this stuff? If so...maybe I shouldn't put it into the crankcase?

CoosBayDave · Jul 17, 2004

As reported in previous threads, Seafoam is basically naptha & isopropyl alcohol in a mineral oil carrier.

So, then what's the difference between Sea Foam and Marvel Mystery Oil?

Blue99 · Jul 17, 2004

From the Seafoam MSDS sheet:

code:

SEA FOAM MOTOR TREATMENT Part No. SF-16

-----------------------------------------------------------------

NO. COMPONENT % BY WT.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

1 PALE OIL 40-60%

2 NAPHTHA 25-35%

3 IPA 10-20%

Seafoam MSDS LInk

If you use the search function & Seafoam key word, you'll find a thread where some of the guys put together a "home brew" of Seafoam components.

Eddie · Jul 17, 2004

I'm conserned about what this would do the the catalitic converter. We know that lead and to a lesser extent oil causes cat degradation.

Logik · Jul 17, 2004

Eddie,

Although I have no actual proof of this occuring, the SeaFoam website even advertises that it is good for the Catalytic Converter.

http://www.seafoamsales.com/motorTuneUpTechGas.htm

brianl703 · Jul 18, 2004

quote:

Originally posted by Eddie:
I'm conserned about what this would do the the catalitic converter. We know that lead and to a lesser extent oil causes cat degradation.

I have no idea about SeaFoam, I don't use it because I use B12 Chemtool for the same purposes and B12 Chemtool comes in a spray can which makes it quite easy to spray into the throttle body with the engine running.

But as far as B12 Chemtool goes, it does have positive effects on the catalytic convertor.

Before B12 Chemtool, I was getting a P0430 code (catalyst efficiency below threshold).

After B12 Chemtool, no more P0430 code and it passed emissions with the lowest readings it had ever gotten. Most notably, NOx PPM was only 2!

After about 6000 miles I started getting the P0430 code again so I did another B12 Chemtool application to the throttle body with the engine running....no more P0430 code. The can was almost empty so I didn't even spray that much into the throttle body..maybe a couple ounces at most.

Bror Jace · Jul 18, 2004

Willscary sounds like your truck had a classic case of pinging due to carbon deposit build-up.

Many good cleaners (Techron, Red Line SI-1, Schaeffer Neutra, etc ...) should have been able to clean that up when put through the fuel system.

--- Bror Jace

Blue99 · Jul 18, 2004

At the rate of 1 1/2 oz per quart of oil in the crankcase, Seafoam won't harm engine seals.

If Seafoam is run in the crankcase for an extended time, the dissolved varnish deposits are likely to re-attach somewhere else in the engine as the seafoam evaporates & the oil cools down. At that point, add another dose prior to the oil change to dissolve the varnish deposits again.

CoosBayDave - I'm not a Marvel MMO user. As reported here, it is mineral spirits, oil and contains chlorinated hydrocarbons.

elwaylite · Jul 18, 2004

Ive been interested in trying seafoam because I see widely positive results, what Im wondering is that Ive heard to do a plug change afterwards because of the junk you flush out can foul them. Any input on this.

phordguy · Jul 18, 2004

Does anyone know the ratio's of naptha/isopropyl ?

I have both here at home but haven't had much luck finding seafoam. Not to say it isn't local but I have yet to find it.

I could easily make the seafoam concoction pretty easily and spray it in the throttle body through one of those $3 pump up pressure garden sprayers at dollar general with a dose of mineral oil on the side for good measure. Do this one day, change oil and check plugs the next. If it will remove the carbon from the upper intake and tb that would be a really fine way for me to augment my cleaning engine procedure using FP/AUTORX.

Thanks

tmorris1 · Jul 18, 2004

quote:

I use B12 Chemtool for the same purposes and B12 Chemtool comes in a spray can which makes it quite easy to spray into the throttle body with the engine running.

Seafoam comes in a spray can called Deep Creep.

brianl703 · Jul 19, 2004

I've never seen it. On the other hand, B12 Chemtool is everywhere.

Back40 · Jul 20, 2004

Brian...do you apply B-12 to the tank as well or just sprayed into the throttle body? I just changed plugs and am concerned that applying via the throttle body may foul the plugs and I didn't want to go through cleaning/replacing them.

darkdan · Jul 20, 2004

quote:

Originally posted by Willscary:
As far as mastering...I doubt it! I found the PCV vaccum line and was going to SLOWLY dump the Seafoam into it. The 6.0L Chevy engine pretty much sucked the liquid in, so by pouring it into the tube slowly, I got a good vaporization of the Seafoam (it looked more like a dense fog being sucked out of the can than a liquid being poured in).

Actually, I think it works better when it's rushed in there as liquid. This way you get solvency and thermal shock.

tmorris1 · Jul 20, 2004

quote:

I've never seen it. On the other hand, B12 Chemtool is everywhere.

Seafoam is very prevalent in MN, but I don't know about other areas. I think it is made in MN. B12 chemtool looks to be the same thing as Seafoam though, even down to the design of the can.

Hasbeen · Jul 20, 2004

In refference to MMO.

quote:

Originally posted by Blue99:
and contains chlorinated hydrocarbons.

So when was this established??

I do not believe this to be true.

brianl703 · Jul 20, 2004

quote:

Originally posted by Back40:
Brian...do you apply B-12 to the tank as well or just sprayed into the throttle body? I just changed plugs and am concerned that applying via the throttle body may foul the plugs and I didn't want to go through cleaning/replacing them.

I just spray it into the throttle body. I don't spray it all in at once. I do a 5 second spray, 15 second wait, 5 second spray application to avoid overheating the cats.

I've never had any problem with fouled plugs. Maybe the application procedure I use helps to avoid that.

It evaporates leaving no residue, so it's not like some products which have a mineral oil base. Those products, I think, would be far more likely to foul plugs.

Seafoam and "piston slap"

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