Chinese Water Torture (a SeaFoam recipe)

dont mean to bring this back from so long ago....
but i just did this today to my '85 740t...
started with the water. no smoke...
then the seafoam. i look, no smoke. look again, no smoke. look again, GOOD LOWD!!! THE FOG ROLLED IN!!! couldnt see a thing. thought for sure someone would call the fire department... tons of smoke. everywhere. i was a wee bit down wind of the exhaust exit (like a 1/2mph current).... just enough to surround me.
i let it stall out with the seafoam...
minue later, start it up again. MORE smoke than before....

smoke burns off a bit... take it out for a rev-fest.
right off the bat, my boost hits 16psi... when it was hitting 14 yesterday. had to actually turn-down the MBC.
notice the idle... where it was pretty good before... is now silky smooth. it pulls a bit harder, spools quicker (14psi by 3k rpm, now... didnt hit 14 until 3400rpm, before)... and all around just runs better.

it's got about 150k on the clock, the PO drove it 1 mile to work each day... hadnt been on the freeway for 5+ years until i bought it last month. so, it's reasonable to say it had a wee bit of carbon buildup.

gone now.

Three Fat Tigers- thanks for the writeup... i'd not have thought to getting around to this, if it wasnt for this article...

best bang for the buck on this car, so far...

i've considered this, but do you think it's something that will benefit ohv engines as much as non?

turboluv said:

i've considered this, but do you think it's something that will benefit ohv engines as much as non?

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It doesn't make a difference what it is, so yes...

Why is this article still in Composition?

Hey, I just did this procedure today and I had a different sort of experience. It did put out a little bit of smoke at the rear, but not nearly as much as I expected or as much as that pic in the original write-up had. My cat was rattling for a while right when the engine passed about 1000 RPM, but lately, I haven't noticed it and just kind of forgot about it. Also, if I gun it while standing still and let it get up to about 4000 RPM then let it drop back to idle, it has some pretty loud pops that you can hear coming from the exhaust. Further, theres some off idle hesitation that's always been there, so I'm thinking maybe a clogged cat creating more back pressure? Is that a reasonable speculation? The main reason that made me think this was the very little amount of smoke the car put out. Could that be normal that mine didn't put out much? Thanks.

Bricknoob said:

Why is this article still in Composition?

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Because I have no real understanding of how to get stuff published or what the procedures are.

BabyBlue240 said:

Hey, I just did this procedure today and I had a different sort of experience. It did put out a little bit of smoke at the rear, but not nearly as much as I expected or as much as that pic in the original write-up had. My cat was rattling for a while right when the engine passed about 1000 RPM, but lately, I haven't noticed it and just kind of forgot about it. Also, if I gun it while standing still and let it get up to about 4000 RPM then let it drop back to idle, it has some pretty loud pops that you can hear coming from the exhaust. Further, theres some off idle hesitation that's always been there, so I'm thinking maybe a clogged cat creating more back pressure? Is that a reasonable speculation? The main reason that made me think this was the very little amount of smoke the car put out. Could that be normal that mine didn't put out much? Thanks.

Click to expand...

Just so you know, if your question is not closely targeted at making an article more complete, the maintenance forum is the better place for it, this forum is for developing articles, not discussing issues. Best to ask this is over in the maintenance forum

See also: http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=32217 Feel free to revive that thread any time.

Three Fat Tigers said:

Because I have no real understanding of how to get stuff published or what the procedures are.

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Lol, sounds like the one I put in here. I think the next step is to "email" it to a mod. It says in the rules sticky. It seems a little overly complex.

Also, the Vault needs an indexed sticky. That way we have a article list with a 'table of context'.

I just did the procedure today in the hopes it may help my fuel economy. I'm getting 13-15 on on 89 740T and someone suggestted trying it as his mileage went from 17mpg to 24 mpg. I used the vacuum fitting on the intake for the boost gauge to suck in the water and Seafoam. I've done this proceedure on my other cars with GM top engine cleaner and made huge smokescreens. Expecting the same I backed the car up to the exhaust would point away from the neighborhood and toward open land. As it was sucking up the Seafoam I kept waiting for the huge cloud to appear but it never did. Nothing. Hmmm, something wrong? No smoke anywhere, from the engine, exhaust, nothing. Let the car sit for 10 minutes, went out for a rev fest and never got any smoke. Car does seem to idle and run a bit smoother but I'm not sure. In any case if it is better it isn't by much. I'll have to top off the tank and see if it did anything in terms of helping the mileage but as far as performance I can't say it really did much.

I did this friday on my car. Good stuff. Some would say that doing this would clog up your o2 sensor. How would you guys respond to this?

How

growley said:

I did this friday on my car. Good stuff. Some would say that doing this would clog up your o2 sensor. How would you guys respond to this?

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Exactly how would this procedure clog up your O2 sensor?

saabnewbie said:

Exactly how would this procedure clog up your O2 sensor?

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Maybe from all of the excess crap/smoke going through the exhaust? My friend thinks I would clog up my o2 sensor doing it.

I've found exactly the opposite to occur, my '96 MX5 threw an ODB2 code that indicated a fault in the O² sensor, voltage test showed it dropping below the minimum spec, after this treatment, the code never came back and to this day, the sensor reads normal. I've since moved on to an aftermarket ECU (Link) which can tell me at the push of a button the sensor voltage reading, right from the driver's seat. Anyway, SeaFoam is O² sensor safe, and I've never heard of anyone having an issue with their O² sensor as a result of running this procedure.

Ive never heard of "seafoam" I dont think we can get it in the U.K I may try the same treatment with "redex" though.

i got a thin layer of chocolate milk on the inside of my oil cap after doing this on my wife's wagon. i never let it die. i assume this is normal on a high mileage engine with a little blow-by. i checked the oil and the dipstick looked fine. anyone else check for this?

That's normal, nothing to worry about. My cars do that too, it's normally something you see if the car's only been on for a couple of minutes instead of really driven and fully warmed up. But even then, it sometimes gets milky up there. Dunno why, but it does, and it's normal enough.

I tortured my car today finally, been meanign to do it for a while, but didn't get around to looking for products I could use (being in Canada, I could not find seafoam). I managed to get my hands on some AC Delco Cleener (GM), which was listed as a seafoam substitute. The stuff smelled a lot like carb cleaner that I used in my truck one time.

I was super surprised at how fast the water and cleaner got sucked through that hose...the descriptions of "1/2 second in 1/2 second out" made it seem like it would be super slow, but no, each dip sucked up huge gulps into the hose. Man it was fun, seeing all that steam coming out the pipe was sweet, and then the smoke, and yes it smelled exactly like when I did the truck, but not quite as much smoke.

At first I was like "damn", the old girl was sputtering and chuggin and even at 4500rpm it was missing a little bit for the first while, but after a few rev-ups, wow...it's so smooth now. Especially at idle and cruising speed. Normally I kind of gauge my speed by the amount of vibration in the steering wheel, but today I found myself going over the speed limit many times, because there was just no vibration.

If you have not done this to your car...do it, do it now.

I've heard that you can actually dothis with just water (you know, like steam cleaning), is it possible that you actually don't need the seafoam?

edit: I'd like to know so I can change my oil today

Three Fat Tigers said:

Just so you know, if your question is not closely targeted at making an article more complete, the maintenance forum is the better place for it, this forum is for developing articles, not discussing issues. Best to ask this is over in the maintenance forum

See also: http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=32217 Feel free to revive that thread any time.

Click to expand...

I agree with the above, revive that thread rather than turing an article composition thread into a maintence one.

paetrw said:

I've heard that you can actually dothis with just water (you know, like steam cleaning), is it possible that you actually don't need the seafoam?

edit: I'd like to know so I can change my oil today

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you can, but it doesnt clean deposits as well, either

if you wanna change the oil, i suggest that you do the seafoam today and change it later on today

where is the vaccum line? i want to try this but im not sure where the hose is that will suck the water and seafoam in. help me out please i really want to do this