Seafoam

Seafoam does wonders with cleaning out the carbon on gas engines I have used it on. Who uses it in their diesels and at what concentration? What results have you seen?

Take a look at Practical Sailor mag article an issue or two back. It is NOT recommended for diesel although well recommended for gas engine use.

See if a friend has the issue and you can borrow it before you put in the boat tanks.

I drained my racor and refilled with seafoam. My genset now starts the first time everytime. A bunch of carbon blew out the lehman. Don't know if it will make any performance improvement.

SeaFoam eats carbon.

Never used it on diesels but have been using it on gas engines since the 50s. It was then called "CarbOut" made by Shaeler Oil. Years later I discovered that SeaFoam was the same product. I first used it to free up stuck noisy hydraulic lifters as recommended by a mechanic. Worked great. Causes a lot of white smoke removing carbon when poured straight down the carburetor throat while the engine is running well above an idle. Use it to kill the engine and let it sit for a time. Start up and get more white smoke. When poured into an old engine that is so stuck it can't be turned over eventually SeaFoam will free up the engine. I resurrected several old OB engines laying out in the weeds that people gave me.

Could work great cleaning injectors but I have no experience doing that. If there is carbon deposits in the combustion chamber I'm sure it will at least help and will probably do better than that. Freeing rings on a V type engine should work well but on an engine w cylinders that are vertical putting SeaFoam in the cylinder may wind up in the depression on top of the piston and not get down to the rings. And if you put lots of it in extreme compression could result and even be dangerous. If poured down the intake on a running engine perhaps it would start and run wildly using the SeaFoam as fuel. Or it may start a cold engine ..... I just don't know.

Re what meridian said it seems to use the SeaFoam as fuel. At some point his gen should have been running on SeaFoam. Perhaps much could be learned by contacting SeaFoam.

I got a can out of my garage and it says;

"WHEN ADDED TO GAS OR DIESEL FUEL TANKS HELPS:
Clean fuel injectors & carb jets due to deposit buildup * Control moisture in fuel * condition diesel fuels, de-ice & anti-gel 8 Lube upper cylinders * Stabilize fuels One pint treats 8-25 gal. of all types of gas or diesel fuels (ave. 1 oz. per gal.)

Copied exactly.

Also;
Use 50-50 in injector cleaning machines.
"Prime diesel fuel filters with Sea Foam for best results to help clean injectors."
"Sea Foam is NOT for use through diesel air intake systems."

OR wwwseafoamsales.com

I've used SF many times and like the stuff a lot. It works wonders on outboards and best I can tell it does help clean injectors. I've primed the filter with it and a lot of carbon did seem to come out.

I'm confident that Seafoam for the upper end and synthetic oil for the lower end will keep us and our marine diesels chugging along forever. I'm not so sure though if a FP genset would benefit.

sunchaser said:

I'm confident that Seafoam for the upper end and synthetic oil for the lower end will keep us and our marine diesels chugging along forever. I'm not so sure though if a FP genset would benefit.

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so apparently your checking to see if it also works like gasoline on a fire?
Hollywood
a

Folks that simply wish to remove carbon from the valves and cylinder head from a gas or diesel can do it easily the old way.

Get a bug sprayer and fill it with water , idle the warm engine at about 1500RPM or so and spray away till the engine stumbles and keep it up for 1/4 hour.

IF stuck rings are the problem , the engine will need the treatment under higher power .

AN oil change is required as the steam created will break loose loads of carbon chunks , not dissolve it .

FF said:

Folks that simply wish to remove carbon from the valves and cylinder head from a gas or diesel can do it easily the old way.

Get a bug sprayer and fill it with water , idle the warm engine at about 1500RPM or so and spray away till the engine stumbles and keep it up for 1/4 hour.

IF stuck rings are the problem , the engine will need the treatment under higher power .

AN oil change is required as the steam created will break loose loads of carbon chunks , not dissolve it .

Click to expand...

FF,
I've done that many times on gas engines, does it work on diesel? We are talking about spraying it into the air intake.

I have used it in my Dodge Ram 5.9 Cummins and it works well. I used it in the crankcase about 200 miles before I changed the oil.

I used it in fuel tanks as well. I sold that truck with 100K miles on it and it was running strong.

I use it in my Perkins Fuel tanks. I follow the ratio on the bottle. I think it's 8 cans per 200 gallons.

Expensive. But I believe in it.

hollywood8118 said:

so apparently your checking to see if it also works like gasoline on a fire?
Hollywood
a

Click to expand...

I'm curious to see who reads different threads. No gasoline whiffs yet.

sunchaser said:

I'm curious to see who reads different threads. No gasoline whiffs yet.

Click to expand...

maybe RickB's post with the pic WAS correct.....

sunchaser said:

I'm confident that Seafoam for the upper end and synthetic oil for the lower end will keep us and our marine diesels chugging along forever. I'm not so sure though if a FP genset would benefit.

Click to expand...

LOL. Although I will admit to using seafoam on a seized MG midget engine. Drove it away the next day for $50.