Sea Foam and engine smoke

[Jerry_NJ]

I decided to use my 16" Craftsman chain saw and as it had been sitting idle for about a year I put in a ounce or two (this is a lot considering the size of the gas tank) into the 1/2 full gas/oil tank. I then filled the tank with fresh gas/oil (not synthetic). It took a few puls to get it started, but it did start and ran rather well, except it put out a lot of visible smoke. Could that be due to a too rich mixture of Sea Foam?

 

[MNtreewood]

Was it white smoke? I've never used seafoam in a 2 cycle engine, but I've ran some in 4 cycle lawnmower engines and they will pour out white smoke. I wasn't mixing it with gas just letting it go right through the carb. After you ran it with gas again the smoke went away. I'm guessing yours will to on tank full of just gas/oil mix.

 

[Tony H]

Sea Foam is great stuff we use it in all the boat motors but it sounds as if you might have a little too much . Dump that tank and put it in the car and refill with the normal mix and see how it runs. What we do is mix the sea foam into the 5 gal gal gas cans on every fill up and then if we use that to mix up some 50-1 the sea foam is already in there .

 

[burntime]

Dump it out and DO NOT run it. Seafoam is a wonderful cleaner but it burns hotter then gas. It will really do a number on the machine if you keep going. A little goes a long way!

 

[Jerry_NJ]

Thanks all. I use Sea Foam mostly in my two cycle engines. It is the only fuel cleaner I know of that works with a gas/oil mixture.

I do recall reading the label sometimes back (will look again) that there were no cautions about running too "rich". I recall back in the days of leaded gas when I used to have to tune-up my car engines every 10,000 miles. One step I took was to run a one pint can of GumOut straight. I think that smoked too.

I have run the subject Sea Foam Overload engine only in idle for maybe 10 minutes. I was just working on getting it running again and figures I'd give the old fuel a heavy shot of cleaner. I did gun it a couple of time to be sure it would come up-to-speed. It ran reasonably well.

I will dump the gas in my gallon of fresh gas/oil mixture...that may dilute the Sea Foam sufficiently.

 

[basod]

Try a little marvels mystery oil, it'll help clean/lubricate. I caution anyone from running these additives in a newer car unles you desire a new catlytic converter or O2 sensor. If you ever add marvels/slick50/kerosene, to a an oil change don't drive very far and plan on changing oil again. All the "crud" that the manufacturers say it will remove will also quickly plug an oil filter.

 

[Jerry_NJ]

Hum, I had a O2 sensor go on my Chevy Colorado with about 10K miles on it. But, I didn't use an Sea Foam or other cleaner on that engine.

I took what must have been about a 10:1 gas/oil:SeaFoam in the saw and dumped it into the gas/oil mix I had left in my mixing/storage can. That can was about empty, perhaps a pint or so in it Still this must have reduced the mix to something more like gas/oil:SeaFoam of 30:1. I also note that the can of Sea Foam describes using it straight to clean...so I conclude my running a strong mix of Sea Foam isn't going to harm anything.

I used the new mix and started the saw, still some smoke (white) and the smoke was reduced with use. I cut a few "rounds" and the smoke was mostly gone...the engine was up to full operation temperature.

 

[smokinj]

This is one thing Iam going to try this fall

 

[burntime]

I know of 2 saws that will beg to differ. Its your saw but if you run that too heavy it will smoke the motor. At least it will be clean Oh, add a weedwacker to the list...

 

[smokinj]

I know of 2 saws that will beg to differ. Its your saw but if you run that too heavy it will smoke the motor. At least it will be clean Oh, add a weedwacker to the list...

huh?

 

[burntime]

You have the read the thread from the beginning. Its about putting too much seafoam in a motor. If you mix it like they say it will cause no harm. If you load it up you will have a doorstop...

 

[smokinj]

You have the read the thread from the beginning. Its about putting too much seafoam in a motor. If you mix it like they say it will cause no harm. If you load it up you will have a doorstop...

lol thats the part where you read the back of the can

 

[burntime]

Yep, I found out that you can not use it in a car with a converter...almost dumped some in...

 

[CowboyAndy]

I use seafoam on all my 2 strokes, especially the outboard on my boat. i do a "decarb" once a year. 1 pint of seafoam with 1 gal gas. run for 10, sit for 20. lather, rinse and repeat. it smokes like a son of a gun, but it helps to get rid of the carbon deposits.

 

[Jerry_NJ]

I'm not looking to argue with "burntime", I bet he has a lot more saw time than I do (not because of age, I've got him there) and I read him to be speaking with the "voice of experience". That said, I repeat (without going to the shed to read again) Sea Foam does direct running Sea Foam directly into the carb after the engine is warm, and I think running. The way a accomplished this with Gum Out and my 4 chcle big V8s back in the good old say of leaded gas was to start the engine, stop it, disconnect the gas line and feed in the gum out line (Gum Out had a cheap tool kit: a clamp, piece of wire and a plastic hose with various connectors-one would hang the pint from the open hood, like an IV) and then restart the engine on the gas in the bowl... then it was straight Gum Out for one pint. I"m not saying Gum Out = Sea Foam, but there must be some similar aspects.

In any case, I am now running what's left of my "stiff mix" at about 20 or 30:1 gas/oil:SeaFoam.

My outboard motor has seen some Sea Foam, that's why I purchased it for the first time this past Summer. That engine will start fine but will not come up to speed until it has been running for 10 -15 minutes, then it runs fine and when shut down on the lake to fish on electric it will start with no more than half a pull on the rope. I am thinking taking the boat out again soon and I think I'll at least take the Sea Foam up to the maxim. I think it says one pint to 8-20 gallons... or about 64:1 to 160:1, I've been running on the 160:1 end of that range. Maybe I'll add a couple of gallons of gas/oil with 5 or 6 oz of Sea Foam before taking the boat out again. The 5 gallon tank may have two gallons in it with perhaps 2 oz of Sea Foam.

 

[burntime]

Jerry, no argument here. We can always agree to disagree :lol:

 

[polaris]

The recommended(and most effective) way is to introduce seafoam directly into the system via a vac. line, usually the one on the brake booster. I have used it for years in 2-stroke, 4-stroke and many diesel engines. I have never heard the it will burn down/lock up your engine thing before.

 

[Badfish740]

The guys over at My Tractor Forum swear by Seafoam for two strokes. I use it in both my saws (an ounce or two in a full tank once in a while) to keep them clean. My Echo is pretty new so there's probably little if any carbon it by my McCulloch smoked like an SOB and spit carbon out of the muffler for a while afterwards. It been running great ever since.

 

[polaris]

badfish, thanks for the link, it raises my opinion of Ben Chandler D-KY.

 

[polaris]

Bad fish. Are you the same Badfish 740 that hangs out on the Dodge/ Cummins diesel forum?

 

[Bricks]

Yep, I found out that you can not use it in a car with a converter...almost dumped some in...

Seafom will not harm converters...read the can. I have run Seafoam in every vehicle, truck, farm equipment, small engine, 2 and 4 stroke I have owned over the last 20 years. I run Seafoam thru my wifes Trailblazer about once a month with out telling her and usually inevidably she asks what I did to it cause her fuel mileage goes up errrrrr should I say comes back where her average was..

 

[burntime]

I will be darned, I read the can and it says o2 sensor safe! Another positive for seafoam!

 

[Jerry_NJ]

I used the subject chain saw yesterday (the original post) and am now running with almost no Sea Foam, the saw runs well and isn't smoking. It starts well and "warms" up fast, i.e., runs without any choke after a few seconds. It seems to tell me the heavy dose of Sea Foam I gave it cleaned up the fuel system, and did not do any damage (yet discovered). Again, reading the can, it seems safe to run a heavy dose of Sea Foam to "kick off" the cleaning, then go to a regular does or just run on regular fuel mix for several tanks before adding a light maintenance dose of Sea Foam. It has never been my practice to used fuel system conditioner/cleaner on a every tank basis.

 

[spirilis]

The only place I've used Seafoam is in my old Nissan Maxima's intake system--got the car running hot, parked it in some secluded area, popped off a vacuum hose, dumped 1/2 the can in there slowly (so it didn't stall), shut off the motor, reconnected the vacuum hose and let it sit 15min... then fired it up. After goosing the gas enough to stop it from stalling, HUGE billows of white smoke came out the exhaust pipe. The second time I tried this, I did it twice in a row; once, then after 15min of driving did it again, and I am pretty sure that's what cooked my precat's. The service-engine-soon light would come on periodically and go away. Somehow it never failed PA emissions though (probably b/c I'd reset the battery, then drive it around a day or 2 before the test, and the SES light didn't come on by chance). But do be careful with that...

It's fantastic stuff when used in moderation, in other words.

I dunno about that stuff hurting the O2 sensors, but I know it'll cook the catalytic converters if you use too much--or do it more than once in succession without letting the cats cool down, like I did that one time. It's a petroleum product and it's dislodging unburned carbon deposits--just makes sense that it'll heat the hell out of the cats.