hello
do you guys have good experiences with seafoam? i have heard people say that they use it and never have to pull apart their carbs
also how exactly do i use the gas additive? do it just pour it in and turn the bike on and let it idle for a while?
or do i rev it for 5 minutes?
or do i go for a long ride?
I've used Sea Foam before. Unfortunately my carbs were too gunked up for it to work and I had to pull them apart anyways. I put a whole one in with a tank of gas. I've heard many say that it smokes like none other but it never really did for me.
It will be in that whole tank of gas so it doesn't exactly matter what you do afterwards. I would say however a decently long ride so everything warms up to operating temp would be ideal.
On a side note, I tried running a push mower on just Seafoam and it only stayed running as long as I kept pushing the primer button. Also, tons of smoke on that one. I later siphoned out most of it from the gas tank and refilled it with gasoline.
Well I've narrowed my hard starting problems to either spark plugs or a fuel problem.
I'll replace the spark plugs this weekend but if it's not that, then it'd definately a fuel problem (valves, oil, air filter are good)
And before I go into the carbs I Wanna see if seafoam works (also because it supposedly cleans through fuel lines and petcock too)
I've pulled apart plenty of carbs that are perfectly clean. Low mileage bike (usually means it's been sitting,) 3+ years old. Only properly gummed up carb I've seen is one that had been sitting for 5+ years with fuel in it. Gumming wasn't that bad, either.
Quote from: rayshon on September 15, 2011, 09:41:43 PM
hello
do you guys have good experiences with seafoam? i have heard people say that they use it and never have to pull apart their carbs
also how exactly do i use the gas additive? do it just pour it in and turn the bike on and let it idle for a while?
or do i rev it for 5 minutes?
or do i go for a long ride?
I prefer B12 Chemtool. I like to think it's stronger. Like chemo for your carbs as a last ditch effort before tearing your bike down.
I haven't heard bad things about seafoam. My friend dumped it into his gas tank on his SV650 and it really didn't fix much, but for the most part it will clean your fuel system out. Both B12 and Seafoam are great bandaids to a carb problem but nothing will ever replace a manual tear down and cleaning. I just wanted to save mine until I get my jardine exhaust, air filter, and dynojet kit.
The gas additive is easy. Read the instructions and pour the recommended amount/gallon into it. B12 requires 1 oz (or less) be added per gallon of gasoline. Seafoam is probably more. Then go out for a ride. If your carbs are gunky you might see white smoke blowing out of your exhaust. This is normal. Just don't do what I did the first time I used B12 and forget you have an air cooled bike and idle it for 20 minutes until it almost overheats. Actually ride it. After that initial "run-in" ride, run through the tank of gas slowly. The longer you let the gasoline/fuel mixture sit in the carbs the better it will clean it. You may want to follow up with another tank of gas and seafoam.
I use seafoam more as a preventative measure than to solve anything............I'll be sure to put some in all my tanks in a few weeks as winter approaches (no riding for a few months in MN) and that stabalizes the gas and keeps the carbs from getting gummed up.
I have always had my bikes start in the spring after sitting with seafoam in the tank (I run the bike after getting the seafoam mixed in so it for sure gets to the carbs) and a battery tender hooked up.
Seafoam is a mixture of naptha, isopropryl alcohol, and very light machine type oil ...
MSDS for Seafoam says
40%-60% Pale Oil
25%-35% Naptha
10%-20% Isopropyl Alcohol
I'd guess smoky burnoff is the burned oil going out the tail pipe.
I use seafoam all the time. Recently had a sticky lifter noise on my kia. Put some in the crank and ran for ten minutes and the ticking went away and hasn't come back. I don't see smoke unless I suck it into the vacuum line to clean out the combustion chambers. It has good instructions right on the can. On the gs, I put 1/4 in the crank and 1/4 in the gas. Ride around for about 30min and then change the oil out. A search on the web will find lots of happy users.
I havnt seen seafoam downunder but I've just put a can of liquid Molly bike carb cleaner additive through my tank to keep my newly cleaned carbs spring fresh, in line filter helps too.
Seafoam as well as any other "cleaner" tha tyou drop in the tank ... really has any chance of working only if the tank is cleaner than the carbs ... or make that, tank = squeaky clean.
Else all the crap in the tank will end up in the carbs.
Cool.
Buddha.
So true, hence the in line filter.