How long before Seafoam starts to work?

[meborder]

I've noticed that my plow truck, 83k20 powered by a weak-suck 350, has something going on in one hole.

you can hear it when it cranks over, that one hole is hitting differently than the others, and recently it blows blue smoke out the left tail pipe (true duals, with no crossover pipe) until it gets good and warm.

thinking it might have a gummed up set of rings in one hole. if you look in the oil fill you can tell that it hasn't necessarily been treated well it's whole life (the fact that it's on its second motor with just 100k on the clock is another sign).

so i added a can of seafoam to the oil. I was expecting that the oil would start turning black in fairly short order, but that has not been the case.

i've got about 6 hours worth of plowing on the oil with the seafoam (the oil was fresh otherwise), but it still appears to be as clean as the day i put it in --- which, it usually is even after a full year's worth of service.

even with the visible blue smoke, the oil level stays pretty constant. my last OCI was 2 years (maybe 500 miles) and it had only gone from the top of the full to the bottom of the full mark (which was the only reason i changed it, really. i figured why add a quart when i could just change it after 2 years of service)

typically, in the winter, if it starts, it is running for an hour or more while i plow. its a yard truck and doesn't go down the road, but the oil always gets up to 200+ degrees (via non contact on the oil pan) low rpm use, but a fair bit of throttle pushing snow (mostly because it's a 350 and doesn't have any power)

so .... how long before i start to see something happen?

 

[JHZR2]

Maybe never if you have a bad valve seat or head gasket.

 

[CT8]

What does Seafoam do?

 

[David1]

Did you see that video on You tube.. A guy has a brand new Chevy Truck and then he has the same exact truck but a few years older, not sure if it was his buddys or not.. The point is the new Truck only had like 40 miles on it and the older one had 60K miles on it.

He put Sea Foam in both Trucks... No I expected the new Truck to be different color smoke or no smoke or somthing since it was brand new.

However side by side bothe TRUCKS put out exactly the same Clouds of Smoke and for exactly the same amount of time.



Also a guy on you tube does it with a brand new Generator or Lawnmower Engine and it does the same.

However being it was 2 Cycle perhaps thats why it blew out .. But the Video with 1 New Truck and 1 Older truck is great.. I have to find it.

Did anyone see it?

Also I wonder why it did the same in the new truck as it did in the old truck?

 

[Bluestream]

Originally Posted By: CT8
What does Seafoam do?


Nothing...mostly a butt-dyno product

 

[Plumber]

I poured some down the carb of my old 52 Dodge....a great white cloud hung around the neighborhood for days!

 

[meborder]

to be clear, i put it in the crankcase. (i put some in the fuel too, but that's not the point of the question)

i'm not expecting it to fix a mechanical problem.

what i'm driving at is the motor is visibly dirty through the fill hole. there's lots to clean.

all reports i've read is that seafoam will do a good job of cleaning a dirty oil system, and from past personal experience, i've found it does a good job.

never used it in a engine this dirty before, so i was expecting the oil to start turning black right away. but maybe 6hrs really isn't that much time on the oil for anything to happen .... IDK

 

[3800Series]

Originally Posted By: meborder
to be clear, i put it in the crankcase. (i put some in the fuel too, but that's not the point of the question)

i'm not expecting it to fix a mechanical problem.

what i'm driving at is the motor is visibly dirty through the fill hole. there's lots to clean.

all reports i've read is that seafoam will do a good job of cleaning a dirty oil system, and from past personal experience, i've found it does a good job.

never used it in a engine this dirty before, so i was expecting the oil to start turning black right away. but maybe 6hrs really isn't that much time on the oil for anything to happen .... IDK


The fill hole isnt the best way to guage if a engines dirty. To be certain I would remove the valve cover. That will give you a great look at things. The wife's Taurus has a plate at the bottom of the fill hole. So it looked clean. When I replaced the valve cover gasket it had some varnish and build up. Nothing major but a night and day difference between the cover off and the fill hole.

Engine might not be dirty. Even if it was I'm kinda iffy with seafoam. I try not to talk down on products people like but I don't really see much evidence to its (or any other additives) effects.

Personally I prefer MMO. Does it work? I can't really say but I like to add a quart ever 3-4 changes. Can't really hurt anything.

 

[Rolla07]

I dont think Seafoam is useful in anything but 2 stroke motors.

 

[Phishin]

Slowly pour or spray water down the carb with the motor good and hot and idling around 2500 rpm's. Do about a gallon of water. Then take truck on a 20 minute drive. It will run so much better.

I do this to my k1500 twice a year. It's always the best it ever runs.

 

[Finz]

Originally Posted By: meborder
never used it in a engine this dirty before, so i was expecting the oil to start turning black right away. but maybe 6hrs really isn't that much time on the oil for anything to happen .... IDK


I can't speak for Seafoam as I never used it that way, but I'd say you're correct that 6 hours is not enough time to see any worthwhile results.

 

[abycat]

I would use some pyb and change it out twice a year. I'm not a big fan of additives.

 

[OVERKILL]

Also, the solvent will evaporate and then you are just left with the pale oil.

AMSOIL's engine flush might be the closest thing to a working "cleaner" for this purpose. Otherwise, a quality oil changed at a reasonable interval is all it should ever need.

It is also possible that it has a very poor quality rebuild and you are now seeing the results of that.

 

[meborder]

i may try an engine flush next fall when i change the oil.

i'm not going to fall all over myself trying to make it perfect. it starts and runs no matter how cold or hot it is, and that's all i really expect out of it.

as to changing oil more often ... me changing oil in this truck once a year would be like most changing their oil once a month.

would you recommend someone change their oil once a month?

300 miles in a year for this truck is about it.

 

[Morris400]

I've used seafoam in the fuel system before. Did a really good job of cleaning out the 20year old fuel lines....so good in fact it fouled new spark plugs and car would not start. Was a pain in the [censored] but it's good for fuel systems and some people use in in vac lines to clean out the intake mani.

I would never use in oil crank case cause it works so well that all the carbon will be broke loose and could clog the oil pump and or cause new leaks that were sealed by carbon stuck seals.

Fuel system good
Oil system no good

But each his own and results will very on all cars.

 

[meborder]

i checked it before i used it this weekend and it appears that the solvents are beginning to work. you can see that the oil is starting to turn dark. so we'll see.

so far, the oil level is right where it should be, that is to say there is no noticeable increase in consumption as of yet.

i think i've got about 8 hours of run time on it now, and about a tank-and-a-half worth's of use. (30 gal, roughly).

i check it before every use (always have since it had to do so much work to get a dipstick* installed i feel inclined to use it) so i'll report back occasionally.

(* = someone swapped engines in the past and used an older block that had the dipstick on the driver's side of the engine block rather than the passenger's side. so the dipstick was folded flat under the driver's side manifold. so to get a dipstick that i could use required a set of headers, and the headers required a new dual exhaust ... so i've got about a $400 oil dipstick)