I was doing some internet searching on Seafoam cleaning of engines and found this at a Mustang owners website. I wonder if any of this guys techniques would be good to do when using the product on Discovery engines.
Someone with experience here might like to comment!
Chris

How To Seafoam Your Car
[size=3][font="times new roman"]I have finally decided to get off my lazy butt and write a tutorial on how to seafoam your car. Many of you are familiar with seafoam; some have no idea what it is. Well, for all those that are interested, seafoam is multipurpose, 100% petroleum product you can pick up at any local auto store (Napa, advance, AutoZone, etc). It is used to clean carbon buildup from your engine, clean your injectors, clean your oil and a whole lot more. To familiarize you with the products, this is what I am talking about:

Uses of Seafoam

I would first like to state for the record that seafoam is NOT a power adder. All seafoam does is clean out the gunk inside your engine and injectors. This will do nothing more than restore any horsepower/fuel economy you have lost due to years of dirt and grime inside your engine. Any power you pick up along the way is because it has just been suppressed by the filthy engine and is now free again.

If you are losing power and mpg due to carbon buildup, if you are experiencing pinging and if you're having trouble passing emissions test, seafoam may be your answer (yes, seafoam will actually reduce your emissions if carbon buildup is causing dirty exhaust fumes!). Feeling the pinch at the pump lately? Well, seafoam can be used to pick up a few extra mpgs you have lost over the years and reduce or eliminate your engine ping by cleaning out your cylinders!

What You Need to Seafoam Your Engine:

In order to maximize your engine's fuel economy and performance, you should do a full engine treatment. In order to do so, you will need a few things:

- 2 cans of seafoam
- 1 can of seafoam deep creep
- flat head screwdriver
- pliers
- 1 long, skinny funnel

Okay, now that you have all the necessary tools to complete the job, let's talk about how to use seafoam:

How To Seafoam Your Car:

Part One: Injector Cleaning

This is the easiest part of the process. Simply drive to the gas station and completely fill up your tank with 91+-octane gasoline as usual. Take 1 of the 2 cans of seafoam in the requirements above; this can of seafoam will be poured directly into your gas tank. Now, seafoam makes a great product but they didn't think too hard when they designed their can. You need a funnel in order to dump it into your gas tank. Do not try to be cool and try and beat gravity by jamming the can into your gas tank. I tried that. All I got was a car that smelled like gas and wasted seafoam on the ground. Take the long skinny funnel, put it in your gas tank, shake the can of seafoam up and pour the entire can of seafoam into the tank. Then, take your car for a nice ride so the seafoam swishes and mixes in your gas tank. The seafoam will clean out your injectors nicely. Try and run this tank pretty low before filling up so you don't dilute the mixture with more gasoline. This way, you get the maximum cleaning power of seafoam.

Part Two: Cleaning Your Oil System

Seafoam is to be added directly into your crankcase in order to cleanse the oil. Yes, you heard me; you're pouring a foreign mixture directly into your engine oil. This can be scary for newbie’s. Never fear, seafoam is 100% petroleum. It is as harmful to your engine as water is to your skin - not harmful at all. The correct measurement for seafoam is 1.5 ounces per quart of oil in your crankcase. Simple math tells us:

1.5x 6 =9 ounces

Irecommend pouring the seafoam into your oil when the car is cold. I would not recommend pouring a room temperature liquid into 200+ degree oil after the car is hot. Last thing you want to do is shock your valve springs.

Run the seafoam in your oil for NO MORE THAN 250 miles! Seafoam is very aggressive. Your next oil change will be black as Satan’s heart and likely thicker than usual. I would not recommend running this oil very long in the car as your oil filter is going to have quite the time on its hands and the oil won't be in the best of shape afterwards. I’ll say it again. Change your oil less than 250 miles after you put seafoam in your crankcase! I personally recommend running it 100 miles, then changing your oil. That should be plenty for the seafoam to get most of the gunk out.

Part Three: Top End Cleaning

Here comes the fun part: cleaning the engine internals! NOTE: park your car in a VERY WELL VENTILATED area for this step as high amounts of toxic fumes will be pouring out of your car.

As you recall, we have half a can of seafoam left. This half a can will be used to clean out your cylinder banks. In order to do this, we need to locate a vacuum line to directly feed the seafoam into the engine. The favorite vacuum line is the brake booster line. For those unfamiliar with the brake booster, here is what it looks like:

The brake booster is the big, black saucer shaped object behind the brake fluid holder against the driver's side firewall in case you can't tell by the picture.

We will be sucking the seafoam into the brake booster hose marked by the red arrow. (Note: some people prefer to suck the seafoam in through the PCV line. this is also acceptable, although I have never done it.)

First thing you want to do is start the car and let it warm up until the engine reaches closed loop. Basically, start your car and wait for the engine to warm up to normal operating temperatures (5 - 10 minutes depending on outside temperature). After the engine is nice and warm, turn the car off. Now we're going to disengage the brake booster line.

For this, you may need a pair of pliers and a flat head screwdriver. There is a little metal clip holding the brake booster hose to the brake booster. You want to take a pair of pliers, compress the clip and slide it down the hose a few inches. Now that the clip is out of the way, you need to disengage the brake booster hose. This can be a bear if you've never done this before. My car had 80,000 miles on it when I sea foamed it and that sucker was stuck on there tight (it's a vacuum line, it's glued by high pressure). You may need to take the flat head screwdriver and jam it into the vacuum line and wiggle it off the brake booster. This may take a while. It took me a lot of pressure to get the hose off the booster. You may have to pull pretty hard.

Once the hose is off, you're going to want to find a small funnel that will fit into the brake booster hose. I do not recommend simply jamming the hose into the seafoam and letting the engine suck it up. This makes it very hard to control the amount being sucked up and could flood the engine far too fast cause it to prematurely stall out.

Now that you have a funnel jammed into the brake booster hose, start the car. You’ll notice your rpm's are very high, likely around 2000-3000rpms. This is because your brake booster hose being disconnected is causing a massive vacuum leak. You’ll be able to feel the engine sucking air down the funnel.

At this point, you have half a can of seafoam left (8 ounces). You should, in your head, divide that into three equal parts. You’re going to want to SLOWLY pour the first two thirds of the seafoam left in the can into the engine via the funnel. The engine will start to sputter and choke as you pour in the seafoam. You DO NOT want your engine to stall out. Go as slowly as possib

 

I appreciate the effort you put into this post, but it is completely off as to how to do it.
I don't have time this morning, but will get back this afternoon and write the only way to do an induction cleaning Seafoam, B&G or any of the other treatments.
In the mean time, no one follow the above directions, they are incorrect and a waist of time.

 

Well, I figured it might spark a discussion, so that was my only reason to post it. Anyway, it might work on other cars like Mustangs if anyone has one.

 

Can't wait to hear what Disco Mike has to say. I'm slowly working through his 60K checkup - and will soon be to the induction cleaning part of the program.

<preachy aside>
The "mother nature's problem" part of the induction cleaning bothers me - it's troubling enough driving a vehicle that gets 17mpg no matter how wonderful it is or perfect for my needs - so I was considering skipping that step entirely and just running a can or two through the gas tank. At the end of the day the emissions are probably no different - just spread out over time. But at least my fellow citizens won't be thinking "what an a**hole" as I besmirch the neighborhood. I want people to like me!
</preachy aside>

 

Techinically the carbon you'd be polluting with from the smoke due to seafoaming is already in the carbon cycle, its just in the engine instead of the atmosphere. It was gunna come out sooner or later..

Just think about it this way, you either don't seafoam and release a small amount of carbon many times, or you clean out the build up, let out a large amount, then since the engine is clean, you don't let out much at all for more time...either way, youre still burning gas = carbon positive sequence

 

I feel a sticky coming on...

 

No sticky. I find issues with 2 of the 3 methods of cleaning with seafoam. DiscoMike seems to have an issue with all 3. No sticky.

 

It is not an issue as such. Having done induction cleanings for 20 plus years, and be taught by some of the producers of the treatments as well as the companies that make the machines to do this, you learn what works and what doesn't, and this holds true for any engine, even Mustangs.
The whole idea/ benefit of an induction cleaning is to, free up the air flow thru the manifold, and cut any and all carbon on the back side of the intake and exhaust valves. Has nothing to do with cleaning injectors, has some benefit to cleaning the plugs and inner chamber.
Seafoam is an OK additive for cleaning both the manifold and injectors, but nothing, especially at the amounts that they now recommend.
My all time favorite, although the most expensive, are products made by B&G, but for now lets just look at what I believe to be the only proper method.
First of all, I do a couple of things at the same time, I add a good additive to the tank, I do the induction cleaning and while I am waiting for the chemicals to be absorbed into all the old engine build up, I clean the t/body as well as the idle control unit.
My list of stuff needed would be, 2 cans of Seafoam, 1 can of carb spray, 2 feet of a small diameter vaccum line, a tooth brush,m pair of pliers and some paper towel. While doing this cleaning, I do not attempt to clean the crank case at this time, and even when cleaning it, there are far better engine flushes.
So, all that being said, find the smallest port of your manifold, hook the 2 foot piece if tubing to that port, get a pair of pliers, like a needle nose
, start the engine, get it to operating temp, crimp the hose that you have hooked to the manifold, with the pliers, put the other end of the hose into a full can of Seafoam and ever so slightly release just the smallest amount of flow thru the hose. You want to stretch out this part of the cleaning so it takes as long as a couple minutes to totally drain the can without stalling the engine.
Once done, turn the engine off, reattach the proper hose and now you start on the t/body. Remove the air intake hose to the t/body, look inside as you open and close the throttle plate, see all the crap in there on both front and back behind the plate, spray it real good, let it sit for a while, then using the tooth brush, scrub/ loosen up all the old carbon build up and then wipe it all out with your paper towel.
By the way, when you go drive your truck to blow off the smoke, take the can od Seafoam with you so if stopped by the police, you can show them you are not a gross poluter, just treating your engine.

Next, depending on the year and model, clean out you idle contoll unit and you are done.
Now of course comes the fun part, starting up the engine, which will fight you and smoke like hell. Turn the key, don't touch the gas pedal, just let the engine crank till it starts. Now, when no one in your neighbor hood is not looking go out and drive the crap out of it. I have to tell you, that no matter how hard you try, you won't be able to out run the trail of smoke that will last for at least 10 minutes.
Go home when done and just let it sit over night, in the morning may get a very small amount of smoke and then it is gone.
The engine will be much more responsive, smoother idling and perform better then it has in years.
A few side notes, the new directions on the Seafoam, give you different directions, mainly because too many people complained about the massive amount of smoke. Doing it per the directions will not give you anywhere near the same results.
I do it this way cause I don't have the metering valves to do it like we did in the shops, to me the pliers work well and it has to metered into the engine slowly, not dumped into a funnel and into the engine, this does nothing but waist a $6 can of additive.

 

Great info..got it saved..thanks!

 

WOW.That's got to be your biggest single post ever Mike. I think this qualifies as a sticky now.