FJowners.com

General Category => Maintenance => Topic started by: delarbreavous on May 13, 2013, 04:37:10 PM

Title: seafoam related question
Post by: delarbreavous on May 13, 2013, 04:37:10 PM
Should seafoam be used as a preventive remedy additive to keep the carburetors clean as long as possible?

Alain



Title: Re: seafoam related question
Post by: movenon on May 13, 2013, 06:20:14 PM
I use "StarTron" http://mystarbrite.com/startron/ (http://mystarbrite.com/startron/) now pretty consistently now because of the alcohol laced fuel. I use it every winter in all my gas powered equipment. I have never used Seafoam, it might be as good or better I can't say. Seafoam has been around for a long time.
StarTron is sold at almost every Walmart and bike shop around. I put in about 1/2 ounce every other tank full as usually I refuel with 1/4 to half tank in her. If you have alcohol laced fuel then I say use something... Especially in any equipment that you don't run everyday.
George
Title: Re: seafoam related question
Post by: FJmonkey on May 13, 2013, 07:30:39 PM
Let me offer my experience on Seafoam. I have used it for over a year on my stock 86' before I took my carbs apart for a rebuild. My mpg has averaged around 49, so I was not rebuilding because of issues. I was adding the RPM fastener kit and rejetting for SupperTrapp pipes and UNI pods. My slide diaphragms had holes.... After 20+ years they gave up... WTF???... My carbs were quite clean, no build up or varnish, dirty on the outside, clean on the inside. I did not use much else. Can't say it was Seafoam but aside from Shell premium gas that is all I added.
Title: Re: seafoam related question
Post by: mrtom on May 14, 2013, 05:26:37 AM
Is sea foam an American thing? Never heard of it guys. What is it?
Cheers
Title: Re: seafoam related question
Post by: movenon on May 14, 2013, 09:37:05 AM
Quote from: mrtom on May 14, 2013, 05:26:37 AM
Is sea foam an American thing? Never heard of it guys. What is it?
Cheers

http://www.seafoamsales.com/our-history/ (http://www.seafoamsales.com/our-history/) Just a fuel additive.  Is your fuel over there laced with alcohol ? Most of ours has 10% alcohol in it. They are trying to up that to 15%...

The stuff in my opinion is crap. It seems to induce water in the fuel system and causes corrosion and other bad problems in older bikes and cars. I have a local station here that still sells straight gas but when I am out on the road I have no choice usually but to buy the alcohol laced crap fuel. 

Lets see, why don't we take perfectly good farm land and grow corn to shove out the tail pipes of cars..... Now the price of food on the shelf go's up because the farmer is selling his corn to the oil industry......  :dash2: :dash2: :dash2: :dash2:

George
Title: Re: seafoam related question
Post by: Dan Filetti on May 14, 2013, 11:52:45 AM
Quote from: movenon on May 13, 2013, 06:20:14 PM
I use "StarTron" http://mystarbrite.com/startron/ (http://mystarbrite.com/startron/) now pretty consistently now because of the alcohol laced fuel. I use it every winter in all my gas powered equipment. I have never used Seafoam, it might be as good or better I can't say. Seafoam has been around for a long time.
StarTron is sold at almost every Walmart and bike shop around. I put in about 1/2 ounce every other tank full as usually I refuel with 1/4 to half tank in her. If you have alcohol laced fuel then I say use something... Especially in any equipment that you don't run everyday.
George

+1
Title: Re: seafoam related question
Post by: yamaha fj rider on May 15, 2013, 06:35:13 PM
Quote from: movenon on May 14, 2013, 09:37:05 AM
Quote from: mrtom on May 14, 2013, 05:26:37 AM
Is sea foam an American thing? Never heard of it guys. What is it?
Cheers

http://www.seafoamsales.com/our-history/ (http://www.seafoamsales.com/our-history/) Just a fuel additive.  Is your fuel over there laced with alcohol ? Most of ours has 10% alcohol in it. They are trying to up that to 15%...

The stuff in my opinion is crap. It seems to induce water in the fuel system and causes corrosion and other bad problems in older bikes and cars. I have a local station here that still sells straight gas but when I am out on the road I have no choice usually but to buy the alcohol laced crap fuel. 

Lets see, why don't we take perfectly good farm land and grow corn to shove out the tail pipes of cars..... Now the price of food on the shelf go's up because the farmer is selling his corn to the oil industry......  :dash2: :dash2: :dash2: :dash2:

George
I do the same thing as George but I use the Lucas SAFEGUARD ETHANOL. There is a station not too far, that uses different hose and nozzle for each grade of fuel. Normally I go there, most of the time fill two five gallon cans add fuel conditioner good to go. Then I have gas ready for all the toys.

Kurt
Title: Re: seafoam related question
Post by: mrtom on May 15, 2013, 10:59:28 PM
I have no idea what ours is laced with over here just that at £1.36 a litre (about $2.07) it should be laced with gold. We have redex over here. Don't know if that's the same thing.
Title: Re: seafoam related question
Post by: baldy3853 on May 16, 2013, 12:39:38 AM
Quote from: mrtom on May 15, 2013, 10:59:28 PM
I have no idea what ours is laced with over here just that at £1.36 a litre (about $2.07) it should be laced with gold. We have redex over here. Don't know if that's the same thing.
Kurt Redex is pretty much the same sort of thing, if yours should be laced with gold what about ours its about $1.45 a litre (so ours is 4 times as expensive lol) and our $ is about 60p
Title: Re: seafoam related question
Post by: movenon on May 16, 2013, 09:13:16 AM
Quote from: baldy3853 on May 16, 2013, 12:39:38 AM
Quote from: mrtom on May 15, 2013, 10:59:28 PM
I have no idea what ours is laced with over here just that at £1.36 a litre (about $2.07) it should be laced with gold. We have redex over here. Don't know if that's the same thing.
Kurt Redex is pretty much the same sort of thing, if yours should be laced with gold what about ours its about $1.45 a litre (so ours is 4 times as expensive lol) and our $ is about 60p

Gas is about .95 U.S. a liter here. Give or take a little. Another bad thing about alcohol in the fuel (ethanol) here is that the BTU count is roughly up to 20% lower.... It hurts fuel economy and performance not to mention the water and corrosion damage. &&^&%%$#@#$@@  :dash2:
George
Title: Re: seafoam related question
Post by: Pat Conlon on May 16, 2013, 11:57:49 AM
Sea foam is fine as a top end cleaner...smokes like a bitch....like neighbors calling 911 smoke... for fuel stabilizer use StarTron.
Title: Re: seafoam related question
Post by: keand3 on May 16, 2013, 02:25:28 PM
Quote from: baldy3853 on May 16, 2013, 12:39:38 AM
Kurt Redex is pretty much the same sort of thing, if yours should be laced with gold what about ours its about $1.45 a litre (so ours is 4 times as expensive lol) and our $ is about 60p

What? $1.45 is cheap! Over here a liter of fuel will set you back $2.70, minimum.... The fecken government is way to greedy! 80% of it is taxes...

Anyway, no fuel laced with alcohol here, luckily.   :good2:
Title: Re: seafoam related question
Post by: movenon on May 16, 2013, 04:47:28 PM
No just fish oil  :rofl2: :rofl2: :rofl2:
George
Title: Re: seafoam related question
Post by: FJ Flyer on May 17, 2013, 06:33:48 AM
Used seafoam on a regular basis.  Never had issues with smoke.  Been using Startron now in the FJR due to the ethanol.  Closest real gas is over in Luray, VA, which is a days ride.

I alternate between Startron, Techron, Seafoam, and Marvel Mystery Oil.  Don't use MMM as much in the FJR as I did in the FJ.  Helps prevent rust in the tank, too.  I snap up a bunch of whatever is on sale.

Title: Re: seafoam related question
Post by: Steve_in_Florida on May 17, 2013, 10:35:25 AM

The addition of small amounts of Seafoam in the gas tank will not produce the huge smoke cloud.

HOWEVER...

...if you purchase the Seafoam "kit", and follow the instructions for "one time, high intensity cleaning", your neighbors WILL take note. The kit contains a tube that is intended to slip in between the carb and the intake manifold rubber, and inject pure Seafoam into the combustion chamber.

We had a couple of sample bottles at the shop, and I tried it on a couple of fuel-injected cars. The procedure was pretty easy (with a throttle body), and lots of smoke was produced.

I'm not certain how easy it would be on a four-carburetor bike, though.

It would be interesting to perform the Seafoam cleaning (and for the sake of research, other common products, too), with before and after pictures of the engine internals.

Some of the products claim to be able to remove carbon buildup in the combustion chambers. I'd like to see empirical evidence that they work as advertised.

(popcorn)



Title: Re: seafoam related question
Post by: fj11.5 on May 18, 2013, 01:08:37 AM
Be easy to spray in the seafoam kit, run it through the carb synch tubes