Write-Up: Seafoam to restore lost horsepower

Naw, your fuel filter is fine.

Alright thanks !

how old is the filter? the sea foam probably didnt add much dirt to the filter but if its been 30k miles then its time for a new one anyways. they are only $15 at dealer.

Mr.Riviera wrote:

how old is the filter? the sea foam probably didnt add much dirt to the filter but if its been 30k miles then its time for a new one anyways. they are only $15 at dealer.

I had it changed last year. Probably only like 10-15k on it.

Oops. My bad. I thought you meant you changed the filter last week. I change mine annually, so it's time to change yours soon. The SeaFoam won't hurt the filter though. Sorry for the confusion.

every year is probably over doing it depending on how many tanks of gas you put through it. i think gm recommends every 20-30k miles.

Mr.Riviera wrote:

every year is probably over doing it depending on how many tanks of gas you put through it. i think gm recommends every 20-30k miles.

I usually average a tank a week. Thats probably going to go down now that gas keeps going up though

I guess I'll change it soon anyway just incase.

racinfan wrote:

I've used it in other cars and I've noticed improvements so it's just a cheap way to ensure everything is cleaned out.

WOT is key as well.

what does WOT stand for??

can someone point out te break booster hose for me?

Look at the far back right side of your picture. See the large round black thing behind the white brake fluid reservior, mounted against the firewall? That's the brake booster. There is a fairly large diameter black hose attached to the front left side of it. That's the hose you want. Should come off fairly easily.

I want to add a note about pouring the Seafoam into a different container for the hose/suction procedure. DO NOT use a styrofoam coffee cup! I did that a couple years ago when treating my 68's 350. The Seafoam ate right thru the cup in about a minute. As I was pouring it into the carb....

Thanks for bringing this topic up again, I needed the reminder to do all this to the Riv.

ricoshay wrote:

can someone point out te break booster hose for me?

Thats a clean engine bay. How many miles are on that thing? Even the coolant and washer fluid tanks are spotless.

Lucky! How come my s/c has this ugly beige color and others look silver?

they painted the snouts in 97 a silver color. mine is silver b/c i bought a newer snout when i swaped pullieys

Thanks for the info!

Man, just tried this (mainly for the top end clean). The engine wouldn't run with the brake booster line pulled. I finally got it to run by holding my thumb over the line... then quickly let go and got the tube in the 8oz of Sea Foam.

I tried to modulate it but even slowly the engine was dying. I didn't get much in there.... but it did smoke like a sun of a gun! I was astounded at how little... maybe 2 oz... so it quit and I let it sit.

It was difficult to start again (line reasembled). But even with the little I got in there, I can tell it smoother.

I put the rest 50/50 fuel and oil.

I'm having the oil changed tomorrow morning so its not going to work too far around in the engine but I'm a tad fearful of the crank case.

Going to synthetic tomorrow too.

Any tips for how to get the stuff in other than the brake line?

When I did this to my 68 Buick, it was necessary to speed up the engine a bit to keep it running while pouring it in the carb. You might try having someone keep the RPM's up a bit while using the hose suction method. Not sure of a better way to add this stuff.

1998 Riv wrote:

When I did this to my 68 Buick, it was necessary to speed up the engine a bit to keep it running while pouring it in the carb. You might try having someone keep the RPM's up a bit while using the hose suction method. Not sure of a better way to add this stuff.

I had to have someone hold then gas to keep the RPMs up. Otherwise it would just die out.

Alright, I'll try again before summer is over and have my brother help me.

As far as I know at 102,000 mine had never been cleaned. It smoked good even for how little I put in there.. I suspect there is more cleaning to be had...

At 140k miles, I have never put Seafoam through my engine. Maybe I have untapped horsepower potential? My car would be a good test mule, I think. Before & after track times could prove the effectiveness of Seafoam once and for all!

yea, but i doubt you have much carbon build up Aaron, what with all that lead-foot driving

Adam, what color was the smoke? white is just the petrol burning off, grey or black means your cleaning up carbon. you can also hold the throttle at the TB with one hand and suck it up with the other. kinda tricky but thats how i do it since i cant find anyone i can trust to help me when i do it

It seemed white but I did it at night to not alarm neighbors!

The little cloud did hang over the neighborhood a good 20 minutes for as little as I got in there! I was startled to look out 20 minutes later to see it hovering over the houses!

I am a lead foot too, so I'd be surprised that in the 6 months I've had it that whatever might have been in there isn't gone.

I'm mostly delving into why I get poorer than average gas mileage (even when trying, despite my lead foot) than reported.

I started with fuel filter and air filter, and am no moving to things that aren't as simple and thought maybe this would give me a kick.

The plugs and wires are stock so that will be on the agenda and I don' t wanna hijack this thread - and I did drive 300 miles this weekend and got 25MPG and that was with a very heavy foot and 80MPH cruise for a good part of it and I'd never gripe about that kind of economy!

allfalldown wrote:

The plugs and wires are stock so that will be on the agenda and I don' t wanna hijack this thread - and I did drive 300 miles this weekend and got 25MPG and that was with a very heavy foot and 80MPH cruise for a good part of it and I'd never gripe about that kind of economy!

That's really a good MPG figure for the driving you describe. You've also got to look at the way you drive, do you use the brakes a lot even when you're 'trying' for good economy? How long do you let the car coast when coming to a stop? You've got to realize it's a 2 ton car it takes a lot of work to get the car rolling again from a stop so try to keep consistent and rolling as often as possible. Just think of using your brakes the least amount possible.

Howdy!

I've been driving gas guzzlers all my life so I'm pretty good at squeezing mileage out. I'm getting 15 to 18 in town... I was thinking I could do a bit better.

The highway is significantly better - I'm happy with it - but my last car, a 1994 STS wasn't nearly 10MPG better on the freeway like this car... I'm used to maybe 4 or 6 better...

Maybe I should quit worrying!

That sounds pretty normal. Because we have both a blower and the boost bypass to run N/A when the foot's out of the pedal, I often see a very dynamic range, from 30+ mpg on the freeway to as low as 10 mpg in heavy traffic, even lower with WOT runs.