Figured I'd put this out there for anyone who was interested in Sea Foaming their M. I have a 2011 M56x so, at the least, this would be the same for the other Y51 V8's. I haven't seen the Y51 V6 car so I can't say if this process is any different. This should give you the general idea though.

*Disclaimer* - I am not liable for anything you do to your car. This is just a basic walkthrough.

Tools Needed:

- Needle Nose Pliers
- Half a can of Sea Foam
- Solo cup or funnel with a REALLY skinny neck
- Any assistant capable of keeping their foot on the gas and maintaining 2-3k RPM.

Process:

1) Open the hood and remove the cover over the brake fluid reservoir.



2) Locate the vacuum line needed to do this task. Move the hose clamp circled in the image up a bit to allow the hose to be removed. My hose was stuck on pretty good so I had to spray a small bit of WD-40 at the edge of it and wiggle the hose to get it budge and then it slid on and off nice and easy.



3) Now fill your cup (or get your funnel ready) with half a can or so of Sea Foam. I personally did a full cup, and it was like 70% of the bottle, maybe slightly more. Have your assistant start the car. With the car running, have them get the RPM's up to like 3k. Once you remove the brake booster line (with the car running) the RPM's will drop a smidge. When you submerge the hose into the cup (to suck up the Sea Foam) or pour the Sea Foam in via the funnel, the car will try to stall. Make sure they prevent it from stalling by maintaining the RPM's as needed.



4) Immediately after the Sea Foam is sucked up/poured in, shut the car off.

5) Now let the car sit for 30-60 minutes and after that time has passed, start it up. It may struggle to start, keep at it. Eventually it'll fire up. Give it a few minutes to start idling properly and now start revving it and enjoy the smoke show. Once the smoke subsides a bit, take it for a brisk spin down some highway roads and give it the beans

I forgot to take a video (but boy, did my M56x smoke)...so here is one of my 2007 M35x that I Sea Foamed back in the day. My M56x had 65kmi on it compared to the M in the video which had like 34kmi. I had like double the smoke. It was awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McLwRh_c3us

Caution: This seafoam treatment will produce a HUGE plume of stinky white smoke, for about 10 minutes. Your neighbors may complain. So better do it when your neighbors are NOT looking. :-)

BTW, this sucks seafoam into the intake manifold, which is past your TB, so it won't clean your throttle bodies.

Some folks recommend pouring the rest of the seafoam bottle straight into your engine oil, then go for a short drive, then change the oil right away.

Here's a more detailed walkthrough for those of you fogging up the 'hood this weekend.

http://www.nicoclub.com/archives/how-to ... t-way.html

ibc wrote:Caution: This seafoam treatment will produce a HUGE plume of stinky white smoke, for about 10 minutes. Your neighbors may complain. So better do it when your neighbors are NOT looking. :-)

Or live in the boonies like me

I just used this guide to do my 2009 M 35 with the HR engine (dual intakes). Same exact location for the vacuum hose. Also same great smoke out! The wind today was blowing pretty good off the ocean, down my street, and westward. My house faces a canal, and on the other side of the canal is a state park over-run with foliage so it blocks views from the park to my house and vice versa. After letting the sea foam stew for about 45 minutes, I started the car with the tail pipes pointed across the canal. Bloody Nora !! HUGE plumes of the foulest smelling white smoke were lifted by the wind and carried straight across the canal, sinking slowly on the heads of anyone who was in the park, LOL. Seemed to produce lots more smoke than my 2007 M. If you happened to be visiting, and were lunching at Hugh Taylor Birch State Park today ...... my humble apologies (address withheld).
Thanks Ilya, for that brilliant DIY !

Hahah Larz. I do this every 40-50kmi or so.

Very god write up llyaKol

ibc wrote:BTW, this sucks seafoam into the intake manifold, which is past your TB, so it won't clean your throttle bodies.

Some folks recommend pouring the rest of the seafoam bottle straight into your engine oil, then go for a short drive, then change the oil right away.

Forgot to comment on these parts of your post for some reason.

Correct, TB's aren't cleaned via this method and need to be cleaned by hand which is easily done using my PCV howto...just take a TB Cleaner soaked rag to the TB with the intake tubes off. Or get crazy and remove the TB's (I'd be worried about calibration though).

I put a 'maintenance dose' of Sea Foam into my oil each oil change. Like 2-3 cap fulls. Otherwise I run a can in my tank every 5kmi or so. All of my cars that I've done this too have lasted quite a while and I've never had an engine problem/failure on any of my cars.

I use Sea Foam prior to oil changes. If my oil change appt is for Tues at 10am, I add maybe 1/4 cup (2 oz) of Sea Foam the Monday evening before and drive for a few miles to make sure it circulates with the oil, flowing everywhere the oil does. Then the car sits overnight. The next day I drive it straight to the dealer and they change the oil + filter. I add nothing to the new oil until the day before the next oil change.

I've heard of adding 1/4 CAN (4 oz) of Sea Foam and driving the car for many days before changing the oil / filter. That seems a bit too risky. The loosened varnish, etc will be flowing through the crank case and into the filter for days, building up in the oil and possibly clogging the filter. It's not a good idea to drive for days with a clogged filter.

I think 2-3 cap fulls is nothing to worry about and probably helps burn off stubborn varnish over time. I bet it can also prevent future build by making it harder for deposits to form.

Yes, that's why I run it.

Every new car I buy (which is always lightly used/lease turn in) I run a treatment of AutoRX in it. I then follow that up by running my oil WITH a couple cap fulls of Sea Foam for 5kmi. I change oil and filter, fill up new oil, add 2-3 caps of Sea Foam and repeat.