Hello.,.. I've been reading up on the SEAFOAM treatment that has been posted numerous times on this board... and tonight, after purchasing ac ouple bottles and waiting till the sun went down so i wasnt as noticable smoking up the streets... i went ahead and dumped some down the brake booster line.
Well... it went well. i held my thumb over the line and moderated the intake of seafoam so that the engine didnt stall out (damn that engine sucks air hard through that line! i was suprised!)
the engine came close to stalling a couple times, but all was well. I kept checking the back.. .no smoke yet. so i finished off a whole bottle like this, slowly sucking it in, letting it recover, sucking a bit more in, let it recover... so on so on...
well, i then went and turned the engine off, and with the brake booster off, i poured the very last little bit of the bottle in to let it soak in the engine for about 5 or so minutes.
I turn it back on and BOY OH BOY did it have a hard time getting going again... this had me somewhat worried... and THEN the real shocker came.
WHITE SMOKE WAS COMING FROM MY ENGINE BAY
i nearly dropped a LOAD in my pants when i saw this... the engine died... and i wanted to blow my head off right then and there...
I try to start it one more time... it stumbles and gasps and wheezes for breath... more white smoke billowing out from the engine bay (and me dumping more load into my pants) and suddenly it caught its breath and began to idle!
YAY!
i look at my exhaust... HOLY MOTHER OF GOD you people werent kidding when you said the thing smokes the whole block out!
well.... so as to not piss off my neighborhood, i hopped in and drove off... the thing drove just like it should... i was releived... but i noticed at stops it still seemed like white smoke was coming out of the engine bay...
the motor didnt seem to have any lacking power,(actually felt a tad bit peppier in the end) it hasnt been burning oil/coolant...
but there has been a slight hesitation between 15000-3000rpm for the last couple weeks, which im thinking may be either a vacuum leak or bad O2 sensor (thankfully i have a new one to replace!)
sooo
im really wondering if i need to be worring about that huge plume of white smoke from the ENGINE BAY (which went away after the seafoam finished burning offf) or not. cuz im still really uneasy about it...
could a vacuum leak let taht much smoke out on a seafoam treatment?
thanks in advance!
SEAFOAM treatment gone BAD?
-
Santoku240
- Posts: 44
- Joined: Wed Oct 02, 2002 8:35 am
- Car: computers, cars
-
themadscientist
- Posts: 26254
- Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2002 3:30 pm
- Car: R32 GTR, DR30 RS Turbo, BRZ, Lunchbox, NSR50 Sportster 883 Iron
- Location: Staring down at you with disdain from the spooky mountaintop castle.
well let me tell you on my sister's altima, it clouded out the entire street for a while and I live near the beach with high winds. lol that part is normal and yeah even from the engine bay since her altima smoked from there too, ditto with my buddies mr2 and my own 240. there might be a vac leak but the sputtering is normal (next time push on the throttle pulley a little to give it some more life) and yeah that should help keep it alive.
-
Santoku240
- Posts: 44
- Joined: Wed Oct 02, 2002 8:35 am
- Car: computers, cars
okay now that you mention spilling it on the engine... i did manage to spill a good bit while trying to get the hose to suck it int (i was using the bottom half of an aluminum can i ripped in half, not the mos reliable of containers :P )
okay so the white smoke i from the engine bay itself is explained. thanks for the idea
i went ahead and did another treatment. about half a bottle this time, and i accidentally choked the engine to death due to too much seafoam at a time. That doesnt hurt does it? i just let the car sit after it stalled while sucking the stuff in. figured i'd give the seafoam 45 min to soak in the engine this time.
needless to say, it stuttered a bit more but didnt smoke when i turned it back on... well... that is, not untill after about 10 minutes of running. then it plumed out once more, but only for like... 3 minutes as opposed to the 15-20 the first time, so i think its safe to say i cleaned everything up a bit.
One last question though...
is the smoke suppoed to be WHITE or BLACK? because ive been hearing black from all the instructions, but white from people who give feedback from their own trials... im confused on that part.
again, TIA.
okay so the white smoke i from the engine bay itself is explained. thanks for the idea
i went ahead and did another treatment. about half a bottle this time, and i accidentally choked the engine to death due to too much seafoam at a time. That doesnt hurt does it? i just let the car sit after it stalled while sucking the stuff in. figured i'd give the seafoam 45 min to soak in the engine this time.
needless to say, it stuttered a bit more but didnt smoke when i turned it back on... well... that is, not untill after about 10 minutes of running. then it plumed out once more, but only for like... 3 minutes as opposed to the 15-20 the first time, so i think its safe to say i cleaned everything up a bit.
One last question though...
is the smoke suppoed to be WHITE or BLACK? because ive been hearing black from all the instructions, but white from people who give feedback from their own trials... im confused on that part.
again, TIA.
-
Santoku240
- Posts: 44
- Joined: Wed Oct 02, 2002 8:35 am
- Car: computers, cars
oh and the hesitation between 1500-3000rpm... i meant to say that as like... when im actually driving (not putting in seafoam)
when i shift gears or start from a stop... as the revs go from about 1500 up to about 3000, it will randomly hesitate (act like it suddenly has no power for anywhere form a split second, to awhole second or two) and then burst back to life and accelerate again.
Its strange because its so random, sometimes its just an ever so slight hesitation that you almost dont notice it, other times it feels like suddenly 2000lbs extra was tagged onto my car, and then suddenly drops off.
so yeah... its been doing that for weeks before i tried seafoam... i just thought i would include it in case anyone might happen to know exactly what that could be. untill then im assuming my 02 is bad and causing a fubar air/fuel ratio at times. that or perhaps a vacuum leak, but im kinda leaning away from that because my idle is ROCK SOLID at 750rpm.
thanks for the help guys!
when i shift gears or start from a stop... as the revs go from about 1500 up to about 3000, it will randomly hesitate (act like it suddenly has no power for anywhere form a split second, to awhole second or two) and then burst back to life and accelerate again.
Its strange because its so random, sometimes its just an ever so slight hesitation that you almost dont notice it, other times it feels like suddenly 2000lbs extra was tagged onto my car, and then suddenly drops off.
so yeah... its been doing that for weeks before i tried seafoam... i just thought i would include it in case anyone might happen to know exactly what that could be. untill then im assuming my 02 is bad and causing a fubar air/fuel ratio at times. that or perhaps a vacuum leak, but im kinda leaning away from that because my idle is ROCK SOLID at 750rpm.
thanks for the help guys!
I just did it in my 95 the other day. I used about half a bottle in teh brale booster line and then the other half in my oil, then a whole bottle in a full tank of gas (still going threw it). I didnt get to much smoke... but I think that I am going to try to do another bottle in the brake booster line to.
As for the engine smoke I dropped some on my motor to and it burnt off as well. However some definetly came from the valve cover which I guess means its just crank ventilation (cause my valve cover does leak). I figure the more smoke the better :p this stuff rox!
As for the engine smoke I dropped some on my motor to and it burnt off as well. However some definetly came from the valve cover which I guess means its just crank ventilation (cause my valve cover does leak). I figure the more smoke the better :p this stuff rox!
Seafoam is good stuff. You guys must never run your engines hard though. My M3 with 84k miles on it just had a puff of smoke come out of the exhaust for about 30-45 seconds. I run injector cleaner through it alot though, and she's been on the track a little bit(along with some hard street driving at times). 
No M3 owners really report alot of smoke though. So I wonder if it's due to the fact that our engines run about 15*C hotter stock than KA/SRs?
No M3 owners really report alot of smoke though. So I wonder if it's due to the fact that our engines run about 15*C hotter stock than KA/SRs?