[Grizzly00]

Hi Guys - Is it a good idea to put some seamfoam in a mower with the first gas tank of the new season to clean things out? Only for mowers with carbs or EFI engines too?

I used it to clean out some old fuel gunk in a snowblower and was wondering if you all treat fuel at start of season with it.

Thanks

 

[CGros31]

Putting Seafoam will not hurt anything.

 

[tdipaul]

Putting Seafoam will not do anything but if it makes you feel good, go for it.

 

[Ridin' Green]

Sea Foam does do something. I have proven that for myself many times over now. I usually ha d a bit to the tank at the start of each season to help with any issues due to the gas being several months old. Is it necessary at the start of each season? Maybe not, but it sure won't hurt anything either.

 

[onahill]

Seafoam isn’t going to clean your carburetor.
I’m not even sure if it does a good job stabilizing gas.

The only thing it’s good at is breaking up carbon in a poorly running engine.

 

[Ridin' Green]

That's simply not true. SF most definitely cleans out a carb. Maybe not to the degree of actually taking a carb apart and doing a thorough cleaning, but for sure it will clean them. You don't have to believe it, but I have done it to several engines now without taking the carb apart and had them smooth out nicely.

 

[onahill]

Seafoam doesn’t dissolve varnish. It’s a good decarbonizer, but it’s not good at cleaning up fuel that has dried out in a carburetor.

almost any petroleum / isopropyl will work in a sonic cleaner, you could probably get water to work in a sonic cleaner. It wasn’t the seafoam.

Read the ingredients on a can of carb cleaner notice the different ingredients.
they use a different solvent that is needed to clean varnish.

 

[AlohaMowing]

I do not know if there would be any benefit adding Seafoam to the first gas of the season, and if the engine ran fine when first started I would not bother with it. But I have found it to be effective in cleaning a carburetor that is not delivering the proper fuel/air mix to the engine and always keep some on hand. Many times I have had an engine that either would not start or sputtered weakly, but ran well after adding Seafoam and letting it sit a while. There are other ways to accomplish the same result, but for a quick and easy first go at getting an engine running it is a good choice.

 

[OakNut]

I pour a capful in my Gatorade to keep me running clean.

It's a joke. Kids, don't try this at home.

 

[Ridin' Green]

People are going to believe whatever they want to believe. If it seems like it makes sense to them, that is just the way it is. I know for a fact SF will clean out a carb and make a poorly running machine run a whole lot better, if not outright as good as new. Done it too many times now with no other fixes or changes to a poorly running engine that ran great after adding it.

 

[Rick Engasser]

People are going to believe whatever they want to believe. If it seems like it makes sense to them, that is just the way it is. I know form a fact SF will clean out a carb and make a poorly running machine run a whole lot better, if not outright as good as new. Done it too many times now with no other fixes or changes to a poorly running engine that ran great after adding it.

My experience with Sea Foam has been if a small engine is running poorly or needed partial choke to run, adding it according to the directions on the can and letting it run definitely helped it. In the past I would pull apart the carb and look for clogs in that situation and usually there would be a partial blockage if the engine would run poorly.

 

[oqueoque]

I pour a capful in my Gatorade to keep me running clean.

It's a joke. Kids, don't try this at home.

I thought you used to fill the tank then spit in it.

 

[oqueoque]

I switched from seafoam to Startron and have seen better results.

 

[fritowrdo]

Used Seafoam to clean out my vehicle when I have the P0430 error code.

 

[onahill]

A lot of people believe that they want to believe a lot of people believe they poured it in and it cleaned up their carburetor.

Maybe some of you didn’t clean out the carb. it just removed the carbon from your spark plug / cylinders/valves and your engine ran better. until it slowly started to carbon up again.

 

[Andrew J]

A lot of people believe that they want to believe a lot of people believe they poured it in and it cleaned up their carburetor.

I believe thats a lot of believing, believe me…

@onahill sent me a picture of a poster on his wall.

 

[onahill]

When I was young, dumb, and full of ***,
I to believed seafoam was the fix all wonder, snake oil…

if you believe, you believe, but believe me, if you soak your carburetor in seafoam, you’re not gonna see much if any difference in the morning.

sure, if there was any black carbon, it probably dissolved that right away but the rest of the scale and crud is still there.

so I no longer believe seafoam is the snake oil people believe it to be.

And believe me, you’re better off with another product if you’re cleaning out a carburetor.

 

[Valk]

Fuel additives:
Compared to Seafoam, I've had better 'luck' w/ Startron in my 4-cycle mower engines when there's a hunting idle issue.

Can these snake oils fix anything/everything? Nope, but they've most certainly helped me out.

The 389cc Honda commercial engines on my current mowers (Ferris FW15s) don't employ a fuel filter (or an oil filter for that matter). I use fuel/snake oil additives fairly regularly and haven't had any carb issues to date. I'll call that a testament - or a lotta luck. You choose.

 

[Grizzly00]

Fine to use in chain saws, string trimmers, etc, right? My snowblower was revving up and down at idle and I sprayed some in air intake. Resolved the problem quickly.

 

[tdipaul]

SF most definitely cleans out a carb

I took a carb apart and soaked the bowl in 100% undiluted SF for two days and it did absolutley nothing. NADA.

The passion people have for the stuff is so intense I wonder if there's something going on behind the scenes.

...like a small commission being paid for every "it most definitely works" claim made on a forum