Seafoam presentation

[Crazcnuk]

Ever wondered about this stuff?

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...90865726229173

[CatatonicBug]

That's good stuff! So, they suggest adding and leaving Seafoam in the oil, unless it's a deisel engine? I've never seen those other products though.

[gareth]

Rant...lots of white smoke...

I have used Seafoam on the recommedation of posters on this forum and others. I have received so much good advice here that the occasional endorsement of a product, especially one that seems to have been around forever, with that intangible "ole timer" charisma, made it worth the chance.
But after sitting through this presentation, with nearly a quarter hour of full-on hard-sell, extolling the virtues of the tune-up in-a-can...I've changed my mind.
I can never get that 15 minutes back..( the video took some time to load..) and, frankly, after what has happened in the US economy recently, I will no longer buy anything that comes with a long winded golly-gosh pitch...

For a start, the stuff is hitting $10 a pint locally. $80 a gallon for those moaning about gas, or milk prices. While throwing a few ounces of mineral spirits and alcohols and magic ingredients into ones tank might make some difference, it hardly makes the difference that a single good carb cleaning did on my bike (s).

This is not about Seafoam especially...It's just that when one has reached a certain point in life, Mr. Blue-Collar-Decency-On-Your-Side with his bottle of magic stuff, whether its carb cleaner or headache pills, loses his ability to impress.
But I am not above a little subtle persuasion. When I had the idea that Seafoam was a subtle, unappreciated miracle, its lore passed from mechanic to mechanic I was hooked. I had never heard of it, and its effects seemed to be extolled in the low tones favored by masonic cults. It was a secret handshake with all that my carburetor craved. To paraphrase another huckster.." my carburetors were suffering from a Seafoam deficiency".
It was hard to come by too..lots of posts detailing where the next batch might be found.

Then this dude popped my bubble. And in one 15 minute spot, stuck his product right in the middle of every piece of crap that has been hawked on the idiot-box since the dawn of Madison Ave.

The moment??

It was all that white smoke. The part where I am expected to be the most impressed. Sorry. I am paying no attention to the man behind the curtain.

And that is what I think.

I will now add two ounces of Seafoam to my coffee, and another third of a can to my cornflakes and maybe even drizzle some over my toast.
It may cure my gunky build-up.

G.

[DiverRay]

gareth,

As I've NOT spent 15 minutes looking at the video, I can only tell you what MHO is.
Seafoam is good for cleaning up carbs BETWEEN the REAL clean. If I have a stumble problem, and carbs were cleaned recently, I'll add a few ounces to a low tank of fuel and run it. It WILL usually help, as it picks up the water and other junk that get into the tank from the poorly maintained pumps and tanks some "service" stations have.
My other much used product is Berryman's B12 Chemtool. I use either one, as the both are good products. I DON'T listen to the hype the company's may put out, as I don't have the time. I also will NOT run either product in the oil for more that 5 minutes of idle on the center stand. It WILL help clean up sludge from an engine that has been sitting or not had proper oil changes. It will NOT repair a bad engine, or suddenly give you a 50 MPG engine. THAT is the smoke from the marketing pukes!

[thewiz]

Too funny, Gareth ...

LMAO. I have watched that corny video before.

add two ounces of Seafoam to my coffee, and another third of a can to my cornflakes and maybe even drizzle some over my toast.
It may cure my gunky build-up.

The stuff might even help with colon cancer somehow, eh?

I am a believer in adding a bit to the gas tanks of machines that aren't getting much use. Last week I started a DR brush mower that hadn't been run in years whose gas tank was completely dry ... and it hadn't been drained either, so you can imagine what the carb looked like inside ... used a couple oz. of SeaFoam and a quart of gas ... primed and fired. I've used it several times in situations like that with good success .... blame it on luck or whatever ... but it seems to do something. You're right about the price too .... awful expensive.

[motoman]

Ditto what Ray said! I use Sea Foam if bike sets for a couple month period and acquires a very slight stumble for no reason knowing carbs are in perfect operating conditions(triple clean). IMO it can be over used too as it is no magic solution to a possible mechanical malfunction of carbs. Never used it in crankcase of any motor as I don't wanna take a chance of "washing" out a main or rod bearing. Other than that, what Ray is saying is dead-on...................as I found, is also fairly outspoken and won't lead you down a blind path.

[Crazcnuk]

I would never recommend running it all the time, and I don't think the video ever said that, either.

It is a cleaner, that's it. I use it for 'spring' cleaning and that's about it.

As for leaving it in the crankcase, any other crank cleaner I've seen or used specifically says NOT to put any load on the engine while using it, this stuff doesn't say that.

I am not a big one for cleaning the crank anyway, my theory is that the sludge builds up out of the way, and isn't bothering anything.

Since stuck rings and gummed carbs is the nemesis of older bikes, this stuff seems to work very well.

[trbig]

For a start, the stuff is hitting $10 a pint locally. $80 a gallon for those moaning about gas, or milk prices. While throwing a few ounces of mineral spirits and alcohols and magic ingredients into ones tank might make some difference, it hardly makes the difference that a single good carb cleaning did on my bike (s).

After a while, I can pull up to lights where my bike idles.. but the idle slowly drops over a minute or two and will eventually die without a throttle blip. I can put in 1/2 a can of seafoam at the station just a few miles from the house, and by the time I get home, it is idling fine.

I also had a little-used generator with an aweful varnish smell in the tank. With new gas, it would not start after probably a combined hour of pulling the chord. In the middle of all this pulling, I added Seafoam to the tank. The rest of the pulling obviously got it into the gummed carb. The next day.. after my son and I had worn ourselves out trying to start it.. the Seafoam had done it's "Magic smoke screen behind the curtain" trick. It started on the 2nd pull.

Say what you will, but I rely on personal experiences.. mine and trusted friends with nothing to gain.. more than I rely on someone trying to sell me something. If I have to pay $10 for something that keeps me from tearing out my carbs yet again so that I can spend time riding or with my family... I say money well spent.

Tod

[gareth]

I am not sure if I am right here, but that voiceover seems really familiar. I am going to guess that Mr. Seafoam here has done hundreds of pitches for dozens of products over the years, and my Pavlovian response to him might have been inspired by too many traumatic experiences at the user end of many uninspiring products.
Just close your eyes and listen...
Does anyone else remember that voice..?

Maybe it was the Floebee...

Or the Bedazzler...

Or the Magic Doodad Thingamabob that I got for not $10, not $5, but six for the today only price of $2..

I suppose it depends on how much time you want to spend cleaning the carbs as opposed to spending time with family.
There have been Thanksgiving dinners when it was a close call...

YMMV.

Pay no attention. I'm behind the curtain.

G.

[gareth]

Just a thought...Is it Alex Trebek in a pre-Jeopardy gig?

[Crazcnuk]

That's the whole point of putting it up now.

We've tried it and with good results. I only showed the video because it shows some uses we hadn't thought of, and it answered some questions that people had, like whether you can run it in your oil all the time, etc.

If this ad was the first thing I saw, I wouldn't give it a 2nd thought either.

[BossMaverick]

I can't watch the video (dial up internet). If it's one of those corny, over the top, magic product sales snake oil pitches I would have to say I'm disappointed that Seafoam would go to that level of sales.

I've used Seafoam since I started driving. I've never had magic results but it has helped with mildly tarnished carbs. I do use it as a fuel winterizer with good results. I will admit their Transtune was a magic product in a previous car of mine. The auto trans would slip constantly in 1st. Adding the Transtune would cure the slipping with a can about every 2,000 miles. The Transtune got me an additional 15,000 miles before the transmission finally totally died. I imagine adding a pint of kerosene or similiar product might've had the same effect as Transtune, but I didn't think of that at the time.

[Larrym]

Scramble an Egg inside its Shell......

This product falls in the category of fuel additives which contain extra solvents (alcohol) or standard fuel solvents in a greater concentration than the gas I buy at the pumps. The "purpose" of the additive is to dissolve what ordinary gas would leave behind. This may be a good thing.....

Unfortunately, these products do what they do to the "rubber" parts of the engine. Fuel lines/O-rings/seals are rated for either gas/diesel/oil OR alcohol. Alcohol will mix in with the small amounts of water present in a fuel system and make it combustible but it will also deteriorate the fuel lines/O-rings/seals. This happens over time and the user/over-user of additives won't generally have any immediate failure. But the clock is ticking.

But then again I own a FlowBee.......

[Crazcnuk]

It was never the idea to use this as a regular additive. It's a 'when necessary' cleaning agent. You use it sparingly, and only when the only alternative is to take the carbs apart and rebuild them.

[tw1980]

Cleans carbs?ok.Cleans sludge?maybe.Removes carbon?I doubt it.Improves mileage and performance?Please.How can this happen?Does it increase the btu and octane of the fuel?When someone makes all these claims I feel like they're trying to sell me snake oil.