Seafoam: how often and when?

[RRDallas]

Greetings everyone: with a five-month-old son -- our first -- my 2003 R1150R is sitting way too much. I try to get it out as often as possible, even for short rides to do errands or to go to the gym. But the truth is that I have not had to refill the tank in several months. I've heard people talk about seafoam here. How often do you use it and how do you know when it is time?

[rockstercliff]

I put in about a third of a can every third fillup, thats easy for me to remember. Also put a third in my wifes,and my car at the same time, using up the can. In the winter, I try to ride some, add a little, 4 ounces maybe, once a month, or about every other fillup. Started using seafoam in the wnter a while back instead of Stabil, now use it all year.

[Buckster]

The instructions call for 1 oz. to 1 gal. of gas. I do use it in the summer months once in a while, just when I notice some pinging going on. I use it for every tankful in the winter as the temps will drop below freezing at night. I ride in the winter as much as I can if its not close to freezing.
Others seem to dump more in and up to a full can in at a time. I guess it's like shock treatment? It must not hurt it....but I've never tried it.

[boxermania]

SeaFoam is a hydrocarbon based fuel varnish cleaner. It is most effective in cleaning small passages, like the pintle and feed holes of the injectors as they tend to get a bit coated over time. Fuel varnish is most frequent on engines that see little and infrequent use.

[jcridge]

I found Sea Foam to be very effective in two ways.

1. As a decarbonizer, hook a 12" pice of 3/32" hose from the vacuum port on the throttle body and put the other end in the Sea Foam can, start the bike and run it for just a few seconds ( white smoke and rough idle) Shut engine off and let it sit for 15 - 30 minutes. Repeat same procedure on other side.
Then put the vacuum port caps back on and warm the bike up for a few minutes ( outside) then take the bike for a warm-up ride then blast it down a straight road for a bit to really clean it up. In the morning, replace the sparkplugs and sync the T/B's and you're all set... You will want to time this so the ride portion is at night....massive amounts of white smoke. You may need to do this procedure only once if you ride all year in a spirited fashion.., or if you ride short trips and put less then 3-4K on a year, you may need this procedure more often.

2. As a fuel injection system cleaner. As it was pointed out, Sea Foam does an excellent job cleaning small passages. I pull up to the gas pump with an empty tank, pour 12 -15 ounces of Sea Foam into the tank then fill the tank. So far, once a year seems to work if you ride all year. Now I usually time this with a tune-up so to get the maximum benefit. I ride 15K miles a year and with my K have not seen a performance drop off since performing procedures 1 & 2 together two years ago. Now my wife's 1100 has started to see some of the performance issues come back over time and will need step 2 again, which is about 1 year from the last time. She rides on the weekends only and it won't hurt if she did #2 a couple of time a year. We now have an 04 R1150R and will give that a good cleaning to improve response. I know some follow the recommended 1oz/gal and have good luck as well. We use 2.5 -3.0oz/gal but only as a one time treatment and not every tank. Either way, the stuff works and whatever makes the ride more enjoyable is well worth it.

http://www.seafoamsales.com/motor-treatment/index.html



Enjoy,
John

[CycleRob]

I hesitate to recommend using the vacuum port "flood and shut off" method. That loosens a lot of very hard carbon granules all at once, which very likely will get between the pistons and cylinderwalls . . . scratching both.

On the other hand, Seafoam does not slowly burn away the carbon deposits as I had thought. Read their explanation from the downloadable .PDF file:

"Cleans carbon deposits from combustion chamber. Sea Foam Motor
Treatment’s exclusive formula is blended specifically to clean carbon out of the
engine as the engine is run. This is accomplished by our cleaning oil formula
described in #3 above, which dissolves the old sticky fuel residue that holds the
carbon particles that accumulate over time. Once the varnish residue is liquefied,
the carbon particles are free to be (?)safely(?) blown out of the engine through the
exhaust system."

The best method to remove carbon is to take the heads off - - - too serious a job for most all OilHead riders. The next best is use the 1oz/gallon mix ratio they recommend. A bonus is that it also serves as (and can replace) a fuel stabilizer, for up to 2 years!

Fortunately for me, my new bike uses NO oil, even during break-in. The oil hardly even got dirty. The oil level barely dropped at all during the 600 mile (1,000km) break-in. No SeaFoam needed for Rotax twin power.

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