Hi everyone,

**(I have done searches before posting FYI)**

I just bought 2 cans of Seam foam. It is not the spray. Its the liquid in the can. I drive a 90 N/A, mostly stock. Im trying to clean out the throttle body butterfly valves, and the upper plenum piping. What is the best way to inject this stuff into the motor? I have seen writeups that people go through the brake booster lines, but that only hits 3/6 cylinders.

~I have heard of somebody also putting the seam foam in some plastic bags, starting the motor with a buddy revving it up to 2 grand, then slamming the piping off the throttle bodies and putting the bags up to the throttle bodies for a few seconds to suck in the foam. <----not too sure about this one.

~what is the most efficient way to get this stuff into your intake?

~also, is there a vaccume line on the drivers side after or before the intake butterfly valve?

Thanks guys/gals,

 

Sea foam isn't the right stuff for cleaning your throttle bodies. Valvoline sells a throttle body cleaner. It's a spray and works great. Sea foam is used to eat away any oil build up in your intake, but is designed to be left on the surface that it's cleaning for several minutes. You won't be able to accomplish what you're trying to accomplish with Sea Foam. Just use throttle body cleaner and on old toothbrush. CC has a nice writeup somewhere in here. I think may Rizz may added it to his link page.

 

Hmmm.....Ill check out that valvoline throttle body cleaner stuff. So for what Sea Foam is used for, whats the best way to apply it to the intake? how long, what RPM, yada yada yada. ..Thanks.

 

Yeah, I have a little drawing of an adapter to put in the tubes in front of the throttle bodies and in the hose to the iav so that I can spray the cleaner in without removing the hoses. Just no darn time to make these things..... I'll have them made by the time I clean my t/b's and iav again. I'm planning on some before and after pics of the t/bs anyway.

I just use gumout fuel injector/carb cleaner. The testament to this stuff working is when you spray out a dirty carb and watch the carbon crap go down the intake.

 

Use the small hoses that go to each throttle body. One's for the EGR (pasenger side), the other is for the Carbon canister (driver's side). Run a hose from the small nipple under the throttle body into the seafoam. Rev to about 2k and it should suck it into the system. Just do little bits at a time to orevent the car from stalling. Same way people use water to clean the system out.

 

your O2 sensors and/or spark plugs may get moderately dirtier if this is the first time you've cleaned your intake manifold and/or throttle body. You may wish to do this for the first time right before you install new ones.

 

I just changed my plugs like 4 tanks of gas ago. Not sure how long my O2 sensor/s have been in there though (theres 2 on the Z32 right?). I was planning on running the stuff through and cleaning off the plugs one by one a day or two after. Can you clean the O2 sensor safely? whats teh best way to do something like that? Water? Soap?...

~Also, someone told me to run the sea foam into the system until the car dies. They said you want it to die, let it sit for a while and then start it up and drive the car like you stole it for about 10-15 minutes, redlining every gear and winding them out hard.

~I guess the basic theory is that the sea foam needs to sit on the surface for a bit that its supposedly cleaning. Whats the validity of this statement/procedure?? Anyone done it this way before?...Thanks everyone.

 

I personally would never put a liquid into the intake of a running engine. I'm sure plenty of people successfully do it, but I'll take a little carbon buildup over hydraulic lock.

 

From what I hear from people,, Sea Foam actually turns into a "Foam" when it enters the intake orifice. Dont ask me how this is supposed to work, im no engineer. hehehe. . But, every person i've talked to about this stuff has sworn by their first born children by it! My engine has over 190,000 miles on it and its dirtier then a quarter ***** on nickel night. She needs some cleaning.

~C'mon, wheres my sea foam people at? who has done it before? WTB sea foam users

 

I had a pretty good experience with it.

https://www.zdriver.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10058

Best results were using Deep Creep in the throttle bodies (same mfgr as Sea Foam) and then running a can of Sea Foam in the gas tank.

 

im gonna have to go look for a bottle of that

did anyone ever find out where it can be sucked in so that it gets to all 6 cylinders?

 

Can someone please post some pictures of where EXACTLY!! you need to introduce this stuff into your intake?. I just got under the hood and felt like a space cadet. I dont wannna **** somethin up.

 

Right under the throttle body, there is a small nipple with a hose hooked to it. It sits right under the throttle body on each side. It's the only small nipple on the throttle body.

 

Thanks woody. Thats exactly what I needed to know. Now, another question. The passenger side one was connected to the small unit just upstream of the intake plenum via air hose. Now the drivers side nipple's hose was missing?!. I dug around and found a hose that led somewhere to the front of the car like by the radiator. Can someone check their hose on their drivers side and tell me where it supposed to go.

~Tangeray

P.S. also, I've heard so many different ways of applying this stuff.

1. rev car to 2k, put stuff in and keep engine running.
2. rev car to 2k, put stuff in, let it die, wait 15 mins, run car like you stole it for
10-15 miles

~which one is the right way? I would go off the directions on the bottle, but there seems to be a better way.

 

******************************************SEA FOAM UPDATE: Featuring Tangeray******************************************

Ok, so I decided to just do it. I used the ports that Woody was telling me about. They worked superb. For those of you wanting to do this, heres a quick step by step writeup of what I did.

EQUIPMENT NEEDED: 2 cans of sea foam
Crew size of 1, 2 (optional)(Recommended)

TIME TO COMPLETE: 30 minutes including Operational Checkout

WHERE TO BUY SEAFOAM: Autozone carries this product...check out website for more vendors

APPLICATION CAR USED: 1990 Nissan 300zx N/A , Approx:190,000 miles
~K&N intake filter, stock piping
~Magnaflow Exhaust
~PTU swap performed

PROBLEMS ATTEMPTING TO FIX ON CAR: ~Hesitation noted on 2-3K RPM range of mid range gears
~Hunting idle
~Acceleration lagging

IMMEDIATE BENEFITS NOTED: ~"Hunting idle" problem SOLVED IMMEDIATELY
~Idle went from erratic 900-1500 to 700-900
~Acceleration improved DRAMATICALLY IMMEDIATELY
~Throttle response in all gears improved




*******STEP-BY-STEP-*SEA FOAM INTO INTAKE MANIFOLD************

1. (While looking at your engine from the front bumper.) Look on the left side of your passenger side throttle body for a small air hose that connects to a very small control unit just upstream of the intake manifold piping.
*NOTE* there are 2 hoses on the passenger side throttle body, use the
smaller diameter one.

2. I used 2 cans of sea foam for this because it makes it easier. With the left over, you can stick it into your fuel tank

3. Disconnect that hose from the control unit. The total length of this line is approx 5-6 inches. *NOTE* if your engine is old, this line might break so be very careful with it wiggling it off the control unit its connected to.

4. Now, you need to stick the open end of this air line into the sea foam product. you will not be able to do this using the stock sea foam bottle it came in. Heres what I did instead.--->Grab yourself a small water bottle comparable to a dasani bottle (the smaller ones, 12 oz). Cut this in half and wedge it in between the passenger side throttle body and teh AC compressor lines, put the air line into this before you wedge it in. Pour sea foam into this container. your all set on passengers side now.

5. Locate the Drivers side throttle body and look on the right side of it for a small air line. This air line runs to the front of the car around the radiator area. Disconnect this hose from the radiator area nipple its connected to. Grab your other can of sea foam, or whats left of your first one, and stick this tube into the bottle. The length of teh Drivers side throttle body vacume tube is approx 18-20 inches so you have plenty to play with.

6. Right now you should have both of the throttle body vaccume lines disconnected from their respective control units and stuck into 1 can of sea foam, and the other into a container containing the sea foam product on your passenger side. This next step can use an optional 2nd person.

7. Start your car. The vaccume lines will not have sufficient vaccume to suck up the liquid until approx 1500 RPM's.

8. Have you or a buddy rev the car up to 2000 RPM's and try and hold it there. Have the other person monitor the cans of sea foam to make sure you only put half the can of each into each throttle body vaccume line.

9. when the liquid starts to get sucked up, your car will sputter hard and THICK white smoke will billow out of your tailpipe. Keep the car running until you have successfully took in half a can of sea foam per throttle body (1 full can total). Tell your buddy at this point to let off the accelerator and your car WILL die out.

10. Let the car sit for 10-15 minutes.

11. Hook up the vacume lines that you disconnected at this point...

12. Wash hands during this time and smoke. *Note(sea foam is flammable. The order of events in step 11 should be followed closely )

13. After your 15 minute wait. Try to start teh car. It will not start immediately. You might have to try it a few times. Get it started anyway you can and hold a rev of about 4500-5000 on the tach. THICK white smoke will be billowing from the tailpipe at this point. AFter about 1-2 minutes the smoke will slow down, let car rev back to idle and take the car out on an open road and drive the ****er like you stole it for a good 3-7 miles. I was redlining every gear I could.

14. Done. Enjoy.

I hope this guide can be used to answer allot of questions that people wanting to try this product might have just like I did. The procedures in this guide were a compilation of many threads read, and people PM'd. Thank you to all that indirectly contributed to the information provided in this guide. Any questions or picture request, send me a PM, I'd be glad to help.

 

VERY good writeup, Did you forget to re-hook up the vaccum lines at some point?

 

The hose on the Drivers side goes to the carbon canister. It goes up next to the IC pipes that are next to the radiator. If your carbon canister is removed, that nipple should be capped on the throttle body.

The Passenger side goes back to the EGR equipment. Same thing, if removed should be capped.


And yes.....it will smoke like a bitch after you first start it

It might be easier to just unhook the stock hoses at teh nipple and stick a new hose on there to use.

 

hehe....writeup editted to include re-hookup of vacume lines. Thanks Canyon.

~Woody--yea, Thats teh ideal way to bypass the need for the water bottle rig.

 

do you have any pics of the smoke-stacks? im just curious.

i plan on doing that tommorrow sometime. thanks for the write-up. it will come in handy

 

smoke stacks?

 

i was refferring to the smoke coming out of the exhaust

 

Oh...haha.. yea, sorry bud, no pictures of the smoke, But be advised that it will be THICK and Brilliant white. You WILL think something is definitely wrong. Dont be alarmed. Just keep at it. Let me know if I can help further.

 

yea, i did it on saturday. it wasnt as bad as i expected it to be actually. my car didnt die after we were finished sucking the stuff in.

i noticed some improvement. idles smoother, runs a bit smoother. a good matainance job. my dad told me that revving the engine around 5000 rms for long isnt good on the car without a load, so i did it for like 30 seconds and then took it to the backyard track.

 

should this be done before/after an oil change? does it matter? cold start or warmed up car?

 

id probably do it before the oil change
and a little warmed up too