Seafoam in the oil...safe?

[rjacob]

Originally Posted by BuckarooBanzai

Zonker's on point here, and the Seafoam bottle itself states it's "not to be used on vehicles with over 150,000 miles."

I have looked at the bottle. I am not seeing anything about not using it on vehicles with over 150,000 miles.

[arollinstone]

if it isn't broke, don't fix it. Spend your extra money on a good oil like Mobile 1

[fjasper]

I've used Sea Foam on several different cars, all of them over 140,000 miles. One of these had been badly neglected, so that it took a coat hanger to scrape the sludge out of the oil pan. I ran a change of cheap oil for about 500 miles, drained it, put in some more cheap oil with a whole can (NOT the recommended procedure!) of Sea Foam, ran it gently for about 10 miles and drained it into a clean pan.

I figured if it looked good, I'd pour it back in. It looked like ink. Completely black. So I replaced the filter and put more cheap oil in it with Sea Foam. This time, after about 50 miles I drained the oil and it looked normal, so I guess it had done whatever cleaning it was going to.

I don't recommend this procedure unless you have a motor that's badly gunked up, and even then, you have to be ready to give up and tear it down. I figured the Sea Foam as a "kill-or-cure" solution, and it cured it. If you use it as recommended, it should be safe enough, though.

I used some in a motor that was in better shape, and it didn't seem to make any difference.

If you want to gently clean out a motor, and keep it clean, use an oil mixed for heavy-duty diesel engines. Shell Rotella, Mobil Delvac, Chevron Delo, Valvoline Blue, there are others. They have strong additive packages, and are made to control sludging in engines that put more soot and crud into the oil.

The HDEO (Heavy Duty Engine oil) will clean the engine out slowly, so you don't run as bad a risk of dislodging something and having it block an oil passage. Plus, they tend not to be as expensive (at least in a synthetic) and you can safely run long OCI with them (use oil analysis to verify). They usually have a cheaper 15w-40 dino that works ok in hot weather if it's compatible with your engine, and a 5w-40 synthetic that works year-round in most motors.

I've used 0w-30 and 5w-40 in the same motor and not noticed any mileage difference, but there were other variables involved. I will say the engine keeps the oil pretty hot, so that might reduce the impact of the 30w vs. the 40w. The 5w-40 does make the engine idle quieter. I think it's valvetrain noise that's different.

I ran the 5w-40 Rotella T6 for 5500 miles, and it still had a good TBN (total base number-the oil's ability to neutralize acidic contamination), flash point and viscosity. The oil analysis guys recommended trying a 7500 mi OCI. The 0w-30 Mobil 1 at 5000 was used up (TBN, viscosity and flashpoint all at the limit), and they recommended not exceeding 5000 miles.

Since the 5w-40 is longer-lasting and cheaper, I'm going to stick with it. (8 quarts of synthetic at oil change time is no joke!) The 0w-30 is a gas-engine synthetic oil, not an HDEO.

I think Rotella (and maybe others) is also available in lighter weights that still have the strong additive package.

[Joenavy85]

OCI = oil change interval??

[fjasper]

Yes, sorry. OCI is oil change interval. Another one for the glossary, I guess.

[hoffer41]

just to be fair, when I was a kid I payed for school changing oil in an esso station. We had a pre-change additive that we would add to very dirty oil, idle the car, and then drain and flush out with another litre of oil.

the stuff worked great even if we didn't know what it was. I happened to catch the supplier one day and he told me that the additive was nothing fancier than a diesel/kerosene mix, and that adding a cup of diesel to the oil before a change would do essentially the same thing.

having added diesel to my car before oil changes regularly I cant say that I've ever experienced a negative impact.

[drv2die]

i would use the diesel cautiously i would think it would be easy to ruin a bearing. im not saying i havent done it ( i have on a few occasions ) but wouldnt drive it add it and run a minute or two and then service. im with frank if you service it normally there will be little to no build up anyway. so your gaining little to nothing with it.

[gone-ot]

General Literary Rule: Always spell-out ALL contracted/acronym words the first time they are used, followed immediately by their contraction/acronym inside parentheses. There after, use the contraction/acronym alone.

[hoffer41]

drv2die I would tend to agree with you as far as driving the vehicle with diesel in the engine. I mean if the gas station is a block away from where your changing the oil, not a big deal. I certainly wouldnt be driving farther than that. I suppose I should of qualified how long to run the engine as well, certainly not more than 5 minutes, and usually 2 is plenty.

[EF TuneRR]

Originally Posted by BuckarooBanzai

Zonker's on point here, and the Seafoam bottle itself states it's "not to be used on vehicles with over 150,000 miles."

However, it's not definitive. Here's a link I've bookmarked with compression tests before and after seafoaming a civic

at 198,000 miles, I'm hesitant too!

In the link you posted, the Original Poster's math is wrong. After the seafoam treatment there is a 20psi difference between cylinders: 195-175 = 20psi. (as opposed to the 27psi difference before seafoam).

Just wanted to point that out.