Wouldn't Have Expected.

[Yaris Hilton]

The smoke tells you nothing about how much carbon was built up in your engine or was removed by the Seafoam. The smoke is mostly coming from the light oil in the Seafoam, called "pale oil" in the MSDS. True, if the gummy stuff that builds up on intake valves and ports, or the harder stuff that builds up in combustion chambers, gets broken off and moved to the exhaust, it'll get hot enough to put out smokey gases. But you can't tell how much of it's from that stuff as the oil you're pouring into the intake smokes out. Do the procedure over and over and you'll always see lots of smoke. (I wouldn't recommend repeating it frequently as I think it is somewhat hard on catalysts and O2 sensors.)

[RedRide]

Originally Posted by Yaris Hilton

The smoke tells you nothing about how much carbon was built up in your engine or was removed by the Seafoam. The smoke is mostly coming from the light oil in the Seafoam, called "pale oil" in the MSDS. True, if the gummy stuff that builds up on intake valves and ports, or the harder stuff that builds up in combustion chambers, gets broken off and moved to the exhaust, it'll get hot enough to put out smokey gases. But you can't tell how much of it's from that stuff as the oil you're pouring into the intake smokes out. Do the procedure over and over and you'll always see lots of smoke. (I wouldn't recommend repeating it frequently as I think it is somewhat hard on catalysts and O2 sensors.)

Although I use seafoam I have to agree. People see the smoke when sucking Seafaom though the intake/vacumn lines etc and think they are cleaning out dirt.

Personally, I just dump a can of Seafoam in the gas tank ocasionally. This gives the most benefits.

[advocate]

Originally Posted by RedRide

Although I use seafoam I have to agree. People see the smoke when sucking Seafaom though the intake/vacumn lines etc and think they are cleaning out dirt.

Personally, I just dump a can of Seafoam in the gas tank ocasionally. This gives the most benefits.

My mechanic threw some stuff into my gas tank for my 30k checkup and said that I should fill up right when I leave his lot then drain the tank all the way. Not sure exactly what he put in it but I assume it's something similar to this seafoam stuff?

[Yaris Hilton]

Could have been any one of a multitude of fuel system cleaning solvents, detergents, etc.

[Kaotic Lazagna]

Originally Posted by Yaris Hilton

The smoke tells you nothing about how much carbon was built up in your engine or was removed by the Seafoam. The smoke is mostly coming from the light oil in the Seafoam, called "pale oil" in the MSDS. True, if the gummy stuff that builds up on intake valves and ports, or the harder stuff that builds up in combustion chambers, gets broken off and moved to the exhaust, it'll get hot enough to put out smokey gases. But you can't tell how much of it's from that stuff as the oil you're pouring into the intake smokes out. Do the procedure over and over and you'll always see lots of smoke. (I wouldn't recommend repeating it frequently as I think it is somewhat hard on catalysts and O2 sensors.)

Originally Posted by RedRide

Although I use seafoam I have to agree. People see the smoke when sucking Seafaom though the intake/vacumn lines etc and think they are cleaning out dirt.

Personally, I just dump a can of Seafoam in the gas tank ocasionally. This gives the most benefits.

hmm, didn't know that, but why did my car not smoke as bad as I see on YouTube? In anycase, easy maintenance that I can do every other oil change (so every two years).

[Yaris Hilton]

Originally Posted by Kaotic Lazagna

hmm, didn't know that, but why did my car not smoke as bad as I see on YouTube?

Perhaps your catalyst was warm enough to be active and afterburned the oil more efficiently than some that have been posted. My '98 Mercury Villager smoked modestly as well. It had 117,000 miles on it, BTW, and was starting to make a cold engine knocking that I suspected was "carbon knock." That engine had reason for suspicion of a good bit of buildup after that long a life of mostly in-town driving, and ran better after treatment.