SeaFoam

[socalvn]

Interested in trying this product SeaFoam for valve carbon cleaning injected thur the throttle body intake.
Anyone with experience with this? Recommended?
Thanks

 

[Ohiocruiser]

Useless

 

[JSolo]

@OP, the chemical will never reach the back of the valves with direction injection.

 

[Ohiocruiser]

@OP, the chemical will never reach the back of the valves with direction injection.

If you spraying it through intake, it will. But it will be useless, because it wont clean rock hard carbon off the valves. The only way to clean it is manually, with chemicals or shell blasting. A lot of people are using catch cans. Which might slow the build up some.

 

[socalvn]

I'm have the 2.5T so no catch can needed almost time for my 30k service the dealer is charging $190 for fuel induction cleaning.
Exploring options

 

[Ohiocruiser]

With 2.5 you don't need any carbon cleaning. You can pour any $10-15 can of cleaner into gas tank and save $175.

 

[Volfy]

I've always used Techron on cars with port injection. That's what I'll use on the 2.5T.

I've heard good things about Seafoam too.

 

[bfglitch]

the dealer is charging $190 for fuel induction cleaning

They're charging you $190 to pour a bottle of techron/injector cleaner in your gas tank to clean your fuel injectors.

 

[Volfy]

FWIW, there are two different ways of doing Seafoam treatment. One is through the tank, like Techron. For a GDI+MPI engine like the 2.5T, this works, with a caveat... How much fuel is sprayed through MPI depends on how the car is driven. My edumacated guess is that for hwy cruising at steady speed, most of the fuel is injected through GDI. This maximizes efficiency and, if engine load is below a certain threshold, ECU can go into stratified-charge mode to achieve even lower fuel consumption. IMO, if you do the thru-tank fuel treatment on the 2.5T and then cruise on the fwy for the entire tankful, it is almost as pointless as doing the same on a 2.0T or 3.3T.

I'm also guessing MPI is used most under varying engine load conditions, like driving in stop and go traffic, or when max fuel delivery is required. I'll be doing my Techron treatment based on these premises.

Seafoam gained popularity because of the second way of injecting it - directly through the TB. This introduces the super-concentrated cleaner directly into the intake manifold - right at the intake valves. Your engine might choke and stumble a bit and great plumes of white smoke will billow out of the tail pipe. Yeah... your neighbors will love ya! This used to be easy to di on normally-aspirated engine. You just loosen the TB clamp a little, slip the thin cleaner spray straw through, and tighten the TB back up. Then squirt the juice while engine is running. You might try this with a turbo engine. I wouldn't. Not without proper charge pipe injection rig up.

 

[socalvn]

Ok good information guys Thanks a lot looks like some Techron for the gas tank from the local auto store today
Here is there recommendations for 30k service. Did the filters myself

 

[Ohiocruiser]

Brake flush for $180 is not that bad actually. But you ,still, can do it in under an hour and $10 worth of brake fluid. Transmission flush ( i am assuming drain and refill) is little bit on the high side, considering it's about $100 for oil itself. So, for $180 I would do it myself, which I do anyway.

 

[JSolo]

FWIW, there are two different ways of doing Seafoam treatment. One is through the tank, like Techron. For a GDI+MPI engine like the 2.5T, this works, with a caveat... How much fuel is sprayed through MPI depends on how the car is driven. My edumacated guess is that for hwy cruising at steady speed, most of the fuel is injected through GDI. This maximizes efficiency and, if engine load is below a certain threshold, ECU can go into stratified-charge mode to achieve even lower fuel consumption. IMO, if you do the thru-tank fuel treatment on the 2.5T and then cruise on the fwy for the entire tankful, it is almost as pointless as doing the same on a 2.0T or 3.3T.

I'm also guessing MPI is used most under varying engine load conditions, like driving in stop and go traffic, or when max fuel delivery is required. I'll be doing my Techron treatment based on these premises.

I recall reading the opposite (on here). Under light throttle/low load MPI is in effect, transitioning to GDI under heavier loads/full throttle. I don't recall if the reasoning was provided.

However, I don't believe it to be so black and white either. Here's an interesting article from car and driver.

Explained: Why Some Engines Have Both Port and Direct Injection

Ford currently is the dominant player with what it calls dual-fuel, high-pressure direct injection (DI) and lower-pressure port injection (PI).

www.caranddriver.com

 

[Volfy]

Each mfr does their own combination of DI and PI strategies. As the article mentioned, any set of DI/PI strategy is a compromise - weighing pros and cons and trying to optimize a set of parameters. That is what engineering is all about. I don't pretend to know what Hyundai/Kia does exactly. What I am sure is that for street driving, I'm almost all in the low-torque/HP and Low-RPM regime, on that chart in the article, where both DI and PI are used. Even in that regime, no doubt DI and PI are employed to varying degrees.

In that regime, I am also quite sure the stratified-charge scenario I mentioned above happens when I'm hypermiling. That sort of extremely lean running, with only a small bubble of fuel charge near the spark plug, is how a near 4000lbs car can get such good hwy fuel efficiency.

So, at the end of the day, the best bet to make sure PI sprays some fuel at least some of the time, is by varying engine load and RPMs, which is what stop and go traffic does.