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- Protege5 2003
Dogma has it that this is what happens in a Seafoam intake treatment on a P5.
1. Seafoam is sucked in through the brake booster hose
2. It enters the cylinders, coats the valves, and generally spreads itself around.
3. While the motor sits off it dissolves varnish.
4. When the motor is turned back on it is burned in, or ejected from, the cylinders.
I wonder though how accurate that description really is.
Isn't the path from the booster hose to the intake valves uphill and around at least one turn? Certainly some of the Seafoam is going to be reduced to very small droplets and these will be light enough to be sucked into the engine as a mist. The rest of it, probably even the majority of it, is going to smack into the walls of the intake, coating that intake, and then flow downhill (from gravity) and towards the intake (from air flow). Some of the components are also going to evaporate. This might explain to some extent why the intake treatment smokes for so long - it just takes time for the pool of Seafoam in the intake to migrate to the motor and then pass through it.
Does it really make sense that the material sucked directly into the motor would be present in such a high concentration that it would really do something? The motor is hot, and this stuff burns. Maybe when the motor is turned off it spins around a few times with the spark off, and that lets Seafoam accumulate in all the cylinders? If that's the case wouldn't you want the running motor to be turned off while the Seafoam was still being sucked into the intake, as opposed to letting it all suck in, and then a few seconds later turning off the car.
If one of you is changing your spark plugs soon it would be interesting to see what happens if a couple of CC's of seafoam are pipetted into each cylinder. (Don't get any on the plug hole threads.) My guess is that the car may belch smoke once at start up, and then nothing, and then maybe a little more smoke later when the catalytic converters heat up and burn off whatever Seafoam was sprayed on them. It doesn't seem likely it will smoke continuously for several minutes, as is the case with the usual intake treatment.
1. Seafoam is sucked in through the brake booster hose
2. It enters the cylinders, coats the valves, and generally spreads itself around.
3. While the motor sits off it dissolves varnish.
4. When the motor is turned back on it is burned in, or ejected from, the cylinders.
I wonder though how accurate that description really is.
Isn't the path from the booster hose to the intake valves uphill and around at least one turn? Certainly some of the Seafoam is going to be reduced to very small droplets and these will be light enough to be sucked into the engine as a mist. The rest of it, probably even the majority of it, is going to smack into the walls of the intake, coating that intake, and then flow downhill (from gravity) and towards the intake (from air flow). Some of the components are also going to evaporate. This might explain to some extent why the intake treatment smokes for so long - it just takes time for the pool of Seafoam in the intake to migrate to the motor and then pass through it.
Does it really make sense that the material sucked directly into the motor would be present in such a high concentration that it would really do something? The motor is hot, and this stuff burns. Maybe when the motor is turned off it spins around a few times with the spark off, and that lets Seafoam accumulate in all the cylinders? If that's the case wouldn't you want the running motor to be turned off while the Seafoam was still being sucked into the intake, as opposed to letting it all suck in, and then a few seconds later turning off the car.
If one of you is changing your spark plugs soon it would be interesting to see what happens if a couple of CC's of seafoam are pipetted into each cylinder. (Don't get any on the plug hole threads.) My guess is that the car may belch smoke once at start up, and then nothing, and then maybe a little more smoke later when the catalytic converters heat up and burn off whatever Seafoam was sprayed on them. It doesn't seem likely it will smoke continuously for several minutes, as is the case with the usual intake treatment.
