Dayton Business Daily

Can Sea Foaming my engine have adverse affects?

I have an 89 prelude with 64000 or so miles on it. It hasn't been driven a lot in the last few years. I was going to use Sea Foam on it. Could this cause any issues? I read somewhere that with older engines, the carbon buildup can actually be keeping the compression of your older engine intact, and that removing it can cause a loss in power. Is this true?

Public Comments

1. Sounds bogus to me. I ran SeaFoam in my truck for the first time a few months ago. It has 192k miles on it and is a '97 model. It didn't throw any codes, no check engine light, no loss of power. All is fine. I'm going to be due for an oil change in a little over a week. I added seafoam to my crankcase (oil) and will run it till next weekend to knock out whatever crap it can then change the oil (and filter just like every other time).
2. Stuff works great, I add it to the gas, add it to the crankcase and also suck it into the intake through a vacuum line. Car runs much better and smoother afterwards. To give you an idea of how good the stuff is. I had a 93 Grand am with 3.3L V6 that I used the stuff on every 10K miles, and I sold the car with 252K miles on it and it still ran great. I now have a 93 Skylark with the exact same engine and it got terrible fuel mileage when I first got it. Only about 260 miles per tank of gas, I ran the seafoam through the gas, intake, and crankcase and now get 390 miles per tank. I know, I know, sounds like an unbelievably huge improvement but remember thats only about 27mpg at 390 miles. Before it only got around 18mpg. All highway mileage. I swear by seafoam, its the best system cleaner I know of that you can do yourself. Heck I even use it in my lawn mower and weed eater once a year. I dont see that there are really any bad side effects of using it, unless your valves are burnt up and the carbon is filling the pits, but at that point your probably past the point where seafoam can realistically help. The idea that carbon can somehow maintain compression is sorta true and false, no it cant maintain compression on the cylinder wall or rings, but the valves may be effected as I mentioned a few lines ago, thats the only thing I can think of.