Seafoam miracle fluid

[emtdouggood]

My 83 venture I just got on the 4th missed and did not run smooth. Two cans of seafoam got it running great.

My wife dont always run smooth. I wonder?

I am sold on sea foam. I will put a 1/4 of a can in every fill up.

Have a good day:backinmyday:

[Squidley]

It is some good stuff, I would run it for perhaps 6 more tanks and then you'll be fine as long as you run the bike with some sort of regularity. Your basically just cleaning out all the old fuel deposits with the Seafoam....enjoy your ride

[V7Goose]

Seafoam is definitely good stuff - I use it and recommend it regularly. But it is not a replacement for proper maintenance and a good manual cleaning. Here's my story -

 

Most everyone understands that the more a machine sits, the more varnish and other crud builds up in the fuel system from aging gas and evaporation. Even sitting for just a couple of weeks can sometimes develop problems with the crappy gas we have to buy these days with alcohol and other additives intended for emissions reasons instead of proper engine performance.

 

Now my bike rarely sits a lot. I rode it every day when I worked, and even after I retired, it is still my primary transportation. My TRUCK will sit for 4 months at a time, but not my bike - I usually put 20,000 miles a year on the RSV. But for a variety of reasons, last year I only did about 5,000 miles, and it did sit a lot. This spring it was running absolutely horrible - wouldn't start without choke (never correct on a 2nd gen if temps are over 60), wouldn't idle correctly, wouldn't accept throttle, etc. Numerous tanks of Seafoam cleared most of that up nicely, and the bike performed pretty normal on the ride to Ohio for Don's maintenance day. I think most people would have thought it was a completely normal RSV and claimed the Seafoam fixed everything for them.

 

But I still felt that there was a slight hesitation coming off idle- not enough to be sure, just kept nagging at me. In addition, there was just a sensation at speed that didn't seem quite the same as I was used to for the last 100,000 miles - no way I would have had any thoughts that something wasn't perfect with it if I didn't know the bike so well. So a couple of weeks ago I pulled the carbs for a look see; very glad I did. I had one pilot jet totally clogged, and the other three showed some slight deposits. In addition, one main jet had significant deposits in it. After proper cleaning, the old bike was back to 100%.

 

So my point is, Seafoam did wonders for that problem, but it did not do EVERYTHING. Sometimes you just gotta get the wrenches out and do things right. One point to remember is that no fuel cleaner can remove deposits form a jet or passage that is completely closed with varnish - if the fuel isn't actually flowing through the passage or jet, at least a little, it cannot clean it. And clogged primary jets are easily masked just by cranking up the idle screw a bit to allow a little fuel to come through the main jet. The best indication of this is to check the vacuum reading at idle - if it is below the spec for your engine (11" Hg for a 2nd gen), then you probably have some issues with dirty carbs.

Goose

Edited July 12, 2011 by V7Goose

[emtdouggood]

I agree we need to work on the bikes. That was what i figured I had to do. I was suprised how well it worked. I was a member on her last year and saw all the talk on seafoam so i tried it. I just want it to last to winter time. Then I am going to paint and go through the bike.