sallydrive

Has anyone tired Seafoaming an IS250? I have about 60K on mine and I have that rough idle that a lot of 250 owners have. I was thinking about sea foaming it for about 10 bucks then have to go through the hassle with my dealership? I read to put in half the bottle in the vacuum line and then let it sit for about 5 minutes, sart the engine let it run for about 5, and then drive it harsh for about 10. Is that true?

Also, what about water decarbonization instead of sea foam? Will that work using the same process?

Which is better? Thanks.

showtymers

since you have a 250, the seafoam wont be really doing its job in normal manifolds with injectors placed in them.
The is250 is Direct injection , if you are having problems the culprit may not be the injectors since only having 60k miles , try checking out the the spark plugs first or completely run low on gas and use a different premium gas brand, lastly could be carbon buildup tsb/recall

LDNN

Maybe a bottle of Chevron fuel injector cleaner would do the trick?

ming15237

iTrader: (3)

Chevron with Techron is a very good chemical at removing deposits on valves. As the OP stated already the only way to get it to the back side of the valves is to try the vacuum injection method. If that does not work you will need to pull the upper intake to get to the back side of the valves, I know there is a kit available to the professional techs and it is what has been supplied to the Lexus dealers in our area made by a company called "BG" specifically for this purpose. it comes with cleaning chemicals a wire brush and wooden dowels to pick and clean the valves.

On a side not Our shop has tried the fabled seafoam in the past and checked the vehicles valves before and after both driving the vehicle 500 miles and after vacuum injection of the chemical and we have seen NO discernible difference. I must therefore conclude that it is virtually useless with regards to valve deposits, it may do something for cleaning injectors, but I for one feel that the detergents in today's fuels already do a pretty good job at addressing that issue.

kickin8

iTrader: (1)

it's still under the powertrain warranty...take it to the dealer and get the TSIB done

ihazabonar

iTrader: (-1)

who the hell told you to use water? Hydrolock much?

shadowman

iTrader: (2)

You can also try reading up on the Carbon Build-Up Thread... it has alot of information.

If you suffer from the rough idle, and perhaps stalling, I would suggest taking it to dealer for TSB work. Dumping fuel injector cleaner doesn't really help because our cars uses direct injection as mentioned.

Gville350

iTrader: (10)

I'm also a firm believe that additives are a bandaid at BEST. I'd pass on both options.

Do you have an CELs?

Please read up on the numerous thread on this subject. It "could" be as bad as a cracked piston. Sorry.

es808

iTrader: (32)

For those of you that don't know about water decarbonization, it has been around for a while and you can search the net. This is not dumping a whole lot of water in the intake of the engine to make it hydrolock. It's introducing small amounts of water a little at a time. This causes the carbon to break up (along with the heat) cleaning off the carbon deposits. It's safe and effective if you do it correctly.

I did it on my Accord and it did clean up some of the carbon deposits. I didn't do it long enough to remove all of it, since there was quite a bit of buildup.

I've also tried the seafoam and it may have been the "placebo" effect, but it felt like the engine ran smoother. I didn't get a chance to visually inspect the pistons like Ming said so I don't know if it actually cleaned anything or not.

sallydrive

Taken it. "Could not be duplicated"

Same answer, and yes i've read that before too.

my1s250

iTrader: (1)

i kept bugging my service advisor everytime it will shake or its rough idling and finally she approved and change out my piston.....now it purrss like a kitten.

Slammer1

If you are in the TSB on the 250, carry it to the dealer. I have run the SeaFoam in my IS350 and been pleased with the results. As for the additive chemicals, my understanding is that the new line of Gumout additives (especially the "All In One" line) totally smokes anything that Chevron, Lucas, etc puts out. I ran this a while ago and noticed a distinctly smoother idle afterwards. I want to say that Popular Mechanics did a write up on additive comparisons, but could be wrong on the publication, but the new Gumout line up was clearly superior to the competition.

White350

Using seafoam has nothing to do with the injectors or manifold it helps break up the carbon on top of the valves and pistons


Water has been used in piston engines for the last 60 years! it works great at reducing knock and cleaning the carbon

I would use the seafoam, works good we do it on alot of mazda's on their 100,000 km services

water only really works well when the motor is under heavy load, ive seen rx7's with a huge amount of track time that run water injection+ lots of boost making 500+whp, when the motors come apart they look new inside no carbon what so ever its really neat thing to see

evogt500

60/40 mix of water and alcohol.

evogt500

Obviously you dont want to pour gallons of water into the engine. You use the brake booster hose (or similar) and feed water in little by little on a fully warmed up engine. The water evaporates from the internal heat and effectively steam cleans the valves. Adding alcohol to the mix works better as the temperature of evaporation on alcohol os lower than water, and the fact that alcohol is combustable.