Sea Foam in Crankcase Before and After Photos.

[Gale Hawkins]

5S-FE MK2 Non-Turbo Engine Seafoam, Before and After PICS 5SFE

Found this set of before and after crankcase use of Sea Foam photos. There were no details on how long the Sea Foam was ran in the engine.

While I use it in the crankcase like for the sticking oil pump relief valve in the 2003 GM 5.3L engine I am not sure I would want to run it in an abused engine from lack of oil changing.

 

[hosspuller]

What happened to all that gunk? A clogged oil passage is bad news compared to a dirty valve gallery.

 

[Redneck in training]

I remember when first detergent oils hit the market. Lot of engines suffered catastrophic failure due to blocked oil passages.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

What happened to all that gunk? A clogged oil passage is bad news compared to a dirty valve gallery.

I agree but Mobil 1 states Mobil 1 High Mileage is safe to use in dirty engines that seems to clean like Sea Foam. They state:

"Note 1 -- If your engine has excessive sludge deposits due to less-than-adequate maintenance practices, Mobil 1 High Mileage can help by reducing the sludge left behind in your engine. For severe cases of sludge, short oil change intervals (3,000 - 5,000 miles) are recommended for the first two-three oil changes as reduction of the sludge takes place. In cases of engine damage that may have resulted from poor maintenance, even Mobil 1 synthetic oil cannot remedy years of neglect."

It seems Mobil 1 High Mileage and Sea Foam starts to 'melt' the crude back to a liquid state instead of ripping off chunks at a time from what I have read. The key is not to buy engines like in the photos.

We are running Mobil 1 High Mileage 10W-40 in the 2003 GM 5.3L with 126K miles that had the sticking oil pump high pressure relief valve that seemed to be sticking leading to failure to maintain oil pressure on a hot restart of the engine. After running Sea Foam in new oil for 160 miles (new dino oil had about 50 miles on it when half a can of Sea Foam was added to the crank case) the no/low oil pressure has not occurred after 1000 miles of the Mobil 1 so hopefully its extra cleaning power has the relief valve clean so it can move like when new.

We have to go out of town for a wedding and after we return I will run Sea Foam for 25-50 miles to get a few cold/hot cycles so the Sea Foam has some time to work too then we will drain and refill with more of the M1 HM with a new NAPA Gold filter and run it for 3000 miles. This first change will be at about 1500 miles just to be on the safe side.

 

[94BULLITT]

If you change your oil regularly your engine will not look like that.

What happened to all that gunk? A clogged oil passage is bad news compared to a dirty valve gallery.

Or a clogged oil pump pickup.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

The quick lube shop told me they have seen engines come in where the remaining oil would not drain when they pulled the plug but had to use a screw driver to make a hole in the sludge to get any to drain out. Some just have not respect for engines I guess.

 

[abeal]

Wonder if that engine overheated at some point to cake all that oil on there?

 

[Tig]

I used to top up with ATF and run for a week before my oil changes.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I think that kind of stuff only happens to engines that don't get the oil changed very often and /or run very hot for some reason. Normal use of good high detergent oils wont have a sludge problem. Running cheap oil might also have something to do with the build up, but most likely it is from a overheated engine. I haven't seen that kind of (and not that bad) sludge crap in engines since the 60's when we didn't have the best oils with good additives like we do now

 

[murphy1244]

Sea Foam on sale at Advance Auto for 7.99 a can