Snake oil.. Well, I was wrong..

[Overtaxed]

Sometimes it's great to be wrong though. I've always thought of fuel additives as a good way to burn up money at a high rate of speed. Well, no more, count me a believer.

My ZTM was surging badly, I know exactly what the problem is, dirty carb, but I just didn't feel like tearing it apart. Had some Seafoam that I used to use on my boat laying around and figured "what the ****". I mixed up a 50/50 Seafoam/gas mix, disconnected the fuel line from the tank and fed it into the engine. Did this a few times, you could hear it (and see it, plenty of smoke) when the Seafoam hit, and I thought, "huh, I think it might be getting better". After I think the 3rd time, it was pretty obviously better, but still not fixed. Mowed for awhile with some Seafoam in the gas, then, when I finished, fed it another 50/50 mix of gas/Seafoam and put it up for the night. Well, guess what? Went out today, started it and.. You guessed it, no surging; running like a top. Apparently whatever was lodged the Seafoam ate or allowed to pass through.

So... I'm eating my hat. I always told people they were wasting money with "that stuff" but, here I sit, having saved hours of work (to rebuild the carb) and 50 bucks (for the rebuild kit) with 1/2 a can of Seafoam. I'm shocked, I really am, I didn't expect it to work at all, but.. It did. I'm not sure if I'm happy or sad about it, happy because I don't have to rebuild the carb, sad because I spent so much time rebuilding carbs when a can of "snake oil" might have fixed it.

I did, today, before I tried the mower, happen to be at Autozone and picked up a can of Berryman's which I understand is stronger. It was clear last night that "this is starting to work" so I figured maybe "more power" was the answer. But I didn't even need that, just letting the Seafoam sit was all it took. I did run a little of the B12 through the engine tonight to just clear anything left out of the carb, but, it's running like a top again.

Learning something new, every day.

 

[Professor Marvel]

Sometimes it's great to be wrong though. I've always thought of fuel additives as a good way to burn up money at a high rate of speed. Well, no more, count me a believer.

My ZTM was surging badly, I know exactly what the problem is, dirty carb, but I just didn't feel like tearing it apart. Had some Seafoam that I used to use on my boat laying around and figured "what the ****". I mixed up a 50/50 Seafoam/gas mix, disconnected the fuel line from the tank and fed it into the engine. Did this a few times, you could hear it (and see it, plenty of smoke) when the Seafoam hit, and I thought, "huh, I think it might be getting better". After I think the 3rd time, it was pretty obviously better, but still not fixed. Mowed for awhile with some Seafoam in the gas, then, when I finished, fed it another 50/50 mix of gas/Seafoam and put it up for the night. Well, guess what? Went out today, started it and.. You guessed it, no surging; running like a top. Apparently whatever was lodged the Seafoam ate or allowed to pass through.

So... I'm eating my hat. I always told people they were wasting money with "that stuff" but, here I sit, having saved hours of work (to rebuild the carb) and 50 bucks (for the rebuild kit) with 1/2 a can of Seafoam. I'm shocked, I really am, I didn't expect it to work at all, but.. It did. I'm not sure if I'm happy or sad about it, happy because I don't have to rebuild the carb, sad because I spent so much time rebuilding carbs when a can of "snake oil" might have fixed it.

I did, today, before I tried the mower, happen to be at Autozone and picked up a can of Berryman's which I understand is stronger. It was clear last night that "this is starting to work" so I figured maybe "more power" was the answer. But I didn't even need that, just letting the Seafoam sit was all it took. I did run a little of the B12 through the engine tonight to just clear anything left out of the carb, but, it's running like a top again.

Learning something new, every day.

interesting...you get a product that works unexpectedly well...and you then decide to randomly use something else
anyway thanks for the seafoam info

 

[thepumpguysc]

I've always been a "seafoam" believer.. I had a similar experience when the power went out for a few day..
Generator was running ok.. then got a slug of water{?} due to poor quality fuel.. started surging & sputtering..
Dumped some sea foam into the container & like "magic" cleared it right out.. no spit'n & sputter'n & the surge was gone..
IT IS NICE to find a product that actually does what its supposed to do..{clean fuel systems}

 

[Overtaxed]

interesting...you get a product that works unexpectedly well...and you then decide to randomly use something else
anyway thanks for the seafoam info

Well, when I was at Autozone, while I could see the Seafoam was "doing something" it hadn't fixed the issue, so I bought the B12 (and more Seafoam) thinking that might help if the situation couldn't be improved further by the Seafoam. Turns out I didn't need it; the Seafoam just needed to sit for awhile to complete the "repair". But count me a believe in Seafoam, and also in "fuel treatments" in general. It wasn't so much that I thought "Seafoam is snake oil" I thought "Everything in this category of product is snake oil" and figured Seafoam was just the "best" snake oil (and perhaps it is).

IT IS NICE to find a product that actually does what its supposed to do..{clean fuel systems}

Isn't it though? I guess I'm jaded, but I just assume that most of the time, stuff like this is all "the power of suggestion". Pour this cup of magic juice into your car and it'll "run better". Pour it in, imagine it "running better", happy customer. Thing is, there wasn't anything "wrong with it" to begin with. In this case, there was something very, very obviously "wrong" that was resolved by the product, and that was, as you said, "NICE" to see! A lot of products "run on faith". I use 3% moly grease on everything, costs more, seems to "work" exactly the same as the cheaper stuff, but I buy it because I have "faith" that it's better. Not because I can see how it works better, and certainly not because it's easier to get off me (man, that stuff is nasty). But I'll never really know if it's better, the only way to tell would be run cheap grease and then have good grease do something "better than" the cheap grease. Probably not going to happen. But, in this case, it was a clear A/B test. It's like I filled one bearing with the good stuff and one with cheap grease and ran them side by side, and the cheap grease bearing failed and the good one did not. It's rare to find such clear A/B testing in the lubricant world, a lot of stuff we have to take on faith. Not this one (or your example). Didn't work right, pour in this stuff, working fine now.

Pretty amazing. Count me a believer. I'm thinking of just going with Seafoam in all my fillups from here on out. It's not that expensive; I already use Stabil in everything, and I'm thinking of dropping that for Seafoam in everything moving forward. Probably wind up using 10 cans a year of it if I use it with every fill up. But that's a lot cheaper than a single carb rebuild so.. Might be worth it for me..

 

[Diggin It]

^^ Don't forget the MMO. Try it. You'll like it.

Also, shop around for SF. Prices vary widely with auto stores tending to be the highest though they may run sales and promos more often. I've seen Buy One, Get One deals fairly often.

 

[Overtaxed]

I actually do use MMO, but for something totally different. I use it when I get a clogged grease nipple, I have that tool you smack with a hammer that needs to be loaded with some fluid to open a grease port (which, BTW, works pretty well). I load that with MMO.

I guess what would help, because all these products kind of make the same claims, would be a comparison of them and what they are good, better, best at. Sometime like:

Carb cleaning - MMO, good, Seafoam, better, B12, best
Everyday fuel system cleaning - B12, too harsh - don't use it, MMO, good, Seafoam, best
Lubricating fuel system - B12, too harsh, Seafoam, good, MMO, best

Now, those are kind of how I see the products (no idea if that's right or not), but, some kind of "chart" with the problem your trying to solve (or prevent) and what "snake oil" is best at charming that particular issue.

 

[Diggin It]

SF and MMO will help clean the junk out of a crankcase too. Add some and run it for a few minutes before you drain the oil.

On push mowers I usually put some MMO in the oil and run them normally.

 

[txdon]

Seafoam works for me also, the only additive I use on small engines.

 

[4get gto]

I too believe they do work when used at a relatively strong dose when you believe they're needed .
Some advertisers show putting a "cap full" in a 20 gallon tank..
Isn't that kinda peeing in the ocean even for routine maintenance.?

 

[tradosaurus]

I use non-ethanol gas in my ZTM with great success.

 

[Overtaxed]

I use non-ethanol gas in my ZTM with great success.

The gas that caused this problem was non-ethanol. If it's going into a gas can (rather than vehicle) it's non-ethanol for me, I don't ever put "regular gas" into my small engines. It's worked well up until now, this is the first engine I've had really have a fuel problem in a long time (well, since I switched to no-E fuel, incidentally).

 

[kf4uda]

Seafoam has helped me out several times over the years. I was mixing 1oz per gallon in all of my gas but I don't any more since I decided to only run non-ethanol fuel in my gas tractor and any small engines. I still give them a maintenance dose on occasion.

 

[dalola]

Seafoam is great stuff, been using it for years in my small Honda engines on the string trimmer & inverter gennies, which are prone to carb issues if not cared for diligently. The steady dose (I use 1oz/gal) of SF completely eliminates carb issues in these small motors with intricate carbs.

 

[RalphVa]

I've used Seafoam a number of times and have avoided having to remove and to clean carburetors. Really works.

Ralph

 

[Professor Marvel]

is seafoam the best additive for diesel as well?

 

[Industrial Toys]

I try and add a lubricity agent at ever fillup,
I add stuff to prevent jelling at very cold temps.

And the SEAFOAM, when I get into trouble, which is usually too late.

 

[HawkinsHollow]

Yep! I'm a believer as well. Non-ethanol gas and a shot of SeaFoam in everything but my vehicles. Have not had one small engine let me down in years because of it. My outboard, mower, string trimmers all sit over the winter with that mix and they always start right up in the spring. (knock on wood)

 

[Jstpssng]

Like the OP I don't believe in additives. However my L275 always smoked from the time I bought it with 1600+- hours. After I'd had it a few years when I bought a can of Sea Foam and treated the fuel with the entire can over the course of a few tankfuls. That, combined with running it at higher RPMs cleaned it out so that it ran cleaner for the rest of the time that I had it. It always started hard, but my father had owned the same model which he purchased brand new and he said that was the way that they were.

 

[big bubba]

I use non-ethanol gas in my ZTM with great success.

yes. OP didn't mention if he uses non ethanol. that's the prevention from the start, not just the Seafoam patchwork cure. so go to the root cause itself.
but if you already use non ethanol, apologize in advance....

 

[duanew1]

yes. OP didn't mention if he uses non ethanol. that's the prevention from the start, not just the Seafoam patchwork cure. so go to the root cause itself.
but if you already use non ethanol, apologize in advance....

He actually did in post 11.

Non ethenol gas is key. My weed trimmer was needing its carb rebuilt every year until I switched to non ethenol gas. It has been at leas 4 years since I last rebuilt it.