I have doing some engine bay cleaning / painting, and I had the intake plenum off for painting. I managed to drop a washer down the #4 intake manifold.
I borrowed my brother's inspection scope (Ridgid SeeSnake), and saw the washer was sitting on the closed (thankfully) intake valve. The tool comes with a clip on magnet that allowed easy retrieval.
What an awesome tool! I thought this was a good opportunity to check out the condition of all of the intake valves... 3 of the four valves have some carbon build up, so some Sea Foam or something similar might be required.
I think this tool, or one like it will be in my near future.
kustom wrote:I have doing some engine bay cleaning / painting, and I had the intake plenum off for painting. I managed to drop a washer down the #4 intake manifold.
I borrowed my brother's inspection scope (Ridgid SeeSnake), and saw the washer was sitting on the closed (thankfully) intake valve. The tool comes with a clip on magnet that allowed easy retrieval.
What an awesome tool! I thought this was a good opportunity to check out the condition of all of the intake valves... 3 of the four valves have some carbon build up, so some Sea Foam or something similar might be required.
I think this tool, or one like it will be in my near future.
Great
What would sea foam do
Jim
East Grand Forks MN
1970 Fiat Spider BS1 ( FOR SALE
1969 124 AS Spider
2017 Abrath
2018 Alfa Romeo 4c Spider
Berryman B12 is a quite a bit more aggressive than SeaFoam and yes you can add a little to the oil just before an oil change to help clean up sludge in the crankcase however you have to put a heavy dose in the fuel tank to decarbonize valve stems and heads.
As for the scopes you can get a 1.3 mega pixel waterproof version with a 2 meter cable, magnetic and hook ends for your android or apple phones/tablets for less than $10.
Regarding Seafoam, I don't normally do "testimonials", but I have to admit this stuff seems to work as far as improving your chances of passing a smog check. I initially thought it was just another version of snake oil, but I recently ran a can through my '93 Jaguar XJ6 a couple days before its biannual smog check and it did definitely seem to drop the hydrocarbon (HC) emissions. In the past, my HC numbers were right on the borderline as far as passing, but after running the can through the intake system, it dropped the HC emissions in half.
In my case, I removed a vacuum tube from one of the ports on the intake plenum and used that tube to slowly suck down a whole can of Seafoam into the intake system while the car was running at a high idle. If you do this, be VERY careful not to let too much get sucked in all at once, as the Seafoam is an incompressible, somewhat non-burning fluid and too much in the chambers all at once can lead to "hydro-lock" (for lack of a better term), leading to major engine damage. The Jag did seem to run better afterwards, and the emissions numbers were much better than the last dozen or so years. You can also add a can to a full tank of gas, which I've heard also works but perhaps not as dramatically.
I'd be interested in hearing the experiences of others.
SeaFoam is mostly Pale Oil (Light Mineral Oil) with some Naphtha and Isopropyl (rubbing) Alcohol.
BerryMan B12 is a more aggressive cleaner mostly containing Toluene, Acetone and Methanol along with a little Methyl Ethyl Ketone, Butoxyethanol and Propanol.
I still have my old 1950's/1960's Gumout Drip Kit that allows you to set your engine at a fast idle to clean the intake and combustion chambers by dripping a pint of heavy duty fuel system cleaner through the intake however that does little to clean up float bowls and jets on carbs or the internals of fuel injection systems.
I use both and in tough situations that require remediation the Berryman B12 is the one to go to for increasing your chances of success while for maintenance and light buildup the Seafoam will do.
In really bad cases sometimes you can get a fuel injection system cleaned up by adding 3 ounces per gallon of fuel tank capacity of Berryman B12 to the tank, filling it with fresh gasoline, running the engine until it warms up and then letting it sit for a day however if the engine won't stay running just shut it down and let it sit overnight to allow the Berryman to soak in a bit and then try again to get it to run until warm. On the next day then take it for a drive.
Neither will correct severe water damage and heavy oxidation with loose metal particles contaminating the system however will many times get a system going that hasn't yet sustained severe internal physical damage.
