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Seafoam/upper Engine Clean Warning!

zoomzoom

By zoomzoom,
in General Automotive Discussion

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zoomzoom Mentor

zoomzoom

Posted
Posted

So just a little tale of my days work - and a warning to those doing the seafoam-esque treatment....

I had just finished cleaning out my whole intake system of sludge and gunk, including the throttle body and AAC valve. The car idled perfectly again this morning and the engines throttle response was much better.

Rather proud with myself, I decided to give a go at using some subaru upper engine cleaner to clean out the intake manifold where I couldnt reach.

All was going well as I sprayed the stuff through some intake lines. I then proceeded to spray it into a vac line on the manifold. All of a sudden the nozzle on the can disappeared into the manifold. Realising what happened I shut the car off straight away.

Naturally, I began tearing off intake piping in a frenzy. After removing all the piping and throttle body, I poked around with a small mirror and eventually found that 15cm long son-of-a-bitch in the intake runner 3rd from the back of the engine bay.

Phew - massive relief, it hasnt gone into the engine. It was lodged in the bend where the upper and lower manifold meet.

So I pulled out my flexible grabbing tool, carefully carefully trying to grab it, dont knock it, almost there, yep tha... FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

Down it goes, further down the intake. Long story short after using tools ranging from a vacuum cleaner to swear words, converting to several religions to enlist the help of multiple deities, it was definitely stuck.

After I reassured myself with calm words of "youve f-ing f-ed it", I tried to unbolt the upper manifold, only to realise that the bolt locations on this was designed by the bride of satan. Seriously those bolts underneath? Whats with that? I gave up.

By now many hours had passed and my patience had worn. After much thought and deliberation I concluded that an Italian tune up was the best method. Soft plastic that was hot could not damage a valve.

So after 30 mins of flogging the car around I can only assume that it has met a fiery turbocharged high rpm demise. The engine is running perfectly.

Ironically the last time I used carb cleaner around the intake I taped it to the can precisely for this reason. Learn from your mistakes - or better yet learn from mine!

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snozzle Mentor

snozzle

Posted
Posted

well it made me kinda lol but i dont quite understand how this happend "All of a sudden the nozzle on the can disappeared into the manifold" ?? u mean the whole part which u put ur finger onto or the even smaller part where the fluid comes from? never seen one of those come off :S

Birds Grand Master

Birds

Posted
Posted

I'd say he's referring to the fine spray extension hoses that many aerosol cans come with. As he sprayed it down a vacuum line the vacuum sucked it down the manifold. Rather than pulling bits off I'd have just let it go too...a bit of plastic is no match for valves and fire :D

zoomzoom Mentor

zoomzoom

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Posted (edited)

I wonder how hot it gets in the head where the intake valves are?

Im curious whether I have a small puddle of melted plastic in there. Would it be hot enough to burn? But if that were so wouldnt it be hot enough to ignite the air/fuel mixture? Or would the soft plastic eventually be fed into the cylinder?

Maybe ignorace is bliss.

Edited by zoomzoom

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