Red 71

Had a recent discussion with a friend who is a fan of Sea Foam whereas
I am a fan of Berryman B-12 so I did a little research on both and this is
what I found.

Sea Foam active ingredients

CAS 64742.49.0 Naphtha
CAS 64742-47-8 Distillates(petroleum), hydrotreated light
CAS 64742-54-7 Distillates(petroleum), hydrotreated heavy paraffinic*
CAS 67-63-0 Isopropanol

*
Here is a explanation of what paraffinic means for those of us that did not know.
http://www.engineersedge.com/lubrica...finic_oils.htm


Berryman B-12 active ingredients

CAS 108-88-3 Toluene
CAS 67-56-1 Methanol
CAS 67-64-1 Acetone
CAS 111-76-2 Butoxethanol
CAS 78-93-3 Methyl Ethyl Ketone
CAS 67-63-0 Isopropanol


CAUTION:

Berryman B-12 warns you that it will remove paint (probably varnish also).
Sea Foam has no such warning so I would surmise that your paint would be
safe. As far as whether or not it would attack varnish, I do not claim to know!

Berryman also warns you not to use it in a diesel engine. Does not recommend
adding to your oil. Sea Foam does recommend adding to your oil so I guess that
which you chose could depend on your application.

One other thing, the Berryman B-12 is less than half the price of the Sea Foam.

Your choice!

LT1driver

tried sea foam once, smoke but I see it as joke or snake oil product. I have and am a user of berryman b-12 and have been since the 80s.

81pilot

Here is my take . I was raised and worked in the oil industry a long time. Parrafinic products in certain applications are horrible ie quaker state and pennzoil original motor oils, sludged up motor, you could not have held a gun to my head and made me use any pennsylvania parrafin based crap motor oil. (it is made with sweet crude and a better process now), BUT that ingrediient is great in gas as it becomes a carrier and does not completely and instantly dissolve allowing the other ingredients to work better and not completely dilute as methanol or ethanol based additive does. The Acetone in the Berryman makes the warning neccessary. I was a berryman user for years but now use Seafoam in all of my cars, bikes and boats. It flat works, where I used to need a ton more Berryman to get the same results. I have bought and sold an aweful lot of cars, and used seafoam to clear up smoking and smooth them out a lot of times. I am not saying Berryman is useless, it is just prone to getting so thinned out it has a very small effect compared to Seafoam in mine and many others I know of. And the fact you have to use 2 or 3 times as much Berryman negates the cheaper price. This may be my opinion, but having owned over 100 cars and bikes I like to think my opinion is based on a few facts. But maybe not................

gdh

Do you put Seafoam in your oil or gas 81pilot? I used it last year in my snowblower and poured the rest into the vette's gas tank.

7T1vette

Pour half the can in the gas tank. Suck the rest into the intake via a manifold vacuum line while revving the engine [about 2500 rpm] in neutral gear range (or Park). Be certain that the rear of the car is aimed where the carbon/crud will not mess up anything (NOT inside a closed garage ).

bluthundr

I know sucking Seafoam though your intake makes a lot of impressive smoke, but I don't know how much of that is cleaning anything and how much of that is just burning the crap that is in Seafoam. You could probably suck a cup of kerosene though and you would get an impressive smoke show too.

Red 71

Did you say Kerosene? You hit it on the nose! Look at the top middle of the link,

Low odor paraffinic solvent
Dearomatized kerosine
Deodorized kerosene

http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/ipcsneng/neng1379.html

Chambered

I've always heard Sea Foam is great stuff. I use it in my boat, lawn tractor, snow blower, etc. Anything in the fall that is going to be parked for months on end gets Sea Foam mixed in the fuel. I know lots of guys that swear by it - some old timer truck parts guys really sold me on it.

lars

You guys have been watching way too much MALL TV on your cable channel. You gotta be kiddin' me.

I'm gonna' get me an 800 number and sell Mirrors-Gears-N-Hydrastics from behind a secret curtain with magic smoke in a special container just for free. And I'll include a special food processor that slices, dices and makes thousands of Julian fries in seconds.

Do you think the new car dealers put "Magic Foam" in the cars on the new car lot over the winter...? Do you think your Vette, when it was new, had "Sea Crap" or "Barry Junk" put in the intake or gas when it sat unsold on the lot for over a year..? I store all my collector cars in a warehouse over the winter by simply filling the tires and the gas tank. In spring, I fire 'em up and drive 'em. Somebody has you guys by the nose, and I'd like in on this little profit scam...

Lars

noonie

If you're using Seafoam as a gas additive, then you might want to try Startron. All this e10 stuff plays hell with small engines, but I've added this to all engines to try it and for long term storage items like generators, etc. I switched from Seafoam and Stabil.
Less than 10 bucks at Walmart in the boating section. Treats 128 gallons.

http://mystarbrite.com/startron//con...0/136/lang,en/

7T1vette

Whether you believe it or not, SeaFoam breaks collected carbon from valves and combustion chamber....sort of like 'steam cleaning' the engine from the inside. If you haven't tried it, you just don't know and want to deny that it can work, out of ignorance. Lots of folks talk bad about stuff they know nothing about. Nothing new there....

CaseyJones

Back in the days before all this emission control stuff and white gas, we used to trickle a little water or kerosene through the carb with the car running about 2000-2500 RPM. That would really clean the valves, etc. by steam cleaning the inside of the chambers. Don't how that would work on newer engines but it did a job on the old leaded gas higher compression motors. It would probably ruin the O2 sensors in a new engine.

81pilot

I respect your skills, but don't agree at all on your assumptions on this one. I have seen it work wonders in engines especially bikes. I have built race engines for motorcycles since high school 30 years ago, I have seen carboning loosened up and a motor smooth out too many times to count from that stuff. I have even had one apart before and after its use as well to see the results, so I started using it in cars with the same results, you are making unfounded assumtions on this one Lars regardless sorry, but we are all entitled to be wrong sometimes even you :O). Its not about storage at all for me. Some bikes (especially Kaw and suz V twins)are prone to carbon build up and cars can too, seafoam will get rid of it and they will run great afterwards, especially if they were negelected for a while. Snake oil or not it works for me, so I stand by it based on MY observations not assumptions. Have a great day!

81pilot

I use it in the gas . I used it in the old oil on my bike once ran it for a 100 or so miles and then changed the oil, that is the way most do it in the oil, I think it thins the oil too much to leave it for very long. But I swear by it in gas. So does my 200K maxda 4x4 that runs like new. And my bike has 75K on it as well. I had 300 plus passes on my last drag bike before the final tear down before I sold it and it looked like new inside, the only reason I tore it down was at the request of the buyer. And it got a dose of seafoam in the gas periodically. Its kind of a buyers choice thing, I will never understand the comments from people that get upset at what others use in their cars. I should be able to drop a dog turd in my tank and call it a magic gas mileage enhancer and engine cleaning pill, after all it is my car.

MrJlr

I'd like to see some scientific data on these products...
Word of mouth is cool....but I want facts.

daustin

I use both, for different uses and reasons. If you want to do a carb rebuild, the gallon (or 5 gallon) liquid B12 cleaner is the bomb, nothing cleans like it does for soaking. I use seafoam in the gas every 6 months or once a year, and a couple times down a vacumn tube to clean the engine when warrented. Marine Sta-bil i use in my small engine fuel, lawn mowers, weed-wackers, ATV, dirt bike..etc as the ethanol is nasty. lol
Don

7t9l82

i agree most of this stuff is snake oil however, i had a lincoln mark viii with the 4 cam motor. it has a complex runner control system under the intake,they are prone to carbon build up if you don't open them up once in a while (often) the sea foam worked every time.dont know to what degree but enough to make a difference. but as a fuel preserver , couldn't say.

Red 71

Good point Don, I think this thread has turned into two separate thoughts on usage. I use the B-12 for carb and injector cleaning due to the ingredients that are know to dissolve carbon, varnish etc. I do not use it for winter storage or as a oil additive which it is not recommended for since it's ingredients are probably a little too potent for the crankcase. In my own opinion paying almost three times as much for a refined kerosene, a type of paraffin oil and a propanol makes no sense to me. If you are satisfied with your experience with Sea Foam then by all means continue to use it.

I might add that I have a habit of looking at the ingredients listed on the back of a container of any kind of fuel or oil additive that I might consider purchasing. When all I see is "petroleum distillates" I back off immediately. Both of these products identify their ingredients, B-12 more than Sea foam but both do identify them.

Vette5.5

Can't say I've used either product, but usually put small bottles of Gumout fuel system cleaner in my daily car, couple times a year. Recently sold a buddy a spare Honda lawn mower for his kid, that hadn't been run for awhile. I drained all fluids, but he claims some Sea Foam helped it run better, when putting it back into service. As for Star Tron, heard it's pretty good stuff, as a really big seller in the boating community. Funny story on kerosene, as turns out some cab drivers in Cuba, actually run their 50's Chevy cabs on the stuff. They'll start out on gasoline, then switch over to kerosene, once they get going. Guess, whatever they can get they're hands on. Can't say I'd do this in my car.

Doug1

This has been a good thread. I've never purchased any of these products and tend to be in Lars camp on this stuff. But I gotta say, unless 81pilot works for Seafoam, i may have to give this stuff a try....