I know plenty of you have had great success using Sea Foam in your Corvettes. I have never tried it before. Anyone ever tried running Sea Foam through a two stroke motor? How did it work out? What is the procedure? Where can it be bought? What should I expect on the first run? I bought a pair of jet ski's this summer and I was thinking of running some through to clean out the fuel system and carbs. If you want to throw in your Vette experience with it that is fine also.

Thanks

 

If you dont have the "know how" to clean the jets in the carbs and dont want to pay a shop, Sea Foam is probably your second best option. Were they stored long? Fuel will glaze up in the float bowls and partially or in some cases completely plug the jets, leading to poor performance and some times leaning down the mixture enough to seize the motor. NOT COOL!

If you want to go the Sea foam route its pretty easy, Wal-Mart has it, red and white can, for this situation I'd put a full can in each tank then fill with fresh-PREMIUM gas and run them. Dont hold one throttle position for a long time and avoid full throttle extended runs for the first tank to let it clean the jets. Full throtle, extended runs with dirty jets = long swim to shore and $$$$ to fix.

If you have any other questions let me know. Worked on tons of these!

 

I don't know how long they were stored before I purchased them or if they winterized. I just picked them up in May. I've rebuilt Holley double pumpers before so I don't see where a rebuild would be a problem. I could also get all three carbs rebuilt by a pro for the same price as buying the rebuid kits. The rebuild kits arent cheap at $50 a carb x3 and that doesnt include all the parts that may be needed. The mechanic only uses the required parts. I only have regular gas in the tanks at the house. Is it that important to wait for the premium? I'll remember to keep the throttle varied if I go this route.

Thanks for info



Some background info.

One is a Polaris 96 SLX780 and the other is a 97 SL900. They both run good with throttle but they take a few minutes to start up using the choke, which may be normal.? The SLX780 has a slight miss at idle and low throttle. That is the one I am most concerned with. I don't want to damage the engine but so far it has been ok. I've tried changing fuel to premium with a few refills, cleaning the filters, removing the fuel cut off switch, pulling apart and inspecting the fuel pump, adjusting the low speed idle screws, cutting back the wires, and changing out the spark plugs with new ones at the proper gap. Some others have suggested I check the index, compression, timing, and maybe do a carb rebuild. I figured if it's the carb's a run through with Sea Foam may do the trick or at least help identify the problem.

 

I'd recommend draining the gas in them now if you dont know how old it is and filling with premium. 2 strokes dont like old gas . Try the sea foam and varied throttle position. If they start and idle okay now and run descent then at worst you my have some glaze or dirt in the jets that seafoam will take care of in one tank full. If they wont idle or sputter badly then you have plugged jets and that will require changing them.

The rebuild "kits" are a rip off. These carbs are VERY simple and replacement jets are about $3 each ( 3 carbs, 6 jets....$18) Unless something was damaged with is very very unlikely, replacing the jets is the only maintainence ever needed inside the carb.

Get the good gas in there and a bottle of sea foam in each, use up that tank as I described and after that, let em' rip

 

Just caught the background info.

You have a partially blocked pilot jet or jets, they control idle up to 1/8 throttle.The are small and plug easy. I bet it runs fine after 1/4 throttle. Thats why it starts hard and has a miss at idle and low throttle. Dump in a bottle of sea foam and let it idle for a while and it will clean them out and you will be good!

 

Seafoam works in all gasoline engines.

 

...but it isn't a cure-all. If you have plugged jets, it may or may not clear them, depending on what is doing the clogging.

Don't be lazy: take the carbs apart and clean them out.
Then use the SeaFoam...............


Larry
code5coupe

__________
not easily impressed....

 

Did it work? Let me know how it turns out. I agree with rocco16 that cleaning them would be the best option but I got the vibe you didnt feel comfortable doing that, also the problems you are having will most likely be resolved with the sea foam.

Good luck

 

I use Sea Foam in every engine I have. No problems. It is just a great solvent. It is not some voodoo potion that will put your engines at risk. I pout it straight into the carb float bowls on my boat if it sits more than a month. Get the spray can also. It works great to blast out the small openings and orifices. 2 stroke motors need to be de-carboned regularly to keep the rings from sticking. Stuck rings can't expand and contract within the piston ring lands and this causes gauled cylinder walls. It is great stuff.

 

I have a one sheet diagram of the assembly that I am going to print poster size. I actually enjoy rebuildig things like this. I'm wondering if I can check the jets without needing the rebuild kit. I know the last few times I pulled auto carbs apart most of the gaskets were unable to be saved. They were dried, stuck to the surface, and broke apart too easy. I'm not sure what gaskets need to be exposed to get to these. That's the only thing making me hesitate on doing it. Maybe seafoam would be better tried first. I'm guessing at least the gaskets where the carbs connect to the cylinders may need to be replaced. hmm.. Is number 54 the jet you were referring to? Is that Jet Block diagram showing the side of the carb that is behind the diaphragm cover? If so I don't see any gaskets in that area. Although I may have to pull the whole triple carb assembly out to get to it. I'll have to look at it some more this weekend when I get to the Lake.


Thanks for all the advice




Larger Image Download

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Most autoparts stores carry SeaFoam.
As do major grocery stores in their automotive section.
I use it in my grass blower and string trimmer... 1/2 to 1 oz per gallon.

 

How are they running?

 

I won't know until this Saturday. I bought a 16oz can of Seafoam and added the whole thing to a full tank in the SLX this Sunday. I believe the can said 2oz to every gallon when adding to a 2 stroke gas/oil mix engine. They have 9.x gallon tanks, so I guess it should be close enough. I only rode it for a few minutes before I got the worst headache I have ever had. I still had a hangover from the night before. The weather was bad and I kept hitting wave after wave. The other boats were also not helping either, there was about a 3ft+ chop in some areas. I didn't even dock it fully and it floated to the neighbors house two doors down. Two Ibuprofen, some extra strength sinus medicine, and a few hours of sleep and I was OK.

 

At some point you have to ask yourself what could it do?

A guy on a boat forum used it and it didn't matter it didn't make his 2 stroke motor better.

 

I used Deep Creep (the spray version of SeaFoam) on my twin 175 Merc outboards and the amount of smoke from burning carbon was unbelieveable. I sprayed about two cans of Deep Creep thru each motor. Afterward they both ran with a lot less smoke than they had prior to the treatment.

 

[QUOTE=rickreeves1;1561235754]

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Damn, I'd hate to have been the guy that had to design that thing.

 

As stated earlier, Sea Foam is not a miracle cure-all. It's a great preventative tool. I use it in all my 2 stroke engines - boats, PWC's and even lawnmowers. If you are thinking about rebuilding your PWC carbs, one word of caution. Rebuild is very simple. In the rebuild kit come a couple of different size springs for regulating fuel pressure. In the Mikuni carbs, the pressure needs to be set so the supply pressure is slightly higher than the return pressure or the ski may not run or run poorly. It requires a particular gauge to adjust the pressure if you install a new spring. I would advise leaving the old spring in - they don't wear out. If you think the carb is just plugged with old gas/oil (as the old gas evaporates, it leaves a varnish-like residue which gunks up the float and jets. I have had the problem on ATV's. I pulled the carb and cleaned out the jets and needle valve with guitar string - sometimes particles looking like a grain of salt will come out. Clean the bowl and internals with carb cleaner and it should run like new if that is the source of your problem. If you are thinking of using something like StaBil stabilizer over the winter, it is not recommended if you are pre-mixing your gas/oil. There is a great forum for PWC's from a company in Florida that sells rebuilt PWC motors - www.sbtontheweb.com. They are just like the Vette forums - those guys are passionate about their PWC's and very knowlegeable. There are tech. articles/videos for about everything related to PWC's by make. As a side note, I have dealt with them and bought a rebuilt motor and installed in a Yamaha and their product/product service is great. If you buy a rebuild kit from them and have trouble installing it, submit a post and Bryan Glynn from SBT will respond usually within a day and help you with your problem. Can't believe I'm on a Vette forum talking about PWC's! Somebody will probably throw me off. Good luck.