I have a 98 blazer w/ 4.3L. Carbon was a problem. I took off the throttle body and cleaned it, but looking inside the engine, there is a ton of carbon. I was advised to use Sea Foam to help the problem.

Anyone here use it? Suggestions? Alternatives?

 

The problem is that your engine temp is to high for the oil that you are using or you are not changing it often enough. You should flush out your engine with Amsoil Engine Flush and then switch to a full synthetic oil. I would recommend Amsoil XL 7500. It is an extended change oil, but I usualy only go 4000 miles or so. You should also think about using an oil additive like Prolong or Tufoil. Also, make sure you use a quality oil filter like a Purolator Pure One. All of this should make a big difference. You can find the Amsoil products at www.Amsoil.com or www.Autobarn.com is also a good site for additives.

 

I don't think that he is complaining of carbon build up in the oil'd areas of the block, but in the intake and cylinder areas. Running an engine flush through the crankcase will do nothing to help combat the buildup of carbon in the intake and cylinders.

That said, I have used and will continue to use Seafoam in ALL of my vehicles on a bi-yearly basis. Every other year I change the plugs in each one of my vehicles and right before the plug change, I run a can of seafoam through the gas tank and another one through the intake manifold.

First and foremost, you should have the engine warmed up before running seafoam through the intake. You can not simply pour the seafoam down into the throttle body on the 4.3L vortec as the engine will not run without the mass air flow sensor hooked up and having air pulled though it. So to do this on the 4.3L vortec, remove the PCV vent hose from the top of the PCV valve located on the driver's side valve cover. You will need to buy a funnel small enough to fit into the fitting on the end of the PCV hose in order to pour the Seafoam in. Once you are at this point, you just simply pour the seafoam into the funnel trying not to stall out the engine. You pour about 2/3 of the bottle in this way keeping the engine running. The final 1/3 of the can you dump in as fast as the engine will suck it in and let it stall. Then, let it sit for a good 30 minutes. It will be hard to start after it has sat and be prepared for a rather large smoke show out the tailpipe when you do get it running. The amount of smoke depends on how bad the carbon buildup was. You will want to drive the vehicle around until you cannot make out any more smoke coming out the tailpipe under WOT (wide open throttle) stabs.

It is recommended to atleast pull the plugs and make sure that the gaps are correct and that there aren't any defects on them, but with how difficult it is to get to acouple of the plugs on the 4.3L, you might as well replace them at this time.

 

seafoam is an awesome product, used many times. the deep creep aersoal verision is pretty cool too. i seafoamed a cop car once after he came in for an egr code. the smoke cloud on that was very impressive.

 

i havent tried it, but ive heard all good about it.

 

will seafoam help? Can you tell me exactly what seafoam will help? I am having a problem with my 94 4.3. It wants to hesitate really bad around 2500-3500 rpm's. can this be because of carbon build up.?

 

Seafoam is a great product. It will clean out all the carbon and you should notice no more hesitation. Not to mention the great smoke show you will get to impress the neighbors. I've used it many times on my '91 Grand Marquis. Works like a charm..

 

I too can highly recommend Seafoam. I had a 1992 Nissan 240SX that was starting to hesitate on me a little bit, so I ran a bottle through my fuel and another through my vacuum hose (the one that connects to the brake master cylinder). I ran the car at 50% throttle the whole time I was doing this, therefore allowing me to pour it in quicker w/o stalling the car out. Oh, did I mention that the car had 194,000 miles on it when I did this? Yeah, cloud of smoke for, let's say, 20 minutes. Car ran amazing afterwards, no hesitation, everything was great. Let me just suggest though, don't be like me and do this at 11:30PM with a 2.5" Exhaust and cranky neighbors, you won't be very popular in the neighborhood after that.

 

The carbon is the result of the design of the EGR system. only way to clean it up is to take the intake manifold out and clean it.

Then install an EGR restricter, and an oil catch can. <-----what I did.

 

How is that oil catch can working out for you? I'm still considering doing the same thing.