Seafoaming a Cub

[clm2112]

For the amusement of y'all... How I do the Seafoam treatment to a Cub.

Pretty simple. In the pony fuel tank I put an ounce of the Seafoam along with a gallon of gas. This will get fed through the carb to clean out deposits in the bowl and jet.

On the intake manifold, I remove the pipe plug just above the carb flange and install a NPT to 5/16" hose barb. A short length of 5/16" fuel hose, and a tiny vac fitting. The hole in the point of the vac fitting is only 1/32", so the vac leak it creates in the engine is insignificant. If you leave the restriction off, then you will induce a vac leak into the engine so large that it probably will not run. When the process is done and the manifold has cooled off, I take off the hose and barb, then put the original pipe plug back in.



With the engine at high idle, I take a shot-glass full of Seafoam and dip the tip of the tube into it. The manifold vac of the engine will suck the shot-glass dry in a few seconds, so I just let the engine take little sips until it bogs down and starts belching white smoke out the exhaust. Keep repeating for a couple ounces of the Seafoam.

Here is a video of the process being done. The light smoke in the exhaust gas is the Seafoam cleaner that is mixed with the fuel. The billowing clouds are a result of the cleaner going straight into the intake manifold.

http://vid168.photobucket.com/albums/u177/clm2112/1955%20Farmall%20Cub/Cub_Seafoam_Treatment.mp4

Now it is time for me to get real work done, Cheers!

[Don McCombs]

Or, you can buy a can of Deep Creep, which is Seafoam in an aerosol can. Disconnect the air cleaner hose from the intake of the carb and spray the Deep Creep in until it bogs down. Do this several times and you have accomplished the same task without the extra hardware.

[clm2112]

Or, you can buy a can of Deep Creep, which is Seafoam in an aerosol can. Disconnect the air cleaner hose from the intake of the carb and spray the Deep Creep in until it bogs down. Do this several times and you have accomplished the same task without the extra hardware.

At $12 for an aerosol can, I'll stick to the $1 worth of hose & fittings.

[Bill Hudson]

OK, I'll bite, "What is a vac fitting?" I see the pic but I still don't know what the bugger is? I have every thing but the vac fitting laying on a shelf in the Cubhouse.

Bill

[scotlem]

OK, I'll bite, "What is a vac fitting?" I see the pic but I still don't know what the bugger is? I have every thing but the vac fitting laying on a shelf in the Cubhouse.

Bill

looks like the fittings that come with a mityvac hand held vacuum tester

[staninlowerAL]

Mr. Bill, I'll bet you could use something like the inflation needle for a basketball/football and it would work.

[Bill Hudson]

Mr. Bill, I'll bet you could use something like the inflation needle for a basketball/football and it would work.

Thanks, Stan. Now it looks like I have the whole kit-and-caboodle.

Bill

[clm2112]

looks like the fittings that come with a mityvac hand held vacuum tester

Pretty sure you are right on the money with that one... it was in the roll-away with a bunch of other odd plastic fittings. Probably came with the Mityvac I bought a decade or so ago for bleeding brake lines.

Other thoughts, like the football inflating needle, would work equally well. For the ultimate in chic-cheap, a brass pipe plug with a hole drilled into it and a piece of silicone rubber tubing will do nicely. Anything that creates a port into the intake manifold, without it being leaky (so the carb still sees a good vac to work properly.)

Normally I tap right into the manifold vac lines on an auto or marine engine (like the vac advance on the distributor), but the Cub is so dirt-simple as to not even have a vac system of any kind.

And it really did do a nice job of blowing the deposits off the crowns of the pistons. Just tucked the Cub in for the night, took out the spark plugs and took a peek down the plug holes. The difference in the the piston crowns is noticeable compared to this morning when I installed the new plugs. Not going to pull the head or manifold off anytime in the near future since the compression is pretty good on all four cylinders. Only thing left on my list is to take off the lifter cover and check the valve lash.

[Winfield Dave]

...Disconnect the air cleaner hose from the intake of the carb and spray in until it bogs down. Do this several times and you have accomplished the same task without the extra hardware.

I agree with Don...no hardware needed...I just put Seafoam in a spray bottle...mission accomplished quickly and simply.

[havoc1482]

This is the same method you use on cars. Pour seafoam into the brake booster vacuum line. Much more effective than putting it in the tank. And like he said, cheaper than buying the aerosol variant that you can't just dump the excess into the tank.


I'll have to try this method on my Super A.

[Barnyard]

I just take a can of Seafoam and dump it in a full tank of gas and work the tractor hard a day or two. No muss or fuss just a lot of smoke for a while.

[inairam]

I was speaking with my mechanic, he say he pours Seafoam into the cylinders via the spark plug hole and lets it sit. He says he does this with Saturns which are known for burning oil to loosen the rings. My Cub also had a bit of a blue smoke, but not now!. While the head was off for a valve job I rotated the engine, so all 4 pistons were down and poured some in and left it there,

[Matt Kirsch]

Instead of an aerosol can, just put some seafoam in an empty Windex spray bottle. Everybody has a pile of old Windex or other spray bottles laying around that they've saved over the years... Right?

Last time I seriously seafoamed an engine I put half a can into the vacuum port using an old KABOOM! spray cleaner bottle.

[bibbster]

It's best to let the Seafoam sit and soak than to burn it off as soon as it hits the running engine. You can't always do that, but it makes a huge difference if you can soak it like inairam did.

[BigBill]

Nothing going through the carb?

Add sea foam, to the crankcase oil and gas tank the run it. Park it then let it go to work.