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Startron's the stuff!
Who uses seafoam in their fuel?
- Thread starter fields_mj
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parrishturf
ArboristSite Operative
What to do with old fuel.
If I understand your question it looks like your looking for an addative to help the fuel store longer. I have used gallons of seafoam and it is a great cleanser for the fuel system, it can help with ice and water also. We here in NC have little access to fuel without alchohol, and that is the fuel that hates to be stored. If you keep it in one of the newest push button gas cans that completly seal after each use the problem goes away. Anytime we have a quantity of questionable fuel it gets burned in the truck, or any 4cycle with a large enough gas tank. Seafoam with 2cycle oil has been a great fuel injector cleaner and lubricant.
On all my trucks we only carry mix, and use it in everything when in the field, the mowers get filled at the pump but get topped of with mix to finish the day. It works well and nobody ever grabs strait gas by accident!
Good luck...
If I understand your question it looks like your looking for an addative to help the fuel store longer. I have used gallons of seafoam and it is a great cleanser for the fuel system, it can help with ice and water also. We here in NC have little access to fuel without alchohol, and that is the fuel that hates to be stored. If you keep it in one of the newest push button gas cans that completly seal after each use the problem goes away. Anytime we have a quantity of questionable fuel it gets burned in the truck, or any 4cycle with a large enough gas tank. Seafoam with 2cycle oil has been a great fuel injector cleaner and lubricant.
On all my trucks we only carry mix, and use it in everything when in the field, the mowers get filled at the pump but get topped of with mix to finish the day. It works well and nobody ever grabs strait gas by accident!
Good luck...
roger m
ArboristSite Operative
i was told all gas even 87octane had 10%ethanol govt mandated a year or two ago. that 100ll av gas is great but a little pricey but i burn maybe a gallon or two a month along with stihl ultra hp, if this lengthens my saws lifetime it is worth it to me,now you guys that burn 5-10 gallons a week this would definitely cut into the net profit,could be a write-off though,sea foam has naptha as an ingredient and it does remove varnish ,the quality of fuel has dropped tremendously in the last 20 years so sea foam helps more now than back then but i don't know about preserving fuel,i do know that stabil has not impressed me. JMO:msp_biggrin:
JLB-MT
ArboristSite Lurker
Several years ago I was having trouble with an old two stroke Evanrude motor. It seemed that I tried everything and it would not run right. A friend told me to try some Seafoam, I reluctantly tried it as I am the world's biggest skeptic. To my surprise, I added Seafoam in some new mix and took the boat for a spin. At first it did its old sputter routine and then all of a sudden it sprung to life like it had not done in years. I cannot say for certain that it was due to the Seafoam but it sure was coincidental. I now run it through that motor and never have had another issue with it.
parrishturf
ArboristSite Operative
It was the Seafoam... It cleans great!
homelitejim
Full of Scrap
I put it in the 2 stroke gas as well as in my 200,000 mile Chevy Tahoe.
MEATSAW
ArboristSite Guru
I had a boat with a 1975 75hp Johnson on it and whenever I used seafoam the sucker would run like ****. I no longer have that old boat and I never really thought to use seafoam for my saws. I do regularly use marine-grade sta-bil ethanol treatment because there is no where near me that sells non-ethanol fuel. But in the end you should never have to worry about things if you use fresh gas and good oil. Everything else is just bonus.
mtfallsmikey
Addicted to ArboristSite
Laugh if you want...
I use both Seafoam and MMO
I use both Seafoam and MMO
parrishturf
ArboristSite Operative
MMO...MMO...MMO...Oh Yea! Marvels Mystery Oil! Keeps rings loose and valves slick! :hmm3grin2orange:
It took me a while...
Ditto! I think I have my answer. I'll use seafoam in most of my fuel, and I'll break down and buy ANOTHER 5 gal can and stop by the air port for some of that AV100 that I keep hearing about on here. That in spite of the fact that I've NEVER, NEVER, NEVER IN MY LIFE had a problem with any of the carbs on my saws, and the fuel I'm running in them is often 6 months old or more.
Dad, on the other hand, had all kinds of fits with the carb on his 028 super since the day he got it in '92. The local shop kept telling him it was his fuel. He'd go by premium fuel from shell, run it for a weekend, take it back to the shop again on Friday and then ask them what the heck was wrong with it. They never did listen. Finally took it to a shop in a neighboring town about 5 years ago and they had a good carb guy. He said the carb was junk from the factory. Put a replacement on it, and that saw has started and ran great ever since. Even on fuel that's a year old and is probably E10. For the last 15 years, Dad probalbly only cuts 4 truckloads a year max. He got rid of his wood burner, and now he just cuts enough to cook beans on once in a while. He cuts it spread out over the course of a year, and doens't bother trying to empty the tank at the end of the day. If I go up there right now, the saw will have half a tank of mix in it, and it hasn't run since October. It will start just fine. I think all the "bad gas" arguments on two cylcles is a bunch of crap myself. Just somebodies excuse for having a lousy carb or not knowing how to adjust it correctly (which would be me). Yeah, our fuel is a lot worse than it use to be, but a 2 cycle should still run just fine. Maybe these new saws are just too picky, but my old Stihls just plane run and don't give two rips what I put in them, or how long ago I put it in.
Anyway, I digress. The airport is only about a mile from work, and we eat at their cafeteria once in a while. I only use about 5 gal a year for the saws, so it would be real easy for me to do that. I'll just lable that can for the saws, and be done with it. Heck, part of me wonders if I shouldn't just do it with all three cans and only use that. It should fix the issue with the ATV, and I don't see why it would hurt the 25hp Briggs on my Dixie Chopper. I can feed the chopper pump gas for most of the summer, then switch over to AV100 in the fall. Gives me something else to think about anyway.
I'm still going to run some seafoam in the fuel for the ATV, even if I have to mix it as I use it. Right now, I have the carb filled with it trying to get it cleaned out. I paid over $100 for the local shop to tear it down, clean it, and put a kit in, adjust it, and put a new plug in it late this past August. I really didn't notice any more of a difference in it than when I clean the plug off myself. I think they just did a lousy job. I wasn't wanting to have to take the time to do it myself because I just don't have it, and I'm not very good at adjusting them, but if the seafoam doesn't do the trick, I suppose I'll have to spend the time and learn.
Thanks
Mark
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parrishturf
ArboristSite Operative
Mark,
Forgive me for fanning the flames but after looking back over the posts here I guess I missed the saw failure discription. Could you review the carb problem for me? Seafoam can be used in many different ways and in conjuction with spraying through the H/L needle ports can solve some problems. Sadly it can also soften varnish and make a thick goo that will move to a new place and cause other problems. That is exactly what the alcohol can also do.
Anyway tell me more about the issue if you can...
My problem is not with a saw, it's with my 2003 Yamaha bigbear 400. My saws run fine, but I'm considering using seafoam in everything now to keep things simple. I'm certainly going to use it in my ATV for a while. Worse case, it turns any varnish to goo and clogs something up, which is pretty much where it's at now. My other alternative is to tear it down and clean it, then try to figure out how to adjust it once I put it back together. I paid a shop to do it last time, and while they are pretty reputable (locally anyway), I'm not satisfied with what I got for my $117, so my only other option is to do it myself, or use seafoam, and then I still may have to do the carb myself. Right now I'm just kicking around ideas for my fuel management. I don't use much, but when I need it I really don't have the time to drive into town and get some. The wife's CRV runs on gas, and siphoning some fresh gas out of her car is NOT an option for more reasons than just the argument that would result. My truck is an old IDI diesel. So I'm trying to figure out a simple way to keep from gumming up the carb and fowling up the plug on my ATV.
parrishturf
ArboristSite Operative
So what problems is the atv having?
Not much of a believer myself, but the other day running my sawmill at 5 above the 6hp hyd motor was running like crap, had to choke it about 3/4 to to keep it from dieing. Put in a little seafoam and it cleared right up, ran good with the choke all the way off. Steve
Fowling plugs very badly. Had the carb cleaned and a kit installed in August. Haven't run half a tank through it yet and the plug is already shot. Same thing that was happening before. I have a thread on this in the wood burners section. Problem is most likely old fuel. When I got it home in August, I put fresh fuel with Stabil in it, and when I drained it this week it still had over 2 gal in it. I didn't end up using it as much this fall as I thought I would. As I stated before, my experience with my saws has been that old fuel doesn't matter at all. BUT, old fuel, or poor quality fuel in my ATV has always made a big difference in how it runs. Got some really good advise on shutdown procedures. I'm now trying to clean it out with some seafoam while I'm waiting on new plugs to arrive. Once they are here, I'll continue to add some seafoam to the fuel and also follow the shutdown procedures that have been recommended to me, and see if it makes a difference. Don't want to get into much more of that issue here. I came to this section to basically find out if it might have a negative impact on my saws if I should happen to make some mix out of some of the fuel that already had seafoam added. The popular opinion seems to be, it won't hurt anything, but might not help anything either. That's about what I expected, but wanted to double check with the "experts".
Thanks,
Mark
Try switching to a hotter plug so it doesn't foul as fast
Danno
ArboristSite Operative
I have never ever ever ever had fuel related problems in anything that I own. From the B in my avatar to the Stationary hit-'n-miss engine to the push mower and riding mower and the crappy weedeater trimmers and newer Stihl Trimmer or the car with 250,000 miles on it or the other car that had 220,000 miles on it. Not my new honda, not my old dodge, not my old fiat and certainly not any of my chainsaws.
for years and years I used whatever came out of the pump. for years and years it has been ethanol blend, especially on those cars with the high miles.
In the past few years I started using my own special blend of additives (to ethanol fuel at first, and more recently to non-ethanol fuel) in all my non road-worthy engines. that blend includes Seafoam.
Does that mean seafoam works? Heck if I know. My stuff works as good as it did before.
Does it hurt? I guess not, everything still runs like it did.
One thing i would like to mention, though, is that once i pick a fuel and stick with it, I tune my engine to that fuel and then I don't change things up. Best way to do it, IMO.
for years and years I used whatever came out of the pump. for years and years it has been ethanol blend, especially on those cars with the high miles.
In the past few years I started using my own special blend of additives (to ethanol fuel at first, and more recently to non-ethanol fuel) in all my non road-worthy engines. that blend includes Seafoam.
Does that mean seafoam works? Heck if I know. My stuff works as good as it did before.
Does it hurt? I guess not, everything still runs like it did.
One thing i would like to mention, though, is that once i pick a fuel and stick with it, I tune my engine to that fuel and then I don't change things up. Best way to do it, IMO.
