Seafoam use frequency (or others)  By  Deleted (Read 4,697 times)

You still should use a monthly treatment to offset the poor quality fuels out there. Too many folks go crazy replacing fuel pumps, burn holes in piston tops and valves due to clogged up or poorly working fuel systems. Many of these issues can be attributed to ethanol.

DX
I would not use it daily, not even every fuelup.
I use a shot every oil change. Unless you're not riding your bike in a loooong time, but under normal use, every 2-3 months a small shot can't harm.

SF cleans mostly valves and gets rid of carbon deposit and crud in the cylinder.
Usually that takes time to develop.
So far, never had any issues with bad gas or bad motor.
Even if you'd only use a carb cleaner every 6 months, or every 4k miles, you still should be fine.

Now if the scoot is in the barn all day, especially in a hot barn, you might want to use more fuel treatment.

The 'hygroscopic' nature of ethanol pulls moisture out of the air(in your tank, in your gas can, etc) which is why I add some to my tank, as well as to any 5 gal cans in my garage.

My big question is, has anyone here added any to your oil before changing your oil, much like recommendations for autos? I'm going to change my oil in my scoot this weekend, and was thinking on adding just under an oz. (for a 750ml sump) and take it for a spin for a few miles to get it generously ran through the entire case.

Negatives? Any reasons why I should not?

I have a 2007 Lance 50cc that I have put an ounce in every fillup (92- octane only) since new and for the last 2 years it has been sitting since I got my Motofino 50cc (new daily driver) and every month I start up the Lance and run it and it starts the second I touch the starter! Don`t know if it`s from the Seafoam use or just a great engine. I`ve been putting Seafoam in my Motofino every fillup during winter and about every third tank in summer. Both scooters run great. I was worried about the Lance not starting from laying so much, but it starts faster and easier than the new Motofino.

Big fan of Sea Foam in its many applications - especially gas powered tools that use a fuel-oil mixture. More often than not, these types of tools go for fairly long periods of time between uses and without stabilizer the gas goes bad pretty quick. I always add some to my "mix" gas can. And when you run into the situation where the weed trimmer, lawn mower, chain saw, etc., just won't start or starts and immediately dies, just drain the gas from the tank and replace it with 1/2 cup of fuel/SF mixture. It fast-tracks the cleaning process of the fuel system. You can also use it just as you would starting fluid via a spray bottle.

Regarding your "first time" story, I have a similar one.
I was having issues with the injectors on an '82 BMW 320i project car I had bought to restore and putt around in. A buddy of mine had stopped by one day while I was t-shooting the rough idle and hesitation problems. He asked if I had already tried "Sea Foaming" it? I swear the second he realized I'd never heard of sea Foam his eyes lit up and he got a huge smile on his face - not because of how impressed I would ultimately be with the product but because he was going to get to witness a first-time user's reaction to the ensuing smoke show!
Immediately headed to the parts store and bought a bottle and returned to the house. Just like you, he added it slowly (you have to add it very slowly or it will immediately kill the engine) to the vacuum line but only about 1/2 the bottle. It started running like crap and it was already running rough as it was. Needless to say at this point I was less than impressed and was thinking to myself that if this stuff was as good as he claimed it was, I would have heard of it and most likely even used it at some point in time. Shut it down and went inside to have lunch.
While we ate he went into a little bit more detail about what SF does when added to the various systems of the car and lightly touched on the fact that when we started it up it was going to smoke a bit and not to be alarmed. "Smoke a bit..." is like saying "It gets hot in PHX sometimes". When I started it up it really didn't seem like anything had changed - for about the first 10 secs. Then it started billowing smoke out the exhaust. When I say billow, I mean I literally couldn't see across the street - for a while. For those who have never used it to treat your intake and fuel systems this way, the recommended way to clear it and the carbon it has dislodged out of the system is to first start it and keep the rev's up for a couple of minutes and then once it starts to run semi-smoothly to take it for a run at highway speeds like you said for about 5 miles to clear the rest of it out. Those 2-3 mins. sitting in my driveway with more smoke coming out of that little car than Mt. St. Helens the day she blew, I just knew my neighbors were going to call the fire dept' LOL!
That was my baptism by fire intro to SF - and it worked perfectly to clear my fuel system and clean the injectors. The thing ran like a freakin' top after "Sea Foaming" it.
There are plenty of videos on YT that feature the smoke show if you think I'm exaggerating about how much smoke it produces.

I let my scoot/carb sit for 7 months over the winter- rebuilt my engine in June of this year. There still was some gas in the carb because I looked the day/night of the rebuild--which I thought that I completely drained. No gum anywhere- looked brand new. No seafoam or anything. Scoot runs fine.

How long does it really take to gum up the carb? I may add a bit of seafoam this next fill up.

The gumming up of a carb usually happens when you have fuel leaking in the cylinder, and the bike is in the hot sunshine, and evaporates the gasoline. When the gasoline evaporates, and constantly new gasoline gets leaked into the cylinder, while being evaporated, the remains is what we know as gum, which will clog the injectors or jets.