Of Seafoam and Snake Oil

I'm usually not a big fan of "snake oil" treatmeants. I know that there's probably not much that can be bottled that I can put in my gas can or crank case that's going to make up for abuse and neglect (though a light oil flush did help), but upon the insistance of quite a few people, I decided to give Seafoam a try - it was, after all, only about seven bucks from my local auto parts place. So I picked up a 1 pint can of it while grabbing some belts.

I put the belts on (hurrah, no more squealing belts), and started reading the instructions. I guess I should discuss the motivation first - my truck, despite a full tune up, "diesels" frequently upon shutdown. I have a sneaking suspicion the carb needs a service, but I decided to take the easy route first, trying to eliminate the cylinder buildup that could be causing "hot spots".

I'd seen a few videos and read a few experiences online, and was expecting an elevated idle, followed by plumes of noxious fumes indicating expulsion of all the crap that was coated on the interior of my engine. I poured 1/3rd of a pint down the carb throats, let it run for a little, then shut it down. I went to grab some coffee, and came out five minutes later to start it up.

This is when the plumes of white smoke, indicating many thousandths of inches of deposits going into the atmosphere and no longer causing any trouble inside my engine right? Yeah, I didn't get any of that - fumes certainly smelled different (so much so I tried harder than usual not to inhale them), but were transparent as usual.

So I chalked it up to "this stuff is worthless" shut the truck down after about 5 minutes of cycling and went inside for the night.

When we made our errand rounds today, however, I noticed something that's either a wicked coincidence, or proof positive of Seafoam's merits - not a single time did my truck diesel. Now granted it's only been shutdown about 5 or 6 times since the treatment, but so far so good.

We'll see how it goes, but I might be a believer in this Seafoam stuff. I'm saving the rest of the pint for the Cavalier.