I added a full bottle of SeaFoam and ran it in my Honda Accord 2.4L for 250 miles. Checked oil prior to the SF add and then after the 250 mi. Not that it’s scientific but was huge difference in color on the dipstick and white paper towel. Med brown prior and dark black after. Burns less oil per 1,000 miles too. So will do a second SeaFoam clean again at next oil change. Engine has 238,500 miles. Great video! Keep up the good work!
Nice to hear that you also had success with the product! Yeah the Seaform definitely seems to do a good job. Cool that you were using it on the same engine tested in the video too - they're solid! Thanks for your comment :)
I'd take it Easy with these solvents, you may endup shortening engine life more than the dirt itself. I know ppl that lost their engines trying to clean it up. Let some dirt stay in there.
That sounds like you out 3-4x time too much Seafoam in there and was overkill!!!! As the other guy said, be careful with all these solvents and chemicals you're putting in your engine. Some will stay when you out that much..
Beware! engine flush changes viscosity of oil. Therefore, it is not advised to drive a car during the process. One can experiment it with fast idle (1k-2k rpm) as recommended by STP
And… 2 years later my engine runs clean. Oil burn is still less than 1 qt to ~4,000 miles and has 337,355 miles on it. Should be able to get 500,000 miles on this engine.
So was I!! Here I was thinking that the "control" oil would prove to look much cleaner than the oil after the tests, I was wrong. I would be really curious to see what things would look like if I "flushed" the engine with new oil maybe 2-4 times prior to running the tests, and then checking, that would be interesting. I just didn't have enough in the budget at that time to buy oil for 5-6 changes lol. Maybe next time!
An engine this gunked up you may want to do AMSOIL power foam, and do the engine flush everytime you change the oil with Signature series. I did it in my Focus ST and I can barely hear it and my fuel mileage went up 3 mpg instantly
Good to know - I'll look into the power foam the future! Thanks for your comment :) Yeah definitely agree that an engine like this would benefit from regular cleaning for sure. I was thinking the same thing after running the tests in the video. Good to know about your Focus ST as well! Always nice hearing about what products other people have found success with! Thanks again!
@@KingdomAuto check out Synthetic Oil Protection's channel and see all the stuff he's worked on with the engine flush/power foam. Lots of good content on many different vehicles.
Just a thought: if you compare oil samples again, try pouring them each into a clear plastic cup or container, then shine a flashlight below them to see how well the light penetrates. That might help you see the difference in how contaminated each sample is.
I would think that the second flushing on the same engine is just loosening it up as you mentioned. I have used amsoil for many years and they are a great company with great products. Im sure both work well
Yeah I wouldn't be surprised if you are right. The only reason I tested Seafoam second was because it already has proven itself to be a good product. Granted, I think because Seafoam calls to actually drive around for a few hundred km's with the product mixed with the oil, that it would help to agitate the buildup more and help to loosen it. But I think overall if these products are used regularly, they both would help to keep an engine clean.
Thanks for your comment, hope the content helped in some way. I know it’s not a perfect way of testing products like this, but at the same time I think I’d lean towards Seafoam to do a better job, especially because you have multiple uses from one can. Thanks again though!
Good job. There is definitely a difference Try another couple of rounds with Marvel Mystery oil. Add about 6 ounces and drive about 300 miles with it in the crankcase. You will see a new looking engine and clean valve cover. It works.
@@ironmaidenkid455 Great to know! Yeah, definitely don't want to be doing that. Really appreciate the info. I'll have to make sure to thoroughly research any of the products that I put into the engine.
It definitely seems to work well. I'd be curious to see how these products do with consistent use. This was just a one-time test with an engine that had almost 400,000kms on it. If these products had been used before each oil change (or more often) it would be interesting to see the internals of the engine under those circumstances. Either way, it's nice to see that they seem to work!
Seafoam is amazing, and for the cost of usage it is a no brainer! Another amazing product is the Marvel Mystery Oil, not sure they have this in Canada but it helps with engine running smoother and even the gas mileage!
Seafoam does certainly seem to do a good job! Yeah I've seen a few people mention MMO on this video, with everyone saying that they have great experiences with it. I'd be interested to test that against Seafoam and see how it does - thanks for your comment!
Thanks for your comment! Yeah I think due to how mild these detergents are, they seem to slowly dissolve the sludge rather than aggressively removing it. As a result, I'd imagine that they are also quite gentle on the seals too, and I didn't notice any leaks on the Accord after performing the tests as well (even despite taking the valve cover off a handful of times). Hope these products work for you too!
Seems like a fair compromise on products, personally for me, when I got my chrysler 300, with unknown service history and having ran Amsoil on my previous car, I opted for a 20k mile cleaning period where I used the Amsoil engine flush and Amsoil Signature series every 3 to 5k miles, and now I'm that I'm passed that and 7300miles into the regular service I'm sending out a oil sample for analysis
Thanks for your comment and glad you found the video useful. Curious to know about how those samples do when they're analyzed. I did one of those through Blackstone for the first time a few months ago and it's pretty amazing how detailed and thorough they are. Hope the report comes back with good news!
Oil analysis was ridiculously high in copper, have It in the shop for the infamous lifter tick, has lifters and rockers up for replacement, I haven't had any issues so far apart from the lifters and rockers.
i had an old ford truck with a 5.4. I ran seafoam for about 300-400 miles before an oil change for 5-6 oil changes. the first time the oil coming out was thick and black. and every oil change it seemed to get a bit cleaner. the final oil change the oil was still dark, but it was more of a dark amber color than black. i thought it was snake oil before that but i watched the project farm video you mentioned and thats when i tried it.
Great info, thanks for sharing! Good to know that it seems to get rid of the buildup somewhat slowly as well, as we wouldn't want big chunks of sludge blocking any oil ports or pickups, etc.
I did not see any "sludge" in your engine but rather mainly varying layers of varnish perhaps with some carbon content. Sludge normally does not occur with on time engine oil changes unless there is something seriously wrong with the engine. Actual sludge will look like thick, goopy oil that instead of being in a liquid form instead has the consistency of gravy that got too thick. This occurs when oil has been been kept in use for too long of a period and has already begun to break down and then undergoes a transformation in conjunction with atmospheric moisture build up resulting in thick, goopy, sludge appearance. Varnish on the other hand is also a byproduct of combustion in conjunction with the exhaust vapors which are recycled back in to the engine combustion cycle, resulting in the vapor leaving a coating on the metal surfaces which is varnish with some carbon content. That is that dark, thin coating you are seeing on the underside of your valve cover and coating top engine parts. Most engine cleaners/flushes are pretty limited to what they can do to accumulated varnish coatings on the inside of the valve cover and cams but that doesn't mean that they are not cleaning the lower engine components including the oil pan (to a certain degree) of any possible oil byproduct build-up as any quality/effective brand will clean things up but they have limited effect against varnish, especially on the upper cylinder and valve cover area. For cleaning up accumulated varnish a better approach rather than an engine flush type product which are usually based on Napthenic based oils (which have cleaning properties) would be a heavy solvent based formula which is applied directly to the parts that have light to heavy varnish then physically wiping the varnish off of the metal surfaces. A product that would work for that purpose is Berryman B12. If you want to avoid (as much as possible) the accumulation of varnish in the upper cylinder, valve cover area in the first place then do more frequent oil changes. I've pulled valve covers off Honda engines that have hundreds of thousands of miles on them that had barely any varnish on them because the owners were NOT going by the factory recommended oil change intervals but instead have stuck to 3000 mile (5000 km) oil change intervals. After the 5000 mile mark, due to the repeated heat/cool cycle and fuel dilution effect, the amount of vapor deposition on the metal surfaces dramatically increases so that if a person is going by a 7500 mile oil change interval just because the manufacturer says that's "ok" to do and just because the outside of an oil container makes a claim such as 10,000 miles on it, in the automotive repair world we can definitely see the difference when we pull the valve covers off.
Cheap oil tend to lose their lubricity and additives if theres any under high heat thermal breakdown.. good quality oils with good additives will help keep the oil from being cook under high temp.
I've never done a flush but after watching your video I bet using 1/4 bottle of Seafoam before each oil change would keep the internals looking brand new. And since they recommend driving a few miles with the Seafoam I don't think it will be bad for the engine. I'm going to try it on my next oil change. :))
I was thinking the same thing actually. Probably not a bad idea to make this a regular maintenance item as I bet it would help keep the engine quite clean. Let me know how it goes if you decide to try it out!
I add 1/3 the bottle into the crankcase (1/3 intake 1/3 gas tank) before every oil change. drive until that tank of gas is done, then change my oil. Never had an issue out of my 91 S10 W/ 350K miles.
@@jhowe67 you sure it wasn't another issue like oil pump or engine just aging that caused that. I heard the chemicals in Seafoam eventually wears down plastics and seals.
Honestly these are not considered comparable products. I would recommend you trying AMSOIL Power Foam Vs. Seafoam next time. Would love to see that ;) good video!
Thanks for your suggestion, I’ll definitely look into it! I do think these products are quite similar and can be compared though, when reading the labels, they both claim to do literally the same things. That to say, if the Power Foam is supposed to be stronger or to be even more comparable to the Sea Foam then it’s worth a test for sure
There are two types of flushes. 1. Detergent based and 2. Solvent based Detergent based are more expensive and are designed to slowly liquify sludge over time thereby preventing stopping up the oil screen on the engine pump. They are not a quick-fix products but are safe and effective over time. Examples are Amsoil, LiquiMoly. Solvent based flushes are designed to be cheap and work quickly. Heavily sludged engines can be overloaded with the solvent and break large chunks of sludge loose and stopping the screen on the pump up. Sea foam, kerosene, and other inexpensive flushes are examples of solvent based flushes. Both Amsoil, LiquiMoly, BG, and other professional products are designed to slowly dissolve sludge and transfer it to the filter for removal over time. None of them are designed to be quick fixes. They work great in modern VVT systems freeing up sticky solenoids and phasers.
Really appreciate your comment, thanks for the tip! I'll look into Liqui Moly for sure - would be interesting to see if a product could actually get rid of some of that really caked on sludge. Cheers!
It's a good idea to change the oil filter for these tests and then take it apart for each test to see if you are breaking loose material that is being trapped in the oil filter. Oil filters are easy to take apart and analyze for sludge and debris and give more insight on cleaning action.
I wonder if the test was done using Seafoam first and Amsoil second. I bet Amsoil would win. Is not fair to test both products on the same car, the 2nd product will always have the upper hand since the 1st product already did part of the cleaning.
Thanks for your comment; I addressed everything you are saying in the video, as I came to the very same conclusion :) Furthermore, if you look around online, there are many tests on Seafoam that already indicate that it yields good results just by itself, which is why I wanted to test Amsoil first, and Seafoam second. If Seafoam has other tests that show positive results, then we can already conclude that the Seafoam product seems to do a good job. Therefore, having only one engine, it would be better to test Amsoil first and see if it can hold up to the performance of the other Seafoam tests done online. I do think though that Seafoam is the better product if you want to remove buildup, as you're actually supposed to drive around a bit with the product in the oil. Naturally, that would help lift more sludge and debris. Alternatively, the Amsoil would probably be a great product to maintain cleanliness of an engine, especially if the product were to be used each oil change. Cheers :)
Man I was thinking the exact same thing and was looking for someone to comment. But doesn’t mean his test was for nothing. I appreciate his test but too many factors. For instance it doesn’t make sense to me that after running the products the oils all looked black. And a similar black
See my comment above. Re: the oil being black, that’s how how it came out. Regardless as to whether or not it makes sense, that’s what happened so I figured I’d record it. Cheers :)
Amsoil definitely makes great products all around, definitely agree :) In this specific instance, I found that Seafoam outperformed the Amsoil product when it came to cleaning the sludge in the engine - but overall I completely agree and I run Amsoil in my vehicles as well :)
I'm a firm believer in Amsoil Signature Series and Seafoam, I have used Seafoam for over a decade and Amsoil for about 5 years. I appreciate your review of these products, thank you. A follow-up would video and also a second test would be awesome. I would be interested in seeing the same test but reversed. Not so much as a head to head comparison but as a combined review. Add the Seafoam drive it for whatever Canadian for 300 miles is and then run the Amsoil Flush. Gut feeling is that we would see an improvement.
Thanks for your comment! Yeah I completely agree, it would be great to run the test again but in reverse. If I have the opportunity to do it again, I'll take you up on that offer for sure! I was glad to see that the products did begin to remove some of the buildup - I bet if these products were used frequently, they'd keep the engine pretty clean.
@@michaelalberson126 Thank you! And thanks for your suggestion as well. I do plan on making more content like this in the future. Currently my cousin and I are busy with the “Ordinary Drag Races” series that we have created. You can check that out here if you want: th-cam.com/play/PLk5P6n6gtr5qrZFwyHxsJu14XLlQ-mDEG.html We’ve sure had a blast filming that content! But we also are aiming to add other informative videos such as reviews, tips/tricks and videos like this Amsoil/Seafoam test as well. Thanks again for visiting our channel :)
I have tested a lot of them. My choise is MOTOR MEDIC MFD1 Synthetic Motor Flush, and/or STP Super Concentrated High Mileage Engine Flush. Also Marvel Mystery Oil, replace 20% of oil capacity with MMO for 1.000 miles before oil change
When changing oil replace one quart of oil with one quart of ATF. With VVT engines replace half a quart of oil with half a quart of ATF. ATF is packed with detergents and flushes the engine slowly as to not kick loose large pieces of slug that could clog your oil pickup screen. Five oil changes later and your engine will be squeaky clean inside.
I’ve heard this from a couple other folks that commented on this video. Seems like a really good way to clean things up. I should run this test again with this method Thanks for your comment!
@@KingdomAutono problem. It’s safer than the other flush products because the other products are just solvents with no lubrication properties, whereas ATF it’s not only a detergent it’s a lubricant as well.
ATF is NOT loaded with detergents. That is an old wives tale that simply isn’t true. ATF does not require high levels of detergents because they don’t need it. Engine oil contains much higher levels of detergents simply because the combustion process creates the byproducts that cause sludge. Automatic transmissions don’t have a combustion process and don’t require the same levels of detergents. This is easily proven by doing a cheap oil analysis on ATF and any motor oil. Lab analysis will show that ATF is much lower in detergents compared to engine oil. ATF also has friction modifiers to work with the friction clutches in an automatic transmission that you don’t want or need in an engine. ATF being a good cleaner is a urban myth that just doesn’t work. The fact that no oil tribologists have ever recommended using atf in an engine should tell you all that you need to know.
Have you had any problems with your Accord after a year from using these products? Some say using engine flushes can clog the oil passage screens possibly causing engine failure.
Nope not at all. I think in extreme cases where there is an immense amount of sludge then something like this could happen. But with a regular amount of buildup, the products seem to slowly and gently remove the buildup in a way that it won’t clog anything. That’s also why it’s highly recommended to change the oil and filter right after using these products too. That said, I didn’t have any issues after doing these tests :)
The recommendation for the two products specifically that I used are as follows: Amsoil: Add the entire bottle to the oil, idle for 10-15 minutes, drain oil immediately and change filter. www.amsoil.ca/p/engine-and-transmission-flush-flsh/ Seafoam: Add 1 Oz of oil for each quart of oil in the crank case, drive for 100-300 miles before draining and change filter. seafoamworks.com/product/sea-foam-motor-treatment-oil-fuel-additive/ So I just followed those instructions for the tests :) Hope that helps!
The oil with the Seafoam in the can, appears to have alot more black carbon, sludge in the oil. When you moved the oil, it looked like alot more on the side then the others. I recently bought a 2001 Ford Escape V6, I ran Seafoam through it for about 450miles. When I changed the oil, you could see the suspended sludge, particles in the oil. And my god, that oil filter was heavy, I bet over a pound if not more. The owner I bought it from, said that there was always continuous oil changes every 5000km. He used it as a drive around vehicle, thats it. After I drained the oil, I can tell you, that timing chain shined!!! And it didn't before. I am a firm believer in Seafoam. It appears to me, that Amsoil didn't do a darn thing..
Yeah you very well might be right. I personally didn't see a difference in the quick test where I compared the looks of the oil but I wasn't looking all that closely. I did notice a difference in the cleanliness of the engine after the Seafoam was finished doing its job though. Cool to hear that you had a good experience with Seafoam as well!
That would be an interesting test to try out for sure. Just run Signature and see if it's able to clean out an engine like that. Maybe some day in the future I'll give it a try
If you want the engine to look like new, then get the BG Dynamic cleaner kit. These products don't have enough chemicals to clean the engine. They help a little bit but you will have to change your oil every 500k. It took years to build that sludge it will take many flushes to clean it.
Nice thanks for the tip! Yeah this car was getting up there in mileage and I was using Amsoil XL so it’s got plenty of life to go well beyond 10,000kms So for me it wasn’t worth spending more $$ to change it that often. That to say though, if I had a newer vehicle or something higher performing, then yeah I’d definitely be doing what you are saying, short interval changes and then using cleaners somewhat regularly. I’ll have to try out that stuff by BG! Thanks for the tip!
As a professional in the automotive business I can validate that the BG Kit is far more effective. I’ve saved my customers thousands of dollars using it. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve used Amsoil. It’s good. I’ve used Seafoam. Love it. Great stuff. But if you want to clean an engine internally you can’t beat the BG Dynamic Engine Restoration Kit. Worth every penny!
Maybe the next few oil changes alternate the engine cleaners during each oil change then recheck the removed valve cover after 4-6 oil changes and see if you notice a difference. Who knows you might want to use both on a rotated basis. I am a fan of seafoam fuel treatment and the Amsoil products. Tough decision.
Thanks for your comment! Yeah a test like that would definitely be interesting to see! If I have the time in the future I can definitely try to put something like that together. I’m with you though, I run Amsoil’s oil in all my vehicles, but I also think that Seafoam’s carbon cleaners do a good job :)
These cleaners need heat to clean. I've used BG EPR and using that you could hear the engine get quieter. Run it at high idle for about 15 min, pull the plug and that oil was black as tar. I was genuinely shocked.
Thanks for your comment! I'll look into BG EPR as well. For both of the products I just followed the directions on the bottles. I was pretty impressed at the results though, and I think if they were used often/with every oil change, they'd probably keep the engine quite clean!
@@KingdomAuto give EPR a shot. Get the engine up to temp, pour it in, high idle (1500 rpm) 15-20 min. Give it about 15 min to let all the oil come down to the pan and then pull the plug. You'll be shocked.
@@KingdomAuto on one of the engines I did it on yeah. Honestly it looked not brand new but close to it. No joke I was shocked. And that thing had almost 200k miles on it.
Great video! Obviously the Amsoil cleaned it, then the Sea Foam cleaned it more! I would not put a catch-all product like Sea Foam in my crank case though. "Put it in your gas, put it in your oil, put it in everything!" No thanks.
Thank you. Yeah I would be inclined to agree with regards to adding product to the crank case. Granted, the detergents seem to be quite mild and I think as long as it’s not in the engine for too long then it should be fine. I do completely understand what you’re saying though, definitely wouldn’t want to dilute oil and rid it of its lubricity :)
The Amsoil is for when you going from conventional oil to synthetic that’s the reason you only run it for 15 min at idle it’s more of a detergent to get most of the conventional oil and setting the engine up for synthetic use it for my wife’s car 2013 Nissan Sentra
Thanks for your comment, but on the Amsoil website, the product claims to do much more than what you've said. Although it does claim to prepare the engine for new oil, it is also supposed to remove deposits and engine sludge, help loosen sticky valves and rings, quiet lifter noise (and more). See the link below, for info on the exact product that I used, from Amsoil's own website. These aren't my claims, they're straight from the manufacturer. www.amsoil.com/p/engine-and-transmission-flush-flsh/ Hope that helps clarify what I used and what I was trying to achieve with the test. Cheers.
Seafoam is amazing It is the closest thing to liquid tune up/mechanic there is pretty much, I've started putting it in my SUV and now all the yard equipment it works for sure and I have really only ever put in the gas tank might put some in the engine oil before my next change
It sure does seem to do a good job! Considering the cost of it and how gentle it is on the components of a vehicle, seems like a great way to keep things clean. Thanks for sharing your experience as well!
An old school trick I have used when I bought an old car with a gummed up motor with sticky rings and lifters is half a quart of auto transmission fluid in the engine and run it for a few days before changing the oil?
I’ve heard that before as well. Not sure I’d want to try it in today’s engines but I’m sure it would be interesting to look into a little more. Maybe it wouldn’t cause any harm at all and clean out the engine a bit? Would be fun to see either way :)
I've heard from a couple different sources that although MMO does a good job cleaning the engine, apparently it can also reduce the lubricity of engine oil too. So just for that reason I'm not sure if I'd want to go ahead with it. But I'll dig around more and if I can confirm that it won't weaken the oil properties then I'd test it for sure :) Thanks for your comment
I didn’t, but that’s not really necessary, as I was filling and draining the oil so frequently with these tests, that anything in the oil pan would have been flushed out.
Based on what I saw during these tests, the products seem to get rid of sludge and buildup very slowly and gently, so they *shouldn’t* clog the oil pump. But I’d definitely recommend changing the oil and filter right after using an engine flush product though. Anyways, I hope that helps!
The oil was always changed on time in this vehicle, but there was still quite a bit of sludge and buildup. I think these engine flush products are a good idea to use on a regular basis to keep the engine clean :)
The best method for a clean engine is not only keeping your oil changed, BUT maintaining a clean air filter and external fuel filter(if equipped). Dirty air/fuel 4:01 contaminates the oil as well🤷🏽♂️
@@KingdomAuto totally with you, that was for all the rhetorical questions you got from those who only pays attention to their fuel gauge and nothing else, lol
That’s great to know, but doesn’t that also kinda defeat the point of synthetic oil, considering change intervals should be much longer? Either way, nice to know it keeps things clean!
@@KingdomAuto Synthetic isn't all that much more expensive and I change it myself so that saves money. When a car reaches 300,000 I think it was financially worth the little extra cost.
@@gemeinschaftsgeful Great points all around. I change mine and use full synthetic as well but admittedly I go a little longer between changes with my vehicles. It is nice to know that the engine can look so clean if intervals are shortened!
When it comes to keeping an engine clean, definitely agreed. However, in terms of the longevity of the oil itself, I had a Blackstone test done with 13,000kms on Amsoil XL and there was plenty of life left in it when looking at additives and lubricating properties. So although the engine won’t be as clean, at least it’s safe to use oil for that length of time. This is of course assuming that no coolant or fuel is getting into the oil though… that’s a bit of a game changer.
It is a great video indeed! I have the same car and I have got to ask you this question: after using Sea Foam have you had any oil leaks or any other potential problems with the engine? My mechanic tells me to never use any flushes as they can clog the oil channel and lead to adverse effect. Have you noticed any issues after using these flushes? Much appreciated
I didn’t experience and issues personally. I have heard of people say these things before too. My thoughts are; if there is a large buildup of sludge in the engine (far more than just varnish, and much more than the engine I tested in this video) then there could be a chance that some of that sludge would come off and cause harm to the engine. If the oil is changed on time with any engine though, there won’t be a lot of buildup and these cleaners will gently dissolve what’s there, which will then just get caught in the oil filter. This is my personal opinion after having tested these cleaners and having used a handful of them over the years. I haven’t ever experienced an issue but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened. Hope that helps!
The only thing i don't like about engine flush is when all the stuff comes off your oil pump screen is going to pick it up and start to reduce oil flow to the engine. That to me is more harm than good. To me it's better to change the oil more often with a good quality oil.
Yeah I can see what you mean. I thought the same but people have been using this stuff for so long without issue. I think if the engine has an excessive amount of buildup, then that might be more of a concern. But what I saw during this test was simply that the cleaners very gently removed/dissolved what was there. This material would then get caught in the filter which gets changed after the test is done. I completely agree about your point about changing oil frequently but that also wasn’t the point of this video. I just wanted to test these cleaners and see if they work, rather than focus on oil change intervals, etc
I put half a can of seafoam in the crank case and the other half in the fuel tank..drive it for the last 1000km then change the oil, at the 5000km mark in any car.
Seafoam has a boiling point lower than engine operating temperatures so adding it to the oil will NOT work because it will just boil off when the engine is upto operation temperature. Kerosene works just as well for a fuel system cleaner and it’s so much cheaper.
You’re entitled to your opinion, but the results of the test that I did say otherwise. Regardless of apparent boiling point, the Seafoam clearly did remove some varnish/buildup in the engine.
You said that synthetic oil has been used, but there is a huge difference between a good one with PAO and Ester with good additives and a bad one. My mercedes after more than 100000 miles are metal clean inside engine.
I have a direct injection engine. I'm not so sure Seafoam is going to do very much for DFI Motors. Possibly help clean the injectors but I'm more sure anything else.
It depends on what you’d be using it for. If to do something like what I’ve done in the video - adding the product into your oil - it’ll do the same thing and clean out carbon within the block and head. Adding it to your gas would help clean injectors as you’ve mentioned. But as for cleaning intake valves, you’re correct; it wouldn’t be able to clean those by simply adding to your oil or gas
Sludge just magicaly won't disappear....is all going some were and that's the oil pump strainer and for sure some of it is going into the oil pump gears if the strainer doesn't get completely clogged...
These types of products do a great job of gently dissolving the sludge, that’s been proven quite definitively over the years. So it’s very safe for the pump and strainer as the buildup won’t come off in big chunks but rather very fine particles that would simply just get caught in the filter and/or suspended in the oil itself. That’s why the manufacturers recommend that you change your oil as soon as the product is finished doing its work. Additionally, it’s recommended that these products are used somewhat regularly to keep the engine clean. Biggest thing that helps with a clean engine though is short change intervals. Cheers
Try changing your oil type. What i mean is use another oil in your car. Ive used mobile one in my motor and the ticking was still there. I used different types of oil. But when i started using Royal Purple the motor was alot quiter and the ticking stopped. Try with Royal Purple for your next test
Thanks for your comment, this test wasn't so much about which type of oil to use, as it was a test to see how well a couple of "engine cleaning" products will work to remove sludge. However, a test to see how clean a certain type of oil can keep an engine would also be a neat topic to try out :)
Some oils do give u sludge. Royal Purple has a strong detergent that cleans your motor from the inside will help with the sludge plus u can add sea foam to help more of the sludge removal.
Yeah I know what you mean. Im not sure what oil the car was run on from 0-220,000kms, all I know is that the changes were done on time. After 220,000kms the car was switched over to Amsoil, which shouldn’t be one of those oils that gives you sludge though, being one of the top synthetic brands. But yeah I’ve heard that Royal Purple can do well with cleaning the engine
Unfortunately I couldn’t tell you. I owned the car after it had 225,000 kms on it. So apart from knowing that the oil changes were done on time, I don’t know what brand was used. Once I began ownership, I used only Amsoil XL and changed every 8000-10,000kms, which is well within the range of life for that oil. Plus I had a Blackstone report done on it at 10,000kms and the oil was still in great shape + were still plenty of additives remaining. Sorry I couldn’t tell you what was used before though
These products are quite safe for all gasoline engines, so I would expect that the Amsoil flush would be totally fine to use on your car. The best thing to do would be to contact Amsoil and ask them though, as they would have the most accurate information on their products. Hope that helps!
I bet if you used any top shelf synthetic oil for your vehicle and reduced the oil change intervals slightly the engine internals would clean up just fine.
I inherited the car with around 225,000kms on it. I'm not sure what was used prior to that. From 225,000 until the time of this video I was using only Amsoil XL fully synthetic. Change intervals of about 8,000 kms
You said oil changes has been done on time ,maybe you wanna do them earlier than recommendation and also depends on what oil you using ,just my two cents P.S. lol I'm surprised amsoil warriors didn't show up yet 😅
I thought it was interesting seeing all of the sludge as well! I am wondering if maybe the car had cheap oil used for most of its life. I know it was always synthetic but I don't know what brand. From 220,000kms to 375,000kms (when I took ownership of the car), it was running only on Amsoil XL synthetic and I always changed it earlier than what was recommended. So was a tad surprised to see how much gunk was built up when I pulled off the valve cover. Also re: Amsoil warriors - so funny haha Thanks for your comment!
@@KingdomAuto 😅 you're welcome! Oh in that case most likely is been low quality oil , in the past I had a vehicle that mechanic had to open the engine and asked me what I'm using since is super clean. I was using Mobil 1 ...and still do . Also if you using XL and still looks gunky I'd switch to signature series I mean it won't hurt to try . Maybe I would think will take few cycles of oil change with good oil before it gets cleaner since is been neglected from previous owner
@@kostadinustavalkov1902 Yeah could have very well been!! Good to know about Mobil 1! I think if the car was newer, I'd go with Signature series, but for having 375,000+ kms, I was totally fine with the XL haha
@@KingdomAuto 😁 fair point, that's quite few km on it but you got nothing to worry about afterall it's Honda. I believe if you keep that oil after some oil changes down the road it'll get cleaner. Also I'd put P.I. amsoil red bottle cleaner too, I feel slight difference on drivability after I started . Seems like you doing the right thing buddy keep it up and you'll be just fine 👊
@@kostadinustavalkov1902 Yeah that's a good point, would be interesting to see if it does get any cleaner just by the oil that's being used. And great idea regarding the P.I. product, I've used that several times and it seems to be doing a really good job! Thanks again for your comments and info :)
I think the difference between the two is time. One was 5-10 mins. One was many hours. The other question is how good is it for the engine to run hours and hours with the contents of seafoam in your crank case? Seafoam contains 20% rubbing alcohol which has no lubricating properties, destroys motor additives, not good for the seals. IMO does not belong in motor oil for any extended period of time.
Yeah I was thinking the same thing. I just followed the directions on the cans but it does make sense that time would help the detergents clean the engine more. With regards to engine longevity, you raise a great point. It would be interesting to see if these products cause damage over long periods of time. I would imagine that using them every now and then and adhering to the instructions wouldn’t cause and problems but who truly knows.
can you clarify what synthetic oil was used and also what was the oil change interval for this car? Also what was the spec fo the engine. I just know this is a NA. I'm assuming this is the 2.4L port injected...170 or 190hp iVtec.. 4 cylinder with timing chain.
This is a 2.4L port injected engine. 190Hp I am not sure what type of synthetic oil was used up until around 220,000kms when I inherited the car. From 220,000 kms to 375,000kms, the car used only Amsoil XL synthetic oil and was changed every 8000-10,000kms, well under the recommended service interval.
@@KingdomAuto I just did a valve adjustment on my Honda. My engine is sparkly silver clean , so is the valve cover. I use Amsoil signature, but also for like 3 oil changes the amsoil xl. I got the car around 80k miles. Now it’s at 110k miles. Unsure of previous oil change history. I’m wondering if the PAO synthetic cleaned up/kept the engine shiny clean, or was it my short change interval, or both. Interval was 2000-5000miles. Only about 1-2 oil changes were at 5000miles
@@LoveLikeaHurricane Interesting but great to know that your engine is looking so good :) The engine in this video needed some cleaning up so I figured this would be a good opportunity for a test between the Amsoil and Seafoam engine cleaners
@@KingdomAuto There’s your answer why there is sludge snd carbon build up. You can’t verify the oil change intervals before you inherited it and when you did inherit it, you changed at it 8000 to 10000 km. Thats too long even if Amsoil says their oil is good for 25,000 miles. Although your TBN in the oil might still be good at 10,000 km and it still lubricating, the oil is too dirty at that point and will just bake the dirt and sludge into the engine parts. You need to change way sooner if you want your engine to remain clean.
@B W Yeah I can definitely verify that the oil changes were always done on time - I inherited the car from my uncle who bought it new and had all the service history so I know for sure the changes were done on time :) I got the car at 220k kms. Oil changes were always done on time but not early. only thing I can't verify is the type of oil used. I switched to Amsoil at 220k and had it on Amsoil XL until 375k which was when I shot the video. And honestly, I'm totally fine with changing every 10k using an oil that's good till 25k. Doesn't make a lot of sense for me to spend money on synthetic oil if I'm going to change it at non-synthetic intervals; especially on a car that's 12+ years old and has over 370k kms haha
Yes these additives do work... I,'d use a full synthetic oil now and it will continue the scouring effect that was started by these. I Use a 1/2 qt of kerosene and a 1/4 qt of tranny fluid mix.., Idle for 5 minutes or so, depending on each individual engine and case.. Is doing the same thing as these...Trick is to change the oil filters, so they don't overload, if an extremely dirty engine. Just have to know what you're doing.Folks have using straight tranny fluid, and even desiel fuel as a flush for decades now... About any full synthetic today, will gently scour the engine while driving..Also never forget MARVEL Mystery Oil as a longer term gentler cleaner. Been working wonders for about a century now... ( Are all Hondas that noisy, thought it was a diesel at first. Chuckle Chuckle 😃 ) That kid will be in Nascar in a few short years!
Thanks for your comment and glad you're seeing success with these types of additives. I've seen a few comments about Marvel Mystery Oil too and people have said it works well. If I do another one of these tests, I'll include that product too. Thanks again
@@KingdomAuto Cool. But MARVEL isn't an instant cleaning agent like the more aggressive ones like these are. Love about MARVEL is in can really get into the nooks and crannies over time and flush out gum and varnish and quite down "some" engines alot actually....Good Luck and more videos! Thanx ; Jethro
You sound like my Dad who was a motorhead from the 50's. However, I don't think I'd be running kerosene or tranny fluid in my newer engine. Don't know exactly that it would detrimental, however a lot more things on engines today than from decades ago. I like MM also, however no clue if its an old wives tale or actually does something.
@@boots7859 Well I not sure what is in newer engines but even smaller passageways that need the flushing and dissolving action in them now more than ever... The increase of nylon on things such as timing chain guides can handle this stuff I'm referring too.. I haven't seen on any of the "5 minute Engine" flushes on the market "not for certain engines or age" Actually my concoction is a little less aggressive than what those are..Mainly kerosene and benzene plus other harsh chemicals. But that's sometimes what you need, trying to get years of built up crud off in five minutes. You have to know what you are playing with first of all. And a rented borescope from A.zone etc will tell you what is what in there because most valvecovers are a real PITA to pull off today...It's really about experience and knowing what you are trying to accomplish in the first place.. You better be willing to pull off an oil pan, if using a 5 minutes flush on a very sludge up engine, or you'll kill it faster than Joe Biden does brain cells...MMO works as well in today's engines with V-tec and cam phasers and oil pressure activated chain tensionors .Again you have to know what you're doing, as a full 20% capacity fill as the bottle calls for will need a step up 5 weight in Summer driving. I only use 15% and usually a full synthetic in my own vehicle. But works even better for conventional Dino oil...The folks I help are always trying to save a dime, and ho Dino oils... Might think these are ramblings of an old man, but check out a Video with FORD BOSS MAN and the reps of MARVEL Mystery Oil. It's still in play today, but as we say here in MaZurrah say..SHOW ME!!!.... GOOD 👍 LUCK. .... Jethro
I always use stands. In the case of this video there were a couple times I didn’t, just to get the quick video shot (didn’t stay there long). Not a good idea regardless. Haven’t done that since
How did you pour each product? Did you flush each product with interval then full drain in between or did you just add the second product from the first one?
Save your money on Seafoam, it's snake oil. It only improved performance while it's in the engine or fuel system due to the petroleum distillates acting as a lubricant. Any pour in the oil or gas product at an auto parts store is usually never effective. Dealerships use specialty products like BG at dealerships because of their effectiveness. Amsoil products are superior when it comes to flushes, cleaners and lubricants and their effectiveness is why they are in business when they are dealer only or online only rather than sold with mass production products at auto parts stores.
Thanks for your comment! Really appreciate the info. Based on what I saw from my own personal results, it seemed that the Seafoam did slightly outperform the Amsoil on this specific test. However, what I'd really like to see is testing both products, on two different engines multiple times. That would be a true way to see how they perform. I'm a huge Amsoil fan, I use a ton of their products and I will continue to do so as long as I own a vehicle. But for this test specifically I can't argue the fact that the Seafoam did seem to agitate and remove more buildup than the Amsoil. But as I mentioned in the video, this could have also been because I tested Amsoil first as well. Hard to say but at some point down the road, I'll be attempting another test like this and I'll try to make it as fair as possible. Thanks again!
@@KingdomAuto absolutely no problem. But isolate your testing so you can distinguish which is stronger. I've used both but I had to test them individually to determine that amsoil engine/trans flush was stronger. Honestly BG EPR was the strongest I've used for engine flushes specifically and I'm about to try ATS since it's a specialty product and recommended for professional use only.
@@mikehigby7897 That's great to know - yeah if you remember, keep me posted on the ATS as well. Really appreciate the info and if I was to do this kind of test again, I'd use more products as well so I've taken note of BG EPR and ATS. Thanks a ton!
Amsoil is also like a multi-level marketing operation. Might be Tier 1 or above, however their business operations just make me and others wary. I've personally used Seafoam in a couple of vehicles, and I know it works very well, both while in the vehicle and subsequent operation after its had an oil change. It may just be a more modern take on kerosene that the 50's motorheads used, but it sure has worked for many people.
@@boots7859 Yeah agreed. Based on what I've personally seen + from other tests online, it does seem that a handful of these products definitely make some incremental improvements to the engine, and a lot of people vouch specifically for Seafoam as well, myself included. I can't speak much to Amsoil's other products or their business operations, but I've found their oil to be very good overall. There's a TH-cam channel called Project Farm (you've probably already seen some content by him I would imagine) and he's run a series of oil tests on his channel - really well controlled. And Amsoil comes out on top out of a bunch of popular brands of oil. Here's a good video: th-cam.com/video/TWuKvnCq1js/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=ProjectFarm Granted though, in today's day - it's likely not so much the type of oil that's used but more so the fact that the changes are done on time, and that enough oil is always in the engine. Anyways, thanks for your comment!! Have a good one :)
Love you're video. But I see one thing wrong please for the love of your son never get under a vehicle without jack stands in place. I didn't see any but please for your safety my friend.
Thanks so much Donald! I did have support under the car when I was under it - camera just didn't pick it up. But I really appreciate you looking out for me though. Thanks again
Why does there always have to be someone like you in the comments . If you have a good jack and you're only removing the drain plug you don't need jackstands...sheesh.
I immediately wanted to tell you the same thing about never trusting a single jack if you crawl under your car. The fellow that showed disdain for using jack-stands needs to know this. One day, a long time ago, the most knowledgeable man in the team asked me to grease the zirk fittings under his International dump truck. I had never done anything to any vehicle prior to that day, so I simply did as he said. At some point he yelled down under telling me not to worry, that he was going to start the truck to give his work a test. He started that huge truck in reverse, without his foot being on the clutch pedal. It lurched backward, killing the engine, but knocking over the “floor jack” (dirt for a floor). The right front wheel of that monster moved over and landed on the dead center of my chest, breaking all of my ribs at once, then the truck rolled forward and off my chest (luckily). My lungs were collapsed. I remember thinking how stupid of me to die on such a pretty day. The struggle to gain a breath went on for almost a minute before air rushed into my lungs, and the pain began. We were located 45 minutes from the nearest hospital. Putting a vehicle on jack-stands has been a hard and fast rule to me, before going under my car, ever since. With just one jack, just one mistake can ruin your day. BTW: I enjoyed your video.
I've heard good things about both of those oils and have used them myself as well. Based on the research I've done, it seems as though Amsoil has better lubricity than those two brands, which is why I use it. I suspect that most of the sludge in this engine was already there before I owned it. for the first 220,000kms of its life, I don't know what oil was used, apart from the fact that it was synthetic. Then from 220,000 to 375,000kms, I had it running on Amsoil XL. Either way, when I saw how dirty the engine was looking, I figured it would be a good opportunity to test the Amsoil and Seafoam products to see which one came out on top
Please, sir, run 5W 30 can’t hear my metal parts clanking around and he’s a frame ultras synthetic filter and a force. Valvoline high mileage extended protection every 7000 miles.
I was very happy with Amsoil when running it in the car. I had Blackstone analyze the oil after 13,000kms and the oil still had lots of life and anti-wear properties in it. Very happy with Amsoil’s oil :) With regards to viscosity, I always use what the manufacturer calls for
This is just more proof that it doesn’t matter if you use gold, oil changes should never exceed 5k miles I don’t care how much oil has evolved….i use cheap oil and change it every 3-5k miles and my engine looks almost new inside….
Yeah in this case, it did seem that way. And I know that this could very well have been because I tested Amsoil first. But at the same time, with a Seafoam treatment, you don't need to use the entire bottle. Most times you can get at least 2 and sometimes 3 uses out of just 1 bottle, whereas the Amsoil product is just 1 flush per bottle. So from what I personally saw, I am leaning towards Seafoam as well :)
I've seen a couple people say that MMO seems to work well. I'll definitely check it out! However, I have also heard that this product lessens the lubricity properties of the oil. Do you know anything about that? I haven't done any research on it so I can't say myself. But if it's true, I don't know if I'd want to add it to my engine lol Regardless, thanks for your comment :)
Oh good question. For the tests I just went out and bought the cheapest filters I could find because I knew I'd be changing the oil so much. But I forget what brand it was. Sorry about that. When I owned the car I'd always use Amsoil's synthetic filters along with Amsoil XL oil
Amsoil flush smell just like strong kerosene. That smell would last after 2 oil change. I think amsoil engine flush they said regular part of maintenance or you should do it every oil change or 10 to 15k miles. It's a quick flush type product so in your 1 test you are not going to see any difference but I have done it with my vehicles and I feel like my vehicles run smoother and quieter. And whenever I pull my dipstick I can smell kerosene.
Thanks for your comment! Yeah I agree, these products are meant for ongoing maintenance as opposed to just one time. But I wanted to test and see which one removed more buildup with just one use. I think either way, if these products are used regularly, they’ll probably do a good job at keeping the engine clean :)
Thanks for the unbiased (as possible) comparison. My mechanic has sworn by seafoam in the engine oil and fuel system too. My only rec is NEVER get under a vehicle that is only supported by a hydraulic lift (like a floor jack). ALWAYS use axle stands!! Sorry. My mechanic drove that into my head when working with him as an apprentice and even at home now I always use axle stands unless vehicle is on four wheels and I need to get under it. Otherwise congrats
Much appreciated! Yes I totally agree about jack stands. There was one time in this video where I was using stands and the camera couldn’t see them. Another time where I hopped under just quickly but I totally agree. I always use stands, thank you for your comment my friend :) Cool to hear that your mechanic recommends Seafoam too!
Glad you use em. I have heard horror stories of people not. I got a 20 ton bottle jack for my k2500 cause my 3 ton floor jack wasn't feeling safe even with tires on and jack stands... *laughs* So no worries. Just didn't wanna tell you your business is all :)
@@natenixon9487 Yeah I know exactly what you mean, I've heard some rough stories as well + especially with my family in the picture, I always throw stands under the vehicles now. Interestingly enough, it was due to this video that I became even more careful with stands - mainly from a bunch of comments from fantastic folks like yourself that mentioned the topic. Since hearing some of those stories, every time I've gone under a vehicle, even quickly, I've put stands under. So I really appreciate your comments! Thanks again :)
I added a full bottle of SeaFoam and ran it in my Honda Accord 2.4L for 250 miles. Checked oil prior to the SF add and then after the 250 mi. Not that it’s scientific but was huge difference in color on the dipstick and white paper towel. Med brown prior and dark black after. Burns less oil per 1,000 miles too. So will do a second SeaFoam clean again at next oil change. Engine has 238,500 miles. Great video! Keep up the good work!
Nice to hear that you also had success with the product! Yeah the Seaform definitely seems to do a good job.
Cool that you were using it on the same engine tested in the video too - they're solid!
Thanks for your comment :)
I'd take it Easy with these solvents, you may endup shortening engine life more than the dirt itself. I know ppl that lost their engines trying to clean it up. Let some dirt stay in there.
That sounds like you out 3-4x time too much Seafoam in there and was overkill!!!! As the other guy said, be careful with all these solvents and chemicals you're putting in your engine. Some will stay when you out that much..
Beware! engine flush changes viscosity of oil. Therefore, it is not advised to drive a car during the process. One can experiment it with fast idle (1k-2k rpm) as recommended by STP
And… 2 years later my engine runs clean. Oil burn is still less than 1 qt to ~4,000 miles and has 337,355 miles on it. Should be able to get 500,000 miles on this engine.
Wow, I am impressed by the color of the “new” oil after only 10min of life. Much darker than I would have ever expected!
So was I!! Here I was thinking that the "control" oil would prove to look much cleaner than the oil after the tests, I was wrong. I would be really curious to see what things would look like if I "flushed" the engine with new oil maybe 2-4 times prior to running the tests, and then checking, that would be interesting. I just didn't have enough in the budget at that time to buy oil for 5-6 changes lol. Maybe next time!
An engine this gunked up you may want to do AMSOIL power foam, and do the engine flush everytime you change the oil with Signature series. I did it in my Focus ST and I can barely hear it and my fuel mileage went up 3 mpg instantly
Good to know - I'll look into the power foam the future! Thanks for your comment :)
Yeah definitely agree that an engine like this would benefit from regular cleaning for sure. I was thinking the same thing after running the tests in the video.
Good to know about your Focus ST as well! Always nice hearing about what products other people have found success with!
Thanks again!
@@KingdomAuto check out Synthetic Oil Protection's channel and see all the stuff he's worked on with the engine flush/power foam. Lots of good content on many different vehicles.
@@Ruhdiculus Absolutely will do! Thanks again :)
Eben is my amsoil rep.@@Ruhdiculus
Just a thought: if you compare oil samples again, try pouring them each into a clear plastic cup or container, then shine a flashlight below them to see how well the light penetrates. That might help you see the difference in how contaminated each sample is.
Great idea, thanks! Yeah next time for sure
Actually, it works even better to dip clean white paper into each sample and after a day compare them side by side..
I would think that the second flushing on the same engine is just loosening it up as you mentioned. I have used amsoil for many years and they are a great company with great products. Im sure both work well
Yeah I wouldn't be surprised if you are right. The only reason I tested Seafoam second was because it already has proven itself to be a good product. Granted, I think because Seafoam calls to actually drive around for a few hundred km's with the product mixed with the oil, that it would help to agitate the buildup more and help to loosen it.
But I think overall if these products are used regularly, they both would help to keep an engine clean.
I really appreciate you going this far for a video. Thank you.
Thanks for your comment, hope the content helped in some way. I know it’s not a perfect way of testing products like this, but at the same time I think I’d lean towards Seafoam to do a better job, especially because you have multiple uses from one can.
Thanks again though!
Good job. There is definitely a difference Try another couple of rounds with Marvel Mystery oil. Add about 6 ounces and drive about 300 miles with it in the crankcase. You will see a new looking engine and clean valve cover. It works.
Noted, thanks for your comment!
I'll have to give that stuff a try; and maybe make another comparison video in the process as well
@@KingdomAuto Do not try MMO, MMO actually reduces the lubricity of motor oil.
@@ironmaidenkid455 Great to know! Yeah, definitely don't want to be doing that. Really appreciate the info. I'll have to make sure to thoroughly research any of the products that I put into the engine.
I trust and use Seafoam. Thanks for the assurance.
It definitely seems to work well. I'd be curious to see how these products do with consistent use. This was just a one-time test with an engine that had almost 400,000kms on it. If these products had been used before each oil change (or more often) it would be interesting to see the internals of the engine under those circumstances. Either way, it's nice to see that they seem to work!
Seafoam is amazing, and for the cost of usage it is a no brainer! Another amazing product is the Marvel Mystery Oil, not sure they have this in Canada but it helps with engine running smoother and even the gas mileage!
Seafoam does certainly seem to do a good job!
Yeah I've seen a few people mention MMO on this video, with everyone saying that they have great experiences with it. I'd be interested to test that against Seafoam and see how it does - thanks for your comment!
Appreciate the video! Gives me some assurance to do a flush next oil change on my high mileage Hondas. Was worried about damaging seals before.
Thanks for your comment! Yeah I think due to how mild these detergents are, they seem to slowly dissolve the sludge rather than aggressively removing it. As a result, I'd imagine that they are also quite gentle on the seals too, and I didn't notice any leaks on the Accord after performing the tests as well (even despite taking the valve cover off a handful of times).
Hope these products work for you too!
Detergent based , engine flush
Seems like a fair compromise on products, personally for me, when I got my chrysler 300, with unknown service history and having ran Amsoil on my previous car, I opted for a 20k mile cleaning period where I used the Amsoil engine flush and Amsoil Signature series every 3 to 5k miles, and now I'm that I'm passed that and 7300miles into the regular service I'm sending out a oil sample for analysis
Thanks for your comment and glad you found the video useful.
Curious to know about how those samples do when they're analyzed. I did one of those through Blackstone for the first time a few months ago and it's pretty amazing how detailed and thorough they are.
Hope the report comes back with good news!
How was the results?
Your full of it 😂
Oil analysis was ridiculously high in copper, have It in the shop for the infamous lifter tick, has lifters and rockers up for replacement, I haven't had any issues so far apart from the lifters and rockers.
@@zachdailyfost4433 copper means rod bearing are done. Sorry to tell you.
i had an old ford truck with a 5.4. I ran seafoam for about 300-400 miles before an oil change for 5-6 oil changes. the first time the oil coming out was thick and black. and every oil change it seemed to get a bit cleaner. the final oil change the oil was still dark, but it was more of a dark amber color than black. i thought it was snake oil before that but i watched the project farm video you mentioned and thats when i tried it.
Great info, thanks for sharing! Good to know that it seems to get rid of the buildup somewhat slowly as well, as we wouldn't want big chunks of sludge blocking any oil ports or pickups, etc.
im gonna try seafoam on my f150 5.4.
@@jamesyarbrough4777 Hope it works well for you :)
Just used a quart of atf for 100 miles. Works real well
Interesting, some other folks have mentioned the same thing. Would be cool to compare to the actual cleaning products and see how it does
Marvel mystery oil seems like it's atf 😅
Atf has many detergents and additives
I did not see any "sludge" in your engine but rather mainly varying layers of varnish perhaps with some carbon content. Sludge normally does not occur with on time engine oil changes unless there is something seriously wrong with the engine. Actual sludge will look like thick, goopy oil that instead of being in a liquid form instead has the consistency of gravy that got too thick. This occurs when oil has been been kept in use for too long of a period and has already begun to break down and then undergoes a transformation in conjunction with atmospheric moisture build up resulting in thick, goopy, sludge appearance. Varnish on the other hand is also a byproduct of combustion in conjunction with the exhaust vapors which are recycled back in to the engine combustion cycle, resulting in the vapor leaving a coating on the metal surfaces which is varnish with some carbon content. That is that dark, thin coating you are seeing on the underside of your valve cover and coating top engine parts. Most engine cleaners/flushes are pretty limited to what they can do to accumulated varnish coatings on the inside of the valve cover and cams but that doesn't mean that they are not cleaning the lower engine components including the oil pan (to a certain degree) of any possible oil byproduct build-up as any quality/effective brand will clean things up but they have limited effect against varnish, especially on the upper cylinder and valve cover area. For cleaning up accumulated varnish a better approach rather than an engine flush type product which are usually based on Napthenic based oils (which have cleaning properties) would be a heavy solvent based formula which is applied directly to the parts that have light to heavy varnish then physically wiping the varnish off of the metal surfaces. A product that would work for that purpose is Berryman B12. If you want to avoid (as much as possible) the accumulation of varnish in the upper cylinder, valve cover area in the first place then do more frequent oil changes. I've pulled valve covers off Honda engines that have hundreds of thousands of miles on them that had barely any varnish on them because the owners were NOT going by the factory recommended oil change intervals but instead have stuck to 3000 mile (5000 km) oil change intervals. After the 5000 mile mark, due to the repeated heat/cool cycle and fuel dilution effect, the amount of vapor deposition on the metal surfaces dramatically increases so that if a person is going by a 7500 mile oil change interval just because the manufacturer says that's "ok" to do and just because the outside of an oil container makes a claim such as 10,000 miles on it, in the automotive repair world we can definitely see the difference when we pull the valve covers off.
Cool thanks for sharing :)
Cheap oil tend to lose their lubricity and additives if theres any under high heat thermal breakdown.. good quality oils with good additives will help keep the oil from being cook under high temp.
I've never done a flush but after watching your video I bet using 1/4 bottle of Seafoam before each oil change would keep the internals looking brand new. And since they recommend driving a few miles with the Seafoam I don't think it will be bad for the engine. I'm going to try it on my next oil change. :))
I was thinking the same thing actually. Probably not a bad idea to make this a regular maintenance item as I bet it would help keep the engine quite clean.
Let me know how it goes if you decide to try it out!
I add 1/3 the bottle into the crankcase (1/3 intake 1/3 gas tank) before every oil change. drive until that tank of gas is done, then change my oil. Never had an issue out of my 91 S10 W/ 350K miles.
@@jhowe67 yeah but for how long have you been doing that? Even the company doesn't recommend doing it that much
@maxax6651 6 years. This plus switching to Amsoil, stopped my oil pressure tanking 5 minutes into every drive.
@@jhowe67 you sure it wasn't another issue like oil pump or engine just aging that caused that. I heard the chemicals in Seafoam eventually wears down plastics and seals.
Honestly these are not considered comparable products. I would recommend you trying AMSOIL Power Foam Vs. Seafoam next time. Would love to see that ;) good video!
Thanks for your suggestion, I’ll definitely look into it!
I do think these products are quite similar and can be compared though, when reading the labels, they both claim to do literally the same things. That to say, if the Power Foam is supposed to be stronger or to be even more comparable to the Sea Foam then it’s worth a test for sure
There are two types of flushes. 1. Detergent based and 2. Solvent based
Detergent based are more expensive and are designed to slowly liquify sludge over time thereby preventing stopping up the oil screen on the engine pump. They are not a quick-fix products but are safe and effective over time. Examples are Amsoil, LiquiMoly.
Solvent based flushes are designed to be cheap and work quickly. Heavily sludged engines can be overloaded with the solvent and break large chunks of sludge loose and stopping the screen on the pump up. Sea foam, kerosene, and other inexpensive flushes are examples of solvent based flushes.
Both Amsoil, LiquiMoly, BG, and other professional products are designed to slowly dissolve sludge and transfer it to the filter for removal over time. None of them are designed to be quick fixes. They work great in modern VVT systems freeing up sticky solenoids and phasers.
👍👍
Schaeffer’s NEUTRA. One ounce per quart of oil. Drive for 600-800 miles and like you said, slowly Cleans good 👍
Try Liqui Moly pro line Engine Flush next time. It'll really liquify those caked on build up and flush it all out. Great video btw!
Really appreciate your comment, thanks for the tip! I'll look into Liqui Moly for sure - would be interesting to see if a product could actually get rid of some of that really caked on sludge.
Cheers!
Thanks for the info Josh! Your son is a cutie!!!!🤩 good for you for teaching him so young
Thank you :) It was fun having him working on this with me for a bit. Thanks for your comment
It's a good idea to change the oil filter for these tests and then take it apart for each test to see if you are breaking loose material that is being trapped in the oil filter. Oil filters are easy to take apart and analyze for sludge and debris and give more insight on cleaning action.
I wonder if the test was done using Seafoam first and Amsoil second. I bet Amsoil would win. Is not fair to test both products on the same car, the 2nd product will always have the upper hand since the 1st product already did part of the cleaning.
Thanks for your comment; I addressed everything you are saying in the video, as I came to the very same conclusion :)
Furthermore, if you look around online, there are many tests on Seafoam that already indicate that it yields good results just by itself, which is why I wanted to test Amsoil first, and Seafoam second.
If Seafoam has other tests that show positive results, then we can already conclude that the Seafoam product seems to do a good job. Therefore, having only one engine, it would be better to test Amsoil first and see if it can hold up to the performance of the other Seafoam tests done online.
I do think though that Seafoam is the better product if you want to remove buildup, as you're actually supposed to drive around a bit with the product in the oil. Naturally, that would help lift more sludge and debris.
Alternatively, the Amsoil would probably be a great product to maintain cleanliness of an engine, especially if the product were to be used each oil change.
Cheers :)
Man I was thinking the exact same thing and was looking for someone to comment.
But doesn’t mean his test was for nothing. I appreciate his test but too many factors. For instance it doesn’t make sense to me that after running the products the oils all looked black. And a similar black
See my comment above. Re: the oil being black, that’s how how it came out. Regardless as to whether or not it makes sense, that’s what happened so I figured I’d record it.
Cheers :)
I use ASMOIL and let me just say best products on the market!!!
Amsoil definitely makes great products all around, definitely agree :) In this specific instance, I found that Seafoam outperformed the Amsoil product when it came to cleaning the sludge in the engine - but overall I completely agree and I run Amsoil in my vehicles as well :)
I'm a firm believer in Amsoil Signature Series and Seafoam, I have used Seafoam for over a decade and Amsoil for about 5 years. I appreciate your review of these products, thank you. A follow-up would video and also a second test would be awesome. I would be interested in seeing the same test but reversed. Not so much as a head to head comparison but as a combined review. Add the Seafoam drive it for whatever Canadian for 300 miles is and then run the Amsoil Flush. Gut feeling is that we would see an improvement.
Thanks for your comment! Yeah I completely agree, it would be great to run the test again but in reverse. If I have the opportunity to do it again, I'll take you up on that offer for sure!
I was glad to see that the products did begin to remove some of the buildup - I bet if these products were used frequently, they'd keep the engine pretty clean.
Lol it’s called a kilometre
Very good video! Thank you for the conducted test and sharing it!
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it!
You should put the remaining sea foam in the fuel tank and then both systems will be cleaned or cleaner.
Just a suggestion.
Good idea! Yeah that’s a plus for Seafoam for sure, that you’ve got some left over for other things.
Thanks for the quick response and your presentation was extremely informative and professional.
@@michaelalberson126 Thank you! And thanks for your suggestion as well.
I do plan on making more content like this in the future. Currently my cousin and I are busy with the “Ordinary Drag Races” series that we have created. You can check that out here if you want:
th-cam.com/play/PLk5P6n6gtr5qrZFwyHxsJu14XLlQ-mDEG.html
We’ve sure had a blast filming that content! But we also are aiming to add other informative videos such as reviews, tips/tricks and videos like this Amsoil/Seafoam test as well.
Thanks again for visiting our channel :)
This was a really well done test mate. Good job
I appreciate that, thank you! I know it wasn't a perfect test but I did my best to work with what I had :)
Use Berryman’s B12, it’s the cheapest and most effective because it has xylene and toluene, but be carful since it has a bit of acetone too
Good to know, if I repeat this test I'll be sure to try it out
You are right about your first choice by add Amsoil than seefome,
I appreciate that, thanks! Hope the video provided you with some information
Great video. These products do take time to work, and they may require an early oil change because of dissolving buildup inside the engine.
Thank you. Yes definitely agreed, always good to change the oil as soon as the cleaners are done their work.
I have tested a lot of them. My choise is MOTOR MEDIC MFD1 Synthetic Motor Flush, and/or STP Super Concentrated High Mileage Engine Flush. Also Marvel Mystery Oil, replace 20% of oil capacity with MMO for 1.000 miles before oil change
Nice, thanks for the info 👌
When changing oil replace one quart of oil with one quart of ATF. With VVT engines replace half a quart of oil with half a quart of ATF. ATF is packed with detergents and flushes the engine slowly as to not kick loose large pieces of slug that could clog your oil pickup screen. Five oil changes later and your engine will be squeaky clean inside.
I’ve heard this from a couple other folks that commented on this video. Seems like a really good way to clean things up. I should run this test again with this method
Thanks for your comment!
@@KingdomAutono problem. It’s safer than the other flush products because the other products are just solvents with no lubrication properties, whereas ATF it’s not only a detergent it’s a lubricant as well.
@@joshuaraffensperger3592 makes a ton of sense. Will have to try it some day and film the results!
ATF is NOT loaded with detergents. That is an old wives tale that simply isn’t true. ATF does not require high levels of detergents because they don’t need it. Engine oil contains much higher levels of detergents simply because the combustion process creates the byproducts that cause sludge. Automatic transmissions don’t have a combustion process and don’t require the same levels of detergents.
This is easily proven by doing a cheap oil analysis on ATF and any motor oil. Lab analysis will show that ATF is much lower in detergents compared to engine oil. ATF also has friction modifiers to work with the friction clutches in an automatic transmission that you don’t want or need in an engine.
ATF being a good cleaner is a urban myth that just doesn’t work. The fact that no oil tribologists have ever recommended using atf in an engine should tell you all that you need to know.
@@prevost8686 appreciate the info, I think it would be fun to actually run a test and see, to either confirm or bust the myth!
Have you had any problems with your Accord after a year from using these products? Some say using engine flushes can clog the oil passage screens possibly causing engine failure.
Nope not at all. I think in extreme cases where there is an immense amount of sludge then something like this could happen. But with a regular amount of buildup, the products seem to slowly and gently remove the buildup in a way that it won’t clog anything.
That’s also why it’s highly recommended to change the oil and filter right after using these products too.
That said, I didn’t have any issues after doing these tests :)
The recommendation is using a whole bottle of Seafoam into your engine and letting it run for about 15 minutes before draining the old oil?
The recommendation for the two products specifically that I used are as follows:
Amsoil: Add the entire bottle to the oil, idle for 10-15 minutes, drain oil immediately and change filter.
www.amsoil.ca/p/engine-and-transmission-flush-flsh/
Seafoam: Add 1 Oz of oil for each quart of oil in the crank case, drive for 100-300 miles before draining and change filter.
seafoamworks.com/product/sea-foam-motor-treatment-oil-fuel-additive/
So I just followed those instructions for the tests :)
Hope that helps!
The oil with the Seafoam in the can, appears to have alot more black carbon, sludge in the oil. When you moved the oil, it looked like alot more on the side then the others.
I recently bought a 2001 Ford Escape V6, I ran Seafoam through it for about 450miles. When I changed the oil, you could see the suspended sludge, particles in the oil. And my god, that oil filter was heavy, I bet over a pound if not more. The owner I bought it from, said that there was always continuous oil changes every 5000km. He used it as a drive around vehicle, thats it. After I drained the oil, I can tell you, that timing chain shined!!! And it didn't before. I am a firm believer in Seafoam. It appears to me, that Amsoil didn't do a darn thing..
Yeah you very well might be right. I personally didn't see a difference in the quick test where I compared the looks of the oil but I wasn't looking all that closely.
I did notice a difference in the cleanliness of the engine after the Seafoam was finished doing its job though.
Cool to hear that you had a good experience with Seafoam as well!
Very good test mythology. I wonder iwhst the result would be. If eafoam treatment at every oil change
I appreciate that, thanks! Yeah I bet either of these two products used often would do a pretty good job at keeping sludge buildup away.
I would just run Amsoil Signature Series from here on out.
They have enough detergents that over time, you engine will be cleaned up good.
That would be an interesting test to try out for sure. Just run Signature and see if it's able to clean out an engine like that. Maybe some day in the future I'll give it a try
If you want the engine to look like new, then get the BG Dynamic cleaner kit. These products don't have enough chemicals to clean the engine. They help a little bit but you will have to change your oil every 500k. It took years to build that sludge it will take many flushes to clean it.
Nice thanks for the tip!
Yeah this car was getting up there in mileage and I was using Amsoil XL so it’s got plenty of life to go well beyond 10,000kms
So for me it wasn’t worth spending more $$ to change it that often.
That to say though, if I had a newer vehicle or something higher performing, then yeah I’d definitely be doing what you are saying, short interval changes and then using cleaners somewhat regularly.
I’ll have to try out that stuff by BG! Thanks for the tip!
BG is a lot better but it is also $250 vs $20
As a professional in the automotive business I can validate that the BG Kit is far more effective. I’ve saved my customers thousands of dollars using it. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve used Amsoil. It’s good. I’ve used Seafoam. Love it. Great stuff. But if you want to clean an engine internally you can’t beat the BG Dynamic Engine Restoration Kit. Worth every penny!
1:30 - a very good question to answer!
Excellent video keep up the good work
I appreciate that, thank you!
Maybe the next few oil changes alternate the engine cleaners during each oil change then recheck the removed valve cover after 4-6 oil changes and see if you notice a difference. Who knows you might want to use both on a rotated basis. I am a fan of seafoam fuel treatment and the Amsoil products. Tough decision.
Thanks for your comment! Yeah a test like that would definitely be interesting to see! If I have the time in the future I can definitely try to put something like that together.
I’m with you though, I run Amsoil’s oil in all my vehicles, but I also think that Seafoam’s carbon cleaners do a good job :)
SeaFoam Works. Used it a lot and has taken poorly running engines and cleans them out. Good Stuff.
Agreed - it definitely has a proven track record of safely cleaning engines - thanks for your comment!
These cleaners need heat to clean. I've used BG EPR and using that you could hear the engine get quieter. Run it at high idle for about 15 min, pull the plug and that oil was black as tar. I was genuinely shocked.
Thanks for your comment! I'll look into BG EPR as well. For both of the products I just followed the directions on the bottles. I was pretty impressed at the results though, and I think if they were used often/with every oil change, they'd probably keep the engine quite clean!
@@KingdomAuto give EPR a shot. Get the engine up to temp, pour it in, high idle (1500 rpm) 15-20 min. Give it about 15 min to let all the oil come down to the pan and then pull the plug. You'll be shocked.
@@JF32304 Yeah will do - Did you happen to take a look at the engine head before and after? I'd be really curious to know about the results
@@KingdomAuto on one of the engines I did it on yeah. Honestly it looked not brand new but close to it. No joke I was shocked. And that thing had almost 200k miles on it.
@@KingdomAuto not the head but the valve cover.
Follow up through the next oil change for results in mileage, performance, noise, oil consumption may add additional ensights.
Noted if I do this again, thanks :)
Great video! Obviously the Amsoil cleaned it, then the Sea Foam cleaned it more! I would not put a catch-all product like Sea Foam in my crank case though. "Put it in your gas, put it in your oil, put it in everything!" No thanks.
Thank you.
Yeah I would be inclined to agree with regards to adding product to the crank case. Granted, the detergents seem to be quite mild and I think as long as it’s not in the engine for too long then it should be fine.
I do completely understand what you’re saying though, definitely wouldn’t want to dilute oil and rid it of its lubricity :)
Try 50/50 Diesel and Oil to flush and clean & flush the motor is works. may have to do a second flush if engine has more gunk.
Will that be ok for engine lubrication? Also how long do you leave it in the engine while doing the flush?
The Motor Oil Geek on TH-cam tested multiple oil additives and then sent oil samples in to a testing lab. It was an interesting video.
I bet!
I use seafoam in all my vehicles it really works and works well. I remember first time I used it in an 03 5.3 Silverado it was dirty
Nice! That’s great that you’ve found it works well too. I certainly saw the same thing when running this test :)
The Amsoil is for when you going from conventional oil to synthetic that’s the reason you only run it for 15 min at idle it’s more of a detergent to get most of the conventional oil and setting the engine up for synthetic use it for my wife’s car 2013 Nissan Sentra
Thanks for your comment, but on the Amsoil website, the product claims to do much more than what you've said. Although it does claim to prepare the engine for new oil, it is also supposed to remove deposits and engine sludge, help loosen sticky valves and rings, quiet lifter noise (and more). See the link below, for info on the exact product that I used, from Amsoil's own website.
These aren't my claims, they're straight from the manufacturer.
www.amsoil.com/p/engine-and-transmission-flush-flsh/
Hope that helps clarify what I used and what I was trying to achieve with the test.
Cheers.
@@KingdomAuto 👍
Seafoam is amazing
It is the closest thing to liquid tune up/mechanic there is pretty much, I've started putting it in my SUV and now all the yard equipment it works for sure and I have really only ever put in the gas tank might put some in the engine oil before my next change
It sure does seem to do a good job! Considering the cost of it and how gentle it is on the components of a vehicle, seems like a great way to keep things clean.
Thanks for sharing your experience as well!
An old school trick I have used when I bought an old car with a gummed up motor with sticky rings and lifters is half a quart of auto transmission fluid in the engine and run it for a few days before changing the oil?
I’ve heard that before as well. Not sure I’d want to try it in today’s engines but I’m sure it would be interesting to look into a little more. Maybe it wouldn’t cause any harm at all and clean out the engine a bit? Would be fun to see either way :)
What about adding MMO to the mix?
I've heard from a couple different sources that although MMO does a good job cleaning the engine, apparently it can also reduce the lubricity of engine oil too. So just for that reason I'm not sure if I'd want to go ahead with it. But I'll dig around more and if I can confirm that it won't weaken the oil properties then I'd test it for sure :)
Thanks for your comment
Little Man Is Sooo Adorable!!!!! Great Little Helper!!!!! :) ;)
Thanks so much! Totally agree :)
Sir, Did you ever check your oil Pan???
I didn’t, but that’s not really necessary, as I was filling and draining the oil so frequently with these tests, that anything in the oil pan would have been flushed out.
Amazing,but im scared that I can clogged the oil pump.im try to change frequently and used MISTERY OIL.is verygood!!
Based on what I saw during these tests, the products seem to get rid of sludge and buildup very slowly and gently, so they *shouldn’t* clog the oil pump. But I’d definitely recommend changing the oil and filter right after using an engine flush product though.
Anyways, I hope that helps!
@@KingdomAuto thanks lot for your tip!
@@audiemuniz6445 For sure! Hope all goes well if you decide to flush your engine :)
That's mean we should change oil and filter on time wi be perfect no need to go with AMSOIL or motul...etc yes?
The oil was always changed on time in this vehicle, but there was still quite a bit of sludge and buildup. I think these engine flush products are a good idea to use on a regular basis to keep the engine clean :)
The best method for a clean engine is not only keeping your oil changed, BUT maintaining a clean air filter and external fuel filter(if equipped). Dirty air/fuel 4:01 contaminates the oil as well🤷🏽♂️
Yep 100% agree. This test wasn't to explain how to keep an engine clean, but more to test cleaning products to see how they perform
@@KingdomAuto totally with you, that was for all the rhetorical questions you got from those who only pays attention to their fuel gauge and nothing else, lol
@@willg.5168 I appreciate that, there have been PLENTY of those types of comments on this video 😂
Use half in the engine oil before an oil job and with the other half I pour inside the gas tank
Yep good way to clean injectors, and valves if it’s port injected :)
Pennzoil full synthetic oil changed every 3,000 miles and the engine will never get dirty. It will look practically new at 300,000 miles.
That’s great to know, but doesn’t that also kinda defeat the point of synthetic oil, considering change intervals should be much longer?
Either way, nice to know it keeps things clean!
@@KingdomAuto Synthetic isn't all that much more expensive and I change it myself so that saves money. When a car reaches 300,000 I think it was financially worth the little extra cost.
@@gemeinschaftsgeful Great points all around. I change mine and use full synthetic as well but admittedly I go a little longer between changes with my vehicles. It is nice to know that the engine can look so clean if intervals are shortened!
Nice job
Thank you, glad you enjoyed!
it seems like changing your oil "on time" may not be often enough.
When it comes to keeping an engine clean, definitely agreed. However, in terms of the longevity of the oil itself, I had a Blackstone test done with 13,000kms on Amsoil XL and there was plenty of life left in it when looking at additives and lubricating properties. So although the engine won’t be as clean, at least it’s safe to use oil for that length of time.
This is of course assuming that no coolant or fuel is getting into the oil though… that’s a bit of a game changer.
sea foam great stuff, use it in all motors, boat, motorcycle, mower, truck, car, always good results.
Agreed, Seafoam definitely seems to do a great job!
It is a great video indeed! I have the same car and I have got to ask you this question: after using Sea Foam have you had any oil leaks or any other potential problems with the engine? My mechanic tells me to never use any flushes as they can clog the oil channel and lead to adverse effect. Have you noticed any issues after using these flushes? Much appreciated
I didn’t experience and issues personally. I have heard of people say these things before too. My thoughts are; if there is a large buildup of sludge in the engine (far more than just varnish, and much more than the engine I tested in this video) then there could be a chance that some of that sludge would come off and cause harm to the engine.
If the oil is changed on time with any engine though, there won’t be a lot of buildup and these cleaners will gently dissolve what’s there, which will then just get caught in the oil filter.
This is my personal opinion after having tested these cleaners and having used a handful of them over the years. I haven’t ever experienced an issue but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened.
Hope that helps!
The only thing i don't like about engine flush is when all the stuff comes off your oil pump screen is going to pick it up and start to reduce oil flow to the engine. That to me is more harm than good. To me it's better to change the oil more often with a good quality oil.
Yeah I can see what you mean. I thought the same but people have been using this stuff for so long without issue. I think if the engine has an excessive amount of buildup, then that might be more of a concern. But what I saw during this test was simply that the cleaners very gently removed/dissolved what was there. This material would then get caught in the filter which gets changed after the test is done.
I completely agree about your point about changing oil frequently but that also wasn’t the point of this video. I just wanted to test these cleaners and see if they work, rather than focus on oil change intervals, etc
I put half a can of seafoam in the crank case and the other half in the fuel tank..drive it for the last 1000km then change the oil, at the 5000km mark in any car.
Probably a great way to keep things clean for sure!
Seafoam has a boiling point lower than engine operating temperatures so adding it to the oil will NOT work because it will just boil off when the engine is upto operation temperature.
Kerosene works just as well for a fuel system cleaner and it’s so much cheaper.
You’re entitled to your opinion, but the results of the test that I did say otherwise. Regardless of apparent boiling point, the Seafoam clearly did remove some varnish/buildup in the engine.
You said that synthetic oil has been used, but there is a huge difference between a good one with PAO and Ester with good additives and a bad one. My mercedes after more than 100000 miles are metal clean inside engine.
As mentioned in the video, I don’t know what was used up until I took ownership of the car. But after 200,000kms only Amsoil XL was used
@@KingdomAuto That may be the problem, the first 10.000km are the most important with frequent oil changes with good oil.
@@danieleriksson1657 oh yeah I’m well aware of that. I wasn’t trying to figure out the cause of the sludge here, I was trying to test cleaners
@@KingdomAuto, I know, just saying how to avoid sludge and later cleaning.
@@danieleriksson1657 oh gotcha, appreciate that thank you!
I have a direct injection engine. I'm not so sure Seafoam is going to do very much for DFI Motors. Possibly help clean the injectors but I'm more sure anything else.
It depends on what you’d be using it for. If to do something like what I’ve done in the video - adding the product into your oil - it’ll do the same thing and clean out carbon within the block and head.
Adding it to your gas would help clean injectors as you’ve mentioned. But as for cleaning intake valves, you’re correct; it wouldn’t be able to clean those by simply adding to your oil or gas
Thanks. Genuine vid.
Appreciate it, glad it helped
Sludge just magicaly won't disappear....is all going some were and that's the oil pump strainer and for sure some of it is going into the oil pump gears if the strainer doesn't get completely clogged...
These types of products do a great job of gently dissolving the sludge, that’s been proven quite definitively over the years. So it’s very safe for the pump and strainer as the buildup won’t come off in big chunks but rather very fine particles that would simply just get caught in the filter and/or suspended in the oil itself. That’s why the manufacturers recommend that you change your oil as soon as the product is finished doing its work.
Additionally, it’s recommended that these products are used somewhat regularly to keep the engine clean. Biggest thing that helps with a clean engine though is short change intervals.
Cheers
Try changing your oil type. What i mean is use another oil in your car. Ive used mobile one in my motor and the ticking was still there. I used different types of oil. But when i started using Royal Purple the motor was alot quiter and the ticking stopped. Try with Royal Purple for your next test
Thanks for your comment, this test wasn't so much about which type of oil to use, as it was a test to see how well a couple of "engine cleaning" products will work to remove sludge. However, a test to see how clean a certain type of oil can keep an engine would also be a neat topic to try out :)
Some oils do give u sludge. Royal Purple has a strong detergent that cleans your motor from the inside will help with the sludge plus u can add sea foam to help more of the sludge removal.
Yeah I know what you mean. Im not sure what oil the car was run on from 0-220,000kms, all I know is that the changes were done on time. After 220,000kms the car was switched over to Amsoil, which shouldn’t be one of those oils that gives you sludge though, being one of the top synthetic brands.
But yeah I’ve heard that Royal Purple can do well with cleaning the engine
What specific brand of engine oil did you use for the life of your car that created that sludge?
Unfortunately I couldn’t tell you. I owned the car after it had 225,000 kms on it. So apart from knowing that the oil changes were done on time, I don’t know what brand was used.
Once I began ownership, I used only Amsoil XL and changed every 8000-10,000kms, which is well within the range of life for that oil. Plus I had a Blackstone report done on it at 10,000kms and the oil was still in great shape + were still plenty of additives remaining.
Sorry I couldn’t tell you what was used before though
Thanks. Great video. Thanks for making.
A little constructive criticism. When comparing the oils visually, perhaps Mason jars, or baby food jars would be better. Let's the light in better.
Much appreciated! Will do this next time for sure, I appreciate the suggestion :)
Can I Use Amsoil Flush on my Honda 1.5 Turbo? Im worried
These products are quite safe for all gasoline engines, so I would expect that the Amsoil flush would be totally fine to use on your car. The best thing to do would be to contact Amsoil and ask them though, as they would have the most accurate information on their products.
Hope that helps!
I bet if you used any top shelf synthetic oil for your vehicle and reduced the oil change intervals slightly the engine internals would clean up just fine.
Yep very likely! But this video wasn’t about how to keep an engine clean. More so just about testing the products to see how they performed :)
What brand of fully synthetic oil you are using?
I inherited the car with around 225,000kms on it. I'm not sure what was used prior to that. From 225,000 until the time of this video I was using only Amsoil XL fully synthetic. Change intervals of about 8,000 kms
You need to go and buy BG dynamic engine restoration the gums and varnish will be gone almost like new it’s expensive but it works
Good to know, thanks for your comment :) if I run another test like this, I’ll keep that product in mind
Yeah, found it on Amazon for $332.00!!!
@@Time782 Yikes! Seems pricey! Is it that high everywhere or just on Amazon?
You said oil changes has been done on time ,maybe you wanna do them earlier than recommendation and also depends on what oil you using ,just my two cents
P.S. lol I'm surprised amsoil warriors didn't show up yet 😅
I thought it was interesting seeing all of the sludge as well! I am wondering if maybe the car had cheap oil used for most of its life. I know it was always synthetic but I don't know what brand.
From 220,000kms to 375,000kms (when I took ownership of the car), it was running only on Amsoil XL synthetic and I always changed it earlier than what was recommended.
So was a tad surprised to see how much gunk was built up when I pulled off the valve cover.
Also re: Amsoil warriors - so funny haha
Thanks for your comment!
@@KingdomAuto 😅 you're welcome! Oh in that case most likely is been low quality oil , in the past I had a vehicle that mechanic had to open the engine and asked me what I'm using since is super clean. I was using Mobil 1 ...and still do . Also if you using XL and still looks gunky I'd switch to signature series I mean it won't hurt to try . Maybe I would think will take few cycles of oil change with good oil before it gets cleaner since is been neglected from previous owner
@@kostadinustavalkov1902 Yeah could have very well been!! Good to know about Mobil 1!
I think if the car was newer, I'd go with Signature series, but for having 375,000+ kms, I was totally fine with the XL haha
@@KingdomAuto 😁 fair point, that's quite few km on it but you got nothing to worry about afterall it's Honda. I believe if you keep that oil after some oil changes down the road it'll get cleaner. Also I'd put P.I. amsoil red bottle cleaner too, I feel slight difference on drivability after I started . Seems like you doing the right thing buddy keep it up and you'll be just fine 👊
@@kostadinustavalkov1902 Yeah that's a good point, would be interesting to see if it does get any cleaner just by the oil that's being used.
And great idea regarding the P.I. product, I've used that several times and it seems to be doing a really good job!
Thanks again for your comments and info :)
Keep in mind just because one is better than the other doesn’t mean the other is bad.
Yep completely agreed. I’d still use either of these products and Amsoil makes great stuff overall
I use diesel and oil mixed it lossens rings quiets lifers and removes sludge
Interesting, how long do you leave it in the crank case before draining?
I think the difference between the two is time. One was 5-10 mins. One was many hours. The other question is how good is it for the engine to run hours and hours with the contents of seafoam in your crank case? Seafoam contains 20% rubbing alcohol which has no lubricating properties, destroys motor additives, not good for the seals. IMO does not belong in motor oil for any extended period of time.
Yeah I was thinking the same thing. I just followed the directions on the cans but it does make sense that time would help the detergents clean the engine more.
With regards to engine longevity, you raise a great point. It would be interesting to see if these products cause damage over long periods of time.
I would imagine that using them every now and then and adhering to the instructions wouldn’t cause and problems but who truly knows.
can you clarify what synthetic oil was used and also what was the oil change interval for this car? Also what was the spec fo the engine. I just know this is a NA. I'm assuming this is the 2.4L port injected...170 or 190hp iVtec.. 4 cylinder with timing chain.
This is a 2.4L port injected engine. 190Hp
I am not sure what type of synthetic oil was used up until around 220,000kms when I inherited the car. From 220,000 kms to 375,000kms, the car used only Amsoil XL synthetic oil and was changed every 8000-10,000kms, well under the recommended service interval.
@@KingdomAuto I just did a valve adjustment on my Honda. My engine is sparkly silver clean , so is the valve cover. I use Amsoil signature, but also for like 3 oil changes the amsoil xl. I got the car around 80k miles. Now it’s at 110k miles. Unsure of previous oil change history. I’m wondering if the PAO synthetic cleaned up/kept the engine shiny clean, or was it my short change interval, or both. Interval was 2000-5000miles. Only about 1-2 oil changes were at 5000miles
@@LoveLikeaHurricane Interesting but great to know that your engine is looking so good :)
The engine in this video needed some cleaning up so I figured this would be a good opportunity for a test between the Amsoil and Seafoam engine cleaners
@@KingdomAuto There’s your answer why there is sludge snd carbon build up. You can’t verify the oil change intervals before you inherited it and when you did inherit it, you changed at it 8000 to 10000 km. Thats too long even if Amsoil says their oil is good for 25,000 miles. Although your TBN in the oil might still be good at 10,000 km and it still lubricating, the oil is too dirty at that point and will just bake the dirt and sludge into the engine parts. You need to change way sooner if you want your engine to remain clean.
@B W Yeah I can definitely verify that the oil changes were always done on time - I inherited the car from my uncle who bought it new and had all the service history so I know for sure the changes were done on time :)
I got the car at 220k kms. Oil changes were always done on time but not early. only thing I can't verify is the type of oil used.
I switched to Amsoil at 220k and had it on Amsoil XL until 375k which was when I shot the video.
And honestly, I'm totally fine with changing every 10k using an oil that's good till 25k. Doesn't make a lot of sense for me to spend money on synthetic oil if I'm going to change it at non-synthetic intervals; especially on a car that's 12+ years old and has over 370k kms haha
Yes these additives do work... I,'d use a full synthetic oil now and it will continue the scouring effect that was started by these. I Use a 1/2 qt of kerosene and a 1/4 qt of tranny fluid mix.., Idle for 5 minutes or so, depending on each individual engine and case.. Is doing the same thing as these...Trick is to change the oil filters, so they don't overload, if an extremely dirty engine. Just have to know what you're doing.Folks have using straight tranny fluid, and even desiel fuel as a flush for decades now... About any full synthetic today, will gently scour the engine while driving..Also never forget MARVEL Mystery Oil as a longer term gentler cleaner. Been working wonders for about a century now... ( Are all Hondas that noisy, thought it was a diesel at first. Chuckle Chuckle 😃 ) That kid will be in Nascar in a few short years!
Thanks for your comment and glad you're seeing success with these types of additives. I've seen a few comments about Marvel Mystery Oil too and people have said it works well. If I do another one of these tests, I'll include that product too. Thanks again
@@KingdomAuto Cool. But MARVEL isn't an instant cleaning agent like the more aggressive ones like these are. Love about MARVEL is in can really get into the nooks and crannies over time and flush out gum and varnish and quite down "some" engines alot actually....Good Luck and more videos! Thanx ; Jethro
You sound like my Dad who was a motorhead from the 50's. However, I don't think I'd be running kerosene or tranny fluid in my newer engine. Don't know exactly that it would detrimental, however a lot more things on engines today than from decades ago. I like MM also, however no clue if its an old wives tale or actually does something.
@@boots7859 Well I not sure what is in newer engines but even smaller passageways that need the flushing and dissolving action in them now more than ever... The increase of nylon on things such as timing chain guides can handle this stuff I'm referring too.. I haven't seen on any of the "5 minute Engine" flushes on the market "not for certain engines or age" Actually my concoction is a little less aggressive than what those are..Mainly kerosene and benzene plus other harsh chemicals. But that's sometimes what you need, trying to get years of built up crud off in five minutes. You have to know what you are playing with first of all. And a rented borescope from A.zone etc will tell you what is what in there because most valvecovers are a real PITA to pull off today...It's really about experience and knowing what you are trying to accomplish in the first place.. You better be willing to pull off an oil pan, if using a 5 minutes flush on a very sludge up engine, or you'll kill it faster than Joe Biden does brain cells...MMO works as well in today's engines with V-tec and cam phasers and oil pressure activated chain tensionors .Again you have to know what you're doing, as a full 20% capacity fill as the bottle calls for will need a step up 5 weight in Summer driving. I only use 15% and usually a full synthetic in my own vehicle. But works even better for conventional Dino oil...The folks I help are always trying to save a dime, and ho Dino oils... Might think these are ramblings of an old man, but check out a Video with FORD BOSS MAN and the reps of MARVEL Mystery Oil. It's still in play today, but as we say here in MaZurrah say..SHOW ME!!!.... GOOD 👍 LUCK. .... Jethro
Did you use jack stands to support the car while you crawled under it, or just the jack?
I always use stands. In the case of this video there were a couple times I didn’t, just to get the quick video shot (didn’t stay there long). Not a good idea regardless. Haven’t done that since
How did you pour each product? Did you flush each product with interval then full drain in between or did you just add the second product from the first one?
All of that info is in the video my friend
Save your money on Seafoam, it's snake oil. It only improved performance while it's in the engine or fuel system due to the petroleum distillates acting as a lubricant.
Any pour in the oil or gas product at an auto parts store is usually never effective.
Dealerships use specialty products like BG at dealerships because of their effectiveness.
Amsoil products are superior when it comes to flushes, cleaners and lubricants and their effectiveness is why they are in business when they are dealer only or online only rather than sold with mass production products at auto parts stores.
Thanks for your comment!
Really appreciate the info.
Based on what I saw from my own personal results, it seemed that the Seafoam did slightly outperform the Amsoil on this specific test.
However, what I'd really like to see is testing both products, on two different engines multiple times. That would be a true way to see how they perform.
I'm a huge Amsoil fan, I use a ton of their products and I will continue to do so as long as I own a vehicle.
But for this test specifically I can't argue the fact that the Seafoam did seem to agitate and remove more buildup than the Amsoil. But as I mentioned in the video, this could have also been because I tested Amsoil first as well.
Hard to say but at some point down the road, I'll be attempting another test like this and I'll try to make it as fair as possible.
Thanks again!
@@KingdomAuto absolutely no problem. But isolate your testing so you can distinguish which is stronger.
I've used both but I had to test them individually to determine that amsoil engine/trans flush was stronger.
Honestly BG EPR was the strongest I've used for engine flushes specifically and I'm about to try ATS since it's a specialty product and recommended for professional use only.
@@mikehigby7897 That's great to know - yeah if you remember, keep me posted on the ATS as well. Really appreciate the info and if I was to do this kind of test again, I'd use more products as well so I've taken note of BG EPR and ATS. Thanks a ton!
Amsoil is also like a multi-level marketing operation. Might be Tier 1 or above, however their business operations just make me and others wary.
I've personally used Seafoam in a couple of vehicles, and I know it works very well, both while in the vehicle and subsequent operation after its had an oil change. It may just be a more modern take on kerosene that the 50's motorheads used, but it sure has worked for many people.
@@boots7859 Yeah agreed. Based on what I've personally seen + from other tests online, it does seem that a handful of these products definitely make some incremental improvements to the engine, and a lot of people vouch specifically for Seafoam as well, myself included.
I can't speak much to Amsoil's other products or their business operations, but I've found their oil to be very good overall.
There's a TH-cam channel called Project Farm (you've probably already seen some content by him I would imagine) and he's run a series of oil tests on his channel - really well controlled. And Amsoil comes out on top out of a bunch of popular brands of oil.
Here's a good video:
th-cam.com/video/TWuKvnCq1js/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=ProjectFarm
Granted though, in today's day - it's likely not so much the type of oil that's used but more so the fact that the changes are done on time, and that enough oil is always in the engine.
Anyways, thanks for your comment!! Have a good one :)
Love you're video. But I see one thing wrong please for the love of your son never get under a vehicle without jack stands in place. I didn't see any but please for your safety my friend.
Thanks so much Donald! I did have support under the car when I was under it - camera just didn't pick it up. But I really appreciate you looking out for me though. Thanks again
Why does there always have to be someone like you in the comments . If you have a good jack and you're only removing the drain plug you don't need jackstands...sheesh.
I immediately wanted to tell you the same thing about never trusting a single jack if you crawl under your car. The fellow that showed disdain for using jack-stands needs to know this.
One day, a long time ago, the most knowledgeable man in the team asked me to grease the zirk fittings under his International dump truck. I had never done anything to any vehicle prior to that day, so I simply did as he said.
At some point he yelled down under telling me not to worry, that he was going to start the truck to give his work a test. He started that huge truck in reverse, without his foot being on the clutch pedal. It lurched backward, killing the engine, but knocking over the “floor jack” (dirt for a floor). The right front wheel of that monster moved over and landed on the dead center of my chest, breaking all of my ribs at once, then the truck rolled forward and off my chest (luckily).
My lungs were collapsed. I remember thinking how stupid of me to die on such a pretty day. The struggle to gain a breath went on for almost a minute before air rushed into my lungs, and the pain began. We were located 45 minutes from the nearest hospital.
Putting a vehicle on jack-stands has been a hard and fast rule to me, before going under my car, ever since. With just one jack, just one mistake can ruin your day.
BTW: I enjoyed your video.
Use MOBIL 1 oil and filter and/or Royal Purple oil and filter . That will keep the car running great and clean.
I've heard good things about both of those oils and have used them myself as well. Based on the research I've done, it seems as though Amsoil has better lubricity than those two brands, which is why I use it.
I suspect that most of the sludge in this engine was already there before I owned it. for the first 220,000kms of its life, I don't know what oil was used, apart from the fact that it was synthetic.
Then from 220,000 to 375,000kms, I had it running on Amsoil XL.
Either way, when I saw how dirty the engine was looking, I figured it would be a good opportunity to test the Amsoil and Seafoam products to see which one came out on top
Did you also change the oil filter?
In between changes yes.
Please, sir, run 5W 30 can’t hear my metal parts clanking around and he’s a frame ultras synthetic filter and a force. Valvoline high mileage extended protection every 7000 miles.
I was very happy with Amsoil when running it in the car. I had Blackstone analyze the oil after 13,000kms and the oil still had lots of life and anti-wear properties in it. Very happy with Amsoil’s oil :)
With regards to viscosity, I always use what the manufacturer calls for
This is just more proof that it doesn’t matter if you use gold, oil changes should never exceed 5k miles I don’t care how much oil has evolved….i use cheap oil and change it every 3-5k miles and my engine looks almost new inside….
looks like seafoam did a little better for the varnish
Yeah in this case, it did seem that way. And I know that this could very well have been because I tested Amsoil first. But at the same time, with a Seafoam treatment, you don't need to use the entire bottle. Most times you can get at least 2 and sometimes 3 uses out of just 1 bottle, whereas the Amsoil product is just 1 flush per bottle. So from what I personally saw, I am leaning towards Seafoam as well :)
All the gunk and varnish are from extended oil changes. Oil changes are cheaper than a new engine
I am well aware bud. This video isn’t to explain how to keep an engine clean. It’s to display if these cleaners work
Cheers
Next time you do an oil change, add a half bottle of Marvel Mystery Oil and leave it in.
I've seen a couple people say that MMO seems to work well. I'll definitely check it out! However, I have also heard that this product lessens the lubricity properties of the oil. Do you know anything about that? I haven't done any research on it so I can't say myself. But if it's true, I don't know if I'd want to add it to my engine lol
Regardless, thanks for your comment :)
Viva Seafoam! 👍 GOOD JOB SEAFOAM!
It seems to work well for sure!
Which oil filter were you using?
Oh good question. For the tests I just went out and bought the cheapest filters I could find because I knew I'd be changing the oil so much. But I forget what brand it was. Sorry about that.
When I owned the car I'd always use Amsoil's synthetic filters along with Amsoil XL oil
Should have used diesel fuel also. Put a quart of diesel, let it run for about 30 minutes. Then check after that! 👍
Would be fun to try if I even re-do this kinda test!
Amsoil flush smell just like strong kerosene. That smell would last after 2 oil change. I think amsoil engine flush they said regular part of maintenance or you should do it every oil change or 10 to 15k miles. It's a quick flush type product so in your 1 test you are not going to see any difference but I have done it with my vehicles and I feel like my vehicles run smoother and quieter. And whenever I pull my dipstick I can smell kerosene.
Thanks for your comment!
Yeah I agree, these products are meant for ongoing maintenance as opposed to just one time.
But I wanted to test and see which one removed more buildup with just one use.
I think either way, if these products are used regularly, they’ll probably do a good job at keeping the engine clean :)
That’s not bad at all, my opinion is it was fine
Good to know! The engine certainly ran well before the test :) I just wanted to see how these products did at removing what was built up.
Thanks for the unbiased (as possible) comparison. My mechanic has sworn by seafoam in the engine oil and fuel system too.
My only rec is NEVER get under a vehicle that is only supported by a hydraulic lift (like a floor jack). ALWAYS use axle stands!!
Sorry. My mechanic drove that into my head when working with him as an apprentice and even at home now I always use axle stands unless vehicle is on four wheels and I need to get under it.
Otherwise congrats
Much appreciated!
Yes I totally agree about jack stands.
There was one time in this video where I was using stands and the camera couldn’t see them. Another time where I hopped under just quickly but I totally agree. I always use stands, thank you for your comment my friend :)
Cool to hear that your mechanic recommends Seafoam too!
Glad you use em. I have heard horror stories of people not.
I got a 20 ton bottle jack for my k2500 cause my 3 ton floor jack wasn't feeling safe even with tires on and jack stands... *laughs*
So no worries. Just didn't wanna tell you your business is all :)
@@natenixon9487 Yeah I know exactly what you mean, I've heard some rough stories as well + especially with my family in the picture, I always throw stands under the vehicles now.
Interestingly enough, it was due to this video that I became even more careful with stands - mainly from a bunch of comments from fantastic folks like yourself that mentioned the topic. Since hearing some of those stories, every time I've gone under a vehicle, even quickly, I've put stands under.
So I really appreciate your comments! Thanks again :)
The sun light on the engine is making the sea foam is cleaner.
I was able to get up close off camera and inspect. There was no doubt that the SeaFoam did a better job cleaning, even if it was marginally
have you ever used either in a 2stroke snowmobile???????
I haven't no. I would just check the directions from the manufacturer to ensure that the products are safe for a 2 stroke engine :)