adding seafoam to oil...good or bad idea?
 

so I have a couple bottles of seafoam in the garage and am planning on doing an oil change this weekend. I have always run seafoam through the vacuum line/brake booster with success but I've never added it to the oil.

I have read a lot of threads about it and have seen were some people say it is a bad idea to add it to the oil in it can cause issues. Hoping to get some of your thoughts on that. I have some lifter tick and some engine noise that I was hoping it would get rid of.

If it is ok to do it I have also read different amounts you were supposed to put in the oil and different amount of miles you're supposed to drive with it in the oil before changing. Hoping you guys can share some experience. Thanks!

I've never heard of someone adding it to the oil. What would be the intended benefit?

I have run sea foam in gas and oil and never had any issues. If you read their recommendations, it's about 9 oz. for 6qts of oil. Hardly any to cause damage. I also left it on for 3000 miles. I do this about every 5th oil change. Add a full can to the gas occasionally during winter as it helps to removes moisture from the fuel as well. I have a 2012 JKUR now, added my first shot of seafoam to the oil at 18000 miles and noticed that pesky little tick has been quiet ever since. It simply dissolves sludge and tarnish. They claim it doesn't hurt seals and such. In other words, it isn't a solvent. It is more of a kerosene base. In small amounts, it doesn't harm anything. I've had zero leaks.

On a regular basis, I run marvel mystery oil in the crank case. Every oil change, except when I use the seafoam. I started this years ago with every vehicle I have ever owned. Including off road machines. I have helped a friend of mine rebuild a few airplane engines at the time when I learned about it. He had a few planes and swore by the stuff. When we would pull the heads on a plane using marvel mystery oil, the pistons were clean, no scorching, scoring, etc., on the pistons or cylinder walls. In fact, the cylinder walls looked polished. When we pulled an engine from a plane that didn't have the oil ran through it, it looks like any other aged engine.

Many people will argue that you are wasting your money. Ask them of they ever rebuilt an engine themselves. I know oils today are far superior than a couple decades ago, but I have never had an issue with any engine I have ever owned. I just sold a Volvo S60 T5 was was tweaked a bit, pushing just under 400 hp and a bit over 400ft lbs. of torque. At 100k miles, I took it in for the timing belt. We ran a camera in the cylinders, they were clean, shiny and the compression test was still above factory specs (due to the mods). :D

I use it in my oil halfway between oil changes. It really helps with the lifter noise.

Love the seafoam treatment. :beer:

I have been adding seafoam to my oil for 15 plus yrs and have never had a problem and it did very well for my 1988 Toyota that has 250,000 on it and it still runs very good.

And I also put it in my gas tank about 10 times a year

Awesome thanks for all the responses guys! Now I only wish I would have added it to the crankcase earlier since now I will only have about 2 days of driving with it in before my oil change this weekend . Better than nothing though! Thanks again

no worries. That is also recommended by seafoam, but they suggest a little more than the usual few ounces. See it as a pretreatment. When you change next, put in the recommended amount for a normal oil change interval. MIT isn't much. 9 ounces for the long term. In fact, I seem to recall, they recommend nearly a full bottle if you are putting it on just before an oil change. It's on the bottle or their web site.