Well I was too scared to Seafoam guys, so I paid a shop $99 to do a fuel system cleaning. They said they use something like seafoam, but they have a IV style dripper that goes in the vac lines, the put stuff in the tank and other stuff. They said it's more extensive than just putting something in your tank. So I guess I'll just pay $99 every 15k that way I don't have to screw **** up.

 

Wow really? On my last car we couldnt get the line off the brake booster so we just fed it straight into the throttle body (sideways mounted one) with a long funnel and I kept my foot on the gas to stop it from stalling. It stupid easy, you cant break anything with this, the car will stall rather than hydrolock.

 

Well I'm far from car savvy, all the things I've learned have been since owning this car and from this forums.

I don't even know where the vac hose is lol

So instead of making a thread about it or asking here simple questions, I figured I'll wait until a local SS/TC guy does it and I'll go watch him do it, until then I'll just pay for ease of mind.

 

i need to seafoam or induction clean my cobalt pretty soon... 16k on the clock. First time i ever did a seafoam treatment was on my 86 buick ttype and my friend and i put a white posterboard behind one of my tailpipes.... lets just say the seafoam works!!! covered in black dots and crud

 

yea me too im about to hit 16kmiles. ill prolly do it in another 1000 miles with the spark plugs and fuel filter.

 

Before dropping a ton of money on a rebuild you could try using a solvent in the combustion chamber to remove deposits that can build up and prevent the rings from working correctly. I don't have a link to a copy but search for GM Service Bulletin #02-06-01-009C. This is for the Northstar V8s and details the procedure which must be followed to the letter. Those engines (along with the LX5 "Shortstar" V6) were somewhat notorious for deposits building up in the rings and developing excessive oil consumption. If you damaged your compression rings or cracked a ring land it won't do any good but if oil deposits burned up and the rings are sticking and not seating correctly then an in-cylinder solvent cleaning might be worth a shot.

 

What fuel filter are you going to change the one in the tank? Gm quit using inline gas filters in 2004 I was a gm engineer for ten years pretty sure on that. A lot of guys are using the air needle for blowing up football etc. to slowly meter in the seafoam in the vacuum line.

 

lol ur joking right? your 10yr period must of stopped right around 2004 cause there are other gms after 04 that use external inline filters.

 

I have been thinking about getting that BG induction cleaning done. I have heard good things about all the BG stuff. Did you actually feel a difference afterwards?

 

So can seafoam be confirmed as a prevention in carbon build up in the DI LNF ? or any DI engine for that matter

 

Not prevention, it'll remove the carbon buildup though.

 

Sorry, so more like a solution to the problem then ?

 

If you want prevention the only thing that might be somewhat easy would be to run a water injection setup as that will help keep deposits from building up in the intake tract and combustion chamber. An occasional good engine workout (i.e. driving with occasional trips to redline) may also help. Otherwise it's just he nature of the beast and how direct injection works as there isn't any fuel and therefore detergents going over the valves such as what happens in a port injection setup, but even then you're still going to see some deposit form.

While those deposits may build up on the LNF, if you're using oil that meets GM's spec, have a properly working crankcase ventilation system, and keep the intake tract clean that should minimize the amount that will occur. Remember that GM and other manufacturers have done probably millions of miles of long-term durability studies. While not great for performance, they can't have a system that will prematurely fail emissions durability requirements as that would come back to bite them. It's still probably better to treat the intake system if you can find a safe product but I don't think it is as dire as some would make the "problem" out to be.

 

Im going to start doin seafoam treatment every 15000miles with new plugs and ill be running meth which hopefully help with this but we will see i guess.

 

why wait 15k miles?

i do it right before every oil change. it costs 8 dollars for a bottle.

i know it does something because i get less smoke every time i do it now and the first time i ever did it....it was a ridiculous smoke show lol

 

well cause ill be changing my spark plugs everytime i do it and i dont feel like changing my plugs every oil change lol...

 

^ Save your old plugs and use them for the smoke show(s). Doesn't take too long.

 

yea i could do that aswell. with that being said maybe i should do it everyoil change.

 

Do you treat your front O2 as well?

 

Nope stayed at gm until 2007 guess they were a little slow getting the inline fuel filters eliminated I see all the lsj's had then except some of the cali emission cars, They should be about eliminated from gm lines now. I could just picture the poor guy crawling around under his car looking for a lnf inline fuel filter that doesn't exist. You know what is sad is that autopart stores list the lsj filter as the lnf inline filter that doesn't exist you have to do some research yourself to figure out what is correct parts wise.

 

yea your def right about alot of part store having the inline filter listed for the lnf even tho there isnt any in it.

 

How about a little prevention as well what about a catch can setup?

 

instead of spraying water/meth start spraying seafoam

 

It would be badass to have a setup where you could quickly spray a little like once a month.

 

Would running E85 get rid of carbon after time? ive been running it for the last 3000 miles.