Does anyone use Sea Foam? I was at the hardware store the other day and I bought a can. I'm going up north tomorrow and my 400EX hasn't been riden for a couple months. I figured a little Sea Foam might clean out any carb buid-up. We'll see.

 

I've never heard of Sea Foam -- but I wouldn't recommend ANY fuel additive on a performace engine.

Your automotive engine can take lots of crap before they give up -- not true on a performance engine like your 400EX.

Anyway, why try to fix what's not broke? You shouldn't have any problems with crud in your carb after 4, or even 6 months.

 

Sea foam is used to clean the protective oil coating out of your boat engine that foging (in preperation for winter storrage) leaves behind.
In the spring after taking it out of winter storage, fire it up and pour the sea foam down the carb. I think you can call it heavy duty motor cleaner.
I dont think it will do anny good for such a new motor. There should not be a major carbon build up.
If you new you were not going to ride for a long time,say two years and foged it, Id say yes.

 

or an even better idea would be to turn your gas off and run the carb out of gas when you are going to store it. I've used Sea Foam in cars before to clear clogged fuel injectors, I suppose it would work to some extent in a quad, just don't get too crazy with it.

 

This winter I've been turning the gas off and running it until it dies. This past weekend, I only used a little bit of Sea Foam. I don't plan on using it unless I have to, and since my quad has sat since the beginning of January, I didn't know that to expect. It doesn't hurt having Sea Foam around, but I'll just keep it for our boats.

 

Is the stuff designed for two stroke marine engines, or four strokes?

If it's for two-strokes, I can sort of see how it works, by cleaning the glaze off the cylinder walls. On a four stroke, I can't imagine what it would clean without doing some damage at the same time.

What exactly do you expect to be "cleaning out" of the 400EX?

Keep in mind that four stroke valves build up carbon that in some cases is actually creating the seal between the valve and the seat. By cleaning that carbon, you can loose the seal and end up with smoking problems.

If you're running decent fuel, and the engine is jetted correctly, there won't be any "bad" deposits to remove.

 

Sea Foam was designed to be used on 2 stroke outboard engines. BUT. I did say BUT. THe 4 stroke automotive world has started using it in the last 5 years. It is a engine cleaner. It CAN be used in ANY enging. Leave about a 50:50 mix of fuel and sea foam in your tank and start it up. It will smoke like a 2 stroke running 1:1 (lol) After a while (2 minutes) shut it off and let it sit for about 5 minutes. Shile it is sitting top off the rest of the fuel tank with fuel. Start it back up. It will continue to smoke for a lieelt bit, but it will run much better than before. Sea foam can be compared to pourins gasoline on styrafoam. Sea foam disolves carbon and oils like gas does to styrafoam. IT WILL NOT HARM YOUR ENGINE!!!

 

Sea Foam, Slick 50, Gumout, whatever. I have never put any crap into any of my motors, whether it's a car, bike or quad. I've built several motors, many of them were my own prior builds. The key is to run good gas, and do your regular maintenence religously.