Seafoam vs B12 Chemtool

I went to get some seafoam today and saw B12 Chemtool's fuel additive, it looked to have the same purpose and on sale for 30% of what seafoam sales for (2.99 vs 10.99).

 

Couldn't tell you anything about Chemtool, but I've used Seafoam in equipment I've stored (no vehicles) with no issues.

 

Yea ive used a seafoam a good amount, i typically just use store brand carb cleaner but heave always heard b12 is better for whatever reason

 

just that price difference really caught me by surprise

 

i used both, b-12 seems to work better on my lawn mower so i get that. havent tried it on my truck yet

 

They're both pointless. I've used products like this on older engines twice and, as much as I wanted it to work, neither resulted in any noticeable benefit. Instead, one actually killed the engine (died & wouldn't restart - mechanic said likely more expensive to fix than worth). As I understand it, modern engines (with recommended fuels & oils) do a fine job of cleaning themselves. Any more is probably pointless and may do more harm than good.

 

well I have used seafoam for years, with no problems, and if you investigate e-10 and now maybe e-15 what it can do to engines, low compression engines don't like white lighting!

 

I haven't tried Chemtool so I can't compare them. As to the effectiveness of Seafoam I can only relate my own non-scientific experience.

I had been hearing of this "seafoam" thing on my motorcycle forum. The claims sounded to good to be true (I'm very leery of snake oil products). I had a '98 Chevy Silverado with 134,000 miles on it. Over time and miles my gas mileage had dropped and power had fallen off. On one hill in particular my truck would drop a gear when pulling a trailer up the hill. I treated two consecutive tanks of gas with seafoam. The results? My truck and trailer now consistently made the hill without dropping a gear and the gas mileage increased from 15 to 17.5 with no change in driving habits.

Just my experience and perhaps an extreme case.

 

How did IT kill the engine? In what way did you use the Seafoam?

 

I've used Seafoam in a few vehicles and can't say if it's solely attributed to the engine life but between my father and I, we've had the 2 vehicles reach 330k and 345k miles.

 

I don't know. This was like 15-16 years ago. Engine died about twenty minutes after using the stuff and wouldn't restart. Had it towed. Mechanic later called to mumble off what was wrong and price (all I really paid attention to), saying the fix was probably more than the vehicle was worth. I agreed and sold it to a junk yard for parts.

 

Modern engines are incredibly dirty, especially the ones that run on gasoline vs ethanol. All the additives in gasoline create large amounts of carbon on valves and pistons tops, not to mention gumming up egr systems. Seafoam does work if used correctly.