Chocolate or Vanilla SeaFoam or StarTron

[Donk]

StarTron or Seafoam? Who likes what and any reason why? We used StarTron at Ducati to combat the effects of ethanol on fuel systems and I can honestly say had very positive results. Beyond that I'm a fan of Seafoam. Not sure it matters but trying to decide what to use in the Moto Guzzi that is 10 years old, lived in FL it's whole life, and had only 8500 miles on it when I got it. Currently at 9837 miles on it. Sure feels like the fuel system needs something to clean it out. Just pondering which snake oil to buy?

 

[Igofar]

Sea foam is a cleaner with a little lubricant,
And MMO is lubricant with a little cleaner.
Have not used Star tron myself, but know folks who have, and when I got them to switch from that to MMO they said they had much better results.
Ymmv

 

[Donk]

I was wondering how long it would be before someone mentioned MMO. Funny because I put some in with the last fill up.

 

[Igofar]

MMO used in MY TW200, and not in the wife’s.
6k miles on both, tore them down for a base gasket warranty issue.
You can clearly see the difference.
Never got these kind of results with sea foam or any gas treatments.
MMO for me in all my vehicles.

 

[Larry Fine]

MMO for me in all my vehicles.

How much (or what ratio) of what product how often?

 

[Donk]

MMO is Marvel Mystery Oil.

Igofar I used recommended dosing for first tankful. Do you recommend going a little heavy with the MMO to get an engine cleaned out?

 

[Donk]

 

[RaYzerman]

Depends what you are looking for..... most fuel conditioners have a large percentage of naptha/petroleum distillates.. This stabilizes fuel and takes care of gummy deposits. Seafoam adds isopropanol, which takes care of water. If you want an injector cleaner, then you need something with PEA and harsher chemicals...... try Berryman's B12.
Anything you are considering, just look up the MSDS sheet and see what's in it.

 

[Raia]

question , how much mmo for a full tank of gas ?

 

[CDNolddude]

question , how much mmo for a full tank of gas ?

2 OZ

 

[Andrew Shadow]

The MMO instructions state that the ratio for use in gasoline automobile engines is 4 US oz. of MMO to 1 US gallon of gas.
Using this ratio filling an ST1300 with 7 US gallons of gas requires 2.8 US oz. of MMO.

The MMO generic instructions for 2 & 4 stroke gasoline engines calls for 0.5 US oz. of MMO to 1 US gallon of gas.
Using this ratio filling an ST1300 with 7 US gallons of gas requires 3.5 US oz. of MMO.

If I used it, for simplicity sake, I would just dump 3 US oz. in to a full ST1300 fuel tank.

 

[dduelin]

StarTron or Seafoam? Who likes what and any reason why? We used StarTron at Ducati to combat the effects of ethanol on fuel systems and I can honestly say had very positive results. Beyond that I'm a fan of Seafoam. Not sure it matters but trying to decide what to use in the Moto Guzzi that is 10 years old, lived in FL it's whole life, and had only 8500 miles on it when I got it. Currently at 9837 miles on it. Sure feels like the fuel system needs something to clean it out. Just pondering which SNAKE OIL to buy?

Marvel Mystery Oil worked great in my side valve flathead Atomic Four.

I suspect the rate that Donk burns gas is the best way to keep those bikes running tip-top.

 

[bdalameda]

I don't know much about Marvel Mystery Oil other than it is formulated very similarly to ATF fluid, so it is very high in detergents. I use two types of engine/ fuel system additives occasionally. One is made by Lubegard which is a very well know additive company and the other is made by Redline lubricants. What is similar to both of these is they have a decent percentage of PEA (polyetheramine) which is very good at removing carbon as well as cleaning fuel injectors. Both of these additives also have upper cylinder and fuel system lubricants as well. Both are also very effective fuel stabilizers for long term storage.

Fuel System Booster - Lubegard

www.lubegard.com

SI-1® Complete Fuel System Cleaner

Cleans injectors, carburetors, valve and combustion chamber deposits with a concentrated blend of the most powerful high-temp and low-temp detergents available

www.redlineoil.com

 

[Uncle Phil]

Boy this is almost as good as a tire or oil thread ...

 

[Igofar]

Depends what you are looking for..... most fuel conditioners have a large percentage of naptha/petroleum distillates.. This stabilizes fuel and takes care of gummy deposits. Seafoam adds isopropanol, which takes care of water. If you want an injector cleaner, then you need something with PEA and harsher chemicals...... try Berryman's B12.
Anything you are considering, just look up the MSDS sheet and see what's in it.
You should never use something like berryman’s B12 in your ST or you’d risk washing off the moly on the throttle body butterflies.

 

[flyfisher]

I'm still thinking what you need on that garage queen is an Italian Tuneup

 

[Andrew Shadow]

You should never use something like berryman’s B12 in your ST or you’d risk washing off the moly on the throttle body butterflies.

Assuming that the Berryman B12 is being added to the fuel tank, and that the fuel injectors inject the fuel downstream of the throttle plates, the B12 would not come in to contact with the throttle plates or the moly would it?

 

[RaYzerman]

Nor would any of them in that case. Downstream of the throttle plates.

MMO appears not to be anything rocket science..... although they are missing a large percentage of ingredients, perhaps it's oil. Much like Yamaha RingFree, which has a large percentage of oil?
So - 10-30% naptha, 0.1-1 % phosphoric acid, 0.1-0.5% dichlorobenzine... benzine is a component of injector cleaners. What is the other ~70%? That's the mystery, lol.

Again, look up your favourite poison's SDS sheet and see what it's made of, which will lead you to the industry CAS numbers and you can look that up and see what its potential uses are.

IMHO, the best thing you can do is use Tier1 gas (ethanol or not) and ride yer motorcycle to keep things fresh, new tank of fuel once in a month say, get it up to operating temperature every time for an extended period, and give it a good run (don't ride like grandma, get the revs up into the power band). If your ethanol fuel is going to sit more than two weeks, I'd dump in some Seafoam or any other naptha-containing product, as long as it has some isopropanol to take care of condensation/potentially separated water.

Ride on, worry less and don't spend too much on the snake oils.