Hey guys, just wanted to mention how much I appreciate this forum. The content here has helped me a great deal over the years!


So I recently upgraded the throttle body on my 2005 N/A to the 74mm. I took a picture of what it looked like inside the engine behind the TB. It wasn't pretty:







I am in the military so I perform all of my car work at a "auto hobby shop" on base. They have a bunch of old school mechanics there that are hired to help people with projects and give advice. One of the Mercedes guys saw this picture and told me about a safe way to fix it. All you will need is a bottle of Sea Foam purchased from Autozone or equivalent. This takes about 40 minutes total with most of it being waiting. I recommend doing it in an open parking lot as things will get pretty smoky.

1. Turn on the car and let it idle

2. Disconnect the hose that feeds directly into the air intake while the car is running. Immediately plug the end of the hose with your thumb or your car will stall out! Here is a picture of what I am talking about:







Note: there is a lot of suction on this hose. It will not pull your skin off or anything, but it is not comfortable to cover with your thumb for extended periods of time

3. Create a small slit between your thumb and the end of the hose by moving your thumb down a little bit. Really just the slightest bit of space for air to get through.

4. While there is a little bit of space allowing air in, start to pour some Sea Foam into that slit (see the red arrow in the picture above). Pour very slowly. The engine will struggle a bit as you let air in past your thumb. As you hear the engine struggle, cover the hole completely for a second or two to prevent it from stalling. Once it sounds normal, reopen the slit and pour a little more.





5. Once you have poured about half the bottle of sea foam in, reconnect the hose and then turn off the car. Let it sit for about 20-30ish minutes. Turn the car back on and let it idle for a couple of minutes. Do not be afraid! The computer might throw some codes and the idle will seem a bit rough. This is OK.

6. After the car has idled for about 2-4 minutes, start to press on the accelerator to rev the engine. The goal is to blow all the junk from the air intake out of your exhaust pipes. It will be a large cloud of white smoke.

For me, I could not make this happen by revving the engine parked. I ended up thinking it was done and driving away. I left base and was making a right turn at a stop light when I decided to press the accelerator all the way down to get to 50MPH "quickly". This is when a huge cloud of white smoke shot out of my exhaust pipes in the middle of the intersection. Fortunately, it was relatively late by this point, so there was no one in that intersection. No harm no foul I guess.

Anyways guys, hopefully this helps someone even though it's pretty simple.

Car experts here feel free to tell me if I'm wrong or if this is unsafe for some reason. I don't want people to try this and blow up their cars. I just figured there are tons of liquid air intake cleaners out there, but Sea Foam is probably the best "everything cleaner".

 

Thanks for those before pictures and the instructions. This has been reported on here before, but your pictures are new to me. I have used the sea foam treatment myself just as you described, but had no white or black smoke exhaust after the treatment so I always wondered what good it did. I know Techron Total Fuel System Cleaner is good as it cleared a stuck EGR value on another car I own and the code also cleared on it's own. If you can get some pictures now that the treatment is completed it would be most useful.
Thanks for the write up!

 

Mine looked like that...once upon a time.

Install an oil catch-can. No more dirty intake mani!

 

Great seeing the before pictures, do not have any memory of someone posting 'after' pictures. Anybody have before/after pictures with this seafoam treatment? Would be nice to actually see the results of slamming a treatment of something into a running engine!

 

I too would like to see some after pictures.
How many miles on this car so we can add some perspective to your pictures?

 

Here's a 3rd learning today! Gotta have a drink!

 

Oooookay: what did you learn?

 

Yeah, kinda lost me on that one as well...

 

This was his third fact read today, he had learned an oil change lesson (FSS) and a lesson on how to fix the coolant overflow tank.
He had previously turned the overflow tank post he read into a nice 'how to' .pdf for himself and I shall be adding it to the 'Index of Crossfire .....' thread

 

No need to add anything else.

 

All that GOOD COLD CLEAN AIR up there in Canada, Dave, your DA MAN! Whatever your doing, bottle, can, or bag it and then sell it. You'll make MILLIONS!

 

Considering that I'm exposed to an academic mindset daily, it always amazes me that the collective owners of this "Red-headed Stepchild" band together and offer not only knowledge, but their experiences, good and bad, in finding ways to keep them on the road.

The academic mindset, which I'm sure your're curious about, is to keep up the appearance of open and willing sharing.

But, in truth, is anything but.

Bravo, Crossfire owners,. Bravo.

 

I followed behind him as he went from post to post, so it was quite evident to me what he meant. Just reading what he wrote in this last post would make you assume he had been into the sauce too much already.

 

Nothing wrong with that (being into the 'sauce'), except if behind the wheel or operating anything your not supposed to.