Is Seafoam stalling my engine?

[strohlde]

Wife has been running the boat all season and says it's been running great (we had an issue with stalling at idle last year that we never figured out). I got home from Singapore and decided to dump a can of seafoam in on Thursday...ran fine that day but yesterday it went back to stalling at low speeds. Is the seafoam just breaking up more crap and causing this issue? My wife says "stop fixing what ain't broken" but I'm a guy...and an engineer...it's not working well enough until it is broken!

[Wickedcummins]

listen to your wife

[Billua]

Wife has been running the boat all season and says it's been running great (we had an issue with stalling at idle last year that we never figured out). I got home from Singapore and decided to dump a can of seafoam in on Thursday...ran fine that day but yesterday it went back to stalling at low speeds. Is the seafoam just breaking up more crap and causing this issue? My wife says "stop fixing what ain't broken" but I'm a guy...and an engineer...it's not working well enough until it is broken!

What was it last time that caused it?

I doubt it is the Sea Foam.. First time I ran it, my idle smoothed right out...

[capitalgain]

I don't use Seafoam anymore. I used it for winter storage two years in a row and the boat wouldn't idle when I pulled it out in the spring. Last year I tried Stabil (marine grade) and the boat ran great; no carb problems at all. Others may have had a better experience with Seafoam but I'll stick with the Stabil.

[strohlde]

What was it last time that caused it?

I doubt it is the Sea Foam.. First time I ran it, my idle smoothed right out...

We couldn't figure it out, it was unresolved and that's the way we put it away last year. Our mechanic thought maybe it was something with the injectors but he's more of a carb guy and didn't really know too much about fuel injection. So I was going to pull them and get them cleaned but never got around to it. She'd taken it out about 10 times before I got home and said it'd been running great...until I touched it.

But ya...after being smacked around by the wife a bit and a few other people I won't put anymore in there.

[Ewok]

Sea foam is a good fuel system cleaner, not a good fuel stabilizer. I use marine stabil to keep the gas good, I use sea foam once a year for a good system cleanup. Read the instructions for sea foam too, there are different concentrations recommended for the various uses. I doubt sea foam is causing any issues, but I'd check the fuel filter anyhow just to see if the seafoam loosened up some gunk and is giving you any issues.

[IDBoating]

I use Seafoam in every gallon of fuel to keep things clean. I use Sta-Bil for overwinter fuel. No problems.

[4bw]

I just had to replace the idle air control (IAC) on our 2003 22v because of stalling at idle and slow speeds. It can actually be hazard when docking and such. The part is about $130 (merc engine) and can be changed in minutes with just two screws. It did the trick and no more stalling at idle. I tried cleaning it a few times but that did not work, put a new on and good to go. Just run by Ski Dock and Charlie will take care of you. He usually has these in stock.