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SeaFoam

 

Since getting my bike 2 1/2 years ago I’ve been diligently following the unofficial Honda maintenance schedule as known by Honda riders the world over:

 

1 Add gasoline of choice every +/- 180 miles.
2 Glance at oil once in a while, just to know there’s some in there.

 

I'm pretty sure this is in the book right after "Your new Honda will give you many years of trouble free riding pleasure if you follow these few simple steps..."

 

Anyway, having done this, the bike has lived up to its promise. Always starts. Runs smooth. Thank you Honda.

 

And yet in spite of my care, on a ride just yesterday I noticed a new and slightly disconcerting sound. Normally on longer hill descents while letting the engine braking keep my speed down I hear a reassuring rumblemumblemumble with an occasional quiet cough (pop pop). Yesterday it was more like mumble pop mumble pop mumble ka-Boom! BOOM!! ...pop mumble mumble. And while I happily envisioned the backfire part accompanied by muzzleflash that would do the space shuttle proud, I also thought that can’t good.

 

So I went back to my garage training, decided the thing maybe had picked up something bad last time I was at the local Gas’nSip and whatever that was was messing with the jets. Then, always one to take the easiest, most hopeful decision, I dug out some SeaFoam.

 

852424726_seafoam.jpeg.27f81e0842addd8c5c3c31d3f967f712.jpeg

 


What is SeaFoam?

 

SeaFoam is, well, I’m don't rightly know. It’s promoted and sold as some kind of miracle engine cleaning additive. Uh huh. Importantly it seems to actually make a difference, maybe especially on carbureted engines with bad gas. I'd used this before in the CBR and it worked a treat.

 

Apparently SeaFoam, while a secret formula, is really nothing more than diesel fuel (kerosene?) and naptha and isoHEET. And what exactly do those things do in my engine? Again, I dunno. But there’s a Swedish guy who's figured out the formula for us. Here's his link:

 

http://www.hildstrom.com/projects/seafoam/index.html

 

Our friend analysed the stuff, tried some experiments, and came up with some qualified conclusions. You guys know I’m a sucker for quasi-scientific approaches to pretty much anything, so I liked the link. He even explains how you can make your own SeaFoam. Cheap. Not that I’ll be making my own any time soon, but nice to know I could make it, and you can too. Go Sweden!

 

Meanwhile, I’ll give a can of the expensive store bought stuff a chance to do its thing. As directed, about 1 oz/gallon in the gas tank. I'll use up the can, but hope for positive results before it's gone. And I might buy some real gasoline too. Let's see it that does the trick.

 

 

(Ed. One month later. Did it work? Sure it worked. I've returned to the same long downhills on a nearby route to see if I could coax more backfires from the bike. Mmmmnope. So that's sorted. Easy.)

 

 

 

 

 

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  • 1 month later...
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Following along, it looks like a lot of good information is being shared here so thank you everyone including the original poster Gebruiker.

 

Now I have 9 more pages to read to get caught up 😆

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On 11/17/2020 at 4:20 PM, mtnpat said:

Now I have 9 more pages to read to get caught up 😆

 

I might save you some reading by warning you that most all my entries are sortof experiments in bumbling. They contain a lot of information on what you don't want to do. It's the experts on VFRd that can save you time, money and misery.🙂

 

 

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On 5/15/2020 at 3:08 PM, Gebruiker said:

 

Nothing looked dodgy to me but the little hubcap thing wouldn't click in place. So I tried jiggling the nut. And it turned. By hand. It was loose. The nut. I could hand tighten the whole nut. By which I mean, I could hand tighten the whole damn wheel. 

 

Here’s the service manual. Nut number 1. 

 

IMG_4546.jpg.37f492c6cbfa64ba88767e3defe7e290.jpg

 

 


 

 

Thank you for bringing this to the attention of the forum!

 

You are correct, a properly staked nut will have a big dent in it.  Glad yours didn't cause a catastrophic failure.

 

I went out and checked mine and while the rear axle nut is not loose, no attempt has been made to stake the nut in place even though it is definitely designed to be.  I am wondering if it came from Honda this way?!

 

Thanks again.

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On 11/23/2020 at 5:23 PM, mtnpat said:

I am wondering if it came from Honda this way?!

 

Neither of us know the history of our bikes. Once I discovered the problem, I did notice what could have been a small staking dent maybe. But dent or not, it wasn't doing its job. Since it has never become a known unknown around here at VFRd in the 30 years since the bikes were built, it seems unlikely to be a major issue. Unless of course, all non-stakers are now dead and therefore failing to report in...

 

But now that you have doubled the sample size of unstaked axles, it might be a good thing for more gen3 owners to check into.

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  • 4 months later...
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Spark Plugs

 

Moroseduck started a thread on spark plugs for his gen3 here:

 

 

That got me thinking about my own plugs. Something I hadn't considered before. I mean, so long as the bike runs...

As it happens, I got an extra set of official, unused Honda NGK CR9EH-9 plugs with the bike. Presumably the official Honda NGK plugs are better than the unofficial regular NGK plugs and therefore worth more from the Honda dealer... 🤔

 

IMG_6596.thumb.jpeg.5bec6d3d011876c9a3678fd57834c7f1.jpeg
 
So far as I know, the CR9 plugs are hotter than standard CR8 plugs. What operating difference that might make is beyond me. Maybe they're just wrong for the bike and that's why they were extras...

 

(Ed. Nope. Backwards. 8s are hotter than 9s for NGK. Thanks Airwalk, below. Apparently every manufacturer uses its own heat range index so a higher number can be hotter or cooler, depending on brand.)

 

Anyway, the previous owner told me he’d installed high performance multi-electrode plugs on the bike. He may well have. I’ve yet to check down there. E3 plugs are the ones with the funny electrode design.

 

2113338254_10c39734-6cc9-4dec-97c1-09a590811f5c._SR970300_.jpg.6b2619ef47bdb9c07a9c57957f6f6503.jpg

 

https://e3sparkplugs.com/motorcycle-spark-plugs/

 

Does any of that make a real difference? I don't know. What I can report is that if they are E3’s they work just fine.

 

Folks at Moroseduck's link above seem to mostly like Iridium plugs, the ones that he got with his bike. At Amazon in the States, all these plugs, NGK, NGK Iridium, E3, all of them, seem to cost around seven to twelve dollars a plug. There are plenty of reports about performance differences a spark plug would make. It’d be fun to see real comparative numbers. But considering the apparent difficulty in swapping out plugs on this engine, I’d be inclined to just use the ones that are supposed to last longest. At the moment, those are the ones already in there...

 

 

 

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4 hours ago, Gebruiker said:

 

Spark Plugs

 

Moroseduck started a thread on spark plugs for his gen3 here:

 

 

That got me thinking about my own plugs. Something I hadn't considered before. I mean, so long as the bike runs...

As it happens, I got an extra set of official, unused Honda NGK CR9EH-9 plugs with the bike. Presumably the official Honda NGK plugs are better than the unofficial regular NGK plugs and therefore worth more from the Honda dealer... 🤔

 

IMG_6596.thumb.jpeg.5bec6d3d011876c9a3678fd57834c7f1.jpeg
 
There are plenty of reports about performance differences a spark plug would make. It’d be fun to see real comparative numbers. But considering the apparent difficulty in swapping out plugs on this engine, I’d be inclined to just use the ones that are supposed to last longest. At the moment, those are the ones already in there...

 

 

 

 

That's where I ended up. Other than the lifespan, which is in reality longer than most of us even keep bikes, then short of swapping plugs and doing dyno runs and trying to measure fuel efficiency etc for each set it's all a bit of a head game. If you feel that one plug is better than another, that's probably as good as it's going to get regardless of whether or not there's any actual truth to it. 

 

My bike was running pretty damn sweetly for a 28 year old with the plugs she had, so I stuck with those. If things are working, don't mess with them is my motto! Also, I really didn't want to try and get at those front plugs 🙂

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Those E3 spark plugs didn't last very long in 2 different vehicles for me. I would scrap them and put in some good stuff soon before they start acting up.

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On 4/19/2021 at 5:39 PM, jefferson said:

Those E3 spark plugs didn't last very long in 2 different vehicles for me. I would scrap them and put in some good stuff soon before they start acting up.

 

Oh rats...Jefferson that's discouraging news. And the first review of any kind I'd heard on E3 plugs. I'm not sure how I'd identify bad plugs without taking a plug reading and I'm not inclined to do that unless one or more cylinders simply stopped firing completely leaving the engine running on three or two cylinders...or not at all. For now, I'm only going on my amateur seatofthepants judgement. The bike seems to run fine, so like moroseduck, I'm not prepared to mess with anything. To be clear, I'm not absolutely sure the thing has E3 plugs. I only know the previous owner told me he'd installed some kind of performance plugs with fancy electrodes. He may have said the word 'gapless' but in any case, the only plugs I saw on Amazon are the ones we're already talking about. Looking a little harder I now see other plugs available, and not on Amazon. Maybe he meant these things:

 

premium-evo.jpg.cc04343a6645f9f70bd4464cde783fb1.jpg

 

https://www.briskracing.com/

 

Where is PO when I need him...

 

Moving on, here's all I think I know about heat range: Hotter plugs work better when the engine is cold or operating at lower rpms to resist fouling. Once an engine is hot and running hard, cooler plugs resist knocking. Given that choice, I'd think cooler plugs work better on a VFR. But if so, why would Honda offer hotter plugs? Maybe the difference between CR8 and CR9 plugs is insignificant. In that case, why bother selling two types of plugs at all. I really shoulda paid more attention in shop class... 🙄

 

 

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