Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Seafoam.

I am having some issues, not getting enough gas when I accelerate. I have tried the loosen the gas cap trick, the toggle from main to reserve deal with no luck. I am wondering if running some Seafoam through will help clean out my furl lines/tank etc and if it is safe to do on a 2002 America? Any suggestions/comments etc?

It's safe, and it's not going to make anything worse. I run it about once a year in mine

Assuming its a new development. Has the AI (air induction been removed) You may wish to check those caps on the lines for age and dryness. Could be as simple as vacuum.

No, Seafoam won't hurt it.

AI has not been removed, and yes it has been a very recent development and since my car just blew a head gasket means I am relying on my bike a bit more then I would like.

Okay let me see if I can sum this up. The AI nor the airbox has been removed, the bike is a stock as we can make it. The cdi is original, the coils are replacements from a 2007 I bought from pinwall via ebay,(seem to be be good so far). Monday I was heading home from work and I suddenly lost power as I was riding, I loosened the cap to the tank, no effect, I tried to give her more gas and I went slower. At idle she is fine, both sides firing great, as I give her gas there seems to be less power. I am thinking( with help form the great and powerful Chy) that it may be something blocking my fuel flow either in the petcock, the line, the carb, or the fuel filter.

perhaps the hidden filter?

I am pretty sure that may be beyond my technical abilities atm. But I am learning new and exciting things every day it seems, my next project is replacing a blown head gasket on a 1999 for mustang. I am thinking the hidden fuel filter may be easier then that. Maybe.

replacing head gaskets used to be such a simple task, now they load the top of the engine up with a bunch of useless crap that adds about 6 more hours to the job

Yea but host of other things such as water in the oil and all sorts of other crap. Getting towed back to my house by a friend with a towing service. Damn, and the car was just about paid off.

I would do two things. One is remove the hidden filter the other is pull the petcock (I assume this is a carb. bike) and clean the filter on it..

Just got back from slowly going to the store and getting seafoam, no change after I ran it with it, going to take the tank off and check the petcock filter as well as my freshly diletic greased coils and battery terminals.

if its anything seafoam will fix it will take more then one run through with it, and at a higher does then recomended on the can, you can darn near run your bike on straight seafoam...... i would fill her up and dump a good 1/4 or more of a can into that tank and run it through, seafoam works great but it needs to be cycled a couple three times before you will see any real results. I would also check the tank vent hose as well if not already mentioned in here.

If its running on both cylinders slowly I will say I don't think its the CDI. I suspect you are not dropping gas.

Pull the tank for easy access look behind the carbs there is an intersection. Inside that is a little fuel filter, make it go away.

While the tank is off pull the petcock and make sure its not full of sand blow it out.

Did you maybe get bad gas, has it lasted long enough to have gotten more gas? That ethanol junk can't sit long in a tank it gets nasty. If you are on old gas get new.


You don't have to answer this but when was the last time you cleaned out the air filter? If it can't breathe it can't go either.


If its not the simple stuff:

After you run it feel your cylinders. You may be running on one cylinder. If one is cold after several minutes we found the problem. Its ignition coil or CDI. You can check coils by switching them. If the other cylinder runs cold you found it. If not do a search here for Procom. You will probably need them.

Air filter? not recently I will check, was on my list actually.

Just took the petcock off and at first I thought it was a lil dirty, then very dirty. Now it is nice and clean. The amount of dirt I found inside could have been clogging up the smaller filter easily.

I am not removing or replacing the filter till I have the great and powerful Chy give a judgement on that.

The gas is new I just was riding it and now has issues, about 1/3 a tank left inside currently.

Yea not looking forward to a procom or even more ignition coils I am hoping that a clean up of my filters will take care of my issues, but then again I have always been a bit of optimistic bastage.

Air filter clean.

Petcock clean.

Tank vent hose, clear and hooked up.

Battery cables tight and secure.

Connectors to coils checked.

ANd still having same issues, went and got more gas and poured some more seafoam in and rode for a bit hoping for a miracle. None coming so far. Any suggestions?

I guess now we all wait for you to get the go ahead to pull out the hidden filter

"sigh" Yea looks like I am walking to work, oh well the exercise will either do me good or kill me one or the other.

only other thought is the pilot jet or air filter, if either is to dirty you are going to get those issues,did you check the pilots and make sure they are set at two turns out? maybe something got loose, just a thought. Could be your due for a valve adjustment? not sure about that but just another thought.

Valve adjustment no am not due for one, I think I will just have to deal with it until I can somehow con the great and powerful Chy to looking at it. I have reached my technical expertise level and beyond today playing with the gas tank truth be told.

Might try draining the float bowls. At times crap gets in the bowls and gets sucked up on the main jet. Once you have them both drained, and while the hose is still on one, open the petcock and check the flow rate. Then do the same for the other carb.

Walking to work. At least you aren't riding in 70mph wind gust today!

Hidden filter and make sure no water in the fuel anywhere. I would also double check for any vacuum leaks. Look very close at the intake rubbers for any cracks. Also might want to check your tip over valve if you still have one.(If you opened the gas cap and no change probably not the tip over valve but just trying to eliminate things.)

I'm with Ian on this. I had the same problem awhile back and it was the intake rubbers...stress/age cracked round the inside radius of both sides. Replaced both & ended the problem.

Been out of town for the last 2 weeks and just noticed your dilemma. It sure sounds like not enough fuel to carbs or too much air to engine. Remember to keep things simple.

1. Try draining a glass fuel of fuel from each carb drain. Attach a small hose to the drain and open the stop. You should get good flow, not a dribble. Good flow means your hidden filter is ok.

2. What Ian said about the intake rubbers. If they are cracked especially around the clamps your power will drop. It should effect your idle also though since that is when you have the most vacuum.

3. Another overlooked item that seems to affect the engine power only when the bike is up to speed is the location of the carb vent. If it has moved it could cause your bike to starve for fuel at highway speed because of a siphoning effect it has on the float bowls. Here is a link from the other site "LINK". Read down several posts before you see some good pics of the vent location. Hope this helps.

Good call Karl,he did say it was an 02.

He's good to go... some trash in the tank managed to get through the petcock filters and got into the float bowls. Cleaned the jets and the tank and he's rolling again.

Hidden filter already out then? No inline to catch that crap?

Yes it was missing. My mistake as I had apparently left it out when we built the bike but I took care of that while we were working on it.
It had some rust looking stuff in the tank though, gonna have to keep an eye on that.

You may have a coil going. My 64 Chevelle SS was easy to work on. Open the hood and the only thing in your way was the air cleaner. It took less than a minute to remove it.