Hey everyone, I have a question. I want to run a can of seafoam through my gas tank to clean out all the carbon and other stuff. Now should I change the fuel filter prior to putting the seafoam through? or should I wait until after it has run its course through the tank?

I know all the gunk is going to get broken up and the fuel filter should hopefully catch a fair amount of it, but will it loosen the stuff that is already in the fuel filter allowing it to gum up my injectors.

Any opinions or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Ken

 

Run the seafoam through the fuel system, then change the filter.

 

Same as if you were going to run it through the crankcase and THEN change the spark plugs.

 

When I get my Monte out for the spring from winter storage, after I run though the tank of gas that sat all winter, I end up running some fuel injector cleaner in the next tank (STP, Lucas, whatever excites me at the time). I run the cleaner only on the cars stored over the winter in hopes to be "preventative maintenance" from them sitting (same with putting fuel stabilizer in the tank when they get parked).

So far, I have only changed the fuel filter once in my ownership of the Monte (since 2008).

If you plan to change the filter no matter what, run your cleaner for a tank or two, then change the filter.

Keep in mind a few things:
- Fuel we get these days is far cleaner then that 20+ years ago. So much so, you could almost run without a filter.
- The fuel pump has an element I refer to as a "sock" to help prevent large debris from entering the lines (a "pre-filter" if you will).
- My experience is typically if you begin having a problem you believe is a stuck injector or fuel related, injector cleaners don't help at that point.

Hope that helps ya!

 

Thanks for the replies everyone