Spraying Seafoam directly into Honda 2000 Carb.

jmckelvy wrote:

MM49 wrote:
I always replace the anti-tamper fuel pilot screw with a service screw. Then you can address the root cause; a lean condition. The Honda Eu series generators use an emulsion jet well design. The fuel and air are mixed before they get to the actual jet. This makes the adjustment very insensitive. All of the Honda generators that I've worked on needed to have the fuel pilot richened up. Honda is required to set them up very lean to pass all of the regulations in the markets they sell. The performance after setting the pilot richer is notable.
I wouldn’t recommend Sea Foam in the Honda fuel systems. There are many different types of materials used in the system. It is a******shoot guessing if Seafoam will react with them at variable temperatures.
MM49

Hi, the fuel pilot screw has an anti-tamper cover on it. The cover is retained by adhesive.

I first try to loosen the glue by slightly heating the cover with solder iron. Then I try to remove the cap. The screw has a relief in the shaft that will break if it is bent. If the screw breaks just order a new one from the dealer. The remaining screw can be backed out with a dental pick. Install the new fuel screw in the carburetor and set to 1.5 turns out. Install carburetor and test. If you still have the surge, remove the carb and richen 1/2 turn out. This adjustment is very insensitive. It might take 4 - 8 tries. Final test the generator should be fully warmed up. This takes at least 30 minutes under load. The result is well worth the work.
MM49

MM49 wrote:
I always replace the anti-tamper fuel pilot screw with a service screw. Then you can address the root cause; a lean condition. The Honda Eu series generators use an emulsion jet well design. The fuel and air are mixed before they get to the actual jet. This makes the adjustment very insensitive. All of the Honda generators that I've worked on needed to have the fuel pilot richened up. Honda is required to set them up very lean to pass all of the regulations in the markets they sell. The performance after setting the pilot richer is notable.
I wouldn’t recommend Sea Foam in the Honda fuel systems. There are many different types of materials used in the system. It is a******shoot guessing if Seafoam will react with them at variable temperatures.
MM49

Could you provide some additional detail about doing this?

I always replace the anti-tamper fuel pilot screw with a service screw. Then you can address the root cause; a lean condition. The Honda Eu series generators use an emulsion jet well design. The fuel and air are mixed before they get to the actual jet. This makes the adjustment very insensitive. All of the Honda generators that I've worked on needed to have the fuel pilot richened up. Honda is required to set them up very lean to pass all of the regulations in the markets they sell. The performance after setting the pilot richer is notable.
I wouldn’t recommend Sea Foam in the Honda fuel systems. There are many different types of materials used in the fuel system. It is a******shoot guessing if Seafoam will react with them at variable temperatures. The only thing that Sea Foam does if change the mixture by adding some chemicals to the fuel. The generator might respond to them and run smoother.
MM49

Ron3rd wrote:
Lot of good info here and the bottom line is Seafoam is a good product, but really only works from the inside, ie adding it to the gas. My 11 year old Honda EU2000 was showing all the classic symptoms of needing the carb taken off and cleaned (common with all gas engines) as it would only idle smoothly with the choke slightly on. As a last resort, I gave her a double dose of Seafoam, ran the Honda for a while, let her sit overnight and she purrs like a kitten now. What ever was in the carb, Seafoam took care of it.

A double dose is easy to try!
Pat

Lot of good info here and the bottom line is Seafoam is a good product, but really only works from the inside, ie adding it to the gas. My 11 year old Honda EU2000 was showing all the classic symptoms of needing the carb taken off and cleaned (common with all gas engines) as it would only idle smoothly with the choke slightly on. As a last resort, I gave her a double dose of Seafoam, ran the Honda for a while, let her sit overnight and she purrs like a kitten now. What ever was in the carb, Seafoam took care of it.

Forget the Seafoam and I think you will find the issue is the internal fuel filter needs to be cleaned which was what caused my 2000 idle issues. It's IIRC a little involved to get to, but not hard to do and you should be able to find directions on the internet somewhere. That filter needs to be cleaned about every 50 to 100 hours of runtime.

Larry

"SeaFoam saved me from having to tear down the carb, despite what the "experts" may say."

It certainly have seemed to. Seafoam like most cleaners has the ability to clean intake deposits and even remove fresh carbon deposits from a spark plug center electrode porcelain insulator. I'll bet a plugged-nickel the latter was the problem.

"I had the engine steam-cleaned ad it stopped burning oil"

Checkout the sticky at the beginning of this segment. The cleanup of a poorly performing Honda 2000 carb is insanely simple and easy. Takes less than an hour and if you follow the instructions the generator will practically start itself.

To begin with, read the can and it will tell you how to use the product.

There is so much more to a carb then just a main jet. An engine will benefit from a slow pour into the carb till it stalls out. Wait the allotted time, and start it up. It will smoke like crazy, but it will also decarbonize the engine. This technique should be written on the can.

I would also spray carb cleaner around the outside of the carb to see if it speeds up. This will tell you if you have an air leak somewhere causing an issue for you. I've seen worn out butterfly rods leaking air at the body to the point of messing up an engine.

SoundGuy wrote:
I've owned 2 EU2000i gensets, still have one of them, and when the first began surging badly on ECO I did spray SeaFoam directly into the carb throat and it did solve the problem completely. :B The process took ~ 15 minutes, with endless shots of spray into the throat until the engine would almost stall and create huge plumes of white smoke, and just as I was about to give up on the process the carb suddenly cleared and the engine smoothed up instantly. Since then I've always run non-ethanol gas and always treat it with SeaFoam liquid before it goes into the genset's fuel tank. That genset never gave me any further problems so there's no doubt whatsoever that spraying the carb throat with SeaFoam saved me from having to tear down the carb, despite what the "experts" may say. :S

Could it be that there was another mechanism at work by spraying Sea Foam into the carburetor than the main use of Sea Foam, keeping gasoline from oxidizing and lubricating/cleaning passages?
I would venture a guess that you could have gotten the same result by placing your hand across the throat and varying the fuel delivery and engine speed.
There is probably no circumstance that Sea Foam sprayed into a running engine enters the main jet and has any effect on cleaning anything out of it.