best carbon cleaning method

Allforspeed · Dec 27, 2004

delve deep into your wisdom...

imagin you have a 5.0 with 130K and you know its got lots of carbon inside, whats the best way to clean this off THAT YOU HAVE DONE. I hear all these methods discussed but dont want to pump my motor full of water only to bend a rod or something.

thanks yall

86bluecobra · Dec 27, 2004

i say the best way to clean up carbon in a engine is a good ratting. burn it out

Allforspeed · Dec 27, 2004

BTW,

about to hookup a 100 shot zex dry kit and am a little afraid the heat held by the carbon could cause some problems, hence the question, dont want ot blow a head gasket if i could have misted some brake fluid in and fixed it

86bluecobra · Dec 27, 2004

seriously the water thing is what i have heard works the best. just not lots at a time. steam the carbon out. this also cleans cats quite nicely

Ourobos · Dec 27, 2004

I disassembled my heads, and took all the valves to a wire wheel. Looked brand new.

giddyup306 · Dec 27, 2004

Media blast it.

Boss 351 · Dec 27, 2004

Without taking it apart and cleaning every little piece by hand? I dunno... it will only be a patch job, won't it.

At 260,000kms my engine didn't have that much carbon buildup. I rubbed my pistons with my fingers (sounds like some sort of penthouse story) and most of the black came off. I cleaned the engine block with oven-degresser, that **** works like crazy!

crazypete · Dec 27, 2004

Gasoline dissolves it.

Pull the plugs and fill er up through the plug holes with gasoline and let it sit for a while, then crank...makes a huge mess. Refill and repeat. Still not presfect but better than nothing.

I had to scrape with razor blades along the piston faces when the heads came off. This carbon is pressure burned on. I dont see how hot water would do a darn thing other than flash rust your cylinder walls.

bluevenom867 · Dec 27, 2004

Leave the carbon on.Just get any loose stuff off the piston add leave the rest.Think of is as a free ugle piston coating.Haveing the carbon there increases compression and actually helps keep the piston cooler.Think about it, you got to get thru the carbon to get to the piston, so does detonation if it happens.Now of coarse if there is exsesive carbon you gotta take some of, but leave a little on.Trust me on this, I had a genius tell me this, and it makes perfect sense.Plus, do you know how hard that stuff is to come off?I was about ready to take the piston out and hit it with the DA sander befor the person told me this.

Boss 351 · Dec 27, 2004

crazypete said:
Gasoline dissolves it.

Pull the plugs and fill er up through the plug holes with gasoline and let it sit for a while, then crank...makes a huge mess. Refill and repeat. Still not presfect but better than nothing.

I had to scrape with razor blades along the piston faces when the heads came off. This carbon is pressure burned on. I dont see how hot water would do a darn thing other than flash rust your cylinder walls.

... and change oil after too lol

jaackal · Dec 27, 2004

what about that sea foam stuff...i bought a can from autozone, just havent used it yet, it says you can use it through the pcv line,oil and gas

jaidedeye · Dec 27, 2004

when i owned my rx7 i used to remove carbon by using ATF in the vaccum lines and in in the plug holes....i know it sounds crazy but it works......if you dont have cats, all kinds of $**** will come out your exhaust....i laso used water too after the atf.....i had some friends hold buckets over the exhaust pipes....after i did the ATF and the water each bucket had about a half a handful of stuff in it.

also take into consideration what is causing the carbon build up, even high mileage motors if maintained right wont have much carbon in them. alot of times your plugs will tell the story.

crazypete · Dec 28, 2004

I second the atf down the intake. This is an old 60's racer trick. You'll need to unbolt your h-pipe and swing it out of the way (it'll be real loud) then let her rip. Keep the rpm's up and it should be ok. I also heard of people putting atf in their fuel tank to clean the whole system front to back but this sounds a bit too extreme for me.

Black1987Stang · Dec 28, 2004

Hmmm brake fluid never heard of that one. But the water trick definitly does work. I did it to my friends truck. We put water into an old squirt bottle, sprayed it down in his intake for like 2 minutes, but just pressed the trigger enough so the water comes out at a decent speed. It pulled alot harder and where it ususally flattened ot at 5k, it would just keep pulling. Worked good, i was thinking about doing it to my dads toyota with 257,000+miles It wont bend a rod unless you actually pour water down there. I have heard of the ATF in the gas tank and oil but i thought that just cleans the injectors and lubricates everything. If you look at Marvel Mystery Oil it looks exactly like ATF, seems like they would both do the same. I would also recommend an oil change after doing whatever procedure you try.

James50Stang · Dec 28, 2004

jaackal said:
what about that sea foam stuff...i bought a can from autozone, just havent used it yet, it says you can use it through the pcv line,oil and gas

Thats the result when I sea foamed. I put half the bottle in my gas tank and the other half in my Vac Lines. It seems to work really well. Put it in with the car running, then after it sucks up the bottle, turn the car off. Wait about 5 to 10 minutes then start her up. Depending on how much it smokes, it will show you how dirty the engine actually was. Oh yeah, change your oil too. The stuff works well for 5.25 a can. Im about to do it again after I rpelace my fuel filter to really get all the junk out of my injectors and whatnot.

Good luck man!

James

CManT1914 · Dec 28, 2004

James50Stang said:
Thats the result when I sea foamed. I put half the bottle in my gas tank and the other half in my Vac Lines. It seems to work really well. Put it in with the car running, then after it sucks up the bottle, turn the car off. Wait about 5 to 10 minutes then start her up. Depending on how much it smokes, it will show you how dirty the engine actually was. Oh yeah, change your oil too. The stuff works well for 5.25 a can. Im about to do it again after I rpelace my fuel filter to really get all the junk out of my injectors and whatnot.

Good luck man!

James

Yea I heard about that seafoam stuff, how it works great and how you could practically fumigate the town after using it. lol, I also heard though that if you clean out all of your carbon deposits, that it can cause leaks in the cylinder? Any truth to this?

Black1987Stang · Dec 28, 2004

Hey james50 what vacuum line did u hook it to. i doubt it matters since they all come out the same pipe but just curious

James50Stang · Dec 28, 2004

I used the brake booster vac. line. I heard the PCV would be the best bet cuz it could evenly distribute the sea foam through the whole engine, but im not sure if that source is credible. im sure it doesnt matter that much?

As far as leaking goes, ill let you know in a few months if my engine takes a dump on me

James

90mustangGT · Dec 28, 2004

I work in a shop. We use a presurized bottle that hooks to the air compressor lines and it sprays about 20oz of a cleaner chemical, similar to carb cleaner, but more mild. We run the sprayer right at the throttle body. I like to run about 60-90psi at 3000rpm's. I revv the engine, and yes if there is a lot of carbon and such it smokes a lot and stinks, but it makes a big difference. Afterwards, we usually do a tune up and you can see the metal surface of the piston. I also try to run it through the IAC, that makes a difference in idle quality.

Last year, with my car I took it for a spin and got the engine hot, then pulled the air tube with the MAF dissconnected and got the garden hose and turned it on low while holding the throttle open. Be real carefull, it's easy to hydrolock the motor this way.

What the cold water does is hits the hot carbon and basically goes from liquid to gas so fast it basically explodes blasting the carbon off the surface. One way to tell where you blow a head between the cylinder and the coolant becase it will be the really clean combustion chamber.

This won't clean the intake manifold very well, but a can of carb cleaner sprayed down the intake while the car is running will. It will also help clean the combustion chamber.

bluevenom867 said:
Leave the carbon on.Just get any loose stuff off the piston add leave the rest.Think of is as a free ugle piston coating.Haveing the carbon there increases compression and actually helps keep the piston cooler.Think about it, you got to get thru the carbon to get to the piston, so does detonation if it happens.Now of coarse if there is exsesive carbon you gotta take some of, but leave a little on.Trust me on this, I had a genius tell me this, and it makes perfect sense.Plus, do you know how hard that stuff is to come off?I was about ready to take the piston out and hit it with the DA sander befor the person told me this.

Genius? Carbon is really bad, it retains heat, in fact gets real hot, causing detonation. It also causes an increase in NOX gasses which is bad if your trying to get past emmisions. Also, carbon will fill the valve reliefs.

Well, technically if you wanted to, you could leave the carbon on the pistons and run the car for a few million years and the carbon would turn to diamonds. Then you could trade you engine in for any engine you ever dreamed of.

jerry beach · Dec 28, 2004

Good post 90mustanggt. I imagine that the cleaner you use in the shop is similar the seafoam found at Napa. Follow the directions on the bottle and you cant go wrong with it. I have used water in a spray bottle, but never thought of the garden hose. I have poured tranny fliud down the TB too. My dad taught me that trick, it really smooths the idle on the old 289's that were designed to run leaded fuel. I have been told the tranny fliud can destroy your O2, but that was online and I dont know if there is any truth to it.

best carbon cleaning method

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