Best Way To Clean Carbon From Combustion Chamber?

[mustangmarty]

What do y'all think the best way to clean carbon out of the combustion chambers other than doing a rebuild?

Also, do y'all think it's better to trickle down carb or suck in through vacuum line?

 

[chuck]

I pour a qt. of water down the Carib while the engine is running around 1200 rpms. The pistons will shine like new.

 

[Broncobowsher]

The vacuum line can be an issue. Depending on how the manifold is laid out compared to where the vacuum line is positioned you could end up only feeding your juice to only half of the engine or maybe even just 1 cylinder.

As for what juice, I have heard of plenty. This is the first time I have ever seen water specified as "distilled". Another version is to use ATF.

Another unknown is how much juice and how fast to put it in. I have seen a mist from a spray bottle above the carb all the way to a 5 gallon bucket of water (with 1 quart of ATF mixed in) poured down the carburator. Yes 5 GALLONS of water poured through the carb. My uncle was a mechanic at a gas station in the 70s and mentioned a de-carbonizer which had a controlled flow, said it was a steady small stream of fluid that they later realized was basicly ATF. I think he said that was about quart sized, maybe pint sized. The general answer I have heard was you need to feed enough juice fast enough that the engine bogs down (and generally smokes badly). But not so much that you hydralic the engine and blow a rod.

 

[needabronco]

On industrial engines I use ATF that is sucked into the carb by a vacuum port.

 

[bronco_daddy]

You can't dissolve carbon...the trick is to think of carbon as grapes. Carbon molecules is held together by resin which you can think as the stems. The trick is to dissolve the stem.... I know a little about this process as my father and I where part of a company called CarbonClean and later called MotorVac and then we created Engine Clean Technologies. The process of removing carbon has been around for ages and the product is basically gun soap, which was the original formula. It was used to clean the gun barrels of destroyers, battleships, etc. It was by far the best product for removing carbon, gum and varnish until silicone windings came along and it dissolved them on the injectors, then we had to reformulate and it was still good, but never like the original.

You can buy fuel injector cleaner that you pour into your tank, but the dilution ratio is too high IMO to be effective at any level. I still have the original formula here in bottles at the house and I just spray it down the carb intake with a hand held sprayer. If your system is FI you can pull off a vacuum line off your intake and spray it through there..cleans the IAC, throttle plate, etc. Unfortunately its a bit harder to get the volume into the intakes to do the valves. Best way to see if it worked is a compression check prior and after...you will see an increase in compression as the valves seal better. O2 sensors are cleaned also with the process.

Basically the machine was nothing more than a pump with a return line regulated. For carb you hooked up after the fuel pump and you became the fuel pump and ran it at 4psi. For FI you had to use the return line as you did not want product going to the tank. Also because the line was regulated you could crank up the pump. squeeze down the return and do a high pressure cleaning at the end that garnered even greater results. You could also clean too fast and hang a valve with carbon debris.

High mileage motors you should refrain from as it the carbon (talking engines never cleaned) is what is keeping it together already 4 gas before and after and watch your emissions zero out...my pickup is a 1994 and has literally no emissions as I do the crankcase and FI prior to smog..275k miles on it all original.

Water works well and was part of the reformulation to generate more heat. Never heard of ATF for gas, but used it many times in diesel.

BMW pulls the plugs and bead blasts it with walnut shells, that is the factory method then evacuates it and checks with a boroscope.

Regardless the system works...we used it in China to reduce emissions in the mines, the railroads, the Chinese Military and was a tool in the Bejing Clean Air report to get the Olympics. In the USA we manufactured for WYNNS, BG, OTC, US Military, John Deere, and so on. Even GM tested and approved it use but refused to cover any warranty if it occurred. We could handle up to 10,000HP with the equipment we made.

Average cleaning time is 20 mins.

GM Top End is a great one to use... you can drizzle it in, run at approx 1200 RPM and start lightly pouring...you will start to get a ton of exhaust water vapor and that is the best sign.

 

[Archangel]

When I was in tech school, a majority of my instructors swore by the GM product top clean, done the vacuum line way, but like said before you have to be selective on what vacuum line to use and we always ran it at 2000-2500rpm. The newer Ford modular motors have suck a small combustion chamber that its easy to hydro-lock the engine tho, had it happen when I was in school. Also make sure it's out in the open, preferably on a windy day. Your ride will look like John Candy's car in the movie Uncle Buck.

 

[broncnaz]

unless your having pinging or detonation issues I'd probably leave it as it is. Going to be pretty hard to confirm you've done any good with any product but water does seem to work very well ever seen a cylinder than had a water leak its clean. only issue is as has been stated getting the correct amount to do the job without hydrolocking and destroying a engine.
Another choice may be to run some marvel mystery oil in the gas and pour some in the cylinders and let it set a few days it should loosen up the carbon then go on a good run and it should blow out some of that carbon. Might even just use marvel mystery oil instead of ATF. And yes you will probably look like uncle buck for a few minutes.

 

[patterdale]

One quart of ATF poured down the carb is all that is needed on these engines. Get it up to operating temp. Rev it up and pour slowly. It will start to bog down if you pour too fast. I never heard of hydro locking the engine using this method until I read this post. You would basically have to dump the whole quart at once. It will smoke like hell so do it outside and make sure to park it into the wind. The neighbors might even think they should dial 911.

 

[ugly74]

Water works great. No need for a fancy solvent or whatever. Bring the RPMs up above idle, slowly pour the water in. Gotta love those laws of physics!

 

[TwoDalesDad]

Water is the juice of the gods, and fords too.....And is great for the Human Body as well!!

 

[chuck]

I have always used a qt of water I suppose because that was what I was told when I was a kid. 1200 RPMs pour slowly and hold the 1200, as you pour the engine will slow so give it a little more throttle. We used to do this to clear dieseling problem and just before taredown if the engine would run. During tare down you would find no carbon build up on pistons,spark plugs, valves or intake ports. With the newer gas I don't think this is needed as there is little build up.

 

[Ranchtruck]

There's plenty of buildup on engines that burn any oil.

I switch out one of the vacuum lines for the hose coming from the windshield washer pump. Fill the washer reservoir with water or plain blue washer fluid and unplug the wiper motor. Take it out and load up the engine at 2-3k rpms and hit the washer switch. Cleans it right out!

 

[chuck]

I haven't seen a lot of build up on the newer engines (newer than mid 80s). I think because they run hotter and burn up the carbon. Also the newer gas does not have a lot of stuff in it the way it used to have like lead. In the old days they recommended changing spark plugs every 12,000 miles, now 100,000? That is because there are less deposits to foul the plugs. But you are right, if they are burning a lot of oil they are likely to have a lot of build up.