Water Cylinder Decarbonizing... Should I?

[BlazerLT]

Test Subject: 1995 Blazer LT 4.3L CPI Vortec
Status: 125,000miles
Condition: Good, but definitely will have some carbon in the cylinders.

Now, I heard of the water decarboniztion people used to do with carbed vehicles and motorcycles and lately I haven't heard many people doing it. It is said to be the most effective way to clean pistons and combustion chambers.

On fuel injected vehicles, you mist water through a spay bottle into the throttle body or suck water through the PCV line which will atomize the water quite effectively when you hold the throttle to half.

Question is, has anyone done it here?

Should I try it?

And yes I did the combustion chamber cleaner and it did **** all but foul my plugs.

What do you think?

 

[Gary Allan]

Sure it works..but isn't just that easy. The water stiffles the combustion process so you're fighting to keep it running ..or getting nervous revving it that high with no load.

Here's a thought ...I've done this using ATF as a purge (we won't get into that =too many will tell you the sky is falling

) ..If you have a "centrally located" PCV hose...get about 8 ft of it and run it in the passenger compartment...get on the highway and then just put it in the water (you've had it plugged before doing this). This should do a good job without the thing carrying on for you working the throttle and pouring at the same time. You also get to do it for a much longer time (depending on the volume of water you have on hand).

 

[c_rossman]

I would just try a good old Italian Tuneup.

 

[oilboy123]

I,ve done it with water in the past but I won,t anymore. What does water+used oil together make sulferic acid.
At least that,s what I have heard. I don,t want to chance battery acid eating my motor internals.

I tried a bunch of decarbonizings with water and Ford decarbon chemical and nothing worked to rid my pinging till I used Auto RX. I don,t know if it will work for others but it worked for me. See under auto RX postings in (additives) mine is under "oilboy123"
Good luck

 

[Jelly]

After much research, I used this recently in my '92 4.3L V6.

Definite Improvement!

 

[SteveD2]

My cherokee was pinging pretty bad on 87...I sprayed some water in the intake, (only about 3 ounces) and it stopped.

Now it only pings if I have ~4 people in there with me.

 

[Schmoe]

Time for some Seafoam. Take the vacuum line coming off of the the brake cylinder, stick the hose in the can and let it suck out about 1/2 of the can. Might want to go slowly at first because the engine will try and die on you. Once you get it in, turn engine off and wait about 15 minutes. Then crank back up and make sure you got plenty of ventilation as this stuff will lay a smoke screen a M1A1 Abrams could sneak through. You'll have to take it out and drive it with a few WOT throttle runs. This stuff will absolutely "eat" up any carbon on the inside of the combustion chambers. Works great.

 

[VaderSS]

Fuel Power.

 

[BlazerLT]

Guys, I did the water decarbonization.

Check here for the link:

Link Here

 

[Kestas]

Thanks for the link and all the work behind providing the info. I've heard of many mechanic rejuvenating an old car by decarboning the engine with this method.

 

[BlazerLT]

I didn't get a whole lot of carbon but my engine isn't exactly carboned up.

Some others have already tried it and have had black soot flying out of their tailpipe.

 

[friendly_jacek]

quote:

---

Originally posted by BlazerLT:
I didn't get a whole lot of carbon but my engine isn't exactly carboned up.

Some others have already tried it and have had black soot flying out of their tailpipe.

---

Now, was it in a car without catalist?
I would worry about catalist obstructed by some of the carbon.

 

[SteveD2]

quote:

---

Originally posted by friendly_jacek:

quote:

---

Originally posted by BlazerLT:
I didn't get a whole lot of carbon but my engine isn't exactly carboned up.

Some others have already tried it and have had black soot flying out of their tailpipe.

---

Now, was it in a car without catalist?
I would worry about catalist obstructed by some of the carbon.

---

Water is no different than using seafoam, fuelpower, or anything else...

 

[BlazerLT]

quote:

---

Originally posted by friendly_jacek:

quote:

---

Originally posted by BlazerLT:
I didn't get a whole lot of carbon but my engine isn't exactly carboned up.

Some others have already tried it and have had black soot flying out of their tailpipe.

---

Now, was it in a car without catalist?
I would worry about catalist obstructed by some of the carbon.

---

Nah, nothing changed.

 

[BlazerLT]

Update:

Looks like my Cat Convertor is on the edge of being plugged.

This has been ongoing for quite a while with low performance once the engine has been run for 100+kms and the engine is really up to temperature.

The exhaust coming out of the tailpipe is very hot and you can only hold your hand near the tailpipe for about 1-2 secs.

Had a cat back pressure tested but the dumb moron at the dealership tested the back pressure after the truck has been sitting for 30+ minutes.

No wonder they didn't detect a problem. The cat wasn't warmed up yet.

This has gotten worse since the decarbonizing.

 

[Shannow]

I used to have a set-up where I soldered a brass tube (1/8") onto the base of a coffee can. Connected a vacuum hose, a fish tank "needle valve" and another vacuum hose up to it, and onto the carby. For V-8s, I made up a 1/8 to 5/8 tee, so I could get to the PCV line, and do both banks.

Either water or ATF was used.

Much easier to avoid a stall when you can control engines speed through the throttle linkages, and leave the fluid metering better than a glug at a time.

 

[oilpan49]

Hey,

Excellent write up Blazer. IMO, I think this thread should be a sticky, but that's just me.

I kind of feel stupid spending money of LC and FP when I just could've used water. Not saying LC and FP are bad, but solutions to my own problems were right there in front of me and mother nature provided it. I might give it a go on my Ranger. Though I've already ran 2 full tanks of FP through it, it runs better but not significantly. I don't expect it too,,,,,,,well I'll shutup now,,,,AR

 

[New]

I've researched the net over the issue of water decarbonizing quite extensively.

The beginning (of the myth).

At some point some engine with a design flaw was leaking coolant into one of the cylinders. The mechanics noticed that cylinder was a lot cleaner than the others.

Is it safe?
Depends! I've seen completely ruined pistons after a water (or coolant ) treatment and I've seen guys getting no improvement at all. It all depends on how much water you spray in and how big the droplets are. Of course a VERY small coolant leak (or water sprayed in) for a LONG time might do it right. But we want to get rid of the carbon in like half an hour and forget about it. That might not work...

The question is: can you risk it ? I'd say NO. Go for the brand name decarbonizing stuff. At least you'll have someone to blame (sue?).

hth

[ October 04, 2004, 02:00 PM: Message edited by: New ]

 

[BlazerLT]

That's just plain opinion period, not fact, not even an educated theory, but PURE opinion.

I did it, it didn't hurt anything and when properly administered, it cleans better than any plug fouling Seafoam or other treatments. Trust me I tried both. After the "Ac Delco Combustion Chamber Cleaner" my plugs were fouled pretty bad and I had to replace them all. Not because they losened up carbon, but because the cleaner coated the plugs. With the water treatment, nothing bad came about.

There is no reason to not try this. It has been done for years, but people have just forgot about it and love to pour more and more miracle in a bottle chemicals into their engine.

Water is free, water cleans the chamber without pollution and there is no after affects when done properly.

If you are afraid to do it, fine, thats your problem but don't bring paranoid ignorant thoughts to a thread if you have not tried it yourself.

People have used water injection on performance cars for a long time with no problems. As long as you are patient and do it properly through a proper vacuum line and at a slow pace, no harm can come about from it.

I have already had people give me feedback on the black crap leaving their exhaust system.

[ October 04, 2004, 03:19 PM: Message edited by: BlazerLT ]

 

[New]

BlazerT, you have done it and it worked.
But I have seen testimonials from guys that ended up with messed up pistons. That makes me cautious. If 5% of the people using water to clean up carbon end up messing their engines we ought to inform the thread readers that bad things might happen. I say might.