Can HPL or some other oil clean these deposits?

[Shel_B]

I saw this video a short while ago and was wondering if the carbon shown here can be removed by HPL or some other oil or additive. Sorry about the poor quality of the image. It was a screen grab. The video is linked below the image. and shows the tech chiseling off the carbon with a screwdriver.

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

That looks like part of the casting rather than carbon. Carbon does not have a smooth surface which matches the surrounding polished aluminum. The guy messed up big time if I'm correct..

 

[spasm3]

On piston tops i don't think there is enough oil contact. Now in oil contacted areas , it should work well.

 

[JoelB]

On piston tops i don't think there is enough oil contact. Now in oil contacted areas , it should work well.

Yeah I imagine any oil that gets up there will be burned off during combustion.

 

[buster]

The amount and type of esters are proprietary, so it's hard to say what the real cleaning ability is. Based on filter observations, it appears to clean exceptionally well.

 

[JohnnyG]

That's what fuel additives (detergents) are for.

 

[BigCahuna]

There are u tube videos out there, I think the guy goes by the name Farm guy? where he guy shows a lawnmower with a carboned up piston top. He runs different cleaners in the fuel to see which if any, removes the carbon. My guess is the ones that show improvement, were the pistons that had a looser grade of carbon. And the pistons that still showed alot of carbon buildup were the one's that it was stuck tight on it. Using a fuel with a good additive package from day one, should do better with carbon buildup. But if you have bad valve seals, or the pcv valve is allowing oil into the intake, carbon buildup is gonna happen. Pretty much every engine is going to have some carbon buildup. Unless it becomes bad enough to affect performance, I wouldn't tear it apart to remedy it.,,,

 

[RDY4WAR]

You won't clean deposits from a piston top with oil. Detergents in the fuel can help somewhat. You can steam clean it off. Crank the engine up and let it idle while you spray water in the throttle body. Not a lot of water, just enough that you hear the idle change a little.

Where that's located is in a valve pocket and could be transfer from valve deposits. At ~10° ATDC on the intake stroke, when the valve is deepest in the pocket, air/fuel mixture could be swirling in that pocket and making weird things happen that get physicists excited.

There are u tube videos out there, I think the guy goes by the name Farm guy? where he guy shows a lawnmower with a carboned up piston top. He runs different cleaners in the fuel to see which if any, removes the carbon. My guess is the ones that show improvement, were the pistons that had a looser grade of carbon. And the pistons that still showed alot of carbon buildup were the one's that it was stuck tight on it. Using a fuel with a good additive package from day one, should do better with carbon buildup. But if you have bad valve seals, or the pcv valve is allowing oil into the intake, carbon buildup is gonna happen. Pretty much every engine is going to have some carbon buildup. Unless it becomes bad enough to affect performance, I wouldn't tear it apart to remedy it.,,,

You're referring to Project Farm. He's a bit of laughing stock around here when it comes to his oil "tests."

 

[53' Stude]

You won't clean deposits from a piston top with oil. Detergents in the fuel can help somewhat. You can steam clean it off. Crank the engine up and let it idle while you spray water in the throttle body. Not a lot of water, just enough that you hear the idle change a little.

Where that's located is in a valve pocket and could be transfer from valve deposits. At ~10° ATDC on the intake stroke, when the valve is deepest in the pocket, air/fuel mixture could be swirling in that pocket and making weird things happen that get physicists excited.



You're referring to Project Farm. He's a bit of laughing stock around here when it comes to his oil "tests."

Yeah, project farm
Is a joke. But, folks still subscribe to him

 

[JohnnyG]

You won't clean deposits from a piston top with oil. Detergents in the fuel can help somewhat. You can steam clean it off. Crank the engine up and let it idle while you spray water in the throttle body. Not a lot of water, just enough that you hear the idle change a little.

Where that's located is in a valve pocket and could be transfer from valve deposits. At ~10° ATDC on the intake stroke, when the valve is deepest in the pocket, air/fuel mixture could be swirling in that pocket and making weird things happen that get physicists excited.



You're referring to Project Farm. He's a bit of laughing stock around here when it comes to his oil "tests."

Saw that video too. As I recall, none of the aftermarket fuel treatments were effective at removing carbon deposits in a lawnmower motor.
Gasoline producers and the EPA have decided which ones work best in passenger car/truck engines, but they are also oof limited effectiveness.
It's a work in progress.

 

[RDY4WAR]

Saw that video too. As I recall, none of the aftermarket fuel treatments were effective at removing carbon deposits in a lawnmower motor.
Gasoline producers and the EPA have decided which ones work best in passenger car/truck engines, but they are also oof limited effectiveness.
It's a work in progress.

As with most anything, the best cure is prevention. The lowest acceptable content (LAC) detergent set by the EPA is rather low. That's why Top Tier fuels exist is to have a higher standard for detergent content.

 

[BigCahuna]

My thoughts on this subject is, pretty much everyone here has a vehicle that uses fuel and oil in their vehicles. Alot of people feel they want to take some sort of preventive care to their vehicles. Same with the project Farm guy. Except, he tests products that claim to remedy issues. He just doesn't put blind faith in what the advertisers say. He's using his own equipment as test victims. After all it's guys like him, and you that are the targeted market. If he can't get it to work as they say it works, why would anyone think it would work for them?. If he has an oil leak in one of his vehicles he'll test a stop leak product and say how it works in the real world ,not in a lab. If a cleaner says it will do wonderful things and it doesn't, he says how it worked for his test. As I see it, he's saving people alot of wasted time and money, for a promise in a can. He either buys the products himself, or some people send him things to test. Not sponsored by anyone. And he doesn't promote one brand over another. Just report his results. But the experts here think he's a joke.,,

 

[Skippy722]

My thoughts on this subject is, pretty much everyone here has a vehicle that uses fuel and oil in their vehicles. Alot of people feel they want to take some sort of preventive care to their vehicles. Same with the project Farm guy. Except, he tests products that claim to remedy issues. He just doesn't put blind faith in what the advertisers say. He's using his own equipment as test victims. After all it's guys like him, and you that are the targeted market. If he can't get it to work as they say it works, why would anyone think it would work for them?. If he has an oil leak in one of his vehicles he'll test a stop leak product and say how it works in the real world ,not in a lab. If a cleaner says it will do wonderful things and it doesn't, he says how it worked for his test. As I see it, he's saving people alot of wasted time and money, for a promise in a can. He either buys the products himself, or some people send him things to test. Not sponsored by anyone. And he doesn't promote one brand over another. Just report his results. But the experts here think he's a joke.,,

Most of the stuff he does is relevant but the oil tests really aren’t. I don’t think his other info should be written off as useless because of that however.

 

[Shel_B]

As with most anything, the best cure is prevention. The lowest acceptable content (LAC) detergent set by the EPA is rather low. That's why Top Tier fuels exist is to have a higher standard for detergent content.

I am a strong advocate for prevention. Always use TT fuel, oil that more than meets spec, and stay on top of incidental issues (oil seeps, loose connections, parts that show signs of wear ...). I posted the question not because I have a concern but rather out of curiosity. That was a major carbon intrusion and I wondered what could attack it. Chiseling away with a screwdriver seemed less than ideal.

 

[ZeeOSix]

On piston tops i don't think there is enough oil contact. Now in oil contacted areas , it should work well.

Yep, no oil is going to clean inside the combustion chamber. Fuel additives as already mentioned.

 

[ZeeOSix]

I posted the question not because I have a concern but rather out of curiosity. That was a major carbon intrusion and I wondered what could attack it. Chiseling away with a screwdriver seemed less than ideal.

Water injection, or a good coolant leak into the cylinder, lol.

 

[doublebase]

As others have said, oil most likely will not clean that, in fact most things will not clean something like that. Carbon is very hard, it needs to scraped or treated continuously for a long time to remove hardened carbon buildup. I’ve “tested” some CRC intake cleaner...sprayed it directly on carbon, let it soak, heated it, sprayed it again, let it soak again, heated it, and...nothing. Zero visual removal of carbon like in that video. Nada. Nothing.

 

[kevperro]

Wire wheel on a 10,000 rpm grinder.