Carbon buildup

[Riptide]

Hi. Are there any additives that would be good choices for aggressively attacking carbon buildup? I have some buildup on the piston crown visible through the plug wells and I imagine the valves probably don't look much better. It's tough to tell how thick it is from a top down view but on some pistons it coats most of the top.

The engine is a ford gen1 coyote v8 with a tvs supercharger and 23K on it. I've already contacted the vendor and they didn't seem real concerned about the carbon buildup but I would still like to try and get out ahead of this. The car is never on the highway and is just driven around town with some of those trips being somewhat short (less than 10 miles).

Thanks

 

[Graham Piccinini]

If you wish to do a Piston Soak and clean the top of piston - Berryman B12 is your best friend. Give it time, and do not let it drip on painted surfaces. It ate away the paint on my aluminum Honda valve cover.

If you are worried about carbon buildup in the piston ring lands, and related potential problems - switch to High Performance Lubricants oil. Their oil seems to have exceptional cleaning ability. For an even faster and more concentrated cleaning - they have HPL Engine Cleaner. More info here:

High Performance Lubricants Engine Cleaner

Since the topic has come up a few times I am posting the PDS in the PCMO, Diesel, and Euro sections. This is a safe path to clean varnish and or sludge left behind by other oils. There are no solvents in this oil. It has enough ester to clean but still be safe with elastomers. Simply add a quart...

bobistheoilguy.com

All things considered - some carbon buildup will always be present and isn't too big of an issue. Some battle it by using TCW3 2-stroke oil added to fuel in 1oz of TCW3 per 5 gallons of fuel ratio. (2oz/10gal, 3oz/15gal, and so on...) See pictures by @dblshock:
Honda 500 10yrs. on 640:1 TCW-3/91 E0

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

No, there's no gasoline additive which will effectively clean piston crowns. The owner of the vehicle needs to occasionally drive the car on the highway. I hear Montana has plenty of space for high speed driving.

 

[tig1]

MMO does the job for me. 4oz for each 10 Gal of fuel, and I do this every 3-4 fill ups. As for ring piston groves M1 oils keep my rings from coking closed.

 

[measureman]

Dump in a bottle of Techron and drive like you stole it with some Italian tune ups thrown in.
Bet some black comes out the tail pipe when you floor it.
Then forget it .

 

[wwillson]

No, there's no gasoline additive which will effectively clean piston crowns.

See my previous post:

Testing Gumout One-N-Done with ASTM 5500 Protocol

Hello BITOG, It’s the Gumout team here and we wanted to give you an update on something cool we did this summer. In June, we invited some of the top automotive writers and bloggers (including a BITOG administrator wwillson) to Transportation Research Center (TRC) in Ohio for a two-day...

bobistheoilguy.com

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

See my previous post:

Testing Gumout One-N-Done with ASTM 5500 Protocol

Hello BITOG, It’s the Gumout team here and we wanted to give you an update on something cool we did this summer. In June, we invited some of the top automotive writers and bloggers (including a BITOG administrator wwillson) to Transportation Research Center (TRC) in Ohio for a two-day...

bobistheoilguy.com

Yep. More like "spot cleaning" due to the position of the injectors but not what I assume the OP is looking for. Personally I wouldn't consider that as "working" but it's good enough for product claiming to "help clean" or "some cleaning". Different strokes for some.

 

[Riptide]

I don't live in MT any more and even when I did live there most around town driving was fairly short trips. Running expensive racing tires that are good for 3000 miles most of the time, plus the hassle of swapping them out, tends to steer me away from long highway trips for the most part.

I'm attaching a photo. This is a top down photo so I am only getting one dimension here so kinda hard to judge this from a photo. Not all the pistons are this carboned up but a few of them are. All have carbon to some degree or another.

There was oil on the plug threads too on every spark plug. I've discussed with the tuner out of FL and they weren't overly concerned about it. I just want to work on getting the carbon cleared up.

 

[odie]

2 consecutive tanks with TECHRON .

 

[Kira]

Isn't some kind of water vapor introduction the proven carbon reducer?

Also, I thought Techron worked upon shutdown to remove (weaken/soften) deposits from injector nozzles.

 

[Graham Piccinini]

I don't live in MT any more and even when I did live there most around town driving was fairly short trips. Running expensive racing tires that are good for 3000 miles most of the time, plus the hassle of swapping them out, tends to steer me away from long highway trips for the most part.

I'm attaching a photo. This is a top down photo so I am only getting one dimension here so kinda hard to judge this from a photo. Not all the pistons are this carboned up but a few of them are. All have carbon to some degree or another.

There was oil on the plug threads too on every spark plug. I've discussed with the tuner out of FL and they weren't overly concerned about it. I just want to work on getting the carbon cleared up.

That's quite heavy, in my opinion. If you're not getting on the highway, then give TCW3 2-cycle oil a shot. One time use won't do anything, but every tank of fuel with 640:1 ratio of TCW3 will clean it up over time.
Or just piston soak with Berryman B12 overnight. Amsoil power foam works good too, but a lot more expensive. B12 is more effective, from my experience.

 

[Riptide]

Copy that. I think I will try the less harsh detergents first like Techron and get the car on at least a 75 mile drive. I can pick a piston and keep an eye on it over time. Easy enough to pull a plug and have a look at it.

If I don't get forward progress I'll look at something like B12.

I've also heard water works too but it's a bit risky (hydrolock) and I'm not sure how you do it. Pour it into the break booster while the car is idling?

 

[Tkonrr]

Copy that. I think I will try the less harsh detergents first like Techron and get the car on at least a 75 mile drive. I can pick a piston and keep an eye on it over time. Easy enough to pull a plug and have a look at it.

If I don't get forward progress I'll look at something like B12.

I've also heard water works too but it's a bit risky (hydrolock) and I'm not sure how you do it. Pour it into the break booster while the car is idling?

Cleaning the combustion chamber with plain water is my choice for heavy carbon deposits. Last month I got rid of the frequent low speed pinging in my recently acquired 2008 Toyota Yaris. I first made a dent in the mess with a PEA fuel system cleaner. Used a window squeegy wedged between the gas pedal and front seat to maintain 2200 rpms with expected dips in speed each time I poured water into a small funnel connected to the brake booster vacuum line. I've never been shy about dumping a good 3-5 fluid ounces of water at a time, waiting for the engine to quit bogging at low rpms then adding another few ounces of water. The engine pinging is about 90% gone now, seems to be a bit smoother and more responsive also. I'm staying on top of the cleaning by adding 1ml of tcw-3 oil for each 5 gallons of gas I refuel as I do the same for my other car, motorcycles and outdoor power equipment for years.

 

[Riptide]

I've heard that water can work wonders to get rid of carbon deposits. I'm not sure how it works to do that and would like to know the mechanism involved.

How much water applied how many times is required to break down heavy deposits?

I'm getting some techron on the way and will just go ahead and use that for a while combined with longer drives to see what that gets me for now. I won't let the car go further than another 5000 miles before I inspect it again. And will be changing plugs out more frequently too.

 

[ARB1977]

For chits and grins I used Amsoil power foam to soak my Honda 160 lawnmower piston over night. Did an awesome job cleaning the carbon off the top.

 

[Riptide]

Interesting. The instructions have you spraying that stuff right into the throttle body. So you removed your plugs and sprayed some of that down into the plug wells onto the piston tops? Then let it just sit there and soak?

 

[53' Stude]

Copy that. I think I will try the less harsh detergents first like Techron and get the car on at least a 75 mile drive. I can pick a piston and keep an eye on it over time. Easy enough to pull a plug and have a look at it.

If I don't get forward progress I'll look at something like B12.

I've also heard water works too but it's a bit risky (hydrolock) and I'm not sure how you do it. Pour it into the break booster while the car is idling?

Water would possibly work on carb vehicles. In modern fuel injection: you’re asking for major trouble even thinking of doing this

 

[DGXR]

Water induction/injection will steam clean the combustion chamber. Done properly and moderately, it would be safe in a modern FI engine. Moderation is very important for several reasons, here are just a few: too much water can cause rough running and drivability issues (bad) or hydrolock the engine (potentially catastrophic); also, off-periods are needed so that the oil can dissipate the extra moisture.