Carbon cleaning with water...
- Thread starter svaric2
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Water (hot) can be sucked into a vacuum line, at about 2000 rpm, being careful not to hydro-lock the engine by feeding it too much water. Or you can spray a mist into the carb, or throttle body as long as you are not spraying into sensors. It takes probably 1-2 quarts of water or more depending how bad the carbon is.
There is a lot of info buried in various threads on this making searching it a little tough.
HTH
Frank D
There is a lot of info buried in various threads on this making searching it a little tough.
HTH
Frank D
Since vehicles are so different, no one way of doing it seems to work with all of them. With my Crown Victoria I sucked the water through the EGR nipple in the throttle body elbow. I used a hose with a basketball inflator needle as a flow restrictor. I could have used a weed sprayer and shoved the nozzle up the intake tube past my MAF sensor to spray a mist into the throttle body while revving the engine. Unfortunately, I didn't come up with that idea until after I had cleaned the engine out 
The honeycomb type sensors of some cars unfortunately prevent doing this method. If your car has an easy direct access to the intake tube with no sensors down stream of the access point you could just mist some hot water in there with a spray bottle, or a clean weed sprayer. If you go with a weed sprayer, test to make sure that it is not capable of flowing more than a gallon of water in 5 minutes, or there is potential for you to either hydrolock a small displacement engine, or flow enough water to make it stall.
I'm not sure if there will be any difference in your results using the spray method instead of the siphon method. It is possible that the larger droplets of water from the siphon method don't vaporize before they contact the parts inside of your engine. That may allow it to clean better, but I have no evidence either way that this is the case.
The hotter the water the better. I saw results with as little as 1/2 gallon, but I did about 2 gallons for good measure. I had previously used cold water and saw very little cleaning.
Once you have finished with the water, take the car out for a good hard drive to help loosen and burn that carbon. It may run like [censored] for a while, missing and surging and whatnot, but after that has subsided give it the beans.
It wouldn't hurt to change your oil within about 50-100 miles after doing this.
The honeycomb type sensors of some cars unfortunately prevent doing this method. If your car has an easy direct access to the intake tube with no sensors down stream of the access point you could just mist some hot water in there with a spray bottle, or a clean weed sprayer. If you go with a weed sprayer, test to make sure that it is not capable of flowing more than a gallon of water in 5 minutes, or there is potential for you to either hydrolock a small displacement engine, or flow enough water to make it stall.
I'm not sure if there will be any difference in your results using the spray method instead of the siphon method. It is possible that the larger droplets of water from the siphon method don't vaporize before they contact the parts inside of your engine. That may allow it to clean better, but I have no evidence either way that this is the case.
The hotter the water the better. I saw results with as little as 1/2 gallon, but I did about 2 gallons for good measure. I had previously used cold water and saw very little cleaning.
Once you have finished with the water, take the car out for a good hard drive to help loosen and burn that carbon. It may run like [censored] for a while, missing and surging and whatnot, but after that has subsided give it the beans.
It wouldn't hurt to change your oil within about 50-100 miles after doing this.
If done correctly the water works great, just make sure its hot and you don't lock the engine up. Chevrofreak gave some good pointers, give it a try.
Frank D
Frank D
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Water is just harder to manage. It stifles the combustion process and makes you work the throttle to keep the engine running.
Assuming you use a centrally located vacuum point for induction, I can't see how you can hydrolock the engine. That is, unless there was a potential for siphon after the engine stalled. This would result in no damage. You just wouldn't be able to crank it until you pulled the plugs and emptied the full cylinder (how do I know this?). That is, while you may be able to, via vacuum, pull in enough water to stop the engine from running, it would be (nearly) impossible hydrolock it with vacuum. It requires a viable combustion process to produce the vacuum ..and the air passing by the closed throttle will sure move easier than pulling a water column.
The best way to do this, imo, is while going down the road under load with a hose fished up through the cowl and into the driver compartment. I've used other agents beside water ..but this would still be my preferred method of choice.
Assuming you use a centrally located vacuum point for induction, I can't see how you can hydrolock the engine. That is, unless there was a potential for siphon after the engine stalled. This would result in no damage. You just wouldn't be able to crank it until you pulled the plugs and emptied the full cylinder (how do I know this?). That is, while you may be able to, via vacuum, pull in enough water to stop the engine from running, it would be (nearly) impossible hydrolock it with vacuum. It requires a viable combustion process to produce the vacuum ..and the air passing by the closed throttle will sure move easier than pulling a water column.
The best way to do this, imo, is while going down the road under load with a hose fished up through the cowl and into the driver compartment. I've used other agents beside water ..but this would still be my preferred method of choice.
With my car, I almost managed to hydrolock one of the cylinders. The car has a lot of vacuum at idle and was pulling a lot of water in, even through that tiny hole. The water apparently started to pool in the intake somewhere, and when I revved the engine it seemed to get sucked into one of the low cylinders (my parking space is slightly sloped) and I heard a single knock sound that may have been from a cylinder that was nearly full of water.
It was my fault for not revving the engine more, which would not only flow more air to vaporize the water, but would lessen the vacuum that was pulling the water into the intake.
It was my fault for not revving the engine more, which would not only flow more air to vaporize the water, but would lessen the vacuum that was pulling the water into the intake.
I did it a few times through a vacuum line w/o issue. I would let it suck in some water then pull the hose out of the water for a few seconds then put it back in again. I did find the easiest way was to disconned the air intake off of the throttle body and spray it into the throttle body. No chance of locking anything up that way. Older cars with a carb, were very easy to do. The other thing is the latest model vehicle I did was my 93 Aerostar. Spraying it into the TB was easy and there were no sensors to wet once the air intake was taken off the TB.
Frank D
Frank D
I saw a commercial for one of those hand held steam cleaners for doing your shower and whatnot. I bet something like that would be just about perfect if you could get the nozzle past any sensors in the intake.
I like your idea of the plastic tank sprayer. You could rig a spray tip on the end of some vacuum or fuel hose you could probably easily snake it in past just about everything, nice and flexible easy to stop the stream. Probably real easy to make too.
Frank D
Frank D
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My only reservation with this, or any other upstream intake side thing that requires fastening on the interior, is if, for whatever reason, the nozzle fell off and ended up bending a valve or putting a hole in a piston.
I wouldn't trust lock tite or whatever ..even though I have faith in the products. I'd have something like a weld-a-let and fab some welded snorkel that had all breakable connections outside the engine. I'd plug the threaded bung when not in use.
I don't know how much more I'd like the idea if it was plastic.
I wouldn't trust lock tite or whatever ..even though I have faith in the products. I'd have something like a weld-a-let and fab some welded snorkel that had all breakable connections outside the engine. I'd plug the threaded bung when not in use.
I don't know how much more I'd like the idea if it was plastic.
I was thinking of using this gizmo while working on the car from the outside, not while driving it. I see your point, this would be a means of getting the water past the sensors to the opening of the TB to squirt the water in while reving the engine.
Frank D
Frank D
Before I went to straight methanol injection I used water first and moved on to a mix of rubbing alky and water. I tore the engine down at 30,000 miles of running 10.80s back then due to other issues.
Pistons, heads, headers, turbine side of the turbo all looked brand new. No carbon at all in the exhaust or turbo. The tops of the pistons had a very slight tan color but absolutely no buildup.
Every once in a while I will run water and do a couple easy runs just for cleaning. This is easy since it's only injected at heavy throttle and there's nearly 900CFM of air to make sure the water doesn't puddle. I would really like to do it on the TL but I'm a bit nervous.
Pistons, heads, headers, turbine side of the turbo all looked brand new. No carbon at all in the exhaust or turbo. The tops of the pistons had a very slight tan color but absolutely no buildup.
Every once in a while I will run water and do a couple easy runs just for cleaning. This is easy since it's only injected at heavy throttle and there's nearly 900CFM of air to make sure the water doesn't puddle. I would really like to do it on the TL but I'm a bit nervous.
I made a "tank" from a large (2lb) fruit tin, soldered on a piece of brass tube, and hooked it to a vacuum port with aquarium air line, with an aquarium air line needle valve as a flow controller.
Run engine to a couple of grand, and start to dribble water in.
With control, you can run off 500RPM.
Used the same gear to feed ATF through an engine a couple of times (used to be a product called Redex that you did the same), run it to a stall, leave for a half hour, and restart...neighbours will LOATHE you (and not cat safe)
Run engine to a couple of grand, and start to dribble water in.
With control, you can run off 500RPM.
Used the same gear to feed ATF through an engine a couple of times (used to be a product called Redex that you did the same), run it to a stall, leave for a half hour, and restart...neighbours will LOATHE you (and not cat safe)
I've long said that water is probably the single most useful substance on this planet. And it's free (usually) so that just makes it all the more better.
For the amounts that are use, I'd buy a $0.70 gallon of distilled water.
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Originally Posted By: chevrofreak
I've long said that water is probably the single most useful substance on this planet. And it's free (usually) so that just makes it all the more better.
Amazing stuff, really. It's about as close to "magic properties" as you can get in such a commonly available substance. In 100 years we'll still be using the same water.
I've long said that water is probably the single most useful substance on this planet. And it's free (usually) so that just makes it all the more better.
Amazing stuff, really. It's about as close to "magic properties" as you can get in such a commonly available substance. In 100 years we'll still be using the same water.
Originally Posted By: BuickGN
Before I went to straight methanol injection I used water first and moved on to a mix of rubbing alky and water. I tore the engine down at 30,000 miles of running 10.80s back then due to other issues.
Are you saying to use methanol first follow up with water afterward? What is rubbing alky? What is the ratio or alky to water? I just want to know the exact methodology.
Pistons, heads, headers, turbine side of the turbo all looked brand new. No carbon at all in the exhaust or turbo. The tops of the pistons had a very slight tan color but absolutely no buildup.
Every once in a while I will run water and do a couple easy runs just for cleaning. This is easy since it's only injected at heavy throttle and there's nearly 900CFM of air to make sure the water doesn't puddle. I would really like to do it on the TL but I'm a bit nervous.
Before I went to straight methanol injection I used water first and moved on to a mix of rubbing alky and water. I tore the engine down at 30,000 miles of running 10.80s back then due to other issues.
Are you saying to use methanol first follow up with water afterward? What is rubbing alky? What is the ratio or alky to water? I just want to know the exact methodology.
Pistons, heads, headers, turbine side of the turbo all looked brand new. No carbon at all in the exhaust or turbo. The tops of the pistons had a very slight tan color but absolutely no buildup.
Every once in a while I will run water and do a couple easy runs just for cleaning. This is easy since it's only injected at heavy throttle and there's nearly 900CFM of air to make sure the water doesn't puddle. I would really like to do it on the TL but I'm a bit nervous.
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