Does redline SL1 also clean combustion chambers?

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ziggy

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Curious to know, if redline fuel system cleaner also attack the combustion chamber? Ive used half a bottle so far(got at autozone) VERY nice stuff!!!! Smoothed out my car idle, never gianed performance or mileage though. Ide rank redline sl1 first, then lucas UCL, followed by berryman b12.
In terms of effective cleaning, and the latter 2, for lubrication.
stooges.gif
 
I'm sure it does. Anything with the strength to clean carbon deposits from injectors must clean the combustion chambers as well. It's good stuff.
 
I have always seen much better things with Redline SL-1 than the Lucas stuff. Lucas never did much but have seen Redline Clean Up lawnmowers, 900CC Honda Crotch Rockets to the point their owner gladly replaced my bottle given to them just to try. If it did not work they were out nothing. Never lost that bet. Sure it won't cure everything but is amazing stuff.

Friends Honda was loosing to the 2 year older 600 with a girlfriend on back and after half tank of Redline not even close. Lawnmower(riding type) was hardly able to barely idle and after half a tank was running like new. There have been others but those were the best. The only stuff I use anymore is Redline SL-1, Techron Concentrate, or BG 44K.
 
MHO is that in-the-tank cleaners don't do much combustion chamber cleaning at all. They can clean the injectors and valves, but I don't think they do much for the baked on carbon on your piston crown or cc.

Here is my personal ranking of various methods to clean the combustion chambers, from least effective to most effective:

Least:
1) In the tank cleaners
2) Seafoam (through a vacuum line)
3) B-12 Combustion Cleaning Kit (with it’s own solvent)
4) Water (through a vacuum line)
5) Motorvac type machine (where they hook up the machine to your fuel lines and run the engine on the solvent for half and hour). I’ve never tried this.
6) Engine re-build (maybe just the top end)

As you can see, water through the vacuum line is one of the most effective, short of major work. It’s also the cheapest.
 
From personal experience, water alone is not nearly as effective as at least some of the chemical cleaners. Back when pulling heads to grind valves was fairly common, I would decarbon and engine prior to tear down to save time in cleaning the carbon while it was apart. I don't know the availability of it today, but Ford Combustion Chamber Cleaner was one of the best. It was seemingly identical to Rochester X-88 (available in GM dealerships) as well as a Mopar product. I believe that Shell also had the same product.

Something that worked better than water by itself was a 50/50 mixture of hot water and ATF.
 
Quote:

From personal experience, water alone is not nearly as effective as at least some of the chemical cleaners. Back when pulling heads to grind valves was fairly common, I would decarbon and engine prior to tear down to save time in cleaning the carbon while it was apart. I don't know the availability of it today, but Ford Combustion Chamber Cleaner was one of the best. It was seemingly identical to Rochester X-88 (available in GM dealerships) as well as a Mopar product. I believe that Shell also had the same product.

Something that worked better than water by itself was a 50/50 mixture of hot water and ATF.

Click to expand...


Hi Jim,

I googled Ford Combustion Chamber Cleaner and Rochester X-88, and didn’t get many hits. Do you have any current favorites? I just used standard B-12 Chemtool down a vacuum line, like you would do with water, and got good results. I’m starting to see your point.

What are other people’s favorites for this? I’ve tried seafoam, but don’t like the smoke. I pretty much have to do the treatment just as it is getting dark, let it sit until it gets completely dark, and then go clear all the bugs from the neighborhood.

Wouldn’t ATF smoke the same? What’s in ATF that cleans carbon?
 
Ford Combustion Chamber Cleaner is still availabe from Ford dealers if they choose to stock it. Mopar as well. ATF adds some lubricity to the treatment and seems to soften the carbon so that the water can better clean it. The ATF + water smokes very heavily.

Berryman's works very well, but it seems to work even better if you have already done something to soften the deposits.
 
Yes, Redline will clean the combustion chamber as well.

hollywood, Itis rude to hijack a thread like that!!! This ATF in the fuel and in the intake track and in to oil garbage has been addressed about 100 times. It is total garbage. While any oil in the fuel can act as a lube it is not going to clean anything!!! ATF does not have anything in it that can clean any part of an engine either in the fuel or in the oil! As a matter of fact it will only make things worse from a deposit stand point!
 
I have said this before but, let your tranny keep the ATF.

ATF will not help you at all through the gas. It won't burn cleanly because it was not designed to. It was never designed even with the potential to be burned, unlike motor oil. As John mentioned, any oil will initially act as an UCL it will ultimately cause buildups in the engine due to the "dirty" combustion that will result. The car is likely to smoke if you add enough ATF into the gas.

Also, there is at least a potential for it to harm your cat con and o2 sensor.

With so many good and well known things you can put in your tank to clean or lube, there is no reason to risk dumping something like that into your system. Lucas and MMO are quite good at lubing the upper cylinder and are very cheap. I don't think they are the absolute best at cleaning(that award goes to FP60, redline, and regane IMO).

No one here wants to crush your adventurous spirit(heck, thats why most of us are here) but no one wants to see you mess your engine or fuel system up.
 
It does not say it directly on the bottle sitting here on my desk(empty just went in my tank tonight) or on the web. It does however say that it reduces octane demand by cleaning fuel system deposits, gum varnish, lubricates upper cylinders, etc. Basically in round about ways YUP!!!
 
This stuff is liquid gold, just if you are using a continual dosage, skip using it every 5 tanks to reduce the concentration.

My concentration was getting too high and I was losing economy seeing this stuff doesn't burn at all.

Switched to Shell fuel as well, WHAT A DIFFERENCE.
 
Have to agree with you on the Shell gas. I went from Philips 66 gas to Shell on both my Chevy and my Nissan and I get get much better idle quality and power. The Shell gas and Redline cleaner are a great combo!
 
I keep hearing good stuff about Shell gas but I don't have any of their stations around here. I only encounter Citgo, Sunoco, BP, and mostly generic places. One marathon station but they have the STP adds in them already.

My car used to run only on the Sunoco brands but now it seems to run better with BP.
 
Shell is a Top Tier gas and is recommended by most of the auto manufacturers. I use it along with 3 oz of
Redline SI-1 at every fill up (17 gallon tank). Last summer the lower intake manifold gaskets were done on my Impala and mechanic did not need to clean the upper intake because the Redine did a good job of keeping things clean. Dunno about SI-1 cleaning the combustion chambers but I think Redline is a very reputable company and would not make false claims.
 
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