What is the longest someone has done a piston soak with LC? We just got a 93 Corolla from my inlaws which needs some tlc judging from the buildup on the oil fill cap. I poured some LC down each cyl & let it sit for 5 days. Then got the excess out with a vacuum pump & bumped it over with the starter every 24 hrs or so. Been getting a lot of carbon out, both in the LC I took out and small pieces in the sparkplug wells after bumping it over. Just added some more as all the piston tops still have carbon on them. The plan is to soak the pistons, rings, ect for at least another week then put the old plugs back in & do a LC flush with a new filter. Then change the oil out and add conventional oil and ARX along with a good filter per Frank's instructions. Also will be running a double dose of FP for at least 2-3 tanks, maybe more. Because it is an extra vehicle there is no time limit on how long I do a piston soak, question is, will it hurt anything to go more than a week or 2 doing this? Will it ever get all the carbon off the pistons or will it have to be run with the FP to do this?
LC Molasoak?
- Thread starter SteveU
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I asked a similar question a month or two ago. I was told that since it was a solvent, and not an acid, that I shouldn't worry about anything. I was going to soak for 21 days, but instead I had to drive to the bus station and leave the car parked there, so no piston soak.
Wouldn't that be hilarious if your car was soaking at the bus station, and somebody tried to steal it?
If they ever got it started, the smoke cloud would be a nice surprise
Wouldn't get out unnoticed!
If they ever got it started, the smoke cloud would be a nice surprise
Wouldn't get out unnoticed!
MolaKule
Staff member
That method you describe should remove most of the carbon from the piston crowns but the combustion chamber carbon will have to be removed by FP.
The rings should get cleaned by the ARX.
LC is a solvent with lubricant oils.
The rings should get cleaned by the ARX.
LC is a solvent with lubricant oils.
Is it safe to put a good amount of LC or Chemtool into the cylinders knowing that you are going to come back and suck as much of it out as you can with a shop vac (and some long, narrow reach attachments)? Will it be safe to just fire up after doing that?
As long as you aren't turning your engine over with all of that stuff and your spark plugs in, I dont' see how it would hurt. I gues you could hypothetically get your combustion chambers too wth enough LC or other product in there, if you filled hte chamber up enough to reach the top.
Just an update, after soaking for 2 weeks I put the old plugs back in & fired it up. Smoked a lot for probably 15 min, then ran it down the road for a mile & returned, looked like a rolling mosquito fogger. After 3 miles or so the smoking got a lot better. Ran it 25 miles then parked it for the night. Next day pulled the old plugs out and looked down the cylinders with a light. Could see spots on the top of the pistons where the carbon was completely gone & a copper color showed. Prior to doing the soak everything was completely black. This is a 93 Toyota Corolla with 131,000 mi. Will run 2 ARX treatments using dino for both clean & rinse phases along with FP every tank & check it again around May to see if any carbon remains.
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