Need advice on super-soaking my cylinders.

[Hethaerto]

I've done three Powerfoam soaks on my XC70's cylinders over the last month, and have had great success so far. The car's running like a striped ape now, and I couldn't be happier with the results, plus the installation of PU afterward is awesome.

The XC70's cylinders are fully vertical being an in-line five, so it was easy to ensure a thorough soak to the piston heads.

My question is about my old Trooper's V6.

The banks are angled, so I'm only able to saturate the lower portion of the cylinders and piston heads because of the bank angle.

The Trooper's been soaking for two days now, and I'll clear it all out tomorrow. But I know that only half the carbon build-up on the piston heads will come free because of the angle.

Any ideas on how to thoroughly saturate the entire cylinder and piston head on a V engine?

I guess I could flood the cylinders completely with Powerfoam, but I just don't have that much Powerfoam to go around, plus it'll probably bleed out around the rings.

I was thinking about using a pressure washer to spray high-velocity water into the cylinders and then sucking it all out, but I'm working in a parking lot with no electrical or water resources available.

Thanks.

 

[chad8]

bad idea. water and cylinders do not mix.have a professional run b-g engine cleaner through the manifold.

 

[Panzerman]

Wow, power washing the cylinders and then sucking it out. You are pulling our legs right. Is this one of the best places for the saying of the cure is worse than the disease. I cant imagine being that concerned about piston carbon. I would not think it would effect performance to the point where you would be willing to take that much risk to remove it. Water does not compress, so if you dont get it all out, very bad. This whole idea-very bad.

 

[oilboy123]

Do not spray water in whatever you do....... Water in conjunction with oil can cause some serious problems.

Auto-RX will clean the rings better than anything else you can use. By the way I use Amsoil products myself. Power Foam is a good product, but won't clean the rings like RX. RX will take time but is worth it to run.

 

[hate2work]

Buy some more Power Foam. Use an extra long straw to get it where you want it. You WANT it to get around the rings, it will clean there as well. PF is a great product, I love it.

 

[Chris142]

Instead of ruining your engine with a pressure washer why don't you park the thing sideways on a hill? Let one side soak then turn it around and do the other side.

 

[Hethaerto]

Originally Posted By: Chris142
Instead of ruining your engine with a pressure washer why don't you park the thing sideways on a hill? Let one side soak then turn it around and do the other side.


This is exactly what I thought of right before I read your post.

Don't have any hills available to park on, so I might just get an extra-tall set of jack stands and prop one side up, then the other. Thanks!

 

[Chris142]

No hills in TN? Thats like saying theres no strange people in Ca.

 

[Hethaerto]

Originally Posted By: Chris142
No hills in TN? Thats like saying theres no strange people in Ca.


I'm actually on a Naval base in VA.

 

[Hethaerto]

Thanks for your thoughts, everyone.

 

[severach]

I see a lot of unnecessary work going on here. Keep it tuned up and run a small amount of Amsoil PI or your favorite PEA based additive in each tank for a year and the piston tops will be cleaner than what a machine shop can do.

 

[[RT] ProjUltraZ]

or the hot water spray w/ some fast idle

 

[Hethaerto]

Originally Posted By: severach
I see a lot of unnecessary work going on here. Keep it tuned up and run a small amount of Amsoil PI or your favorite PEA based additive in each tank for a year and the piston tops will be cleaner than what a machine shop can do.


I'm already bawls deep in this project, and I'm gonna keep on going.

I've run PI, Redline S1, BG 44K, etc., in every tank for years now, and the carbon is still caked on. Plus I've got a sticking lifter that's driving me crazy.

I'm gonna have to go all the way in and remove the heads and fix the lifters. Or maybe just replace the heads.

Then I think, if I'm going that far into it, why not have the engine pulled and rebuilt?

 

[Hethaerto]

The old Trooper sat for four days with solvent in the cylinders.

Went out today and sucked all the black slop out the cylinders.

Re-soaked the cylinders with Powerfoam. Let it sit a while, then sucked it out again.

Reinstalled plugs, fired it up (took a while), and it smoked liked nothing I've seen before. Sprayed half-can of Powerfoam into intake for valve cleaning while it idled. Shut it off and let it sit for fifteen minutes.

Fired it back up, let it warm up then took it out for an Italian tuneup.

I noticed cars behind kept a very good distance between them and me.

I was blowing a LOT of smoke for a LONG time.

Everywhere I went I could look in my rear-view and see a white cloud pervading the scenery.

After a few throttle spikes I noticed the power started to pick up, and throttle response was picking up, too.

Took it for a long drive, and by the time I got back home, the old Trooper was running pretty nicely. I put a can of Seafoam in the oil before I went on the drive.

I plan on driving it around 300 miles before I change the oil. I want the Seafoam to have plenty of time to do it's thing.

Tomorrow I'm going to pull a couple of plugs to have a look at the piston heads again. I'm hoping for a nice shiny metallic surface.

 

[artificialist]

Gm would often prescribe this sort of service for Northstar engines, which are all 90 degree V8 engines. It seemed to work well enough.

 

[Hethaerto]

Originally Posted By: artificialist
Gm would often prescribe this sort of service for Northstar engines, which are all 90 degree V8 engines. It seemed to work well enough.


I wonder what the weak link was in the Northstar motors?

 

[artificialist]

Originally Posted By: Hethaerto
Originally Posted By: artificialist
Gm would often prescribe this sort of service for Northstar engines, which are all 90 degree V8 engines. It seemed to work well enough.


I wonder what the weak link was in the Northstar motors?

Many of the early ones called for a 15,000 mile OCI, but that was too long and caused deposits to form on the piston rings.

Also, many of those cars were driven on short trips and were never worked hard, also causing deposits.

I rarely see them needing this service, because I almost always meet people who change their oil early and don't drive such short trips.

 

[Hethaerto]

Every time I drive the Trooper it's running slightly better.

Here's what I'm thinking: my piston heads had so much carbon built up on them that I'm thinking the compression dynamics of the engine were altered. I think the carbon layer caused the cylinder compression to become increased over time because of there being less area in the cylinders which would cause problems like detonation, etc. which the ECU would counter by retarding the timing, which would cause even more problems, and the snow ball would continue to grow as it rolled down the hill.

Does this sound reasonable?

 

[Chris142]

Naw. I think that the slight increase in compression from the carbon on top of the pistons would increase the engines hp and tq output.

I think you freed up the rings or decarbonized the back of the valves.

 

[severach]

Carbon is porous. You don't get much compression increase from a lot of carbon. What little you do get is trampled by the loss of timing from false knock and detonation, the loss of power and efficiency from the parasitic draw on the fuel, the loss of compression as the carbon creeps into the ring groves, and the reduction in flow as the carbon creeps along the valves and runners. If clean engines didn't perform best then the car companies and machine shops wouldn't make them that way.

No need to "think" that compression dynamics are being altered. If your engine has more than one cylinder then listen to the exhaust. A steady hum means that all the cylinders are performing the same and since substandard cylinders are unlikely to perform equally, equal performance can be assumed as being as good as a new engine. An audible beat means that some cylinders are worse than others. Keep cleaning and fixing until the beat is gone or is determined to be problems that aren't worth fixing. Once clean enough the detergents in gasoline is enough to clean the rest of the way if you're patient. I'm not.

A retarded engine runs fine though it is weak. The snowball effect is that carbon causes carbon so the more carbon you have the faster carbon grows. As they say, when going down hill you pick up speed.