Is there anything that can disolve carbon?

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From a Lube Control (LC20/FP60/FP Plus) brochure:
“• Emulsifies carbon and varnish and most
other “gunk”
• Transforms carbon clusters and carbon
“gunk” into a very effective lubricant known
as colloidal graphite”

From a Dyson Analysis report on LC20/FP60:
“a.) “Liquifies carbon and varnish.” Yes it will do that and do it well. This was proven by the author as explained in the Experiments section. LC will also free stuck rings.”….
“6.0 Conclusion
6.1 LC20 and FP60 act synergistically to keep an engine running at top efficiency. FP60 supplies extra energy to increase fuel mileage, while at the same time, cleaning the fuel system and combustion chamber of deposits, and supplying lubricants to lubricate fuel pumps and injectors. LC20 softens and dissolves carbonaceous deposits in the ring pack and hidden crevices of the engine. “
http://www.lcdinc.com/tests_dyson.php
 
Certain types of carbon buildup will not dissolve. For example, I once disassembled and cleaned the upper portion of the intake manifold on my '97 Ford Expedition. The EGR passages were completely stopped up with carbon/oil buildup. The stuff was hard and oily/sticky. I tried Purple Power degreaser, carb cleaner, Seafoam, brake cleaner, B12, and a few other products. NOTHING had any noticeable effect on the carbon/oil buildup. I had to use a rifle bore (wire) brush, and literally scrub the living daylights out of the stuff to get rid of it. I have pictures of the project; I'll see if I can find them.

Here are some pics of before and after:

CarbonedUpElbow.jpg


CleanThrottleBodyElbow-1.jpg


That little cleaning job took me well over an hour of scrubbing.
 
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Originally Posted By: benjamming
Wayne,

What type brake cleaner - chlorinated or nonchlorinated?


??? It was AutoZone's house brand stuff.
 
Originally Posted By: benjamming
Chlorinated brake cleaner (tetrachloroethylene) with remove carbon from substrates.


Sure will, probably the best auto store solvent, but it will also eat any plastic or rubber so be careful.
 
There are many plastics & rubber elastomers that TCE won't bother. It doesn't bother FKM, Viton, Kalrez, PVDF (Kynar), Nylon, PEEK, PTFE, Chemraz, & probably polypropylene, CPVC, & PVC seeing that you just spray it on & wipe/blow off in short order, i.e. no soaking overnight. As with everything, knowledge of the chemical you are using is in order.

Non-chlorinated brake cleaner contains a cocktail of solvents including toluene, methanol, acetone, xylene, heptane, & hexane. For example, acetone is not compatible with ABS plastic, Buna-N, FKM, Viton, & polycarbonate.
 
LC20 and ARX will soften carbon and then "disperse" it into the oil.

There are some industrial solvents that will so-called "dissolve" it almost instantly, but is not available to the general public.
 
I had an ancient carbon-tet fire extinguisher. It was neat. Brass. Had to get it filled at the fire house (this was pre-1970 sometime). Shortly after ..they were banned.
 
Originally Posted By: greencrew


Are you saying they don't actualy disolve the carbon? I really want to focus on disolving carbon rather than removing, just for the sake of discussion.


Pure carbon like graphite might be different then the stuff in your engine. The carbon in your engine may be lightly bonded together with something other than carbon, which can be easily dissolved,
 
Like mentioned above the carbon in your engine are small particles held together by organic goo. The solvents dissolve the goo and flush the particles out. Like also mentioned above if you are talking about actually dissolving carbon, not many solvents can do it that you would want in your engine.
 
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Originally Posted By: Loobed
The carbon in your engine may be lightly bonded

I've removed hard carbon with a wire brush. There's nothing lightly about it. Before years of baking carbon can be much less dense which may make it susceptible to solvents. Light films of carbon that form when the engine is still cold and rich burn off when the temperature gets hot. No solvent needed.
 
omc engine tuner will. basically naptha solvents

Section 2: Composition/Information on Ingredients
Component CAS ACGIH OSHA OTHER %
NUMBER TLV PEL LIMITS
Petroleum Distillates 64742-52-5 NE NE NE 50 – 60
Light Aromatic Petroleum Naphtha 64742-95-6 NE NE NE < 5
Heavy Aromatic Petroleum Naphtha 64742-94-5 NE NE NE < 5
2-Butoxyethanol 111-76-2 20 ppm 50 ppm 5 ppm 5 - 10
Sorbitan monotallate 61791-48-8 NE NE NE < 5
Diacetone Alcohol 123-42-2 50 ppm 50 ppm NE < 5
Liquefied Petroleum Gas 68476-86-8 NE NE NE 15 - 25
 
In that composition it looks like the Sorbitan monotallate (whatever that is, some kind of organic soap?) would be the heavy hitter, the rest are carriers, solubilizers, and promoters at a guess.
 
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