Italian tuneup

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I have read here and elsewhere about people being big believers in the good ole' Italian tuneup. This is probably just my anal retentive side coming out, but what exactly qualifies as an ITU? 80% redline for 2 miles? 80% load for 5 miles? WOT to get on the freeway?

I want to do a few ITU on my vehicles, but don't want to be too hard on the engines or transmissions and am not willing to take them over the speed limit (65 mph) to do so.
 
All an Italian tune-up amounts to on a modern vehicle is abuse, or an excuse to get on the throttle. Maybe in the days of carburetors, gas without detergents and point ignitions was this relevant.
 
My favorite kind of tune up. There are no set parameters for what qualifies an ITU. In general just take it out on the highway and put the hammer down for as long as you can.

I deal with a service writer at a local Cadillac dealership. He says that back in the days of carburetors it was common for senior citizens to come in because their cars were skipping or had a knock, etc. He says that they(dealershi tech) would often take the cars on the hwy and just open them up for 15 min, turn around and do the same thing on the return trip. In many cases it was just built up carbon in the CC from consiostent low speed driving.

I've heard people argue that it's not necessary on modern vehicles. While it is less common to have build up on a computer controlled car it's not impossible. We had to hot tank a 2zj toyo head just a few weeks ago because it had so musch carbon buildup we couldn't get it all out without the tank. It was spark knocking so bad the owner thought he had thrown a rod. When we opened it up it had so much carbon that it completely occupied the squish band in the CC.
 
WOT isnt abuse.

Just pick a nice long uphill onramp to the interstate and let er rip upto the speed limit or +5
 
^^^Our fleet trucks get carbon build up in the head in normal use. They develop a knocking noise that sounds remarkably like piston slap.

Easily removed with an additive.

But re: Italian Tune Up I have had many a car get a bit "soft" in the response department that was easily cured by a couple blasts down an open road!
 
I agree and disagree depending on vehicles designs. Modern engines without cvt owned by grandpas never see over 3500 rpm ever. I think taking a trip ~20 miles with overdrive off once every 6 months would do the trick in those cases, probably dump in a cheap cleaner while you are at it. Lets also not forget its not just the engine, but the emissions components like the cat converter, if it never gets hot enough it can clog easier over time.
 
It's not abuse if you gradually get to WOT. If you floor it from a stop, yes that's abuse.

If you roll into the throttle until it's wide open, then it's not abuse. The engine isn't going to speed up faster than the load will let it.

Rolling into WOT avoids the drive line shock that comes from going from a full stop to full acceleration.

If it were bad for the engine, the ECM would not have the redline value it does.
 
Originally Posted By: dishdude
All an Italian tune-up amounts to on a modern vehicle is abuse, or an excuse to get on the throttle. Maybe in the days of carburetors, gas without detergents and point ignitions was this relevant.



Abuse? Not at all, unless you exceed the safe operating parameters of the engine. WOT up to redline on a fully warmed-up engine and transmission doesn't do that at all.

I'll testify that even with detergent fuels and synthetic oils, carbureted cars WILL benefit from a full operating load being placed on them occasionally, especially if they have biggish cams that cause a bit of lumpy idle and incomplete combustion at lower speeds.
 
Get on it down a few on-ramps. It'll be more than enough. I gave the Cruze an Italian tuneup this afternoon passing the dawdling drivers out today. 40 in a 55, 5 times in 40 miles. The car felt peppier after doing 5 WOT runs on a warm engine.
 
On my way home from my parents there's a shortcut that takes about 5 miles off. It's very hilly. By then , the vehicle is already warmed up and climbing the hills and maintaining even 30MPH is pretty hard and gets the revs up. Seems to do the job good enough.
 
The Italian tune up was much more useful with leaded gasoline.
Carbon deposits were much greater, but they blew off a lot easier.
The stuff now is very thin, but like iron. A good highway blast will still help.
Blasting gas with cleaners through the injectors helps keep them clean, and the intake valves.
So there is still some benefit.
 
I guess it's different for me, but I pass so frequently on secondary highways I practically daily get a chance to rev to redline if I feel like it. During owning my oil burning Saturn I drove it this way and over time it started to burn less and less oil. Proper driving mix and good oil choice had to have helped free up the piston rings in that car. Prior to that it was a city car, mostly neglected.

ITU is just get out there and don't be afraid to use the go pedal whenever you need to.
 
Originally Posted By: dishdude
All an Italian tune-up amounts to on a modern vehicle is abuse, or an excuse to get on the throttle. Maybe in the days of carburetors, gas without detergents and point ignitions was this relevant.


With today's cars there is so much torque management during shifts there is no danger. As well as a good designed eengine will have no issue with an occasional redline run. I'll do it up a nice hill around here - drop it to the floor and let her rip.
 
The classic Italian tune up is tough on the transmission, because it involved driving at the speed limit in a lower gear to give near red line RPM. It was done to burn off carbon deposits.
A few hours at high power is still one of the most effective ways to clean carbon deposits out of both the cylinders and exhaust system and luckily it is still easy to do in Germany on a Sunday.
Most cars don't suffer from cylinder deposits unless they spend a lot of time stuck in traffic or short tripping and if that is the case, then planning a once a month Sunday highway session is still better for the engine and more effective at cleaning out deposits than most fuel additives.
 
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Do you not go to the gym because you are afraid of "abusing" your body?

An Italian tune up is exercise for your car.
 
Given the cost of gasoline, the general advice I hear around here of taking an hour or so drive once a week to burn off fuel and water dilution and, as in this thread, to burn off carbon deposits, seems terribly uneconomical. Running a $5-10 fuel system additive prior to each oil change, while perhaps not ideal, appears to be significantly cheaper than $10-20 each week in fuel. Add in an extra oil change or two per year to drain fuel and water contaminated oil and you are still coming out well ahead of the weekly drive cost.

This of course is for short trip vehicles that rarely get up to full operating temperature. The problem with short trip vehicles is that they often aren't properly maintained, with regular oil changes appropriate for the type of driving, and possibly a bottle of Techron, Redline or Gumout Regane to take care of carbon deposits up top. [censored], for extreme short trippers in frigid environments (no more than maybe 2-3 miles per trip with a complete engine cooldown between trips), a different OCI might be recommended, like say once every 2000 miles if you don't have an OLM.
 
Some fuel additives say they can get rid of carbon deposits in the cylinders, but that is not true, although the type you spray directly into the cylinders or use as a piston soak can remove some deposits.
Fuel additives added to the fuel tank can help clean a fuel system, but their ability to get rid of carbon deposits in both cylinders and exhaust systems is vastly overstated in advertising. A good blast down the highway will also get rid of fuel contamination in the oil.
I remember an old senior engineer from Perkins who said that the best thing any owner could do for his engine was to change oil and filter, then go spend 10 hours at max continuous power. Unfortuntely he was talking about a marine engine as that is not so easy to do in a car.
 
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I know for a fact my engines are much peppier when I take them out on a LONG trip consistening of 4-8 hours in a day.

This pep is approximately the same as putting a double dose of PEA (Amsoil, Techron or Redline) in the gas tank.
 
Well, both Mopar and GM make their own in house top engine cleaners, so theirs aren't third party snake oil. We can debate as to what degree of optimal the use of chemicals to clean deposits is versus high speed highway runs but their use DOES produce results, OEM have their own in house brands, and they are MUCH more economical than spending $10-20 on fuel each week solely for the purpose of removing carbon.

For the price of the fuel you burn in a year strictly as a carbon removal service ($520-$1040 dollars, or more) you could probably get the engine torn down and properly cleaned to showroom new. But I think dumping a bottle of Techron 3-4x per year in the fuel and adding an extra oil change is sufficient for most people.

The only thing you can't get around afaik is carbon fouling of the catalytic convertors. Dunno how often you practically need to heat them up to burn off carbon.
 
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