Water decarbing a Toyota Corolla 8th gen engine?

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Would this be done via the PCV hose? Get the engine hot, maybe put a funnel in a small section of tubing, attach it to the PCV hose, and carefully spray in some water, aftewards keep the engine running for a good 15 min. before shutting off? What total volume of water to use?
 
I dont see the issue as long as the pcv hooks up at a decent location in the intake to allow an even distribution to the cylinders. Maybe start by spraying half a liter in slowly. I did that amount on an older Cavalier I once had. Never owned it long enough to see if it made a difference but it sure did make the exhaust stink.
 
Do you have an electric throttle or cable driven? I like to take the intake hose off and go it that way but don't know your setup.

Is 8th gen the 98-02 that get all gunked up with oil burning? If so I think it would help tons; I did this to saturn s-series with the same issue and cleared them out 200% better.
 
What happens? Does the car "breathe better"? I assume if you get rid of carbon any engine will be less prone to run-on at shut down or even preignition.
 
Use distilled water in a spray bottle on "spray" , not "stream". This makes it easier to control the amount of water. And just spray into the pcv intake hose while someone is keeping the engine running. Good luck
 
Disconnect the windshield wiper motor elec plug.

Disconnect the wiper washer fluid hose at the windshield, add an extension hose to route to the front of the throttle body (NOT manifold vacuum side of the throttle body!!)

Washer fluid is fine, but add water or whatever suits your fancy.

Go drive on the interstate, and give the washer fluid button spurts in 2-3 second increments.
 
Ok, maybe going via the PCV hose is incorrect, or maybe I'm just doing this wrong. I disconnected the PCV hose from the PCV valve (which is connected to the crankcase) and the engine stalled. I had read somewhere that this can be done through the PCV hose (maybe not on a Corolla)? I don't know if this is elec. throttle or cable driven.

And yes, I am having major (very major) oil burning problems, apparently due to stuck, coked-up rings, because, from what I've been told, Toyota completely screwed up the design of their 8th gen. pistons and used undersized rings. So much for Japanese cars being more reliable (maybe the Japanese companies just know how to sweep their problems under the rug better).

Linctex's suggestion sounds interesting, though I wish there was a visual guide somewhere on doing this, since I don't know the location of the windshield wiper electrical plug, the throttle body, etc. I am essentially a mechanical neophyte who's devouring as much car knowledge as possible thanks to my oil burning engine.

There's a ton of videos on youtube on decarbing engines -- and all of them involve carburetors or diesel engines.
 
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What year is it? I know around 2006 they changed them over to DBW. I have an 05 Matrix with DBW but the Corolla took a year or two later to switch.
 
Spraying water into the intake isn't gonna do anything for the rings. You need to soak the pistons with MMO, Seafoam, B12 Chemtool etc. to try and free up the rings.

I've done piston soaks out the wazoo, used Risoline in the oil, BG MOA engine flush etc. and nothing has really curbed the oil burning on my 94 Corolla. It's at about 1 quart per 1500 miles.

I added a catch can and run MMO in the fuel to keep combustion chamber deposits under control since the oil consumption leads to deposits which in turn leads to pinging in hot weather.

What I do to top end clean the engine is remove the PCV hose, put a plug over the PCV valve (that's likely why your stalls - removing the hose introduces a giant vacuum leak/unmetered air into the engine, and use a spray bottle with seafoam or Gumout multi system tune up. If you duct tape the spray bottle nozzle to the PCV hose, engine vacuum will pull it out of the bottle in a nice slow manner and there will be no vacuum leak/stalling of the engine. Keep the rpms about 1500 and prepare for the smoke show. Do it on a hot engine. Once it's empty, let the car sit for half an hour then go for a spirited drive to burn up the deposits. Trust me, it works.

I tried the same procedure with water one time and didn't really like the results. I like Gumout because it has some lubricity and PEA cleaner which water doesn't. Plus water got into the oil.
 
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I've only done it on carbed engines, but I usually just take a vacuum hose and let it "drink" out of a bottle of water. When the engine starts to sputter I the hose out of the water and rev the engine. After a quart or so of water, I usually hop on the interstate or somewhere that I can keep sustained high RPMs for a few minutes.

The big danger is that you don't want to get so much water in that you hydrolock the engine.

Every time I've done it, I've seen a "spray" of carbon particles in a good radius around the tailpipe along with some decent sized chunks of carbon. The whole mess smells terrible-to me it smells like a dead/dying camp fire that you've poured water on(which I guess it sort of is). Given the sort of carbon chunks I've seen, I'm not sure I'd want them passing through a catalytic converter. I'll also add that I mainly do this as a temporary fix for dieseling, which is something that I've not encountered on a fuel injected engine. Carbs will continue supplying fuel as long as there's some in the float bowl and the engine is turning. Fuel injection generally cuts fuel as soon as you turn the key off.

BTW, water decoking is something that definitely works. In fact, if you have a head gasket that's allowing coolant to leak in the cylinder, the affected cylinder is often spotless or nearly so when you pull the head.
 
Corolla is 2001. I'm losing about 1 quart/
Drew -- what do you use to plug your PCV valve? How would I rig a spray bottle nozzle to the PCV hose so that the vacuum draws the fluid, because the bottle has a trigger I have to manually pull. Or do you mean a sport water bottle without a trigger?
 
Just a standard spray bottle - tape the nozzle part to the pcv hose. The engine vacuum will pull the solvent through with no need to pump it, but you can pump it if you want.

You could also use tape to plug the PCV valve or you can buy rubber plugs at the auto parts store. If it keeps stalling, you could try unplugging the MAF sensor which will put it into limp mode.

I'd also try a piston soak; if you no how to remove spark plugs and such, pull them out and add 4 ounces of solvent to each combustion chamber and let it sit overnight. Rotate the engine over by hand a few times and check to see if the cylinders run dry from the solvent leaking past the pistons. Add more if necessary. You'll need to change the oil afterwards, but that is your best hope of doing anything to help unstick the rings short of getting a new engine/car. You could also try Kreen in the oil.

This is what I'd do: top end clean it like I stated with Gumout Multi system, use the same product to soak the pistons, change the oil, use 10w-40 and add half a bottle of MMO to the oil and use 4 ounces in the fuel at each fuel up and continue using MMO in the fuel and subsequent oil changes (Marvel Mystery Oil). It will gradually start cleaning out the cylinders from what's left after you top end clean it through the PCV line. Adding MMO to the oil will also gradually get at the rings after you do the piston soak.

That is about the best you could do short of an engine rebuild. You might also want to get a genuine Toyota PCV valve or at least clean the one on the car with brake cleaner.
 
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Ok, I like the idea of putting it into limp mode. My original idea was to attach a funnel to the PCV hose and carefully spray water into the funnel, similar to the youtube videos which show this being done with other engines. Frankly, I am concerned about too much fluid being drawn into the engine at once (hydrolocking).

Where's the MAF sensor located on these engines?
 
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Also, if you don't want to screw around with a spray bottle and mess with the PCV, you could try Seafoam which has a spary attachment that allows you to add the product at the throttle body. That would be the easiest way to top end clean the combustion chambers.
 
Also, if you piston soak the engine, make darn sure no fluid is left in the cylinders before you put the plugs back in or you'll damage the engine when you start it; you'll need a vacuum pump to suck any remaining fluid out through the spark plug holes or start the engine with the plugs out and fuel/ignition systems disabled to blow out any remaining solvent.
 
Keep in mind, sucking water through the engine isn't gonna do squat for the oil consumption - you need to get soak the pistons or add a solvent to the oil to get the rings unstuck if they can be unstuck.
 
I've got my piston soaking attempts coming up next week. Just have a bunch of things to assemble. I did replace the PCV valve, but no improvement. My gut feeling, though, is that only an engine rebuild will fix the problem. But I'm going to try out these other things first.
 
It's worth a shot. keep us updated and ask any questions if needed. I just piston soaked my Corolla last weekend as well. I've done it about 10 times!

When I bought mine it burned about a quart every 500 miles and with all the piston soaks, using Risoline and MMO in the oil, it's settled at about 1500 miles per quart.
 
Yup, I definitely want to remove that excess solvent after the soaks. My plan was blow out the excess solvent in a couple of steps: 1) cranking; 2) using a turkey baster(!), as shown in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4olHcoRQII However, the dollar-store turkey baster I purchased today doesn't have the long thin rubber nozzle his does, so maybe it might not work.

If I can get a hold of a vacuum pump, I'll use that.
 
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