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Cleaning Carbon Deposits

How do you clean your carbon deposits ?

  • ATF down carb throat

    Votes: 4 14.3%

  • ATF through PVC vac hose

    Votes: 1 3.6%

  • Seafoam in gas tank

    Votes: 11 39.3%

  • Other.......Please specify, and do so clothed, not NEKKID

    Votes: 12 42.9%
  • Total voters
    28
78Suburban

78Suburban

1/2 ton status
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I've been doing alot of searching, and I'm wanting to clean my motor's carbon deposits, that are undoubtedly contributing to the dieseling problem it has.

So what trick works for you?
 
Here's something i have heard and tried,,,,,the question, and i have seen it before, is what does a cylinder head look like when you lose a head gasket,,,usually those cylinders are clean of all deposits.

So what i was told, ( and can't remember by who now) was to take a spray bottle with water, and while the motor is running, spray the "mist" of water down the intake. Not enough to really make the engine run bad, or flood it out, just something to vaporize in the combustion chamber, and break crap loose.

I have seen "friend" pour trans fluid down the carb,,,that was interesting, and brought out a certain neighbor, that well,,,basically ended up being "interesting":wink1:

smoked out the eniter neighborhood....crazy P.........ly :haha:
 
water injection does wonders for carbon... take off the air cleaner and do the misty spray bottle trick..

I've also heard Sea-Foam does well on carbon...
 
They make stuff just for this. Any carb cleaner will work better than water. Water does nothing. I have to pull down my race engine 2 or 3 times a year and i tried the water thing just to get idea on if it worked. Na. But brake cleaner or carb cleaner will get it out. Get the type thats in a pourable container(sea foam). pour about 1/4 cup into each runner of the intake so each piston gets same amount.rotate the engine by hand untill all the cylinders have opened the intake valves. Let set for 30 minutes or so then spray the intake with about a can of the carb cleaner. REMOVE the spark plugs and spin the engine over to get any excess out. Fire it up. Change oil soon as all that crap may have leaked past your rings.
 
I have been doing the spray bottle trick for close to 30 years. I believe that it works well. All that black crap coming out the tailpipe aint unburnt gas!!!
 
seafoam through the PVC hose will clean a lot of the carbon deposits out, you might have to use at least two cans if you have really bad deposits
 
Another Sea Foam user here. I was never one for "mystery engine potions" but I have used Sea Foam a few of times and felt an improvement.

'Definately want to use it away from the neighbors though. I layed down a cload that wouldn't stop for about twenty minutes. :haha:
 
Sea Foam works - smoked out the neighborhood a few times this way...

Water from a spray bottle also works - again, smoked out the neighbors a few times. Not as much smoke as the Sea Foam, but enough to know there was crap from the cylinders coming out.

I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but GM's Top Engine Cleaner is supposed to be great.
 
just checking.. I suppose I should use the same flavor of ATF that my th400 takes?

I think I'll try ATF.......AND Seafoam in the gas tank.
 
I had a 94 Probe GT a few years back. I guess they were prone to carbon deposits and it was recommended to have a dealer "clean" it every so often. Had a friend, that at the time, was a Ford Tech. He said all they were supposed to do was spray Ford's crab cleaner in the TB(and in the vacuum lines) a few times at different RPM levels. And then really get a good amount in there and let it sit for a little while. Ford has a good carb/efi cleaner you can buy that foams. It worked well I guess. I know that cleaner would do a good job of cleaning other things also..
 
I did seafoam through my vacuum booster vacuum line on my '88 cherokee. It definetly made a difference and smoked out the neighborhood. :D

I've got another can of it I am going to put through my K5 in the next couple of weeks. :D

Rick
 
rick88blaze said:
I did seafoam through my vacuum booster vacuum line on my '88 cherokee. It definetly made a difference and smoked out the neighborhood. :D

I've got another can of it I am going to put through my K5 in the next couple of weeks. :D

Rick
Click to expand...

I didn't even think of pouring Seafoam straight in like that.. pretty good idea :bow:
 
have never used seafoam, but have used the crap out of GM top engine cleaner at work. sucked it in through the intake, let it sit and go smoke out
everyone on the road. if your engine is real bad we have even pulled plug and filled cylinders and done overnight soakdowns. either way, CHANGE YOUR OIL AFTERWARDS;)
 
merace19 said:
They make stuff just for this. Any carb cleaner will work better than water. Water does nothing. I have to pull down my race engine 2 or 3 times a year and i tried the water thing just to get idea on if it worked. Na. But brake cleaner or carb cleaner will get it out. Get the type thats in a pourable container(sea foam). pour about 1/4 cup into each runner of the intake so each piston gets same amount.rotate the engine by hand untill all the cylinders have opened the intake valves. Let set for 30 minutes or so then spray the intake with about a can of the carb cleaner. REMOVE the spark plugs and spin the engine over to get any excess out. Fire it up. Change oil soon as all that crap may have leaked past your rings.
Click to expand...

I guess you've never heard of water injection and the side benefits to it.....
 
ryoken said:
I guess you've never heard of water injection and the side benefits to it.....
Click to expand...

ever heard of steam cleaning? Add water to your engine = instant pressurized steam. Yes water works.
 
Seafoam....Warm up to operating temp. Pour Seafoam in carb,shut of engine and let it set for 1/2 hour.Fire it up,let it smoke out the neighbors,you're good to go...:D

ATF will un-stick a lifter..
 
Carboned up..

I've used the water trick too--it works well to remove carbon fron the tops of pistons and the heads of the valves(the side in the combustion chamber anyway)..if the valves are caked up under the heads on the stem side(common dilema in many engines),it will do little or nothing for that---ditto for the intake runners and head ports..thats where chemicals are needed..

I've used Marvel Mystery Oil and it works about as good as any other product..Berryman's is good too,and ATF and carb cleaner work too..have never used "Sea-Foam" yet,but I'm sure its similar to GM's "Top Engine Cleaner"..all will make more smoke than a dragstrip burnout area on sunday afternoon--!---so don't use it if your neighbors will call the cops on ya!..:doah:

The key is to pour it down the intake slowly,revving it only enough to just keep it from stalling..then "drown" it out by pouring the last 1/4 of the can a in rapidly so it stalls--then let it soak for a half hour or more..you might foull the plugs,and have remove them,and wash them off in gas before it will fire up again..once its running,after a few moments you can race it several times to blow the carbon out the tailpipe..

I once sold a nice looking woman with a Mazda 626 a can of carb cleaner at a parts store I worked at..a few minutes later,we heard a loud explosion in the parking lot,followed by a "thud" ,and I saw something silver bounce in the parking lot..!!:eek1: ..we all ran out to see what happened..

She had sprayed the entire can down the carb throat with the engine off!!--(just as her "mechanic" boyfriend had instructed her to!:rolleyes: )---then got in and "fired" it up,literally!...it blew the muffler right off,and it landed 50' away,just missed another customers prized 64 Mustang convertible!:eek1: ....best laugh I had in months!..:bow: :D
 
ryoken said:
I guess you've never heard of water injection and the side benefits to it.....
Click to expand...

I used to have an SRT-4 (yeah i was a ricer) I still have the water/methanol injection kit that I put on there, I'm seriously thinking about putting it on the K5, only down side to it is that I can not let the resevior tank run out of water, but anyway to my point, I injected windsheild washer fluid through it when I had it on my car, you have to make sure its the non detergant type, it kept everything running good and clean, heres a link to the system I have http://www.coolingmist.com/ maybe you guys could try that and see how it works.
 
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