Spraying water to clean up valve desposites

[fastback69]

I did the ATF/water trick to my Mustang once. It did clean the valves very nicely. Old dogs may not learn new tricks, but they sure know lots of old tricks to teach.

 

[BIGREDRASA]

I have pulled several heads off on vehicles subjected to the water and trans fluid treatment. I managed to have clean combustion chambers, 8) but never could get the valve stems decoked.
(Please, no CocaCola jokes! :roll: )

 

[xctasy]

rbohm say:-

i dont believe that pic for a minute as there is not coolant dripping on the ground!

methinks there is a sceptic in our midst!

The head loss was a dead loss

How about using Coca~Cola Injection...that would clear any charcol off if water isn't a proven winner!!!

 

[SuperMag]

How about using Coca~Cola Injection...that would clear any charcol off if water isn't a proven winner!!!

Which reminds me... Back in high school when I used to flip burgers at the local Burger Queen (oops! I've just dated myself!) we used to get pickle slices in 5 gallon buckets. While the pickles usually found their way onto the burgers (sometimes via the floor :roll: ) we used the pickle juice to clean the daily kanker off the grill. A cup full of that stuff thrown on the hot grill took it down to the bare metal instantly!

 

[TeddyXY71]

The carbon build-up in the combustion chamber is baked on, and not at all water soluable. So how is it that simply squirting water from a squeegee bottle down the intake is going to magically clean my engine?

Someone is going to have to explain to me the physical and chemical processes at work; I simply don't believe it.

SuperMag, this gets back to the discussion we were having about mixing water and fuel! At the high temperatures in the combustion chamber, we're gonna get that water reaction I was talking about. In the chamber, the carbon will react with water to form CO and H2, which are both gaseous, therefore both get removed from the carbon deposit. Keep it up long enough and the carbon should disappear. Of course, there is always water present from the combustion of the fuel anyway, but adding extra probably tips the balance in the reaction to getting rid of the carbon.

Teddy

 

[SuperMag]

In the chamber, the carbon will react with water to form CO and H2, which are both gaseous, therefore both get removed from the carbon deposit. Keep it up long enough and the carbon should disappear. Of course, there is always water present from the combustion of the fuel anyway, but adding extra probably tips the balance in the reaction to getting rid of the carbon.

Now that I can buy into. But given that this is a chemical reaction, it stands to reason that it will take more than 5 minutes with a plant sprayer to get things clean. Like you say, the trick is to keep it up long enough. It also explains why valve stems don't come clean, as someone else mentioned. They don't see the heat and pressure...

Thanks for info.

 

[Anonymous]

The theory behind this working that I heard, is that the cold water hits the hot carbon and shatters it. That would also explain why the valve stems don't get clean, since the temp difference really isn't there. Now if you used ice water...........

Jared

 

[addo]

Now if you used ice water...........

That'd call for a lumpy cam.

So far, we have a blend of water, ice, rice, pickle solution and cola. Add some beer, diced carrots and corn niblets, and the tailpipe will fully puke.

As Thad said once: "The devil made me do it."

Adam.

 

[Anonymous]

The only issues I've ever had with deposits on the valve stems was with a tiny bit of oil leaking past the valve stem seals on engine shutdown, and then building up as a crust on the back side of the exhaust valve. Nothing short of a wire brush would remove it, either, as it was rock-hard! OTOH, "steam' cleaning the combustion chambers with a fine water mist is an old and reliable trick, as pointed out above.

And no, chem-tool doesn't have any carbon-tetrachloride in it. Chem-tool is common solvent with a propriatory chemical additive package. Carbon-tet is a potent poison that will kill you from just a few cc's coming in contact with your skin.

 

[addo]

Carbon tetrachloride used to be one of the standard solvents for cleaning stuff, according to some of the old factory manuals I have... Yes, I was aware of the danger. Thanks for clarifying that one on the "Chem-Tool".

 

[Fiorelli]

I ran some H2O through a few of our LP428 insustral powerunits this summer, took the garden hose and dumped it into the carb . I got a little stuff out of the exhaust but not much. The engine was under full load and the RPM's at about 1800 to 2000. With the hose tourned on about half bore you hit the carb and it would start to dye I found about a pincel led size stream was about right I wired the the hose to the carb and let it run for about half an hour that way. I don't think you could lock one up unless you used a fire hose.

It cleaned the combustion chamber no questions there. Before I did that it had preignition problems like you wouldn't beleave it would accually kill it's self I didn't realize a V8 could shake like that. After the H2O it quit and ran the rest of the summer with out any problems. Some day it will break a crank like so many before it and it can go to the iron pile with the rest.

Jeremy

 

[xctasy]

Hmmm. To coin a phrase form one of our members, "Give me coffe, and no-one gets hurt!!!!"

Lots of Coffee based cafine injection would also cause crank breakage. You could give an LP428 a lot of Beans before it happened though!

One other form of thiners based torture is Toluene, Xylene, Trichloroethane and 2-propylene (Iso-propyl alcohol)...rah rah rah. Shame I can't spell them properly. [I can - Adam] Just keep this stuff away from our kids. The first two are benzene-based, and very nasty if inhaled. They produce anti-knock qualities because they are used to boost octane ratings. In NZ, a bad load of high aromatic gasoline knocked out car fuel systems, especially pommy cars with Weber, SU and Stromberg carbs with plastic fittings. Carb fires, engine detonation, and ring land breakage was the result. The benzene levels were about 5% or more, and 56% aromatic hydrocarbon. US fuel is down to 45%, I think, with benzene levels down to 3% max.

Spike your rides to clean the valves and chambers if you must, but go easy on the prolonged use of anything more potent than aqua!

 

[Anonymous]

be careful with those aromatic hydrocarbons as they make rubber lines swell. To check if your hoses can take it soak over night and if they swell then I wouldn't stick it in the tank w/o upgrading your hoses.

 

[Anonymous]

one more for the water. i had a blown head gasket between two cyls. when i pulled the head, the two combustion chambers and pistons looked like brand new. it had to be the water, that was the only thing different between those cyls. and the rest. i was told that the water works long long ago. just haven't needed to try it....frank...

 

[BaldvinE]

It works, I'm not sure exactly how but it sure works!
I used this trick on a friend's car a couple of years ago now, and the sludge that came out of the tailpipe is still staining his driveway!

 

[goinbroke2]

Old wives tails can be pretty funny, but only some are true. When I was about 15 or so I dumped a quart of water down the intake of a 302 after dad said it would clean the engine. He flipped when I told him how much I put down it and said to pull the dipstick,sure enough, about 1/2 quart over full and foamy! Yes it cleaned the engine.(confirmed later...another story)

The tranny fluid down the carb......I'd like to slap who ever came up with this one. ANY OIL down the carb burns and gums everything up!!! 'nuff said!

Rev it before shutting it off.... I've heard everything from "this primes the carb" !?!?!?! to "it lubes the walls for start up"!?!?!? AAAHHHHH!

If people only knew about engines before they started pretending to know about engines :roll: ........

 

[CoupeBoy]

I gotta know, how much water are you folks running through engines?? A couple weeks ago I ran 1/2 gallon through my 289 and I got no black smoke, no sooty deposits and the thing still had crap (deposits) in the Combustion Chambers. I tried it with a quart through a spray bottle, and 1 quart through a vacuum line (separate occassions to see how each worked) and nothing.. need more water?

The engine had reached operating temperatures, as I was driving around town shortly before that so I know it shouldnt have been too cold.

what did I do wrong? or is this a bunch of bunk?

-ron

 

[goinbroke2]

I don't think a spray bottle would put the volume of water needed in quick enough.(IMO)
Rev it up to about 2500-3000 then dump water in fairly quickly so the motor is stumbling down to about 1000 or so then stop the water and hold it wide open until about 4000. Don't dump it so fast that it kills ignition and the motor dies down to 1000, just so it's skipping/stumbling etc.

If the motor is still trying to run as it's dying down, that's ok. If the motor gets too much water the cyl's stop firing altogether and it's like you shut off the key. And if you some how dump MASSIVE amounts down there, then you could possibly hydro lock the motor.I've never seen this but ford had to move the air intake on explorers because of this. But, I've ran dune buggy's through the water and sucked in so much it stalled them, as well as a 390,351w,several 302 mud boggers which required pulling plugs to get to turn over. The 390 was in a f250 with 10" of lift and 39" tires(I was loaded 4 by 4 ing ) it quit in about 6 feet of water. Pulled it out and hit the key about 10 times before the motor turned over once and started spitting water out,dried the ign and drove it(water to top of dipstick) up to the house 1/4 mile away.Next morning drained everything and drove it for another year,cousin bought it drove it for 2 years then sold it.Never had any work done on it!

Sheesh,kinda sounds like I abuse veh eh?

 

[BIGREDRASA]

I posted this on 2/16/03:
I've used a hose and a fine spray, playing the throttle and spray to keep the RPMs up and not let the engine die. Make sure you don't spray too much, because you can cause a hydraulic lock, and bust a piston or two.
The bad news is, the water will do diddly for the carbon on your valves. It only works to decoke the combustion chambers.

 

[xctasy]

Man you guys have got a few miles per gallon out of this link...I'm impressed.