G'day all,
I have heard a fair bit about the process of using water to de-carbonise the engine. The technique where you suck water in through a vacuum hose on the intake where it turns to steam and chucks crap out of the exhaust.I have read that it increases performance and efficiency. I have also heard that this can cause long term damage to the engine and seals.
Any help would be much appreciated,
Cheers,
Chris

1985 250GL. sound system, debadged, VAC and ammeter gauges, custom grille, hella driving lights. All show and no go - watch this space!

Chris,

I used to do the de-carbon treatment using water all the time when I did driveability repairs for Ford. This worked for pre-detination and engine knocking due to carbon buildup.

On cars without a air meter I would actually take a 20oz bottle and fill it with water and while holding the RPM's at around 2500 I would slowly pour the water into the intake. You need to keep reving the engine and don't pour so much that it stalls the engine. This sometimes would work miracles and I never had a bad experience while doing this.

With an AMM you would probably need to go through a vac. line into the intake.


DISCLAIMER.....What you do is your by your own will and I am not responsible for any damage YOU might cause.

Good luck.

Kyle245

Have you tried the 'Famasso Italian Tune up'? It is easier with a Stick..bring up the RPM'S to maybe 4.5/5 grand and hold it until smoke develops out of the exhaust and pull back and hold..sounds good! I think the key here is, build up slowly and bring down slowly..
--
john,,1985, 245:GLTi 246k mi..so.california

My father has told me that when he was a boy (I'm talking pre WWII here), the huge one-cylinder engines in some of the fishing vessels sometimes would have a piece of chain in the combustion chamber to prevent carbon build-up. With these engines you could count to ten between each stroke, and they probably had slide valves.

I won't feed my rocket-science, cutting-edge technology B230 anything but gas though. A long trip now and then does wonders in getting rid of soot.

Erling.
--
My 240 Page

It does work to clean out deposits and stuff. Does it do any good? Who knows...

I suppose that if an engine has been running fat for a long time this might do some measurable good. I did this on an old Chevy 350 engine several years back and you wouldn't believe the black "goo" that spit out of the tailpipe ALL OVER THE DRIVEWAY!!! I would suggest pointing the tailpipe into the grass... ;-)

Another procedure that seems to knock loose a lot of crud is Berryman's B-12. I bump up to a good fast idle (2k rpm maybe?) and take a can (not the aerosol) and drizzle it down the carb/throttle body (kinda difficult on a turbo!) at a rate where it is almost stalling the engine. When I get down to about 1/3 of the can left I crank up the rpms a little higher and pour the rest in till it stalls. I then switch off the ignition and let things "soak" for a while. Next step is to crank the hell out of it till it starts and sometimes it's amazing how much crap will shoot out the exhaust after this exercise. Do be careful drizzling in the B-12 as it is highly flammable and if you have some ignition problems, and it backfires through the intake, make sure a hose is handy. BTDT!!

Justin B.
83 Turbo

Tried this on my 77 MGB a few months ago with very unhappy results - the engine started to blow blue smoke during the highway drive (3000RPM) while I was feeding the water through a 1mm restrictor and vac hose to the manifold. May have cracked a piston, broken a ring - not sure. Some report that this decarbonising technique works, but apparently there are risks!

(To all those tempted to make remarks about British cars: do try to resist...we've (Yawn) heard it all before)
--
Bob (81-244GL B21F, 83-244DL B23F, 94-940Sedan B230FD)

My first car was a '73 Midget. MG stands for Mechanical Garbage!

I loved it, too much. My later love affair was with a '67 BMW 1600 (Big Money Waster). I poured my life into that car. I still miss that thing, but I am glad I got away from it. It could have been worse, my friend was having an affair with his Fiat. Fix It Again Tony!

I do miss the feel of the road and the space in the engine bay to work on those cars.
Happy Motoring
Miguel
--
'86 244 and '87 245

have you ever pulled the head of a car with blown head gasket and noticed that the cylinder where the leak was has perfectly clean piston tops and the others still have hard carbon on them? it does work, but i dont know that your doing anything the engine actually needs. i mean i have customers with over 300,000 miles and there heads have never been off and others who bles a heater hose on the freeway and completely cooked a ruined an engine with only 50,000 miles on it. but for the most part the carbon on the piston tops doesnt really hurt anything.

Hello,

Sounds like snake oil to me... sure as s@#t I would never put water through my motor. I am however a fan of fuel injector cleaner once a month, a can carb cleaner sprayed through the intake every 6 and oil treatments (lucas stabiliser, tufoil, etc) provided they are used on a consistent basis, which ultimately lends credibility to the vendors of such products.

Whatever happened to those little plastic thingys you clamped on your fuel line that were supposed to improve your gas mileage??? Or that little tin thing that went into your intake that made a "cyclone" in your engine???

No offence, but give me a break. THERE ARE NO MAGIC PROCESSES FOR ANYTHING. Nothing beats good old fashioned maintenance. The next thing I expect is someone to come up with little intelligent nanoprobes that eat nastiness out of engines at will.

Richard

87 245 DL 354,000 km
82 242 GLT 121,000 km

http://members.cardomain.com/richink

Don't think it is snake oil, Rich.
Remember (if you can) that the WWII big recip engines had water injectors.
Served a couple purposes. Made the combustion a little cooler and less
violent (antiknock) and also by the expansion of water into steam put more
of the heat's energy into the pistons rather than out the exhaust.
I am pretty sure that it also reduces the adhesion of the carbon to the
combustion chamber and maybe sort of blasts it off similar to ultrasonic
cleaning, since it is porous. Naturally you don't want to put enough in
to put out the fire, come close to filling the combustion chamber, etc.
That's one of the reasons you put it thru the vac hose.
--
George Downs, The "original" Walrus3, Bartlesville, Oklahoma

SHAME ON ME!!!

As a pilot I have no excuse for that, but I will add that the increased compression acheived by that was only used for short bursts before Merlin bits were ejected out the cylinder walls.

I question the process in the sense that there are proven methods of cleaning engines off the bench using safe solvents. Having been in retail car sales and service for 10 years, the biggest thing I hated was seeing people being swindled for a few extra bucks because the service was "new and interesting". I've seen more that a few service writers and mechanics fired for stuff like that.

Afterall, the wheel was perfected by cavemen :-)

Richard.

BTW - Whatever happened to a full throttle run down the freeway for a couple of miles??? I used to call that the cure for "old lady lightfoot syndrome".

The wheel was invented by cavemen but I think it is still in the process
of being perfected......

There were other engines that used water injection much of the time as a
combination octane booster and performance enhancer, not necessarily at
peak loads. Jessie's post contains more valid info. This is different
from snake oil, I think, in the sense of proven benefits on a repeatable
basis.

Given the choice between solvents and water, seems to me that, used properly,
water is a better deal. You can blow an engine by putting too much gasoline
into the combustion chamber - liquids don't vary too much in their noncompressibility. There is nothing foolproof because fools are so cunning.

As far as the "Italian tuneup" [referred to in this part of the country
as "Cobbing it out" or "Blowing the cobs (or cobwebs) out of it"], that may
work but in my estimation does more for spark plugs (which it gets above the carbon adhesion temperature, 700°F) than it does for the combustion chamber
and piston crown. BTW we are just south of Kansas and a LOT of corn is grown
around here where it is not too hilly or rocky.
--
George Downs, The "original" Walrus3, Bartlesville, Oklahoma

The wheel will be perfected once it requires no servicing, but just before that happens there will be something better (?) that requires servicing at regular intervals, and will need perfection... (Sorry, last night I saw the new Matrix movie.) In the mean time I'll drive Volvo.

This is also not that uncommon on modified turbos. "Water injection" is used to reduce detonation, allowing more boost. I will probably try it on the turbo engine I am in the process of scavenging parts for. One reported side effect is that engines running water injection have very little carbon buildup. I think it is probably not used that much because it is an extra tank that has to be kept full, and you have to worry about freezing in the winter. I have not read anywhere that it damages engines if it is injected in appropriate amounts.

Yes it works I did it to a 262c and it made a difference. I simply spray water in to the T.B I supose you could go threw a vac line. Water don't compress so the steem breaks off the (chunks-so to speak)the engine must be at an hi-idel, for this to work.A long drive after is also a good thing. It might take 3-4 times doing it for it to work,depending on how bad.Also change oil after your completly done.Good luck
--
Kevin * HONDA spanking,1985 240DL * VOLVO ON!!!!

Try this site for this and other questions. I haven't tried this but am interested also. My brother who works at Toyota does the top end cleaning which is the same procedure but with solvents.

Bob is the guy: http://theoildrop.server101.com/cgi/ultimatebb.cgi
--
92 244 lowered, Bilsteins, IPD sways, Unitek cam/header, TSW Revo 18x8's - 94 965 Niiice MONEY PIT! - 76 Datsun 280Z lowered, modified head, cam, headers, intake