Engine Carbon Clean?

[phatmonk]

Engine Carbon Clean?

Hi,

My daily ride is a Subaru.  Dealership and the local mechanic do the good 'ol "tune up in a can" and spray the upper cylinder cleaner in then out the exhaust is a black haze of built up carbon deposits.  I'm wary of miracle cans (besides WD40) but enter Engine Carbon Clean.  Doing some digging, they started in the UK and have spread their wings to VIC.  Can't find a bad review, but can find before/after on same day dyno runs and the results look good.

I'm thinking about rolling the dice and giving it a crack on the GTR.  Thought I'd throw it out there, anyone done this or similar before?

Cheers!

[niZmO_Man]

I thought people used Subaru Upper Engine Cleaner in their (non-Subaru) cars.

[phatmonk]

I'm looking at Engine Carbon Clean. It's hooking up the car to a machine that looks to push whatever through the intake. They are on Facebook, Engine Carbon Clean Melbourne I think.

[tridentt150v]

Always a bit wary of these products:

1.  Why is your engine so gunked up it needs this stuff, better addressing the issue?

2. If its a new rebuild and its done right then you shouldn't need it anyway.

3. If its an older motor and you use it the chances are you will remove the carbon that the motor has come to rely - the results could be worse performance/reliability.

4. What end result do you hope to get out of doing it?  is it worth it?

5. How often do you intend doing it?  Every 5K, 10K etc?

Maybe if you purchased a low mileage car driven by granma to bingo [where the oil never ever got warm], and it needed a fresh start in life, but otherwise I can't see the benefit.

 

 

[hardsteppa]

when i had the head off recently replacing head gasket, i used the liqi-moly carbon cleaner to get rid of the carbon buildup on top of the pistons (rb25det). It worked well, in that it really dissolved it, but even then some small spots took heaps, letting it sit, and then some scrubbing to get them removed completely. Pistons looked great afterwards though. So not sure how much carbon these products would remove if just sprayed into the intake, doesn't seem they would remove the really caked on stuff...and don't know how long it would take before it builds up again?

[niZmO_Man]

It's part of Subaru servicing, been there for years (I think every 80,000km? I forgot what I saw in the log book). I think it would be handy for a VQ (carbon build up)?

[phatmonk]

.... So not sure how much carbon these products would remove if just sprayed into the intake, doesn't seem they would remove the really caked on stuff...and don't know how long it would take before it builds up again?

The Subaru can spray is part of a regular service. Spray and idle I believe. AFAIK the Engine Carbon Clean mob take 30+ minutes to finish up the job. I'm waiting for a call back and I'm going to ask a stack of questions.

[hardsteppa]

get one of those borescope cameras off ebay for $12, do a before and after view.

[phatmonk]

This post is what caught my attention.  Was looking for before/after dyno runs and here is one.

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/377984-engine-carbon-cleaning-review/

[Leroy Peterson]

Keep in mind all those euros and the VQ carbon build up thread are all for direct injection motors. They get heaps of build-up in the intake side, unlike regular fuel injected motors. So their power "gains" are going to be much more significant than yours.