+1, kept fouling up my plugs on my old Mazda6
6
Carbon Buildup 101
- Thread starter Bender1
- Start date
+1, kept fouling up my plugs on my old Mazda6
My car just rolled over 111000km (~70000mi) and I was noticing a lot of acceleration surges/hesitation. Figured it had to be carbon buildup. After researching all the DIYs for valve cleaning, I decided to go to a local shop (euroworks.ca) that uses the BMW tools for walnut blasting. They charged $595 for the entire job, and the car is running so smoothly it is awesome, it seriously feels brand new again. I can't recommend enough to people with a moderate amount of km/mi on their car to get the valve cleaning done.
I assume everyone has seen this stuff?http://store.blackforestindustries.com/lumovacl.html
Jared32
Ready to race!
tmiw
Go Kart Champion
While it might work well if you spray it directly on the valves yourself, I have doubts about its usefulness as something introduced into the intake manifold. But hey, if it does increase the interval between full cleanings by doing the latter, that would be good.
Jared32
Ready to race!
tmiw
Go Kart Champion
From what I can tell in the listing, they did an "unscientific" test involving spraying the stuff directly onto the valves. They didn't test spraying the stuff into the manifold while the engine's running. IIRC Seafoam doesn't do much in the MK6 when sprayed into the manifold, so I don't expect this stuff to do much either when used that way.
In any case, I wouldn't say it's useless since it could enable one to manually clean their valves at home when the time comes instead of paying someone to walnut blast them.
No, I just figured with all the posts and such that maybe someone might have tried it. I'm of the same thought that manual cleaning is the way to go, but if something was done say every oil change or so, it might really help (this assuming one doesn't already have wmi) which seems to help as well.
On a side note, I had read on a BMW forum that someone had posted that their friend had been a BMW tech for a long time and said to keep the engine all the way up to 4500 rpms instead of the 3-3500 rpms. This seems excessive to me, and no we aren't driving bmw's, but it's the same issue they are fighting. Just putting it out there to ponder.
Found this article, thought I'd share it, seems like some different theory on why carbon buildup happens.
http://www.oilem.com/turbo-fuel-str...irect-port-injection-carbon-build-up-problem/
http://www.oilem.com/turbo-fuel-str...irect-port-injection-carbon-build-up-problem/
realcyberbob
Go Kart Champion
Thanks for this, it was a good read. It was interesting how they said catch cans and meth injection does nothing. Seems like the consensus around here is that catch cans don't do anything but meth does.
If I remember correctly, the ROW MKVII's have an additional port injector to help keep the valves clean, I think this would be the best setup as you still get direct injection too.
I think they were saying for heavy carbon build up it does nothing, but for valves that are already clean I think it would help at least some
handisnacks
Ready to race!
I also just cleaned by intake valves by hand a few weeks back. I have 86k miles and I don't think it's ever been done. Honestly the valves really weren't that bad, not as bad as some of the pictures I've seen on here at least. I just used Gumout carb & choke cleaner with a wire brush and a coat hanger and it seemed to work fine. I vacuumed the crud out once it was all broken up. The worst were the little metal sheet things, those were beyond dirty and had like a 4mm thick buildup on all of 'em. Cleaning those I think helped the most.
