Thread: Cleaning Combustion Chamber

Tweet

I just replaced the plugs in my '69 Mustang and there is quite a bit of black soot in the combustion chamber. Is there a safe way to get rid of this without taking the engine apart, like for instance spraying carb cleaner in there?

Yeah, get the carburetor tuned so the car isn't running rich anymore, then run full power for a while (cruisng at high speed on the freeway works) and the heat will burn the carbon off.

SEAFOAM COMBUSTION CHAMBER CLEANER available from Napa..
But the best is G.M. X-66 available at any G.M. parts dept. and some auto parts stores...

Originally posted by 76GMC1500
Yeah, get the carburetor tuned so the car isn't running rich anymore, then run full power for a while (cruisng at high speed on the freeway works) and the heat will burn the carbon off.

Well Said

Also could depend on the temperature of your plugs, if they are not running hot enough then they will not effectively burn off the carbon, and if they are too hot they burn out and in some bad cases can cause pre-ignition. So if your engine is custom or has a different cam, carb, headers etc it might be a good idea to look into what plugs you should get, compression pressures also affect this. But if no mods have been made then just clean up the carb and go for a good ride, should get it hot enough to clean it up just as was said before.

. . . then run full power for a while (cruisng at high speed on the freeway works) and the heat will burn the carbon off.

We used to call that an "Arkansas Tune-up."

I sprayed some carb cleaner in the chamber and it seemed to work OK. The pluhs all seem to have a grey chalky deposit on them. Maybe the engine is running too hot -- the carbon in the chambers is probably from the age of the car.

DennyW said:

"Have you ever tried the engine warmed up, high idle, water poured through the carb trick? Accel and decelerating?"

Do you literally mean water in the carb? Wouldnt that destroy your car?

I'm surprised no one has come up with the "beer will clean her out" trick here, and no I never did, but I saw it done, talk about a strange/foul smell

You are really serious about this water methodg? It just sounds like the sort of thing that could ruin an engine -- I thought water was the #1 enemy of engines (maybe sugar too).

Water down the carb throat is an old trick,and it works,steam cleans the ports,valves and combustion chambers,Now wer'e not talkin large amounts of water(that will hydraulic the motor and bend rods) just get her good and hot,set the idle about 2500 rpm and trickle about a qt. to a 1/2 gallon down the carb throat, beware that if'n ya got cats that they will turn cherry red...

Originally posted by gemcleod
You are really serious about this water methodg? It just sounds like the sort of thing that could ruin an engine -- I thought water was the #1 enemy of engines (maybe sugar too).

http://www.racetep.com/wik.html?src=...er%20injection




Just thought I would post this water injection site to show you they are not pullin' yer' leg...........

So, why don't mechanics do this at the shop?

Originally posted by gemcleod
So, why don't mechanics do this at the shop?

I do it all the time,the straight water works and doesn't make much smoke, But the G.M.X-66 cleaner is nasty stuff and ya can't believe how much smoke and stink it makes. Before the Dept.of Natural Resources decided they needed to toughen up the test standards I could use the water trick to clean up older cumbustion chambers & Cat.Conv. enough to get em thru the emission test on a lotta cars,when they got tougher had to use the X-66 more often,Now they got so tough that most of em I gotta get out my laptop,OTC Genysis, and wrenchs. Only thing I can reckon as to why all wrench's don't do this is the Shop owner,shop foreman, and the Mech's themselves, They are all three after the bottom line,Ya gotta remember that most shop Foremans & Mech's are on commision, with the shop owner breathing down there necks,so do they do a simple 1 hr, $75.00 procedure or do they sell ya a $500.00 dollar cat( parts&labor ) a $200.00 tune up and a $150.00 injector cleaning to achieve the same result.What do you think? But thats definatley not the case with all shops and especially mine and a number of independents that I'm familar with.Streets made a comment on the Engine magement post about not taking his cars to the over paid,high priced SPAZ-A-Mo-Toad and it burnt my butt, although I gotta lot of respect for him, I'da probally tried to knock his runnin lights out at that moment if he was here, but after thinkin about it I know theres lotsa shops givin us honest Mech's a bad name and the same goes for about any service ya can think of..... Sorry for the RANT ....oh and I gaurentee the water trick works,ever pull the head on 1 with a blown head gasket ? the cylinder that was gettin the coolant will be shiny spankin clean......... I'm goin home 14 hrs is nuff... SEEEEEEE Ya.

I had a old mechanic that worked for Ford tell me that in the old days that they would take a quart of trany fluid put it in a gallon jug and top it off with water and pour that down the carb to clean the valves and pistons.


~ Vegas ~

I see streets beat me to the post with the short version.......He He