Carbon Engine Clean, Does It Work ?

sideways14a · 23 Sep 2019 at 19:47

New filters and put some fuel cleaner additive in, few tanks of good quality fuel and hash the four X out of it... i mean properly, not like ohh i went to 4000rpm once and it made a noise type thing

- like redline it several times up and down your nearest 60.

Be surprising how well it goes afterwards, then again it is a 1.8 people carrier so not exactly a sports car

DereksDontRun · 23 Sep 2019 at 20:37

Doobedoo said:
I know an owner of a garage who has recently brought a cleaning machine, he absolutely swears buy it. He showed me a video of a car that had been treated, I have never seen so much crap come out the back of a car.

So, he added something into the engine (Seafoam, etc.) and you saw a load of rubbish coming out the exhaust. So, what proof is there that anything was wrong with the car to start with, or that anything has improved? Presumably the rubbish/smoke out the exhaust was 99% the rubbish added to the engine to start with?

That's where I scratch my head with these almost snake-oil like tactics. Effectively you have someone adding a load of rubbish into the engine (which will cause a load of exhaust smoke) and then claiming "it's lucky you came to me when you did, just look at the smoke coming out the exhaust". I'm not saying it doesn't do anything, but you would need to visually inspect the inside of the engine, either a pain of a job with a borescope (to check all valves) or remove the rocker cover to see the before vs after condition.

Doobedoo · 23 Sep 2019 at 20:40

DereksDontRun said:
So, he added something into the engine (Seafoam, etc.) and you saw a load of rubbish coming out the exhaust. So, what proof is there that anything was wrong with the car to start with, or that anything has improved? Presumably the rubbish/smoke out the exhaust was 99% the rubbish added to the engine to start with?

That's where I scratch my head with these almost snake-oil like tactics. Effectively you have someone adding a load of rubbish into the engine (which will cause a load of exhaust smoke) and then claiming "it's lucky you came to me when you did, just look at the smoke coming out the exhaust". I'm not saying it doesn't do anything, but you would need to visually inspect the inside of the engine, either a pain of a job with a borescope (to check all valves) or remove the rocker cover to see the before vs after condition.

Calm down dude I wasn’t promising anything or trying to convince anybody of anything, just telling you what I saw.

Like I said the guy swears by it that’s for him to say as the owner of both a garage and a machine and someone I know to be a decent guy. The rest I do not care about.

Diagro · 23 Sep 2019 at 21:00

Doobedoo said:
Calm down dude I wasn’t promising anything or trying to convince anybody of anything, just telling you what I saw.

Like I said the guy swears by it that’s for him to say as the owner of both a garage and a machine and someone I know to be a decent guy. The rest I do not care about.

Ofc he likes it. Probably makes him a ton

DereksDontRun · 23 Sep 2019 at 21:00

m8, i wasn't having a go. Just that I (personally) would want more proof than smoke that it's done anything. Also, that proof should come from an independent party, not someone who's bought the system and ultimately trying to sell the service. Sure, he's your mate, but he needs to convice himself it works wonders to be able to sell it to anyone that comes into his garage (or, is he a good/honest enough mate to admit it does little long-term and he's effectively fleecing punters?).

Doobedoo · 23 Sep 2019 at 21:08

DereksDontRun said:
m8, i wasn't having a go. Just that I (personally) would want more proof than smoke that it's done anything. Also, that proof should come from an independent party, not someone who's bought the system and ultimately trying to sell the service. Sure, he's your mate, but he needs to convice himself it works wonders to be able to sell it to anyone that comes into his garage (or, is he a good/honest enough mate to admit it does little long-term and he's effectively fleecing punters?).

Don’t know mate thats a lot of assumptions on your side and the guy wasn’t selling me anything, I’m a Crypton Emissions analyser calibration engineer, I calibrate his emissions analyser so I wouldn’t class me as a mate or a customer he was trying to sell to, we were just chatting about it.

sideways14a · 23 Sep 2019 at 21:10

Engine cleans can work, and can be useful when there is a major carbon buildup.
I remember manually cleaning my old e46 3ltr diesel intake manifold and EGR valve - used lots of carb cleaner and even took the whole lot off to introduce to the pressure washer.
Was like night and day afterwards.. the amount of crap that came out..

Diagro · 23 Sep 2019 at 21:16

I might shove the pressure washer down my Inlets. Bet that'll go down well with the valves lol

sideways14a · 23 Sep 2019 at 21:18

Well i did remove it from the head before hand lol.

It was really gummed up, crikey those EGR valves are crap.

Doobedoo · 23 Sep 2019 at 21:19

The reason the guy brought the machine which cost about £3500 was because he had a problematic 406 that wouldn’t pass its emissions. The owner of the garage told the sales rep that if he could get the car to pass it’s emissions he would buy it. It did so he brought it the rest is history. I wouldn’t expect him to write a paper based on his scientific findings but he’s not a crook and he feels it’s sufficient enough to be able to recommend it to his customers.

He’s offered me a go for nothing but fortunately I have a dirty diesel that runs like a charm with little to no black smoke out the exhaust.

red eye · 23 Sep 2019 at 21:21

It does work. If you ever seen a head gasket fail where coolent is entering the cylinders you’ll see that the piston and chamber in that cylinder will be carbon free. This carbon clean works on same principle squirt fluid into the intake for 30-60mins. Useless on a sound engine, but you will in one that’s been excessively burning oil for 6months

Doobedoo · 23 Sep 2019 at 21:23

I remember when I had my old Mk2 Golf that it was recommended to chuck about half a litre of atf fluid in with the oil and run it for a few hundred miles. Apparently atf has cleaning agents in it.

red eye · 23 Sep 2019 at 21:43

Doobedoo said:
I remember when I had my old Mk2 Golf that it was recommended to chuck about half a litre of atf fluid in with the oil and run it for a few hundred miles. Apparently atf has cleaning agents in it.

That’s to stop it burning oil, your engine must have been the village bike with a ....... like a bucket to need 90w atf to thicken the oil :eek:

must have been like 10w 40 to dipstick max to drive 2metres oil light on

andy_mk3 · 23 Sep 2019 at 21:46

red eye said:
It does work. If you ever seen a head gasket fail where coolent is entering the cylinders you’ll see that the piston and chamber in that cylinder will be carbon free. This carbon clean works on same principle squirt fluid into the intake for 30-60mins. Useless on a sound engine, but you will in one that’s been excessively burning oil for 6months

That's purely a 'steam cleaning' affect from the coolant in the cylinder, and would not touch the inlet manifold at all.

We had a demo at work from Terraclean. Guy promised it would be amazing. Turned out to be the biggest waste of time and money I have ever seen. There's no comparison to removing components for a proper clean.

Doobedoo · 23 Sep 2019 at 21:55

red eye said:
That’s to stop it burning oil, your engine must have been the village bike with a ....... like a bucket to need 90w atf to thicken the oil

must have been like 10w 40 to dipstick max to drive 2metres oil light on

No I wasn’t to plug gaps it was to clean the engine. I think it was more of an older ‘trick’ that is less relevant today where we have cleaner engines and better oil.

red eye · 23 Sep 2019 at 22:08

andy_mk3 said:
That's purely a 'steam cleaning' affect from the coolant in the cylinder, and would not touch the inlet manifold at all.

We had a demo at work from Terraclean. Guy promised it would be amazing. Turned out to be the biggest waste of time and money I have ever seen. There's no comparison to removing components for a proper clean.

Yeah it’s the same principle burning the fluid cleans the camber and piston.
The carbon clean is pumped though the intake after the filter. As I said it does nothing to a sound engine, but one that’s been gunked up you will. Terra clean like forte will claim anything to try and get their investment back.

I had to watch forte sample oil before a change, after adding flush and 20mins after fresh oil. He then puts the three urine sample jars next to each other and say look how clean the 20min oil is compared to the pre oil change sample.

A simple 5min job turned in to an 1hr 20mins

red eye · 23 Sep 2019 at 22:11

Doobedoo said:
No I wasn’t to plug gaps it was to clean the engine. I think it was more of an older ‘trick’ that is less relevant today where we have cleaner engines and better oil.

I’m sure aft has no cleaning additives,? There’s nothing to clean in an auto box or power steering it’s just thick oil that can doesn’t brake down under high pressure.

matthab · 24 Sep 2019 at 15:35

How quick do you want a 1.8 kicking out 117bhp to be? 0-60 is 10.5 seconds.

Nos kit would be a quick and easy for more speed, and by quick I mean it would be over fairly quickly.

red eye · 24 Sep 2019 at 22:34

117bhp with nos? No way Picasso’s have more than 80bhp...............unless........op drill some holes in the bottom of your doors, let the water out you Picasso will feel like it’s turbo’d

BigRazer93 · 24 Sep 2019 at 23:15

I've had 2 cars done previously done using the carbon clean machine. Uses hydrogen to clean the engine, turbo, egr, inlet, and even part of exhaust. Pipe goes in through the intake, leave machine on for 40-50 mins, job done.

Made a massive difference.