Decarbon Engine Service

Dogbreath said:
I'm not sure that's true; there are some quite famous engine tuners (e.g. Bill Blydenstein) that suggest their engines make better power after the pistons and combustion chambers have built up a coating of carbon.

Carbon in the form that is deposited on the piston and head doesn't have a particularly high thermal conductivity, certainly nowhere near that of aluminum or cast iron so it's much more likely that it reduces the transfer of heat compared to a bare metal surface. In fact this low thermal conductivity is the reason that excessive carbon build ups cause problems with pre-ignition.
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A build up of carbon increases compression, and can act as a seal on worn areas, that is the only improvement. It isn't about the thermal transfer of the heat, that is needed anyway to ensure the piston swells to the correct tolerance, the fact that a reflective surface STOPS the heat transferring as quickly to the aluminium in the first places, sending more hot gasses out the exhaust which improves gas flow rates, it can make the engine more tolerant of leaner mixes and as a result cleaner combustion. The hotter gases also aid turbo spool up and extraction effect as well as keeping the cat nice and hot.

There is way more evidence to suggest a cleaner engine runs better and more power than vice versa.

Blydenstein did some pretty good head work on Vauxhalls, but lets be honest here, he hasn't worked on anything modern for 30+ years, and certainly wont now :o
 
Might as well bump this old thread, as it's the same topic. Has anyone on here had their car go through a 'terraclean' yet? Seems to be cropping up more and more on other forums. Yet to see anyone that's had it done say anything negative about it.

Part of me thinks a proper injector service might yield better results on a car that currently shows no problems.
 
The Manufacturers probably don't care as by the time this issue causes an actual problem the car will be old enough for them to wash their hands with it.

Yay for lowering emissions!
 
My m3 lump is likely to have run without lambdas for years and run mega rich. I put proper lambdas on a few weeks ago and I know the plugs were black. Ill whip out a plug this weekend to see if normal running has started to clean things up
 
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