Thread: V8 Carbon Clean Recommendations

My 3.9 Disco on LPG was hitting 5000rpm regularly on sand hills but still managed to get rock hard varnish building up on the exhaust valve stems but Im guessing the lack of valve stem seals may have had a part in that. Even a wire wheel had a hard time getting the stuff off. I was recommended Toyota injector cleaner a long time ago. Smells like paint stripper and actually works. Not sure about the exhaust valve stems though.

Originally Posted by steve_35

reason no one has had it dome is most people just put here foot to the floor for a few seconds bingo no carbon buildups

An Italian tune from time to time may have its place in "slowing" down carbon build-up, particularly in engines that spend a lot time under short run times and no load. However "slowing" build-up is all it will do. The only way to remove it is mechanically and or chemically.

Probably about 95% of our marketing, and hence sales, is directed to diesel applications. However, we certainly do have plenty of success with petrol carbon issues.

Over the years, we have supplied quite a few RR V8's with favourable feedback from customers, regarding improvements to operating performance. I must admit, I was not specifically aware that they were prone to exhaust valve carbon, although I knew it was carbon related issues in general.

We have had similar success with Mercedes, BMW and other petrol European prestige vehicles. In fact, for a number of years there was a Gold Coast prestige car dealer (I think it was Peter Webster Prestige) who used the FTC Decarbonizer (and our injector cleaner) in every car in his yard, as a matter of preparation for resale.

He stated these European engines were prone to coking up. He would treat the fuel with FTC and use each car as his personal transport for a short time (I think less than a week). This would be sufficient to get them running much better, and were more impressive for his customers to test drive. He regarded it as a routine part of the car detailing & presentation procedure.

We routinely have car dealers use the FTC and other products for specific problem engines.

Another, bit of interesting (for me anyway) feedback from a mechanic regarded using the FTC on a petrol engine, that was much higher than specifications on his compression test.

He diagnosed that it due to excessive carbon build up in the combustion chambers. When re-tested after running FTC in the fuel, he reported to me that compression had dropped back to specification, and was more even over all cylinders. I can't recall what make of engine it was unfortunately.

In petrol engines, spark plugs will take on a leaner burn look. I also recall the owner of an old G60 Patrol which burnt a sump full of oil in a 300-400km trip to his farm. He would need to clean the spark plugs at each end of the trip. She was a pretty worn old girl, I guess, but using FTC he didn't have to clean the plugs.

Two stroke petrol engines are, of course, more prone to carbon issues than four strokes as a general rule...especially spark plugs, exhaust port areas & mufflers. FTC use here results in a much leaner look to spark plug deposits (similar to 4 stoke plugs). Carbon in exhaust ports & mufflers is reduced, and where still present, is greyer & drier looking than normal. They almost always gain noticeable power, rev higher and start faster than before.

Regards
Brid

Thanks Brid. I realise a difficult question but with say a high mileage V8 but in very good nick (has had 5K oil changes, minimal oil consumption, spiritley driven etc),.....around how many tanks of FTC Decarbonizer-ed fuel would it take before you would expect that most of the troublesome build-up had gone?????

Hi Cockie55

My apologies for not keeping track of this thread...only just rechecked this morning. (I'm not really that slick with how forum tracking systems work).

I would say within 4-5 tanks of fuel, there should be a major clean up of exhaust valve carbon. Quite likely well within that, but I'll be a bit more conservative with my projections. Since temperatures are relatively high in that region and also directly affected by tail end combustion, you should notice restoration of performance fairly early (assuming performance has tapered off due to exhaust carbon at this stage). That is you should see improvements beginning from the 1st or 2nd tankful, and continue improving until removal is complete.

Regards

Brid

People used to pour Redex in their tank and for a more intense clean directly into the carburettor or even more so directly into the cylinders. I used to do these years ago,..don't know if it really worked,...used to make heaps of smoke and the engine did seem to go better afterwards, but it may just have been imagination. I don't imagine it did any harm in any case.

Ron.