Decarbonise your Engine with Tap Water

[brad1.8T]

I've been looking this up over the last 2 oe 3 days and it can be done for both diesel and petrol engines(different method for petrol engines), it looks pretty straight forward and there are quite a few how to video's on youtube showing how its done.

 

Has anyone on here cleaned the carbon out of thier engine using this method and if so what result did you get, as my son and i are going to try it tomorrow to hopefully shift the gunk from the EGR pipes and the manifold,

Yes, I've done it on a few cars.  It's like poor mans water injection (which I've also run on a few cars). 

 

I've found water injection very good.  You can run a lot more timing and it does keep the combustion chamber very clean.  It helps a little with inlets but I on;y ever ran it on carby engines (Capri 1600 & Ford Falcon 221ci 6 cyl) so inlet gunking wasn't a huge issue.  Water injections been around for years - didn't they run it on the Spitfire?  Or was that the ME109?

 

If you're going to do periodic water spray cleaning then I'd recommend yo have your engine at NOT.  Run the spray quite fine.  Add some Mineral turps/white spirits about 50:50 as it helps soften gunk.  Do it just before the oil change is due (every 7500km-10,000km) and run about a litre of mix through it.  It will take 5-10 minutes.  Engine at 2500-3500rpm.  If the revs drop below 2000rpm then back-off the water flow.

 

I can't see how it will clean the EGR - you'll need to get the spanners out for that I'd think.

 

Just remember, for every person that tries something there are 500 that think it's wrong.

 

Here's how I do mine (TSI engine) - The guy rambles a bit but you'll get the idea.

 

This lot sell a professional solution but the theory is the same:

or this:

 

I did see one where a guy was HOSING water with a 12mm hose into a V6 Chev - the amount of water going in was unbelievable.  Far more than a garden sprayer is capable of.

 

 

edit:  didn't realise you'd done the job.  Get a cheap pressure sprayer as your hand was obviously cramping - LOL

 

Edited 2 November, 2014 by brad1.8T

[BrownBarge]

Didnt some one on here accidently connect up a small coolant hose to there inlet after mistaking it for a breather pipe?

[David 8]

It's like when a head gasket goes and the one cylinder is spotless afterwards. it's vapourised in the cylinder which is steam cleaning the engine at the same time.

[w4rn3r]

Yes, I've done it on a few cars.  It's like poor mans water injection (which I've also run on a few cars). 

 

I've found water injection very good.  You can run a lot more timing and it does keep the combustion chamber very clean.  It helps a little with inlets but I on;y ever ran it on carby engines (Capri 1600 & Ford Falcon 221ci 6 cyl) so inlet gunking wasn't a huge issue.  Water injections been around for years - didn't they run it on the Spitfire?  Or was that the ME109?

 

If you're going to do periodic water spray cleaning then I'd recommend yo have your engine at NOT.  Run the spray quite fine.  Add some Mineral turps/white spirits about 50:50 as it helps soften gunk.  Do it just before the oil change is due (every 7500km-10,000km) and run about a litre of mix through it.  It will take 5-10 minutes.  Engine at 2500-3500rpm.  If the revs drop below 2000rpm then back-off the water flow.

 

I can't see how it will clean the EGR - you'll need to get the spanners out for that I'd think.

 

Just remember, for every person that tries something there are 500 that think it's wrong.

 

Here's how I do mine (TSI engine) - The guy rambles a bit but you'll get the idea.

 

This lot sell a professional solution but the theory is the same:

or this:

 

I did see one where a guy was HOSING water with a 12mm hose into a V6 Chev - the amount of water going in was unbelievable.  Far more than a garden sprayer is capable of.

 

 

edit:  didn't realise you'd done the job.  Get a cheap pressure sprayer as your hand was obviously cramping - LOL

 

LOL yeah the EGR was cleaned after removal, with carb cleaner and a toothbrush, and i have mild arthritis in myhands so the pumping of the water bottle did sieze them up a bit hee hee

[Liverpool-Lad]

The TSI engines can gunk up as they use direct injection, not a problem with the old 1.8t 20V as the injectors are before the cylinders on the inlet manifold.  Believe other cars such as RS4's can also get gunked up quite bad....great design VAG!

[GAZ911]

I use redex myself but I don't see a problem with it myself,The water turns to steam inside of the engine.As long as you don't use buckets of water it shouldn't be a problem.

[w4rn3r]

UPDATE: so my son and I started looking around the vaccuum tubes that lead from the N75 solenoid on the firewall we, put our hands down the back of the engine top left and reved engine we could feel air hitting our hands, so knew there was an air leak somewhere round there, but it was late on and getting dark, so my son took it to a local garage the morning after told the mechanic where we felt the air so they stuck it on a lift to look under neath, he spotted the problem within seconds....apparently the previous owner had taken the main air feed pipe off the turbo, but couldnt get it back on again so it was only half over the hole.

 

the mechanic said theres a triagle clip or something that hiolds the pipe in place and its a bugger to get back on properly, he did it and secured the pipe, my son says its a different car, after he booted it up a hill he said it chucked a ****e load of black smoke out then nothing, pulls like a steam train no more loss of power or rattling sound (which we assume was the half open pipe vibrating when the turbo kicked in)

 

we are still going to do the turbo clean with the mr muscle later on

 

so he replaced the MAF sensor which was faulty - £57 from ECP

and the mechanic charged him £10 for the job of putting the turbo pipe back on.

 

all in all a good result.