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Better than and Sea Foam and possibly MCCC

4K views 22 replies 12 participants last post by  2Fast4 
#1 ·
Piston top carbon cleaning.
Well I tried the Sea foam and it didn't do Squat. Just made alot of smoke. My piston was still full of carbon. I poured it into the cylinder and waited 24 hrs and even poured 2 cans in the tank. I tried many things on the market but nothing worked to my liking. Took off some but not all. I even ran the car a little lean in hopes to create enough heat to "Burn" off carbon. Still had carbon. Well untill I tried something I had for a while. Let me tell you It worked!!!
Pistons are nice and clean and I didn't even take off the head to get them like that. And I really mean CLEAN. Not one spec of Carbon. Best of all it worked in minutes, right before my very eyes. Insta-results!!!!! And from what I have read about MCCC, this works better than even that!!!(From my personal experience)

Well its called Chem-Dip carburetor and Parts cleaner. Yep thats right by Berryman. (Sold at Kragen) Its sold in a Gallon can. Its nasty stuff (Like acid) and its used to clean parts when rebuilding or whatever. I used this stuff on my throttle body and my Go-Cart's 8HP engine piston and valves and it gets the job done. (Only I used it as it was meant to be used) So I decided what the hell, My engine is old, lets try it. (135,000miles)
Heres what I did.
You will need a funnel with a hose, The Chem-dip, Fresh spark plugs, a bunch of rags, a flash light and A can of carburetor spray.
I ran the car on the freeway to get it nice and hot. Than went home and shut it off and quickly removed the spark plugs. Looked down with the flash light to see the nasty tops. Now you can choose how you want to do this. I did it both ways. You can either do one Piston at a time (Permits easy starting while cleaning) or you can do all at the same time (Harder to start car but faster in the end).
After taking out the plugs pour enough of this stuff to just cover the piston tops with the funnel. The funnel has to be able to reach into the hole. Thats why you need the one with a hose attached which you can find at Walmart. With this funnel it has a close off valve so you can measure the fluids. Add a bit more if they are really carboned up. Wait anywhere from 15-30 minutes. Don't have to wait longer cause it works best with hot pistons and the little bit you put in there will get carboned real quick. Put back the plug or plugs. Just screw them in two to three turns so that you won't cause any build up on compression. (Do NOT seat the plugs!) Air will escape but car will still start. Put back the spark plug wires. They will stick up but thats ok. Now if you did all at the same time, get in the car and crank it over a few times. If it has not started, Go back and remove plugs and dry them off with the rags. You will notice that the stuff is now really black. Reinstall plugs in the same way screwing them in like 3 turns. Crank it and when it fires up hold the RPMs at around 3K. If doing one at a time it will start right away. Hold rpms steady at 3K. (With one at a time, only the plug that you are cleaning has to be unseated. The rest of them can be fully seated) It will emit blue smoke that really stinks and sputter at first. Than Keep it there for like 1-2 minutes. Let go off the gas and it should still idle by itself like normal. Shut it down. Remove plugs and look down in the holes. The pistons will be either 50% clean or more. Repeat entire process. (Took me 2 times with the exception of piston 4 which took 3 times) After its all clean take your Carburetor spray and clean the spark plug holes from the overspill, cause when this stuff drys it becomes really sticky. Makes screwing in the plugs harder. If you spilled some of this stuff on anything just wipe it up with a wet rag. Re install plugs and take it out for a nice drive. Don't have to race it. The drive will clean it really nice. Come back and check again. When satified Put in fresh plugs and change the oil.
My piston tops are really clean now. Looks silver rather than black! I can see the Big T and even see 63D on each of them. Never even knew they had other writing on them. :confused: Anyway this is the fastest method next to removing the head and cleaning them by hand. Chem-Dip is safe to use on all metals, even aluminum and the normal way to clean parts is dip parts in this stuff (As it has a tray in the can) and after taking parts out washing them with Hot water. Well I did all of this with Hot pistons and used fuel to wash piston tops (By starting car) :D Car seems to have a bit more pep now as well. I finally got results. :)
NOTE:
As always Do this at your own risk. Not responsible for anything You decide to do to your engine or any damage that you do by trying this.
 
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#2 ·
You all might have read my thread about my insanely high numbers for my compression test.
The old numbers 195-190-182-190 (4321)
My new numbers after the cleaning. 178-178-175-175 (4321)
Piston 4 was the dirtiest and took like 3 cleanings to get it clean. As you can see from the numbers It did alot of cleaning! It worked real good!!!!
 
#3 ·
This sounds like it worked very well. A 15psi drop means there was a lot of carbon in there. This stuff seems very harsh, I wonder if it is safe.

Did the lower compression cause any performance changes? Were you getting knock from hot spots in the carbon build up?
 
#4 ·
Re: Better than Sea Foam and possibly MCCC

thegreatms said:
This sounds like it worked very well. A 15psi drop means there was a lot of carbon in there. This stuff seems very harsh, I wonder if it is safe.

Did the lower compression cause any performance changes? Were you getting knock from hot spots in the carbon build up?
The Chem-Dip is said to be
-Cleans All metal parts
-Fast acting - no agitation
-Non-Corrosive to metal
-No chlorinated solvents
-VOC Compliant
-Safe to use with aluminum and other alloys.
After using product you rinse parts with water. Perfectly safe from what it says on the can. The word I would use is this stuff is good. I'm hoping that it cleaned my valves as It had to of splashed onto them while trying to start the car. I refilled with fuel and poured in a full system fuel cleaner to aid in cleaning valves.

As for performance changes.... Well it feels much more smooth and has better response. I was having lots of trouble with knock. Now I have a lot less knock (Have knock guage with Keydiver chip) Even the exhaust smells much more cleaner (More like fresh fuel)
 
#10 ·
Jeff91AWD said:
What would that hurt? He wants to use the power of heat to help with the cleaning process, and i would venture to say, running the engine is probably the easiest way to do that.
I understand this, and getting things hot will of course help with cleaning. But one of the first things you learn in any basic automotive repair class is NOT to pull spark plugs out of an aluminum head right after running it. Aluminum conducts heat very well, and expands and contracts much faster than the steel spark plugs, it's uncommon but with the plug pulled when the head is hot, the spark plug threads in the head actually have a chance to change there shape (bad).
 
#11 · (Edited)
gvr4dsmer said:
I understand this, and getting things hot will of course help with cleaning. But one of the first things you learn in any basic automotive repair class is NOT to pull spark plugs out of an aluminum head right after running it. Aluminum conducts heat very well, and expands and contracts much faster than the steel spark plugs, it's uncommon but with the plug pulled when the head is hot, the spark plug threads in the head actually have a chance to change there shape (bad).
OOOhhhh man if that was the case I would have messed up my threads 100's upon 100's of times. I get what you are saying but in my case it has never happened. I've done it so many times. You hear all the time that one of the ways to see if you are running rich or lean is to read your plugs. Well the way to do it is race the motor than pull over. Pull the plugs and "read" what it shows. That "Basic" automotive repair class is too cautious. Plus you said it "It's uncommon" Now What I will say is that when you are putting the plugs back in do not tightened it to much since aluminum is also a soft metal. Especially when hot. I snug it 1/16th to 1/8th of a turn after it stops threading in by hand.
 
#12 ·
tarantula said:
OOOhhhh man if that was the case I would have messed up my threads 100's upon 100's of times. I get what you are saying but in my case it has never happened. I've done it so many times. You hear all the time that one of the ways to see if you are running rich or lean is to read your plugs. Well the way to do it is race the motor than pull over. Pull the plugs and "read" what it shows. That "Basic" automotive repair class is too cautious. Plus you said it "It's uncommon" Now What I will say is that when you are putting the plugs back in do not tightened it to much since aluminum is also a soft metal. Especially when hot. I snug it 1/16th to 1/8th of a turn after it stops threading in by hand.
Thanks for the sarcasm, I was merely letting Jeff91AWD know why I said it's not the best idea to pull them while the motors hot. Also it's been my experience that you can run the motor and let it cool down, I don't see how that will make so much of a difference between pulling them while hot, and when cold. Reading plugs works fine, but like I said I'm curious to know how much of a difference checking them when there hot will make. I used the same method for about 5 years playing with small engines and snowmobiles, but now I don't bother to check them unless I really feel the need to.
 
#13 ·
I've pulled plugs while hot many times also. There is no way to avoid it in some cases. Compression checks are done with the engine hot ect..

I would seriously think about performing an oil change immediatly after using this product. I didn't see anything about you doing that.
 
#15 ·
Burnett03 said:
nothing cleans your motor free of carbon better than water injection....
True. But how long would you have to suck water through a vacuum line to get the same results. I doubt it would work as quick for those of us not running water injection full time.

thegreatms said:
Yes, that was what I was thinking. Head gasket, valve stem seals, exhaust mani gasket, etc.

It might be good...but I am a little hesitant.
I'm wondering if it will kill the O2 sensor or catalytic converter (if you have one on). Let us know if you have any strange failures over the next month or so. Sounds like it worked great though.
 
#16 ·
AeroOrion said:
I would seriously think about performing an oil change immediatly after using this product. I didn't see anything about you doing that.
Re-read the last sentence.
When satified Put in fresh plugs and change the oil.
I did add to change the oil and put fresh plugs.

Mirage1 said:
I'm wondering if it will kill the O2 sensor or catalytic converter (if you have one on). Let us know if you have any strange failures over the next month or so. Sounds like it worked great though.
The cat was off while performing this surgery :D The O2 sensor is still working great. I doubt it would have affected anything as it is a cleaner. Also this cleaner is a combustible mixture so it would burn off rather quickly. So far no problems but will monitor my engine over the next couple of weeks. Knock has gone down. Still tuning.

Oh and gvr4dsmer... I'm sorry if it sounded as I was coming off sarcastic at you. Didn't mean it in that way.
Also I have tried injecting water as well. Didn't do anything. You would have to suck alot of water and would have to do it while doing a third or forth gear pull to get the cleaning affects. During idle combustion chamber temps do not rise enough to create the "Steam" cleaning effect. I have also injected Transmission fliuid. Nothing but smoke. The cleaning effects I got from this happened in minutes. Out of all the stuff I tried, nothing compared. when talking about the same time frame and ease of use. Again to get this same cleaning effects in the least amount of time you would have to take off the head and actually clean the piston tops. Even that is time consuming as you would have to remove the head and its alot of work. I will monitor the engine to make sure nothing bad happened. So far my compression is good. I rechecked the piston tops and still clean and dry. The plugs are spotless. Car is not overheating.
 
#17 ·
thegreatms said:
Yes, that was what I was thinking. Head gasket, valve stem seals, exhaust mani gasket, etc.

It might be good...but I am a little hesitant.
Well I removed the head and looked at the head gasket from the 95 engine and it was in great shape. Did not ruin the gasket, so it was safe to use. Just wanted to update. I'm going to do this same procedure to my 98.
 
#20 ·
Do you think it was good for those hot pistons to have a cool liquid dumped on them and cooling them off so fast?

Just wondering if you thought of the possibility of warping anything in there?

Was your tune off to cause so much carbon build-up? I saw my piston tops last time at 174k and they were relatively clean. Have you had to change the tune any to keep the carbon from coming back?

Just curious... Thanks for the info :cool:
 
#21 ·
NtEclipse said:
Do you think it was good for those hot pistons to have a cool liquid dumped on them and cooling them off so fast?

Just wondering if you thought of the possibility of warping anything in there?

Was your tune off to cause so much carbon build-up? I saw my piston tops last time at 174k and they were relatively clean. Have you had to change the tune any to keep the carbon from coming back?

Just curious... Thanks for the info :cool:
+1 possible danger of cold liquid into burning hot piston + chamber wall. The temperature shock can be detrimental.
I'm interested in doing this procedure but I'm not assured that cold/hot mixes.
How about warmed up motor, or even cold motor? If you're gonna do the project on your other car, why not try it while motor is COLD?!?

On another related subject, I used Sea Foam poured into cylinders & sit overnight. Before the job, I peeped thru the hole & saw lots of carbon deposits. I stuck a long screwdriver & scraped some of deposit off. And also could see the impression of letters on it barely(I did take out MPI fuse & cranked over the motor & splash Sea Foam on valves & what have you).

So, I came out next day & made sure all is well. Then started the motor to start cleaning deposit process. Some white smoke but not too bad.

Changed motor oil/filter. Drove around for a day & then changed plugs. And peeped thru hole again. Ok, there IS some carbon I can see but LESS. The carbon is now like in a MAP, meaning some area is no carbon but some area is left with THICKER carbon deposits.

So my verdict is that Sea Foam is good to put into crankcase to reduce "valve taps"(which I did last week). Even then, I still had minor amount of taps. But strangely, after Sea Foam in cylinders, valve taps ARE gone!(original lifters on 200k miles).
In addition, Sea Foam seems not strong enough for piston carbon deposits, so I'm looking for good chemical that can remove them.

Before, I've been having high counts of random knocks at cruising speeds and WOT. Now the knocks are MUCH less and not random anymore. So I believe that "hot spots" are still plaguing but at lesser degree. MCCC would be great but I understand it's not for sale anymore:confused:

Long story short, try on cold motor & give us your findings. Thanks.
 
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