[Shop-talk] induction system cleaning

[Nolan]

The answer is the great "it depends".

If all you're after is knocking carbon out of the combustion chamber, some 
water down the intake does a dandy job.  Unnerves some, but it works very 
well.

The chemicals in the DIY kits are good.  Perhaps not as good as some of the 
high end shop machines, but still quite powerful at dissolving gooey carbon.

Some engines are far more prone to heavy carbon buildup in the intake 
runners and the throttle bodies.  These engines will not be well cleaned by 
the DIY kits, typically.  The DIY kits only clean below the point they get 
sucked in.  For those really messy manifolds and throttle bodies, the best 
DIY approach is to remove the throttle body and manifold, and clean them.

A good shop system that cleans through the throttle body will do a much 
better job of cleaning the carbon than the DIY kit, as it reaches areas the 
DIY kit does not.

You can probably get a pretty decent idea of your carbon levels in the 
intake by just opening the throttle body and looking in.  Black and lumpy is 
not a good thing to see.

The performance benefits of carbon clean depend on how much of a mess you've 
got in there.  I've seen engines carbon up to the point of no longer 
running.  Those engines benefited greatly from a carbon cleaning.  Engines 
that were clean to begin with saw really no improvement.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Matt" <mbarre at juno.com>
To: <shop-talk at autox.team.net>
Sent: Monday, July 23, 2007 8:35 PM
Subject: [Shop-talk] induction system cleaning


> Anyone have an opinion on the value of an induction system cleaning?  I 
> have
> seen the canister based systems that inject a solvent into the airstream 
> as
> well as machines that do the same.  What says the group?  Good way do
> degunk/decarbon an engine or better suited to pad the mechanic's profit
> margin?
> Matt in GA
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