Fun with carbon

water will clean the combustion chambers on an assembled/running engine as well as any spray you will find at the FLAPS..

wait a minute..... what about the heat riser on the intake? If there is something that "melts carbon away" then it would be an answer to prayer for cleaning the intake. (but then, why wouldn't we have heard of it?)

Seafoam works very good for cleaning the combustion chamber, as well as the intake. It used to be pretty hard to find, but now I think you can get it at just about any FLAPS. I had an old Honda Civic years ago that had a clogged EGR passage, and my BIL had this factory GM stuff that he used to clean it out. Not sure if you can get it at a local dealer or not though, and I can't remember the proper name or part number. It was pretty potent stuff, a little went a long way.

My FLAPS sells both SeaFoam and "GM Top Engine Cleaner." I used the latter on a gunked-up non-VW engine and you can almost see the tops of the pistons now :)

nate

GM's Top Engine Cleaner works well. You pour it down the carb in a small stream with the engine running and then dump the last bit in all at once and stall the engine. You let it sit for a while and then start it back up. You should see lotsa black coming out the exhaust if you have a lot of carbon build up. I suppose you could use it on a disassembled engine. Water, which is cheaper :o) works almost as good. A trickle from your garden hose down the carburetor whilst the engine is running. (you'll have to manually work the throttle to keep it running)

As for something that works with the heads off of the car, regular spray type carburetor cleaner probably works fairly well. Maybe that was what was being used. Most heavy crusty carbon needs a bit of scraping no matter what.

It comes in a spray can now, much less chance of an "oops" which is nice.

nate