Combustion cylinder Before and after pics

[abscate]

You blow it out with compressed air and carry on. Engines arent that fragile, unless you have deviated from the path of the righteous.

[erikv11]

EXCEPT the head mating surfaces must be completely flat. A bit fragile there (it's Italian!).

[darrylrobert]

Here is the before and after pic of cyl 5. I used a product called Threebond my seafoam is yet to arrive and the local parts store said this is what all the mechanics here use. Its also called subaru upper engine cleaner. After just one treatment i can see the piston ring i couldnt see before but the smooth acceleration was the real proof it actually worked. Like others have said its a good idea not to have large chunks coming off at one time, slowly slowly does the trick.

I was looking into "Hydrogen cleaning" however very few mechanics do it here, i emailed one company and they havent replied, lots of videos online showing that its ineffective at cleaning carbon.

threebond upper cylinder cleaner before after

before after cyl5.jpg (171.23 KiB) Viewed 946 times

[RickHaleParker]

I was looking into "Hydrogen cleaning" however very few mechanics do it here, i emailed one company and they havent replied, lots of videos online showing that its ineffective at cleaning carbon.

Oh that what the HHO scam warped into. I recall debunking the HHO scammers when they was claiming onboard Hydrogen "generation" would improve fuel efficiency. The HHO people are just as bad as Peter Popoff and his "Miracle Spring Water" .

[jonesg]

I recall spraying water into carbs on big outboards while we revved the snot out of them ( 6 cyl/6carbs).
The exhaust water turned grey, that was the carbon washing out.

Steam cleaning works, you know the sign of a blown gasket ?, perfetly clean and shiny piston.
I just don't know how you'd introduce the water with injectors and no carb throat.

[SVO LOU]

I recall spraying water into carbs on big outboards while we revved the snot out of them ( 6 cyl/6carbs).
The exhaust water turned grey, that was the carbon washing out.

Steam cleaning works, you know the sign of a blown gasket ?, perfetly clean and shiny piston.
I just don't know how you'd introduce the water with injectors and no carb throat.

Exactly. You usually can tell which cylinder had the head gasket leak because it'll look like it's been steam-cleaned.

On a side-note, over 25 years ago I worked as a tech on the Lincoln/Mercury side of a dealer, the other side of the shop was BMW/Saab. Apparently Saab's also had a tendency to build up gunk in the combustion chamber so what the techs did was disconnect the wiper washer spray hose from the hood and connect it to a vacuum port on the throttle body and drive it and hit the washer spray button to clean out the combustion chamber...I know they swore by it.

[erikv11]

... disconnect the wiper washer spray hose from the hood and connect it to a vacuum port on the throttle body and drive it and hit the washer spray button to clean out the combustion chamber...I know they swore by it.

Love this hack!

Thoughts anyone? I feel like trying it on my beater 850 this spring.

[darrylrobert]

its quite risky because the engine might hydraulically lock. Emailed a few mechanics that work on volvos over 20years old that have been driven by old lady's consider removal of the head the only real fix.

[MoVolvos]

... disconnect the wiper washer spray hose from the hood and connect it to a vacuum port on the throttle body and drive it and hit the washer spray button to clean out the combustion chamber...I know they swore by it.

Love this hack!

Thoughts anyone? I feel like trying it on my beater 850 this spring.

In the mid 70's the place to go for repairs was Acme Auto Repair in Concord CA. They did it all and had all the machines in house to rebuild the entire motor. After bringing the car in for repair I would just go in and hangout and watch the guys Ernie and Rodney do their thing. No exposure to auto repair at the time so everything was interesting.

One car that was in the shop had this rattling sound and the next thing I hear is the motor being rev'd and water being poured into the carb from a used Prestone coolant bottle. They too use it for carbon buildup.

*

[erikv11]

its quite risky because the engine might hydraulically lock. ...

Yes, this is the whole point of speculation. The question is if water injection by this simple hack is controllable enough to minimize the risk.

Water injection systems are common, presumably they clean up the pistons.

From VS back in the day http://volvospeed.com/vs_forum/topic/35 ... -build-up/