Carbon Cleaning, anyone tried it?

[smiffy]

At the Corton show there was a chap with a machine that supposedly "de-coked" engines in 30 minutes.

Called Carbon Cleaning and seems to just pump hydrogen into the inlet duct

"The heating effect of hydrogen makes it possible to raise the combustion temperature to trigger a pyrolysis, essentially a chemical reaction that serves to remove, burn off, disintegrate, and eliminate carbon deposits."

Anyone used it?
Heard of it?
Scam or "Black Magic"?

http://carbon-cleaning.co.uk/

 

[Shelly]

Bet it cost a arm and leg too @smiffy
Will be interesting to see what people have to say

 

[smiffy]

£90 normally, £60 on the day I think.

 

[Will_460cs]

The same effect happens if you squirt H20 into your inlet thats why its cheap! TBH thats a very old fashioned way of decoking...

Wallnut blasting is common place but mainly for DI engines are coked to death i.e. N53,N54,N55 from BMW + many other manufacturers.

Walnut blasting is better, because its A. more effective and B. you don't transport all the carbon throughout your engine and CAT and exhaust, which isn't such a good idea as carbon deposits don't burn..

 

[GazHyde]

26 miles in to a 60 mile round trip . It did hit 38.0 at one stage briefly, and it was 37.6 when I got home.

Not bad for a 3.0 6pot.

 

[Will_460cs]

Your not driving it hard enough ;-)

 

[oldcarman]

That's amazing and if it lasts well worth the money, I'd say!! Doesn't matter if you were driving like grannie it's still quite an accomplishment with a six cyl. Has @Lee found the same?? JIM

 

[oldcarman]

That's amazing and if it lasts well worth the money, I'd say!! Doesn't matter if you were driving like grannie it's still quite an accomplishment with a six cyl. Has @Lee found the same?? JIM

 

[Lee]

My cars not used as a daily so I rarely see those MPG figures. I get around 30-34mpg. I found this carbon treatment effective @smiffy but you can buy other stuff on the market and do it yourself for half the price.

Lee

 

[Russell O]

Spray misted water in the inlet @2500 RPM. Same effect. Make sure up to temp first then a blast afterwards when all back together.

So I heard.

 

[smiffy]

so do these processes, whether hydrogen or water mist (i know water is 2 parts hydrogen) just clean the combustion chambers or do they also clean inlet tracts and exhaust valves?

really need some before and after visuals of the internals.

chemistry never was a good subject for me, which is probably why I'm struggling to believe the blurb!

 

[Will_460cs]

It's snake oil to some extent... Carbon doesn't burn off like they suggest if a big lump some how fell off then there are serious risks..

If you want real cleaning then it's inlet manifold off and wallnut blasting... If you want short benefits normally an injector cleaner like redex is good value as injector cleaning is typically more beneficial... Proper take them off and get them sonically cleaned is best....

And I'd challenge the need of carbon deposit cleaning unless you have a DI engine, diesel or don't warm up your engine. Carbon build up is not really an issue on older 6 petrol engines... If you worried and don't want to pop the manifold then get one of this £10 eBay drain cameras that go on a android and check it...

 

[GazHyde]

Snake oil maybe, but I can't give you any other reason why my car has suddenly become more responsive and is giving me about 10% better fuel economy. The only other change was an oil service and new plugs a week before, but didn't see any real difference in 300 miles after that. I'm one of the most cynical people you will encounter, but whatever it did, it sure did something good to my N52 engine.

 

[Lee]

Snake oil maybe, but I can't give you any other reason why my car has suddenly become more responsive and is giving me about 10% better fuel economy. The only other change was an oil service and new plugs a week before, but didn't see any real difference in 300 miles after that. I'm one of the most cynical people you will encounter, but whatever it did, it sure did something good to my N52 engine.

I can second that, Although my MPG is about the same the engine note and response increased enough to be noticeable.

Lee

 

[Redline]

So - here's my theory.
I'm sure it probably does have an effect of some sort. Not sure what the chemistry is though. Probably removing carbon deposits by converting carbon back to a hydrocarbon - probably methane and then getting burnt in the cylinder. Need a chemist to confirm this is possible.
I can only presume the carbon deposits are right at the tip of the injector. That's the only area exposed to combustion.
A proper injector service is going to be more effective as that will clean the whole injector body.
Can't see how this does anything on the exhaust side though. Any hydrogen would have been consumed on the bang stroke although I guess some might do the same chemical conversion on the exhaust valve seal area on the squeeze stroke. So, it's only going to clean the carbon off the injector port not clean the whole injector.

 

[Cooper]

Your all full of crap - the hydrogen gets the carbon so hot and compressed that you Zed will be pooping diamonds for years. That's why all the Mazda fans can be seen in the rear view mirror - they are collecting those diamonds for their costly repairs

 

[EnthuZiaZT]

Most of these products contain ethanol which does to some extent dissolve the carbon. You can buy products from most motorist centre that will do the same and contain ethanol. the worst problem with our engines is that most of us do not uses the cars daily, so we have a build up of carbon in the injectors which restricts the flow of fuel to the engine. To counteract this I have always resorted to using 98 Ron petrol on every 3rd fill up, as 98 Ron petrol contains more ethanol than ordinary 95 Ron Petrol and will help to keep the injectors clean. Carbon deposits on the piston crowns and in the engine combustion chambers are not quite as bad, although they do look unsightly when you take the engine apart they are not necessarily cause for major concern. In the past we used to advocate polishing and porting cylinder heads to increase the flow of gasses through the engines. Trouble is polishing and Porting an engine head is expensive and the effects do not last long on a road going car. The carbon will still build up internally as I have found out.

Mike

 

[littlefeller]

The most obvious area would be in the exhaust headers and maybe the cat (the only reason i include the cat is simply because Edd China did this on wheeler dealer, he inserted the mot probe before and after he carbon cleaned and the readings dropped significantly) as for the headers, they do have black deposits on the inside, maybe this causes drag on the exhaust gas, infact if you think about it, any deposits anywhere including valves and pistons will effect gas flow.

 

[Nodzed]

Had mine done a Beaulieu cant comment on the MPG as yet but the 4000RPM and above power responsiveness was very noticeable on the ride home. The guy said I should also notice improved lower end performance (which was what I was hoping for) cant say I did to be honest. I was getting 28 / 32mpg before I'll keep an eye on it. BTW I use Redex too as matter of course.

@Russell O told me the old girl smelt a bit rich and I had downshift flames out of the exhaust last weekend as no one has mentioned this before I hope its not as a result of the carbon clean (bet it looks good at night though )

 

[oldcarman]

I believe in using injector cleaner and have been using it for years. Use it according to manufacturers instructions, never had a fouled injector!! JIM