would it be wise to spray some cleaner on the intake valves and then use a tooth brush to get the gunk off?
Check paragraph 4.3 of the Dyson Analysis paper by MolaKule. It is stated as a pre-lube or end of season storage procedure but in essence is the "piston soak" procedure if I'm not mistaken.quote:
Originally posted by Ian Swett:
I have read the Dyson analysis, but hadn't seen anything about piston soak before. I would like to hear about that.
-Ian
Lube-Control and Fuel Power will remove the varnish and carbon without you having to scrub or scrape any surfaces!quote:
Originally posted by Ian Swett:
I have some pretty serious carbon buildup on my 2000 Passat 1.8T on the intake valves and the piston. The intake valves look pretty much identical to the dirty valves in the chevron techron ads, and I can't see any piston rings on the top of the pistons. I actually took my intake manifold off and tried to remove some of the carbon off the valves, but it didn't work very well. I got some off, but they certainly weren't clean afterwards. They just had less carbon mass on them.
I only have 25k on the car, so I'm bit concerned about whether this is a symptom of a larger problem or a cause, but the car isn't running quite like new, so I think its worth cleaning out and seeing if it comes back.
I've done a motorvac cleaning and tried BG44k, both of which might have helped some, but not significantly. I'm trying some Amsoil PI right now, but I doubt that'll end up working much better than either of the other two.
So what are my best options? I've heard GM Top Cleaner, SeaFoam and just plain water all will clean things out, but have to be sucked up into the intake.
I considered trying lube control as a top cleaner, but I don't know how it compares to the other options. I've also considered buying some fuel power, but since it seems like I have some nasty deposits, I'm not sure that would be strong enough to do anything in a reasonable time period.
-Ian