Carbon build on piston heads

[Superbuick96]

I was recently tuning up my leaf blower, and weed wacker while servicing the spark plugs, I noticed a good amount of carbon build up on the piston heads. Both units are around 4 or 5 years old. I use them quite a bit between mine and my mothers yards. This is the first year I put in new plugs, I cleaned up the old ones the first several years. I usually use 93 octane Shell, with a quality 2 stroke oil. 40:1 ratio as the book says. I usually go through 2 gallons a season. I maintain both tools as the manuals recommend as well. Both units do run very good, but seeing the amout of carbon build up did not seem healthy. My chainsaw cylinder head looked clean, although it does not get used as much. Is there something I can or should do to clean the carbon, that does not include tearing the engine apart. Or is this really nothing to worry about? Thanks for any info. I gave up researching the web when I got a Trojan virus while clicking on a how to video....

 

[toneydoc]

I would not worry about it as long as it is running well. If it bothers you, you may soak your pistons and try to loosen it up and then burn it out. Good luck.

 

[V8man]

Whay brand of leaf blower and weed eater do you have?

 

[john_pifer]

Nothing to worry about. My 2-cycle dirt bikes have always done this, and they run trouble-free with hundreds of hours of hard use between piston changes.

 

[morris]

if you burn gasoline, you WILL have carbon. try marvel mystery oil in the gas. but dont tell don

 

[doitmyself]

Once warmed up a minute or two, 2 cycle POE engines are designed to be run full throttle. Make sure you are not idling or running part throttle a lot. This might be the cause of excess carbon build up.

The string trimmer and blower have "load" in terms of their cutter head or "fan blades". Don't run your chainsaw much (if any) at wot unless it is under load cutting wood.

Good luck.

 

[Cujet]

Carbon buildup is normal. Not to worry.

However, excessive build up can be addressed by a product called "ring free" and sold at Yamaha outboard dealers, epay and amazon. "Ring free plus" is also called "Engine Med RX" when it's in the 3.2 ounce size (same product)

It is an engine deposit cleaning package. Designed to reduce piston ring sticking on Yamaha 2 cycle outboard engines. It works. Also, it is NOT AN OIL. You must use oil AND this product.

Another note: Certain 2 stroke oils are very good at preventing carbon buildup and piston ring sticking. Generally full synthetics, such as Castrol TT-S, Klotz, Amzoil, Redline and others. Stay away from Redline Racing Oil though, as it's a corrosion promoter (hygroscopic) and will result in problems.

More notes: Excessive 2 stroke oil, like a 16 to 1 fuel/oil mix actually reduce carbon buildup. At 8 to 1, very little carbon can stick to anything... Of course, you may be very unhappy with the smoke screen around you...

 

[nitehawk55]

Carbon is normal to a point but make sure you run a good clean burning 2 cycle oil as mentioned above and mix it to 50:1 or whatever is specified , you do not help a 2 cycle engine running extra oil . Also , make sure the carb mixture screw is adjusted proprly (if it has one)...and I stress properly , you don't want it too lean or rich .
Another thing to check is if it has a spark screen on the muffler , these get plugged and can make the engine run rich and cause carbon . Cure for the screen...remove and toss it !