Gumout Carb + Choke cleaner

[Pontius Pilate]

got a can of this at wally world for $1.82, it says not for fuel injected vehicles, but i fail to see why not, it contains

acetone, xylene, methyl ethyl ketone, petroleum distilate, and propane... i plan to spray it either down the brake booster or straight onto the piston crowns like B12, should still be ok right?

 

[jamesn]

i dont see a problem with it in that application. i would not spray it onto a MAF sensor or a MAP sensor. it might eat either of them, MEK is some nasty stuff and can affect the resins that hold the MAF or MAP sensors together.

 

[Big Jim]

It's probably not very friendly with a teflon coated throttle body either.

 

[Pontius Pilate]

how do you know if your TB is teflon coated? i have a 93 civic

 

[Rodbuckler]

Sounds like a terrible idea. That stuff is a parts cleaner. You don't want any appreiable amount of it to make it to the cylinder bores. You also don't want to wash the dirt stuck in the oil in the intake manifold down past the valve seats and into the cylinders.

Add something to the gas over the long term to keep the injectors, valves, seats, chambers, piston crowns, and top ring and groove clean. Carefully hand-clean the rest of the induction parts that you can access/disassemble.

 

[Pontius Pilate]

quote:

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Add something to the gas over the long term to keep the injectors, valves, seats, chambers, piston crowns, and top ring and groove clean

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tried that, didn't work... neura 131, b12 chemtool, marvel mystery oil, toluene... soaked pistons in B12, not much difference... im starting to think that it's not carbon anymore, it's just stained black from carbon once being there... thought the #1 piston has bare metal.

so putting this gumout carb cleaner directly on the piston crown is not a good idea huh?

 

[Rodbuckler]

quote:

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Originally posted by Pontius Pilate:
so putting this gumout carb cleaner directly on the piston crown is not a good idea huh?

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You are not supposed to see bare metal on the piston crowns. You should have a thin, hard layer of carbon on the crowns and chamber surfaces.

Read the lips of the spark plugs by wiping them across your finger. This should leave no fluffly black or oily residue, just perhaps a faint black streak. The hard black carbon should remain on the plug lip.

While you are at it, read the A/F mixture at the very base of the insulator. It should be light tan to light brown depending on the age of the plug. Black is too rich, and white may or may not be lean.

The Lucas UCL was trying to take my piston crowns down to bare metal at 1:500 mixture. I have leaned it out to prevent this. And no, don't ever spray a solvent into the chamber. Clean everything inside the engine slowly and continuously using the oil or gas as a medium.

 

[Pontius Pilate]

a/f is air/fuel right? you can tell this from the plug condition? my insulator is white but pinkish, and the lip of the plug is sooty black stuff, carbon or? it rubs off and is sorta like taking a charcoal briquet and rubbing it on the sidewalk...a fine powdery soot. so lucas UCL is that dam strong huh? anyhow heres a pic of one of my plugs, not very good cause i dont have steady hands...



green arrow = the afformentioned soot.

 

[Rodbuckler]

That plug looks good from here. Make sure there is no fluffy black carbon on the piston or chamber surfaces, and you are probably OK for A/F. Stand with the sun over your shoulder and look all the way down at the base of the insulator. The black ends and the coloration begins down there.

 

[GT Mike]

quote:

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Originally posted by Oldmoparguy1:
I use that for starting fluid..

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Me too! Works great, and is safer than ether if it builds up in high concentrations. I had a Caddy Northstar intake plenum go kaboom once when the car backfired while using ether. I've never seen an engine so touchy on fuel pressure...It was 3-5 PSI low, and wouldn't start cold without "chemical assistance". New fuel pump solved it though.

 

[Pontius Pilate]

got some valucraft "carb cleaner" low VOC formula stuff from autozone for 99 cents a can, like a wd 40 can with a straw, 13 oz and it contains

acetone, methanol, toluene....

not as good as B12 but im sure it can free up carbon on pistons.

 

[Oldmoparguy1]

I use that for starting fluid..

 

[Bamaro]

I dont know but if they are willing to say that knowing that it will restrict sales, they must have a good reason.