Engine steam cleaning? Safer than seafoam?

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I've been reading up on engine steam cleaning, using water, instead of something like seamfoam. To me, it just seems WRONG in every way possible, but I've heard great results. I ran a couple searches but couldnt find much. Any thoughts?
 
50 years ago this was a common practice.

You mix water with fuel oil- Kerosene or diesel will work.

Shake it and then pour it in while holding the throttle open.
This was much easier to do with a carburetor.

The theory was that the fuel oil will soften the carbon and the water will steam off the carbon.

I have a alky/water injection on my Supercharged Corvette and it only sprays at high boost but the inside of the engine stays carbon free the water definitely works.
 
Thanks for the reply. I think I'll try the seafoam route. My car is a '99 with only 50 K miles on it, but its fuel economy isnt what it should be and its had a full tune up with all the goodies.

I know it wasnt driven much before I bought it, and being a city car my guess was a lot of stop and go etc....
 
i posted this on another thread, i think its still relevant:

i did this 3 weeks ago with my newly purchased 92 isuzu beater truck with 177k miles on it. it had a loud "carbon knock" on cold starts that went away when it warmed up. this motor suffered from a low vacuum condition i attributed to running too rich and being all carboned up. the sooty fouled plugs confirmed this. i grew up in iowa around alot of old farmall and john deere gas powered tractors. since they are ancient designs, they get carboned up like cars used to 40 years ago. we always used the 50% rubbing alcohol you can buy at the store. using the alcohol lets you put it in under load and not kill the engine. you want a lot of heat in the combustion chambers to "steam" the carbon off. the only way to get that is to get it up to temp and drive it. the alcohol will also clean off any PCV gunk on the inside of the intake and the back of the valves better than water alone ever could.

i found a unused vacuum port at the base of the carb and cleaned it out using carb cleaner spray. i used about 8 feet of small vacuum line into the cab. i also used one of those universal vacuum splicer things that has the small hole in the end. this way i did not have to worry about getting too big an amount into the engine at once. i was able to stick it into the jar holding the alcohol for about 3-4 seconds before the engine started to bog down and misfire. once the fluid cleared the vacuum line, it ran like normal. i went through 5 12 ounce bottles in about a 20 mile drive. the first and most noticeable thing was that the "hiss" of the vacuum hose got gradually louder and it was sucking the alcohol/water mix up faster and faster as we went along. my passenger remarked on it several times. i took it as a good sign. i took it home and changed the oil and put in some ARX and called it a day.

the next morning it was about freezing outside and the engine started up with out the loud knock it had been making before on cold starts. it runs pretty smoothly now. life is good. $500 beater trucks rule.
 
LOL, good to hear it worked for you. from what I understand seafoam is loaded with alcohol as well, so it probably has a similar effect.
 
Originally Posted By: ryan2022
I've been reading up on engine steam cleaning, using water, instead of something like seamfoam. To me, it just seems WRONG in every way possible, but I've heard great results. I ran a couple searches but couldnt find much. Any thoughts?


ryan2022,

Here in California allot of places won't clean engines anymore wether it be water or steam. It appears one has to have some State permit in order to have such a business. Perhaps a car wash business might help.

To answer your question steam is better than a chemical due to the natural hot steam melts away the grime. Water them washes away the dirt off the engine cmopared to using some sort of chemical. Many places/dealerships don't like it due to all the electonics that might/may get corroded from using a chemical or water based system. I myself it's worth the try. If you can find an establishment to do it have them turn over the engine right away after cleaning and with the hood up it'll help dry the car faster. Then take it for a good freeway drive to heat everything up and dry any parts that might get past. The main thing is to have them tape shut your distributor or cover it up with a plastic bag.

Durango
 
Ah ..I think we're talking about two different cleaning processes here (at least I think so
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) ..one external and one internal. Some 80's cars didn't react well to engine "washing" ..with relays and stuff.

..but the internals ..at least from a valve/combustion chamber standpoint, haven't changed a whole lot.
 
I swear by this, and due to a oil burning I do it ever 5k miles or so. i just built a aquarium parts filter/regulator/check valve so that I can test it out and keep the bottle of fluid in my cab so I can adjust it using an air control kit from petsmart. it works for me, but I haven't really been able to do anything other than seat of the pants approval. When my current ARX cycle is up I will try out my new kit and see how it works.
 
the thing about the vacuum port is i doubt you'll get equal distribution to all cylinders. i like to open up the throttle body and shoot air intake cleaner, deep creep, or water spray right in there at different angles while opening the throttle by hand.
 
Using a combination of water cleaning...a Condensator (advanced PCV jar)...running 1 pint kerosene in the oil for 20 mins at fast idle before oil changes...VSOT additive...I managed to reduce oil use in an engine from 1 qt every 5K miles to around 1/3 qt in 7K miles.
 
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