Cleaning combustion chambers...thoughts??

So...this is on my Chevy Colorado truck, but could be applicable to KZ's as well. Plus I know there is some engine gurus and builders that would have some great insight here. Theres a guy on the colorado forum that cleaned his combustion chamber in his truck with seafoam. He fed a funnel and hose up the intake to the Throttle body butterfly and slowly fed the seafoam in. Once it was all fed in, he shut it down, let it sit for 5 min, then fire it up. said it burnt a bunch of crap out and the truck runs better.

Now, my thoughts are: 1. You better be damn careful you don't choke it off and hydrolock it.
2. Is this really that good for the cylinder walls? Wouldn't the seafoam eat the oil coating off and "dry" the cylinder out a bit?
3. Isn't some carbon actually a little good for the valves? Someone told me it cushions the seats a bit so it's not metal on metal and actually helps compression.
4. Does this really sound like a good idea?

I know amsoil also makes a foaming product that some people have used too, same procedure.

Thoughts?

Some engine chemical listings:

Mopar Combustion Chamber Cleaner # 04318001. Designed to remove carbon from combustion chambers & valves.

Yamaha Combustion Chamber Cleaner ACC110008200
Features: Laboratory and field-tested blend of chemicals to remove power-robbing deposits that accumulate in gasoline engines.

www.valvoline.com/products/consumer-prod...uel-system-cleaners/

Kleen flo Combustion Chamber Cleaner STOCK No 823
Purges carbon, gum, varnish, sludge from internal parts. Helps increase gas mileage. Oxygen sensor and catalytic converter safe. Improves engine work. Can be used in exhaust catalyst system.

Yamaha Carb Cleaner # ACC-CARBC-LE-NR

www.amazon.com/Yamaha-Ring-Additive-32oz-ACC-
RNGFR-32-00/dp/B002GUCLH2 (Yamaha Ring Free)

www.barsproducts.com/E10L.htm

spray water in the intake

Back 25-30 years ago I made my living pulling wrenches at a Chevrolet, dealership, Medium and Heavy Trucks. GM had a product called Top Engine Cleaner, don’t know what was in it but was an oily type liquid. This was before Throttle Body Injection. You would remove air cleaner, start engine, and after warmed up, you would slowly increase the engine RPM while pouring in the Top Engine Cleaner. Once you had about half the can poured in you would then increase the amount or cleaner till it finely choked off the engine. Let it set an hour or so, remove the spark plugs crank over the engine to remove any excess engine cleaner, put spark plugs back in, run till it quits smoking.

Problem would be if the loose carbon gets between the valve head and the seat it would burn or bend the valve. Carbon is very hard. If you have ever tried to clean it from valves, cylinder heads or pistons you would know.

As far as having some carbon to cushion the valves, that would be like using rocks in your shoe to cushion your feet.

Jim Smith

Use a vacuum line into the throttle body to draw seafoam into hot engine. Let it sit a half hour and run.

So, would doing this improve things on my truck (I don't really have any issues)? It sounds like for me, it might be a higher risk vs not much reward.

apbling wrote: So, would doing this improve things on my truck (I don't really have any issues)? It sounds like for me, it might be a higher risk vs not much reward.

I've always been told "if it ain't broke don't fix it." :laugh:

italian tuning i.e. WOT for five minutes, works wonders. usually did it in the middle of the night (no cops) and i often saw the carbon bits going out of the exhsut pipe glowing in the dark behind bike/car...nice

you'll also get to finally know "what she'll do"

no kidding

I've heard of the cat clogging after playing with crap like this on newer cars/trucks. Also, modern FI engines run extremely clean as-is. I've pulled the head off one of my Chevy Metros with over 300k and not had any deposits worth worrying about. I think your CEL would go on before you had alot of carbon buildup in your engine.

Good point. I'd hate to start dicking with the cat....

.

I personally would say if the engine had less then 50k miles on it then maybe, and to my thinking pouring or spraying water in works just as well. As the engine gets older and less fresh the carbon deposits tend to take up space that wear has left behind, and if you start removing it under those conditions you may end up with an oil burner and a good amount of blow by on the rings.

Like was stated earlier if it ain't broke don't fix it. If ya want to freshen it up, tear it apart and put new parts in.