Carbon Removal?

Is there any way to remove excessive carbon buildup from my engine other than disassembling the engine and rebuilding it? I've heard stories of Honda Top Cleaner? Anyone know what it is? Do you have any other ideas?

Troy

i heard you can run alcohol in you gas and it cleans the engine....but thats hear say never tried it.would research more into it before trying.

I wouldnt do that, I never heard of that before, but yeah theres one really good way to do it. Either buy a bottle of this stuff called "Sea Foam", it's fuel cleaner <---This works the best! Or fill a cup up with water. What you do is disconnect the one vaccum line off your intake manifold and put it in this cup or can of sea foam. Don't let it flood it though, just let it suck up a little at a time. Your car is gonna smoke really bad once it gets sucking so don't be worried, this shit works great trust me. Sorry I don't know which vaccum line it is but what car/motor do you want to do this on?

the vacuum line u use is the brake booster line.Since it connects to your the intake manifold.The sea foom is just another intake cleaner like many on the market.

Sea Foam. Ok... I'll have to look around for it. You mentioned that there are other products on the market. Do any of them actually work? Also, my engine is a D15B2. Would I still use the brake booster hose?

Troy

What about soaking your cylinders with something? I've heard of people using a wide assortment of solutions in their cylinders overnight....from ATF to plain water. Those carbon deposits are stuck on the pistons pretty good though....not sure if anything really works 100% besides a rebuild. Any ideas?

i have heard the ATF trick works but the car has to be running and reving a little .... and its gonna smoke like there is no tomarrow. i have never tryed it myself so if it messes up your car i didnt say it would work. i have only heard of it working from a bunch of muscle car dudes...they said it smokes so bad you will be lucky not to get the fire dpt. out there... :icon16: if i were you i would waite to see what others say about this.

I used two cans of sea foam in my crx. It worked wonders. I took the motor out about 2 days after I used it and the ports and from what I could see inside too were really clean. I took it out cause I did a swap and using it for parts now.

an old school trick that i learned is using transmission oil..it runs sluggish for a day or 2 and smokes but man i felt the biggest difference.

or you can use this stuff called "silver can" you put it in when you change your oil, works wonders.

Just don't put Mountain Dew in your gas tank. Some kids did that to my friends Expedition and fucked up the whole engine. They fessed up and paid for everything that was damaged.

I just did got done doing my newly ZC CRX. It was pretty gunked up when I got it so I figured I should do it to this motor. I used two cans of Sea Foam. One in the gas tank of course. The other one I got a longer vaccum line and ran it through the vaccum line on the top of the Throttle Body. Best way to do it is to let it suck about half the bottle up and then let it sit for like 5 mins. Then start the car and repeat this again. After bottles all gone go drive on the highway or something cause man, its gonna smoke like no tomorrow.

It sounds like Sea Foam is going to be my best bet. I'll give it a try sometime this week...

2 days ago, this guy was working on his car,,,,he had a can of carb cleaner and he was feeding it thru the intake...not a vaccum...intake!!
anyways, the story was i was stanind in front of it while he was doing it...he told me the trick is to rev the engine while u do it...anyways, the engine had a kind of sound...kinda loud, and about half way thru the bottle...the engine changed the sound...not so loud like bfore, he told me that's what it was supposed to do!!! holy crap...it blew my mind so much...that i'm gonna try it today

just a suggestion, i am taking a risk, it might not work and i might endup fucking up my car....

Carb cleaner will work, I Did it to mine after i first got it. I'v never seen sea foam locally, If I ever see it I'll have to buy some and try it out.

With the ATF fluid, you don't wanna burn it all off. You can use a vacuum pump and suck as much of it as you can back out of the cylinders. Once you fire it up, it should smoke for about 10 - 20 mins....anyone know what burning ATF might do to the catalytic converter? Any affect?

"2 days ago, this guy was working on his car,,,,he had a can of carb cleaner and he was feeding it thru the intake...not a vaccum...intake!!
anyways, the story was i was stanind in front of it while he was doing it...he told me the trick is to rev the engine while u do it...anyways, the engine had a kind of sound...kinda loud, and about half way thru the bottle...the engine changed the sound...not so loud like bfore, he told me that's what it was supposed to do!!! holy crap...it blew my mind so much...that i'm gonna try it today"

:nono: BAD IDEA! :nono:


There is a reason why most posts of this kind state to disconnect a vacuum line, and not to shoot the cleaner directly into your throttle body. Even a sound engine, can misfire when you introduce a non expected substance into the air/fuel mix.

Sea Foam is a petroleum product, and as such has the potential to ignite. If you dump this down the throttle body, or spray carb/injector cleaner into the TB you risk having a fireball blow back into your face.

I know a mechanic, who even though was ASE certified still liked to cut corners, and figured that spraying into the TB would be faster an easier than disconnecting a Vac line. He's now about 45% covered in burn scars on his body.

Bottom line, if you're being told to feed thru a vac line then do it. Don't take a shortcut, thinking it won't matter.

"2 days ago, this guy was working on his car,,,,he had a can of carb cleaner and he was feeding it thru the intake...not a vaccum...intake!!
anyways, the story was i was stanind in front of it while he was doing it...he told me the trick is to rev the engine while u do it...anyways, the engine had a kind of sound...kinda loud, and about half way thru the bottle...the engine changed the sound...not so loud like bfore, he told me that's what it was supposed to do!!! holy crap...it blew my mind so much...that i'm gonna try it today"

:nono: BAD IDEA! :nono:


There is a reason why most posts of this kind state to disconnect a vacuum line, and not to shoot the cleaner directly into your throttle body. Even a sound engine, can misfire when you introduce a non expected substance into the air/fuel mix.

Sea Foam is a petroleum product, and as such has the potential to ignite. If you dump this down the throttle body, or spray carb/injector cleaner into the TB you risk having a fireball blow back into your face.

I know a mechanic, who even though was ASE certified still liked to cut corners, and figured that spraying into the TB would be faster an easier than disconnecting a Vac line. He's now about 45% covered in burn scars on his body.

Bottom line, if you're being told to feed thru a vac line then do it. Don't take a shortcut, thinking it won't matter.


i've done it before on my car using throttle body cleaner, and did it on my buddys impala using carb cleaner, nothing bad happened, car ran fine and we didnt catch fire

Sea Foam is available at Napa. Although I have not put it in my Civic, I used it on the wife's Corolla....I had done a full tune up and her car still idled like crap...after the Sea Foam it ran much much better. It may be time to do it on the Civic...if nothing else, to clean up the fuel system and injectors a little maybe.
What's the big concern with carbon deposits? Do you think they are hampering the engine's function? It is a normal by-product of combustion.

damn, another old thread...

if hes 45% covered in burns... he was doing something way wrong, just because your ASE certified doesnt mean you know what your doing.