Engine decarbonising
Discussion
I've noticed this company and a couple of others cropping up on various car forums - http://www.terraclean.co.uk/terraclean%20history.h...
It's ~ £90 for engines over 2 litres, so not exactly cheap.
To me it's not really much different to spraying carb cleaner into the throttle with the engine running.
Does anyone know what's so special / unique about this stuff?
Testamonials seem to suggest it works, but then again, I'm always a bit dubious of some online reviews. Unless piston crowns and injectors have an inch of sludge on them, I can't really see how an engine can suddenly perform so much better after squirting some stuff into it?
It's ~ £90 for engines over 2 litres, so not exactly cheap.
To me it's not really much different to spraying carb cleaner into the throttle with the engine running.
Does anyone know what's so special / unique about this stuff?
Testamonials seem to suggest it works, but then again, I'm always a bit dubious of some online reviews. Unless piston crowns and injectors have an inch of sludge on them, I can't really see how an engine can suddenly perform so much better after squirting some stuff into it?
Figured as much 
I have no intention of using the service, I was just curious about it as it seems like a step up from the tins of stuff you can buy from Halfords.
You can see the piston crowns by shining a torch through the plug holes and intake valves are cleaned by the injectors, so I'm not sure what a chemical can do. Cleaning out intake runners rarely does anything to improve engine running in my experience.
I have no intention of using the service, I was just curious about it as it seems like a step up from the tins of stuff you can buy from Halfords.You can see the piston crowns by shining a torch through the plug holes and intake valves are cleaned by the injectors, so I'm not sure what a chemical can do. Cleaning out intake runners rarely does anything to improve engine running in my experience.
one eyed mick said:
Modern engines do not suffer from carbon build up like old stuff did this mainly down to vastly better engineering a fuels
Not true, actually... 1st generation GDI (direct injection petrol) engines are notorious for coking-up. Just ask any Volvo S40/V40 or Mitsubishi Carisma owner.The best thing you can do for your engine is use decent oil (albeit no need for anything super expensive) and change it regularly. Carbon and sludge build up is mainly a thing of the past caused by crappy oil and inaccurate fuel metering by badly calibrated carbs. Synthetic and semi synthetic oils have eliminated the former and FI systems running closed loop stoichiometric A/F ratios the latter.
A certain amount of carbon build up on piston crowns and combustion chambers is actually beneficial and shouldn't be removed. It insulates them to reduce heat loss to the cooling system and raises the CR slightly which increases thermal efficiency and power. Any excess deposits can usually be burned off by giving the engine a good hiding every now and then using full throttle and max rpm (an Italian tune up). Babying an engine all the time can lead to a wear lip at the top piston ring position that is low enough on the cylinder to break the top ring if the engine then ever does get thrashed to the redline although it's a very rare event nowadays as bores wear much less than they used to.
A reasonably well maintained modern engine that's given a decent wellying every now and then shouldn't see any loss in bhp over when it was first fully run in until mileage is well over 100k. In such case there's clearly nothing for any snake oil treatment to gain and by the time power is genuinely starting to drop off it'll be because of gross wear to internal engine components that no amount of decarbonising can affect anyway.
If an engine is running fine, passing its MOT emissions check and achieving the expected mpg then it's best left well alone until something actually does go wrong and then what will be required will be a proper repair or rebuild and not a snake oil treatment.
A certain amount of carbon build up on piston crowns and combustion chambers is actually beneficial and shouldn't be removed. It insulates them to reduce heat loss to the cooling system and raises the CR slightly which increases thermal efficiency and power. Any excess deposits can usually be burned off by giving the engine a good hiding every now and then using full throttle and max rpm (an Italian tune up). Babying an engine all the time can lead to a wear lip at the top piston ring position that is low enough on the cylinder to break the top ring if the engine then ever does get thrashed to the redline although it's a very rare event nowadays as bores wear much less than they used to.
A reasonably well maintained modern engine that's given a decent wellying every now and then shouldn't see any loss in bhp over when it was first fully run in until mileage is well over 100k. In such case there's clearly nothing for any snake oil treatment to gain and by the time power is genuinely starting to drop off it'll be because of gross wear to internal engine components that no amount of decarbonising can affect anyway.
If an engine is running fine, passing its MOT emissions check and achieving the expected mpg then it's best left well alone until something actually does go wrong and then what will be required will be a proper repair or rebuild and not a snake oil treatment.
For almost nil cost you can consider this:
Steam Clean Inside the Engine - Whilst its Running
Steam Clean Inside the Engine - Whilst its Running
- Introduce small amounts of water continuously into the engine intake/plenum via a 1/8" dia pipe, under the influence of inlet vacuum whilst the engine is running at 1500 rpm?
- The water turns to steam inside the combustion chamber and under normal compression pressures of about 120 to 160 psi the superheated steam cleans off carbon crud from everything thereabouts.
- Including - Rings and Ring Grooves - Piston Crown - Combustion Chamber - Valve Heads - Exhaust Valve Seat Area - Exhaust Channels in Header/Manifold - Downpipes - Catalytic Converters.
- The expelled carbon residue floods out of the tailpipe into a very large black puddle.
- Keep allowing in water under the influence of vacuum until the tailpipe expels clean water. It can take as much as 20 litres.
- Radical? Maybe! Scary? Yes! But its a known factual observation that people have seen very clean combustion chamber innards when replacing water leaking head gasket failures. So why shouldn't the phenomenon work in a controlled process using the steam cleaning principles?
- There are citations on the internet
- plus a fairly extensive discussion on this forum, here:
- One of the anecdotal experiences I have read, introduced the water using a simple pressurised garden spray.
- There is even a YouTube demo.
- If you google 'Seafoam', there is another process.
ian_uk1975 said:
SuperchargedVR6 said:
intake valves are cleaned by the injectors, so I'm not sure what a chemical can do.
Not with a direct injection motor... that's the problem.When i was still in the Trade we use to use a product from Wurth uk it was a system cleaner with a flexible tube about 15 inches long .
You run the car @ 2000 rpm and using the tube put it all the way in the inlet and spray. After the can was empty you turned the car off for @ 20-30 mins to let it soak.
When you restarted it you gave it merry hell on the throttle and all hell broke loose in the form of muck and soot from in the valve area .......
Did it work ? im not sure but most of the engines that i done did run smoother and make no mistake all the muck that came out the back was impressive.
As for the cost of this service id like to see a back to back run on a dyno to confirm it works. Owe yes i also run a Sun Ram 12 dyno for 5 years as well so i know what works and doesn't.
Best thing is to change the oil and filter regularly with a good blast up the motorway. check out Wurth uk
http://www.wurth.co.uk/technical-chemicals1
You run the car @ 2000 rpm and using the tube put it all the way in the inlet and spray. After the can was empty you turned the car off for @ 20-30 mins to let it soak.
When you restarted it you gave it merry hell on the throttle and all hell broke loose in the form of muck and soot from in the valve area .......
Did it work ? im not sure but most of the engines that i done did run smoother and make no mistake all the muck that came out the back was impressive.
As for the cost of this service id like to see a back to back run on a dyno to confirm it works. Owe yes i also run a Sun Ram 12 dyno for 5 years as well so i know what works and doesn't.
Best thing is to change the oil and filter regularly with a good blast up the motorway. check out Wurth uk
http://www.wurth.co.uk/technical-chemicals1
Edited by packman10_4 on Friday 9th November 12:39
Edited by packman10_4 on Thursday 15th November 07:37
packman10_4 said:
As for the cost of this service id like to see a back to back run on a dyno to confirm it works.
And also a probe around with a burrowscope to see if it really has shifted as much carbon as the tailpipe muck would suggest, especially the crusty baked on exhaust valve deposits SuperchargedVR6 said:
packman10_4 said:
As for the cost of this service id like to see a back to back run on a dyno to confirm it works.
And also a probe around with a burrowscope to see if it really has shifted as much carbon as the tailpipe muck would suggest, especially the crusty baked on exhaust valve deposits :just had my 2.2 vectra terracleaned and what a diff, , 100% better , feels like diving a new car , checked carb before and after , and it does what it says on the tin !!!!
aj6933diver said:
And also a probe around with a burrowscope to see if it really has shifted as much carbon as the tailpipe muck would suggest, especially the crusty baked on exhaust valve deposits :
just had my 2.2 vectra terracleaned and what a diff, , 100% better , feels like diving a new car , checked carb before and after , and it does what it says on the tin !!!!
Carb? Hmmmjust had my 2.2 vectra terracleaned and what a diff, , 100% better , feels like diving a new car , checked carb before and after , and it does what it says on the tin !!!!
Carl
aj6933diver said:
just had my 2.2 vectra terracleaned and what a diff, , 100% better , feels like diving a new car , checked carb before and after , and it does what it says on the tin !!!!
do you work for terraclean by any chance? sounds ominously like a nice little "sales" testimonial but without the "knowledge"...
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