Honda Legend 3.5 won't start after engine cleaner

[darkchild101]

Honda Legend 3.5 won't start after engine cleaner
16-10-19, 09:49
My dad's honda Legend won't start after he put engine cleaner in the tank. It had very little amount of fuel at the time and he poured the whole bottle of engine cleaner. It drove for 50 miles and then when he parked it it wouldn't start the next day. It's the Ka9 model. When you crank the engine there is sound of explosion coming from air filter and air filter looks charred

Please help. Thanks

[eybic]

Did he not follow the instructions on the bottle? Normally a bottle should be added to a full tank so he will have super concentrated whatever was added.

What product was used?

[darkchild101]

Sorry mate but he is rather old. He thought the opposite, i.e adding fuel cleaner when tank was almost empty would do the job

I have no idea what fuel cleaner was used and only found out when I went home to visit after some months as I was abroad. Thanks

[paintman]

Sounds like he's had a flashback.
Likely the additive is highly volatile & is igniting whilst an intake valve is open - the resulting bang can cause a lot of damage to components on the air intake side.
If that is the case & putting normal fuel in to dilute it has had no effect then it's likely he's damaged airflow meter, throttle butterfly, etc.
Check that the intake hoses are still all attached - if one of those has blown off or split yu may well have a very weak mixture.
This is more usually seen on cars with the gas ring type LPG conversion where the gas is introduced into the inlet manifold & is known for blowing air flow meters & air filter boxes apart.

[phumy]

Fill it with fuel that should dilute the "cleaner" fluid.

[GreenV8S]

paintman said:

Sounds like he's had a flashback.

^^ That.

It may have split the intake manifold or burst a seal so that the engine is getting a lot of unmetered air. If so, you may find that you can get it to fire by spraying damp start into the intake to richen it. It would need the leak replacing in any case but that might enable you to confirm it's basically a runner.

[227bhp]

paintman said:

Sounds like he's had a flashback.

Probably back to WW2 if he was stood next to it.