'misting' the engine??

[Max Power]

I have read about this a few times here on the board, but it had always been mentioned in passing, not as a main topic.

As I understand it with the motor warmed up and idling you simply remove the air cleaner and slowly spray and air water mist down the throat of the carb. I believe this is to remove carbon deposits. from the cylinder head/combustion chamber??

I wanted to try it this week 'cuz I hafto change the oil anyway.

Has anyone tried this? Does anyone do it regularly? Are there any pittfalls I should be aware of?

Thanks guys!,

Robert

[Green Giant]

When I blew the head gasket on my old Taurus, the cylinder that water leaked into looked like it had been polished. Course it was running on 5 and steam cleaning 1, so don't know how doing them all at once will work.

[Gwamp]

I did not mist mine per say. I made up a mixture of almost boiling water and tranny fluid in a clean 20 oz pop bottle and slowly poured it down the carb at about 2200 rpm's or so. Makes a HUGE nasty cloud of black smoke out the tailpipe gaurenteed to kill anything around. it is best t odo this at night or way out in BFE or someone will call the fire dept. :D

[timmirvin]

Yes, have tried this several times. But I tried it on old. high mileage engines that already had a ton of carbon biuld-up.

What I observed....Small carbon chunks missing, but nothing was cleaned like I thought it was going to be. Maybe doing this several times could make more of a difference. I could see a pretty big difference on the old plugs. I first took several out and looked at them. Then I took them out after....there was a pretty big difference.

Things that I feel work better.....AT fluid works pretty good and your neighbors will love you for it!!!!! smile.gif smile.gif But IMHO, Seafoam works the best hands down. If you have never used an item like Seafoam, go get some. Depending on the engine, it may take a few applications to notice a difference, but it works!!!

I ran it thru once in Harley and immediately could tell a difference. My best friend used it in his 4WD Ranger and now sleeps with a can of it under his pillow! ;) I have ran it thru Sherman 4 or 5 times now and notice a small improvement each time I do it, but Shermie's engine is almost beyond worrying with......

My $0.02.....

[gsmikie]

go to napa or who ever you have in your area and get a can of sea foam

[89grand]

Sea foam huh? I've heard it mentioned on here before but what exactly is it? Is it usually found where oil treatment and stuff are found at auto parts stores?

[Max Power]

thanks guys, I'm not sure if mine has 96k or 196K, but it has some lifter noise on 7 or 8 and I'd just like to keep her goin for another year or 2 till she throws a rod or I get the $$ to rebuild. I thought this might help. I will definately check out the seafoam as I currently have no neighbors.

heres some links on the seafoam

http://www.wmi.org/bassfish/bassboard/trailers_towing/T8328.htm

http://stevenbigler.tripod.com/scoutco/id14.html

http://www.seafoamsales.com/motorTuneUpTechGas.htm

thanx again

[timmirvin]

Without telling the whole "How stupid Tim was this time" story, replacing lifters does not really take that long ( and not that expensive).....I replaced a couple and several push rods in 3 or 4 hours in Sherman a month or so ago.

If you have lifter problems and replace a couple it gives you a chance to check the torque on your rocker arm bridges and replace valve cover gaskets that leak......or at least that is what I told myself.....I think it helped.....OK maybe the beer had something to do with it also..... smile.gif smile.gif

[timmirvin]

OK, OK...messing with that 550 lb factory intake was no fun......but did I mention I had beer... ;) tongue.gif

[Cliff]

Don't use boiling water - use cold water. The cold water breaks loose the carbon deposits. I do it every tune up, and sometimes in between if it's starts pinging.

[AJ Johnson]

what is the long term affect of this stuff? will your engine be harmed by it in any way?

[PhilSine]

Originally posted by timmirvin:
OK, OK...messing with that 550 lb factory intake was no fun......but did I mention I had beer... ;) tongue.gif The whole intake thing is easily solved by adding an Edelbrock aluminum one to your rig. It weighs a "solid" 25lbs. or so.