Soda or walnut blasting intake valves.

[John Pearson]

Direct injection is starting to make its way in the the independent shops. What are you all doing to remove the carbon build up in the intake chamber? This is something that I do not have much knowledge about but for see it becoming a large service at 50-100k.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PS8riAae_bM Here is a good video that explains why and the fixes that are being attempted.

 

 

[Mario]

I rotate engine to make sure valves are closed, and soak in carb cleaner, seafoam etc.. then vacuum it out, scrape any big chunks off valves, repeat, vacuum, and blow out port with an air hose then on to the next valve. Involved process.

 

A blasting media would spead it up a lot but how would you control the mess? I'd also be feaful that a tech may get media in an open valve (just thinking worst case scenario).

[mspecperformance]

I have a factory BMW media blaster for BMW/MINI with specific attachments. Whatever u get make sure it is a pressurized media blaster. The cheap ones from harbor freight or wherever DO NOT WORK. This will be an investment in tooling and media so you have to charge accordingly!

[GermanCArDEpot.com]

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Edited May 25, 2015 by GermanCArDEpot.com

[bstewart]

I've heard really good things about the Mopar top end cleaner.

It is a aerosol foam spray that does the same job as carb cleaner, seafoam etc, minus the liquid going into the cylinders.

As you spray it in, the foam expands to fill the whole plenum then dissolves all the carbon.

Apparently it's the same formula/MSDS as Wynn top end cleaner, except it's in foam form, where Wynn's is a liquid.

[Mario]

Are there any proven gas treatments to help prevent this issue? Are catch cans helping?

Edited May 22, 2015 by Mario

[bstewart]

I run a catch can on my personal truck, 2010 Sierra 5.3L. Those gen 4 GM engines are known oil consumers, the AFM and PCV systems get oil into the intake.

Any catch can will catch some oil, but ALL of the cheap ones you find on eBay etc will catch less then 20% of the oil that passes through unfortunately.

Most of the cheap catch cans (and some expensive ones) are basically an empty beer can with 2 tubes sticking out, the good ones have way more technology involved.

A good (re: expensive) catch can will catch upwards of 95% of the oil that passes through by the use of multiple chambers, screens and valves.

If you're not paying $100+ for your catch can, it's probably junk. And yes, I did a lot of research before I bought mine.

 

Something to think about:

Every heavy duty semi truck on the road has some form of oil separator in the crankcase ventilation system. Why don't passenger cars?

[ATLAuto]

I have a factory BMW media blaster for BMW/MINI with specific attachments. Whatever u get make sure it is a pressurized media blaster. The cheap ones from harbor freight or wherever DO NOT WORK. This will be an investment in tooling and media so you have to charge accordingly!

 

Same. Get a legit walnut blaster and save yourself a LOT of headache.

 

Our techs would spend HOURS manually scraping down intakes and valves with the MOPAR top engine cleaner. The walnut blaster + vacuum has dropped this down to a 1hr process.

 

We are going to start seeing a lot more direct injection problems in the coming months/years. This is going to be a must-have tool.

[GermanCArDEpot.com]

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Edited May 25, 2015 by GermanCArDEpot.com

[mspecperformance]

I would suggest against the HF blaster. We perform carbon blasting regularly and the pressure pot type of blasters work 10x better than the Rigged up HF version. This has been my experience and perform several blasting jobs monthly so take it for what you will.