Valve Cleaning Tips?
 

Hey everyone,

Took the time this weekend to take apart the upper part of the engine and attempt to manually clean the valves of my engine when I started to experience a lot of drivability issues. I started following this thread: https://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=288997 and am using that PDF as reference.

I have everything torn down, but I'm having the HARDEST time trying to clean the valves. I soaked rags and ran them down, bought a bunch of soft brushes and was trying to scrub. Anybody have any tips that has done this? I can't reach what I feel like I want to reach, and anything that I stick in there to try to clean just seems to get caught and I can't see while messing around either.

The plugs were also awful. So I swapped those out in the process. Just want to get everything completely cleaned up before I put it back together, install my Elite clean side separator to go with my catch-can, and hopefully stop having my driving issues that I've been experiencing. (Stutters, stalls, misfires, backfires)

Carburetor cleaners are made to remove carbon and varnish. I would use that on the closed valves, vacuum out, then rotate the engine over to do the others. Afterwards I'd run it for a couple minutes and then do an oil change. What your seeing is why I do my own induction cleaning at every oil change.

The other option is to get the gun at Harbor Freight to do the walnut blasting.

How many miles on it?

How do you do your induction cleaning at every oil change? Spray into TB, brake booster, or disassembly?

And that's the method I'm doing right now. But it still seems to be sticking hard to a couple of the valves no matter what I do. I don't own the air compressor set up to do the walnut blast, so I feel like I would just pay for a shop to do that for me if I felt I needed to hit that route. Though I'm hoping that after I do this clean, having both clean and dirty side catches, I should be good.

Engine has 5 years and 64k on it. Owned it since it's had 33 miles on it.

Check out the CRC upper intake cleaning on YouTube. I've done the Seafoam also and they give you a special hose to run into the throttle body while your running the engine.

OK that's what I figured. I don't think I want to run the chemical in every oil change, don't want too much crap getting thrown down the cylinder walls that often.

A year later from last time I took pictures of the intake valves. Took a picture of my spark plug just for comparison sake. First picture was last year, second same valve this year. Spark plug. Picture of the piston crown. No oil catch can, only pennzoil platinum ultra oil, which has the lowest noack.
I'm think if your spark plug has that much carbon. The injectors and combustion chamber are just as bad. That probably is causing as much of your issues as the carbon on the intake valves.
Another note, the one picture elite catch can likes to show where the piston is destroyed from carbon ( they say from chunks coming off from cleaning). This is not the full truth. Yes it's carbon related but not from chunks coming off from cleaning. That picture came from GM themselves. The damage was from carbon buildup in the combustion chamber causing predetonation under high load low rpm's. I get tired of the fear mongering to sell catch cans with no long term pictures to back up the claim. Oil in the can isn't proof the valves and combustion chambers are staying cleaner. That's all they ever want to show. I clean the fixed orifice pcv out every oil change. I get no noticeable oil coming from the clean side, because the pcv system is maintained and working properly. Low noack oil to reduce vapors. Yes the engine isn't sparkling like new but there's not excessive build up to cause a problem. Do with the information as you want. It's your cars and your wallets.

If you watch this video you can see that the crc Gdi cleaner doesn't make chunks. It liquifies the carbon. So I would go and give that a shot. In fact if I were doing I would do back to back treatments then change the oil. If I ever notice mine getting worse I'll try it out for sure. https://youtu.be/zdmpI4iUyBs

I already have my new bottle of mobil 1 for the oil change after I get it all put back together.

I'll continue to soak with rags and maybe use a little extra of the crc gdi cleaner.

Thanks for the info :)

And I already have my catch-can and clean side, I'll keep trying it for prevention. Maybe I'll take apart again next spring (if the car runs strong after all of this) and check everything out to see how it's holding up.

How do you install the clean side? I already have the E-2 catch can but I didn't install the clean side because I didn't find instructions for it.

Pull the stock tube off, put the cap on the valve cover. Then run the oil cap to your air intake.

Glad to see someone else's engine compartment looks like the car is driven besides mine.

Yeah, I wipe down my engines as I wash my cars, but this is my daily driver so it does get pretty dusty between details.

Although I did just return the car to stock to prep for getting a v8, so the engine bay is cleaned up now and full of the plastic pieces again.

So, was it your valves that was the issue, or the fuel pump problem you had?

In the end it was the fuel pump issue.