Walnut blasting dirty intake valves

[Kenny Camaro]

TTT, any pics? I sure would like to see them. I bet Elite would too! That's great! Sounds like the dirty/clean catch can set up really came through for you!!

[Twin Town Terror]

No I couldn't get a good one with my phone. Plus I was in a hurry my wife got us tickets to see the new FF movie when she heard I'd be done quicker that thought.

[bowtieracer]

you do not have to remove your intake to clean backside of valves go to a local repair shop that sells bg our wynns products and have them a do a intake service it is a chemical service that cleans valves on direct injector engines cost about 100 to 150 dollars works great.

[Kenny Camaro]

Originally Posted by bowtieracer

you do not have to remove your intake to clean backside of valves go to a local repair shop that sells bg our wynns products and have them a do a intake service it is a chemical service that cleans valves on direct injector engines cost about 100 to 150 dollars works great.

Is this a solvent cleaner? Solvent cleaners wash the oil coke into the combustion chamber and scratch and gouge your cylinder walls and allows particulate to circulate through out the oil lubrication system. This is harmful and not advisable.

[Kenny Camaro]

Bump

[DvKillar]

Nice info, KC!

[Kenny Camaro]

Any time DV. Glad to help out with whatever info I have.

[Dragonman]

I asked my dealer about cleaning these and all they do is the chemical clean. At the same time I mentioned about adding a catch can to the PCV system and they got all mopey faced and said all they sanctioned was doing the cleaning on a regular basis. From what I've read about doing the chem clean I'm not really a fan. Reckon I'm gonna have to bite the bullet and cough up the cash for the stuff to do it myself. Either that or find another dealer that's more friendly to Camaros. Damnit.

Glad KC and others have shared their experience with this stuff.

[Kenny Camaro]

For about $50 and an afternoon, you can walnut blast your valves as part of a regular maintenance program.

[DokWatson]

What's with all the fear of washing carbon down into your cylinder? Haven't you ever seen the top of a piston? Carbon breaks off of the top of them all the time, and you'd never know it otherwise.

The 'scrapes' i've seen people pointing out in pictures on pistons aren't from carbon. Its from the skirt rubbing the cylinder walls, AKA piston slap. You're talking about mass produced engines here, with tolerances that are pretty good. Not perfect. Some piston slap on a cold start is what probably makes those marks, until the rings heat up. Your oil gets dirty regardless, that's why you have a filter... and change your oil on a mileage schedule. If somehow a chunk of carbon large enough to clog an oil passage gets past all 3 piston rings... you have other serious issues.

And what's more, the dealership will chemically clean the shit out your intake... which still blows all the carbon into the cylinders. Its not a fancy process, they just have a machine that can provide more fluid for an extended period of time. They just don't want YOU doing it, because you can hydrolock an engine and destroy the valve train completely.

I'm sure walnut blasting works great, good for BMW. I'd rather completely disassemble the head and clean it vs some intensive bandaid fix. But hey, what do I know. I only fix what mechanics can't figure out.

[Elite Engineering]

You must be referring to a port injection or old carbureted engine where the "soft" carbon rarely harmed anything and these could be used with out fear of damage.


GDI engines have no fuel to cool and clean the valves, so the make-up of the deposits is a hard crystalline almost sand like in abrasiveness and Ford and others state use of an engine running solvent based cleaning process is grounds to void the warranty. Then one must look at how effective they are, depending on the brand (and most are similar make up) they state removes up to 20% or as much as 40% when in use, rarely see more than 5-10% loosened due to how hard and bonded these GDI deposits are. Damage , unless used before the deposits get a good hold, happen in every case, and the scouring may be minor, but still is scouring and creates a path for greater blow-by and oil consumption.


Turbo equipped engines see damage to the leading edges of the hot side blades as the hard particles impact them as well as damage to the catalytic converter is not uncommon.


So no, there is no safe way to use these engine running cleaners on a GDI engine unless valves have yet to establish build up. Just ask anyone that has performed a manual cleaning to see how hard and abrasive these deposits are. You can scratch glass with them and that is nothing you want shed while the engine is running. Now AFTER a good manual cleaning, they can be used every 5-10k miles to help keep the deposits at a minimum, but never use if you have much over 10k miles on a GDI engine.

[DokWatson]

No, I know what engines I'm talking about. Thanks.

[blackswan]

When you see those guys soaking valves in Chemtool and Seafoam, etc. and then easily scraping the carbon off the back of the valves, you have to wonder if just an eye dropper of these fluids deposited on the back of the valves while in the car and let to sit over night would be helpful. That carbon seems awfully flaky soft to me after this...

[camaro_power]

Originally Posted by Twin Town Terror

So, today was they day I was going to take my intake off, clean it, and blast my intake valves. I was going to do this as my final maintanence before this years race season starts. I had machined up a 1/8" aluminum plate that would cover the port and hold the vacuum nozzle. It has a second hole for the blast gun. I keep using the words was and had because I took everything apart and my valves look like KC's after photos!!! I assumed I would need to do this maintanence because I now have passed the 21,000 mile mark. I've seen the other threads and the pictures and with this many miles they should be too bad for just a chemical clean. Right? Well I have to say putting the Elite catch can and clean side separator on at 3000 miles was the best thing I have ever done! All I ended up doing was clean the throttle body and put everything back together. I hope the walnut media will still be good in a couple years...

Where'd you get the walnut media?


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