Hi i am curious what the best way to clean the carbon out of the engine? It's a stock 2.8 with 143,000. I have put some Valvoline Max life fuel system cleaner in it. They recommend to put it in every 3,000 miles. I have done that twice but idk if it's actually doing anything. Is there a better way to clean the carbon out? When i start the car up at my apt complex it leaves black stains on the sidewalk so i think that it's blowing the carbon out, but not sure.

This stuff works awesome, I used it in my Fiero and it cleaned out all the carbon in my intake and most out of the engine. Here is the link.

http://www.run-rite.com/industry/fuel_runrite.html

Which steps of the product did you use? I can see what you do with step one, two, and four but idk about step 3. Can you only order that stuff by the case? Cause i don't see individual sales available.

quote Originally posted by zmcdonal: Which steps of the product did you use? I can see what you do with step one, two, and four but idk about step 3. Can you only order that stuff by the case? Cause i don't see individual sales available.

No, only garages can order it, I have a friend that owns a garage, so I gave him the money and he ordered it for me. Use all the steps, it comes with instructions. Step three you just hook up to a vacuum that goes to the intake.

[This message has been edited by craigsfiero2007 (edited 10-17-2007).]

Well thanks for the advice but i don't know anyone that could order it for me. Sounds like a good product though. The pics that they have on the site look like they did a nice job cleaning it all out. Did your car wake up performance wise a little bit? I think my garage has a similar process that cleans out the engine but i have heard that with those processes there is a chance the doing so could burn up the injectors because it burns soo hot during the process, so that's why i have not taken it over there yet.

quote Originally posted by zmcdonal: Well thanks for the advice but i don't know anyone that could order it for me. Sounds like a good product though. The pics that they have on the site look like they did a nice job cleaning it all out. Did your car wake up performance wise a little bit? I think my garage has a similar process that cleans out the engine but i have heard that with those processes there is a chance the doing so could burn up the injectors because it burns soo hot during the process, so that's why i have not taken it over there yet.

My Fiero GT does run alot better and gets better fuel mileage. My Fiero GT does have some more power to it. You can always reccommend it to the garage. The site also has a consumer section for people that don't have garages. I have used most of their products in my S-10 and it has help it out alot. Here is the link.

http://www.run-ritestore.com/

I remember hearing that the Fiero Factory sells a decarbonizing kit that people seem to think works very well. Has anyone here used it?

Yes, I have. Twice in two different GT's and it worked wonders. It's made by BMG and put out by Ed. He's got a few positive plugs for the product on his feedback page. http://www.thefierofactory.com/feedback.php

Most of the name brand products you purchase at the auto parts store to clean injectors will work ,but the concentration of chemicals will be lower than in the "shock" treaments..there are many people who will think they have a problem and dump 3 cans instead of 1,more is better correct??,recent studies have shown the fuel injection cleaners to work,this was not the case 10 years ago..It is difficult for the carbon removal process to work as you go back and forth to work,you can add a can to less gas and see how this works for you,,if you use heavy concentrations ,,as the "stuff"(engineering term) loosens carbon ,,it could damage valves ,spark plugs,02 sensors,cats or mufflers as it flows to the stain on the ground..If you are any thing like me,, if I spend money for a product I want it to work NOW

I've used Seafoam with good results.

Others say use plain old water.

Ed Parks of the Fiero factory in Toney AL stocks a three part decarbonizing kit that made the insides of one of my old 2.8L's look like new. After the treatment he piston tops were actually shiney. I'm usually not one to depend on chemicals to get the job done but in my case they did!

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87GT 3.4 Turbo- 0-60 5.2 seconds
2006 3800SC Series III swap in progress
Engine Controls, PCM goodies,
re-programming & odd electronics stuff
" I'M ON THE LOOSE WITHOUT THE JUICE "

Black spot on the ground? You are probably running rich.

[This message has been edited by 2.5 (edited 10-17-2007).]

quote When i start the car up at my apt complex it leaves black stains on the sidewalk so i think that it's blowing the carbon out, but not sure.

Like the previous poster said, you're probably running rich. Too much gas in the air/gas mixture. Fix that first. Remember carbs and chokes? If the choke stuck, the engine ran rich and you got black smoke.

GM Top Engine Cleaner. Run it through a vacuum hose. It's worked wonders for every single used car I've ever bought. If you're in NW Indiana you're probably really close to me - if you wanted to stop by sometime I can show you how to best use it.

Doug
86 GT 4spd

I know this will sound stupid...but I have done this to over 10 cars and it has worked every time. Get the car warmed up to operating temperature, get a garden hose with a spray end on it that will spray a fine mist. With the engine running at a fast idle spray a mist of water into the air intake of the throttle body. Be careful and don't spray too much into it that kills the engine. Spray enough so you can here the engine dogging , but not enough to kill it. Stop spraying after about a minute and run the engine and rev it a few times and then spray some more water for another minute. Then go for a ride and beat on it a little. Don't be suprised if it misses a little at first as it's the carbon coming off of the valves and pistons. I did this to a 93 Cadillac that would not go up a steep hill with out pinging, and afterward it would go up with no bad sounds at all and it felt like I added 50 HP. Basically what it does is steam clean the inside of the combustion chamber. It worked for me. Brian

quote Originally posted by BJR: I know this will sound stupid...but I have done this to over 10 cars and it has worked every time. Get the car warmed up to operating temperature, get a garden hose with a spray end on it that will spray a fine mist. With the engine running at a fast idle spray a mist of water into the air intake of the throttle body. Be careful and don't spray too much into it that kills the engine. Spray enough so you can here the engine dogging , but not enough to kill it. Stop spraying after about a minute and run the engine and rev it a few times and then spray some more water for another minute. Then go for a ride and beat on it a little. Don't be suprised if it misses a little at first as it's the carbon coming off of the valves and pistons. I did this to a 93 Cadillac that would not go up a steep hill with out pinging, and afterward it would go up with no bad sounds at all and it felt like I added 50 HP. Basically what it does is steam clean the inside of the combustion chamber. It worked for me. Brian

yup. H2O is a great carbon breaker. anyones who blown a headgasket can tell ya too - it was the shiney cyl....

The old timers, (which I'm getting close to being) use to use the water method. I have done it on my Mopar 340 before and seemed to work.

What you would do is take a pop bottle of water, start your engine up ( engine already warmed up) with the TB duct off. Feed the water slowly into the intake while working the throttle to keep the engine running. You want to feed it in fast enough to get a good amount in but not kill the engine or slug it with water so be careful.

When you have have just a couple oz. of water left you feed it in to kill the engine. Turn the key off and let it set for 15-20 min. to steam the carbon.

Then start it up and take it out for a spirited drive to blow it out...

At least that's the way they use to do it......

This works for cleaning the cyl.s but would not clean the upper intake much...

"When you have have just a couple oz. of water left you feed it in to kill the engine. Turn the key off and let it set for 15-20 min. to steam the carbon. "

If you do this you risk hydrolocking the engine and possibly bending a rod. Don't kill an engine with any liquid. Now with that said, you could do this 100 times and never hurt anything, but why risk it. Brian

[This message has been edited by BJR (edited 10-18-2007).]

...and afterwards change your oil and filter.

Assuming those are not mostly highway miles (which wound be great), I would just leave it be and drive it until youre ready to rebuild or change engines. A lot of drastic cleaning procedures can be be very bad. For one thing, they can remove deposits from your bearings and in doing so create larger gaps that can drop oil presure and cause bearing failure etc. You cant rebuild an engine by pouring something into it!

water will clean it I have used a spray bottle directed at the intake throttle while revving it a few min and then driving it blowing out the carbon ..rinse and repeat ..use techron in the tank every few thousand miles

Im one of the old guys,I recently posted on fuel injection cleaners this is an idea I did not post because of problems..Can,t remember just what problems.. this is best done as eric says with a spray bottle,if the crap(tech term) comes loose to fast you can have problems,carbon can be hard..if you are as cheap as I am, go ahead,,frances is also correct this has destroyed engines but many more success than failure,people use this method untill ooops!uh oh...for the smart,intelligent people,, use commercial products,, the rest of us!! where is that spray bottle the new fuel system cleaners are greatly improved from 10 years ago

[This message has been edited by uhlanstan (edited 10-19-2007).]

Ok so with car running, What exact vacuum hose do I disconnect to let it suck the seafoam ?

disable EGR and you won't have any...

quote Originally posted by Francis T: Assuming those are not mostly highway miles (which wound be great), I would just leave it be and drive it until youre ready to rebuild or change engines. A lot of drastic cleaning procedures can be be very bad. For one thing, they can remove deposits from your bearings and in doing so create larger gaps that can drop oil presure and cause bearing failure etc. You cant rebuild an engine by pouring something into it!

He's not putting things directly in his oil. Although I did recommend changing it after the water thing, because some could get past the rings.

On my Mazda forum they used seafoam with very good results. Is that good to use on Fieros too, or is it death to a Fiero engine?

Seafoam is the worlds best cleaner...i will someday make a "how-to" seafoam video...

quote Originally posted by fierogtowner: Ok so with car running, What exact vacuum hose do I disconnect to let it suck the seafoam ?

Can anyone answer this one?

I would use that vacuum port...

jweisman, nice paint job

Thanks for showing what hose, I knew that it had one of the the hoses that goes into the plenum.

I'm not going put seafoam into the oil, for one that could be very bad, I'm just going half for the gas tank and half for the engine internals.

Here's a good tutorial: http://ls1tech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=534376

[This message has been edited by fierogtowner (edited 10-20-2007).]