G'day,

I'm just looking for some fairly consistent hints and tips on cleaning the combustion chambers of the heads, both in situ and removed.

For example, I don't really believe I can progress much further with working on the 1800 until I give it a bit of a purge. I was seeing soot blackened plugs after 5 minutes. Now I've made that horrible richness issue mostly go away, there is bound to be a massive carbon buildup in the head. What can be used to loosen or purge it?

Now the other part, cleaning a carbon fouled head that is not in the vehicle.
It is my opinion that using a wire brush would be a bad idea due to scuffing and the creation of hot spots. Sure it'd probably be okay after a fairly aggressive buffing, but by then the chamber size and geometry may have been affected.

What does everyone out there use to clean things up?

Old skool method for de-carbonising was slowly tipping a can of diesel or water down the carb while the engine was running. Both methods removed the carbon. Lots of smoke produced so best to do at night with a bit of wind about.
Had to tip the water or diesel in very slowly as to not drown the motor. Bit hard to start if the plugs get fouled.
Not recomending it , just chucking it out there.

In the car: use redex fuel treatment..........works very well ..............tip some down the throat of the carbie when running as well, like above .

alot of ppl in the US rave about seafoam

heres a vid someone made doing there car with it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hrasAYG42g 

the garage i used to work at the boss use to get me to do the old italian tune up on the old nanna cars that put around town once a month and carbon up
b4 the oil change rigged up a water spray bottle in the air cleaner, take it out the road get it nice and hot then cane the shit out of it whilst the water mist sprays down the carby throat and pressure cleans the chambers

the amount of shit that used to blow out the back was scarey but by the time i got back to the workshop they were running like new again

So water injection works. Thanks for that.

DUB74L: how did you do the water bottle setup? I just sort of imagine a water bottle with a plastic tube sticking out of the top, with the other end situated near the carby to let the venturi effect suck it out.

I have read a lot about Seafoam. Some people seem to think it is snake oil, whereas a lot swear by it.

I also know that it is available under the name of some sort of Subaru engine treatment from dealers.

I've never actually heard of redex. Where is it sold?

Thanks for all the info.

But I still have to ask what is the best method for removing carbon buildup from a removed head?
One of my stray heads was boxed because I thought it had a crack in it. I pulled it out recently for another look and I'm not so sure. It's not between anything and anything, ie sparky and valve, or valve and valve. It's just in the middle of nowhere in the combustion chamber. For all I know I could have scuffed it when I removed the head. It would be nice to know if the head is good.

a buzz with a wire brush should do the trick but be careful of the machined barrel seating faces/lip

bruces super dooper contraption was just one of those pump up pressurised spray bottles that had a long cable connected that ran from the bottle in thro the drivers window

it had the nozzle removed and a length of hose with a jet on the end which was aimed down the carby throat with the air cleaner removed

dunno how u'd get around doing twin carbs tho

I cleaned My heads and pistons with a wire brush in a cordless drill

they came up as new..

My engine had only done a few thousand kms

but the pistons and heads had a lot of Carbon on them..
I scrapped some off with a screwdriver before using the wire brush..
and the carbon was thick and hard..

I then degreased the inside of my tappet covers

so now, My engine oil doesn't go black straight away
and my engine goes really well

no black smoke anymore either..

Lee

I tried doing it with water a little while ago. Having a stock dual carb made the job easier. I wound out the air bypass screw on the idle thing and used the idler throat as my input point. Well, I did initially anyway. I had fed the van about 200mL and there was no sign of anything from the exhaust, although I knew it was sucking it up and evacuating it.

After a while of seeing nothing and stalling it a few times, I opened up the throttle and dumped maybe 40mL down a throat all at once. It earned me a small puff of white smoke or vapour from the exhaust. I did the same on the other side with the same result.

After all that it is possible that it is idling a little smoother. Hard to say.

Next week I'll try a 'proper' treatment to see what happens. If I have time in the next few days I'll attack the possibly usable head to see what it is really like.

I found some Redex in Repco yesterday and did the treatment. Even with damn near killing the motor with it being tipped into the carbies it only gave a couple of sad little puffs of smoke. I guess that's a good thing.

Strange thing is I had the motor running for a while and the fan shroud thing was still cool to the touch. Inlet manifolds were giving off heat at the base though so at least the heads were getting warm.

I also figured out why that water didn't give me a decent show when I put it through. I checked the oil I'm going to assume the water was from that and not condensation. Oil change time again I guess.

When I didn't drown it the motor loved the Redex. It'd purr for a few seconds and stop farting.

there is actually a top end cleaner availible.
subaru sell it.
it should be sprayed and left for awhile so that it has a chance to work.it is sprayed into the spark plug area after they have been removed ofcourse.
subaru use to do it every service.
i have used it on heaps of cars,it's unreal.

I have been meaning to pull the plugs since I steamcleaned and redex'd the motor. A few days ago I just left it to idle for ages so everything could reach operating temp. I had already done the whole winding it up thing on a previous occasion along with dumping into the carbies. So now I was just letting it do its work with the Redex in the fuel tank.

I have to say that after letting it chug for an hour it was running a bit smoother.

Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to take to the questionable head yet. Rough week. I've got my fingers crossed.

Incidentally, I performed a little experiment over the last couple of days with my ill fated EA Falcon.
This car has had the ultimate in engine abuse. Constantly running stone cold. Being started and stopped a minute later maybe 30 times a day.
Needless to say it's running pretty bad.
This is where my experiment comes in.
I decided to keep the revs up. Because of the type of driving I normally do the revs would barely even make it to 2000RPM.
So on the trip home from work I chose gears that kept it between 2500 and 4000 RPM for the most part. It gained me a few funny looks, but hey, I'm not breaking any laws.
After the trip home there was a slight, but noticeable improvement.
The net day I needed to make a quick trip to Echuca. About 60Km each way. Probably the longest drive it has been on for nearly a year. So I repeated the experiment. The car is misfiring a lot less, actually idles sometimes, and has smoother acceleration now. Keeping the revs higher definitely makes a difference to cleaning out a fouled motor.