I was reading a post on knock, my car is suffering with it and I will try the higher octane fuel as shifty suggested.
But I wanted to know about the pouring a picther of water into the throttle body to clean out the carbon deposits.
Man! is that safe?
How much and how and what results can I expect. I read I need to remove the cat but mines dead so will it really matter if it gets a bit of gunk in there? would it clogg the exhaust?
Is it dangerous to the engine? It sounds like it to me!
I hate that knocking noise, especially as the motor absolutely purrrs until theres a bit of open throttle under load.

Thanks for your help in advance and if theres some great big tech thread on this then my boo boo and where is it?

Cheers

 

it can get caught up in the cat, it should just desolve and burn it away though. when i have done this, i got to napa and get "Sea Foam" you just let the PCV system suck it up, then run the motor for a few minutes.

 

So long as you dont dump the water or whatever you use in its fine. Get the motor going at a brisk pace and slowly begin pouring it in. Enough so the motor complains a little but not so much that it hydrolocks and bends the rods. Jsut introduce a little at a time. It will break alot of crap loose so there is the possibility of clogging the cat but I didnt have that problem.

Unless you have detonation problems or lots of deposits you really wont need to clean out the motor.

 

You can also use a mister bottle to see how your engine reacts at first. A little bit goes a long way. You may want to check your timing first. Just to outrule the possibilty that it is off.

 

Thanks for the quick response everyone.
I'll try and get some of that "sea foam" stuff.
I've already filled the tank with 89 octane and it feels much better but is only a little quieter.
All the previous owners neglected this car; the plugs when I changed them where disgusting so i just feel maybe it's fouled inside as well.
The car has 143000 on it right now so if I can clean out the carbon and gunk by just spraying a little water in there then great.
Oh and shifty I changed the timing and advanced it, it's about 6* right now but I may step it back to 4* (it was very happy there). However the timing doesn't seem to make any difference to the noise at all only to how well the car is driving.

Again thanks for the responses. Is there any danger with doing this at all? I bare in mind not choking the engine with whatever I put in there but is there any risk at all?

 

Ok so I bought sea form and followed the instructions, poured about half into the throttle body and the rest into the crankcase. I'm most impressed, my idle has dropped about 300/400 straight away, the plumes of smoke convinced me it was working and the cars throttle response has perked up along with less knock.
However the fumes of smoke also billowed out from my leaking headers and y pipe I thought I'd fixed so theres another problem to address,(knock noise from there me thinks)
I'm going to buy more and pour it into the pcv valve tube and do as suggested and let it get sucked in that way as well.
Thanks for your help guys

 

Run a bottle of Sea Foam in your gas tank periodically when you get it cleared up. That's what I am doing to combat these deposits. About all I'm qualified to do. hehe

~C

 

Holy Crap! I had NO IDEA you could put water in the throttle body safely! I was under the impression that water was 150% a no-no... Heck I may just try that! I think I saw that 'sea foam' stuff at autozone too. May look into that...what is it exactly if anyone knows?

Bruce (90RS305)

 

Just use a little bit of water. Too much and hydralock will occur. A little bit will make the water steam and the dynamic CR will go way up and blast carbon out.

 

sea foam is crap and a waste of money.

water does the exact same thing.




and DONT pour seafoam in the crankcase.... change your oil NOW.

 

sea foam may be crap, water may of had the same effect I don't know...
but I have to change my oil now anyway because my lower radiator hose slipped off. My engine overheated so new oil anyways.

I once was told that the injector cleaner stuff all works by burning at a different temp' to gas and this is what burns off the deposits.
Also everyone seems to complain about getting bad gas with water in...if its bad to have water in your gas why is it good to pour it into the throttle body??? My question was how safe???
I don't understand how it works.....

The bottle says you can add it to the oil as a lubricant. Why should I change the oil "NOW"..? (I over heated so it's getting changed anyway).

The car was running great for all of 10 miles before the next issue came up....but it was a fun 10 miles...the car really pulled hard and stupid...

 

if you want a in depth answer, please do a search, i dotn want to type it again.
in short:
water doesnt burn. you still need gas, the water just goes along for the ride. in the combustion chamber, it turns to steam. and the steam under pressure cleans the carbon off.
its perfectly safe. as long as you dont pour too much in.
water is a byproduct of combustion. its there anyway. you just have more now.
water does not compress. so if you pour too much it and it tries to compress it, it breaks things.

gee, add somthing to OIL as a lubricant.. oil is a lubricant.
plus, seafoam is mostly water and LIGHT oils... not what you need protecting your motors bearings....

 

OOOPS
I didn't see your reply shifty as to how the water trick works, I just followed a link from my hotmail to the DUDES reply..

On the subject theres an offer at the local firestone called a fuel system tune up...where they offer to do all the stuff sea foam says it will on the bottle..$67
clean the fuel system and injectors...

does it come down to the best way to get rid of the carbon build is to pull the heads off and get in there??
If theres a solution in a mister bottle or sea foam or a magic wand instead then good.

Hydrolock sounds like something I don't want to learn about...

I think I'm going to fix my hose and just try to keep myself from tinkering with the car for a week at least..

 

if you pour water down the TB or carb then its cleaning it instantly....if you would do this you would hear how the engine runs while its doing this

then after hearing how it runs while the water is being sucked into the cylinders then you would realize why people complain when they get gasoline with water in it

 

I use seafoam or atf, then use water after that

 

of course!... the gurgling engine choking sound isn't good at all..2 and 2 didn't make 4 before. I thought water might do some internal damage to some mysterious seal or bearing somewhere.
I wasn't very clever earlier I was to peed off about the hose coming off on my way to work. So I get what you all mean by the steam cleaning out the deposits and stuff.
Thank you for the explanations and help..
It's sometimes so time consuming wading through search results and it's good to just ask a simple question every now and then.
I allways do searchs but that doesn't mean I find what I need...
And who would of thought "pouring" water into the engine would of been good...

anyways I'm sure the engine is cleaner but now it's pobabley fried.

It's taken me ages to get to this point with the old dog and POW something as simple as a hose clip slips...

Thanks for the input everyone

 

If you are saying you fried your engine due to overheating, don't discredit the might LO3 quite yet! About 2 months ago I was on my way to work at 7:00am (probly bout' 80* outside) and out of NOWHERE my temp guage was litterally pointed straight right!
...........220
160................260

.............o-------->

I thought it was maybe just some kinda electrical flub but turned out I had an air bubble in the system or something! I had driven probly 3 miles with the engine that temp and when I got back in to go home temp was ok, but it scared the crap out of me. Other than the 1,000,000 other problems I am having with my car, thing runs great! So don't give up yet! Ohh, and if you weren't talking about that, aren't stories like this great?

Bruce (90RS305)

 

its all worth when I hit the gas pedal and my nerve gives out before the torque does...

A lot of fun driving it home anyway because I drove it very fast around the corners and it just went where I pointed it.

Anyways time to go fix it ...AGAIN