I have heard about pouring water into your engine to clean out deposits. Is this true?? Whats up with it? How much water? how well does it work? Any info would be great!!

 

Yes, it's true, it will clean out carbon deposits. But don't pour water in, I hear misting some in with a water bottle works well.

 

hmm.... OK, I think I will wait for some more replies before I do anything though!

 

Yes it works, like mark said, try misting water in the TB.

nick

 

...well you can slowly pour water into the TB too...just not a lot. And make sure somebody is in the car keeping it at high rpm's so the thing doesn't stall out.

...and as for how well it works... Did this on my grandmas car (was complaining of it stalling...cylinders were misfiring too). Kept the motor around 4k/5k and poured water in the intake...few minutes later w/ the car at high revs and there was a huge black carbon deposit on the driveway...so yes it works, very well.

 

Would doing this with a car that has a cat clog the cat?

 

So I can just use my sisters spray bottle full of water that she uses for her hair and spray it into my intake, and it will clean it all out? My dad said back in the day he heard about people cleaning out their engines with uncooked rice Sorta like a bead blasting inside the cylinders that knocks all the crap loose. This may have worked back then, but it probably wouldnt be too good of an idea if you have a cat, or a muffler, lol.

 

That's how the whole rice burner thing started guys used to put rice into their crotch rockets.

Water shouldn't clog a cat, but I hear unburnt fuel can.

 

yeah, you'd more than likely have problems w/ rice getting clogged in your cat, tho it does a good job at cleaning the motor out.
And water wouldnt clog it seeing that it'd vaporize from the extreme heat and blow out with the other exhaust gases. And yes, unburnt fuel left over from the combustion process can clog it up (carbon deposits).

You really shouldnt even need to clean the motor out unless it has high miles or not driven daily (car wont heat up properly and carbon will deposit)

 

think i should try this on my lo3? im at 105k miles now but its driven daily and very often...i drive almost 3k miles every month or so ive already put 9-10k on it and ive only had the car for 8 months

 

Well, the only thing that could account for the odd pinging I get is carbon build up causing pre-ignition (0* adv., get light ping - can hear it when under engine and engine running). so I figured I gve it a try... *shrug*

EDIT: As mentioned in a previous relpy (I forgot who said it), would the carbon deposiots as they are cleaned from the cat, since they would have to exit through the exhaust stystem? Just seem logical.

 

They could clog the cat, but chances are if you've got that much build up it may be at least partially clogged already. You could also go the the gm parts counter and get some of their top engine cleaner, that stuff works great, theres a good article on using it on the turbo buick website.

 

Misting water works great. Just spray it in and keep the engine running. If you have build-up in the combustion chamber it will come out the exhaust. Steam Cleaned you might say.

 

This is gonna be interesting. I'll try it tonight, that'd be cool if a bunch of junk came out of my ehaust and my car ran better all of the sudden :lala:

 

Might try that on some of our old engines around here.

 

Yeah I'm thinking my 71 Impala could benefit. She pings pretty bad in the high heat and the timing is set pretty tame.

 

KEEP US INFORMED!!!! I wanna see how this turns out

 

This topic comes up every 3-5 months and it does work you just don't want to go overboard on putting watter in the intake. Also it only realy works if the engine is completely warmed up. It will leave a pile of carbon on your drive way so go over to a friends house and tell him about this new trick you learned and leave the carbon on his driveway

 

Hmm, its sorta been covered already, but I still keep thinking it would completely clog yer cat? Am I wrong (please say I am!)?

 

Well, I tried it yesterday, and immediately after a few sprays, my idle seemed to smooth out just a bit. It could have just been my imagination, though. I think I'm going to try it again when I have someone else that can sit in the car and hold the pedal steady, I was having trouble holding the throttle plates steady for some reason. My SES light lit up on the way to work this morning too, but I am 99% sure I know what I did. I think I forgot to hook the IAT Sensor back up, I'll check during lunch when the car is cooled down. Hopefully thats all it is, and hopefully the freakin connector isnt melted since it was resting on a hot engine block for about 30 miles

 

Ther used to be a Water injection kit that installed in the car, I don't remember who made it though.

Mark

 

I think the purose of "water injection" is to cool cylinder temperature down so people can thow some more boost into a turbocharged engine. I guess they also have clean engines

 

Very common way to remove carbon buildup in a motor that's not given a chance to run at a decent rpm.
When I was a kid, my neighbor used to clean the carbon out of his mother-in-law's car every month with water.She was waaaayyy old and drove the car (with a big block) at idle all the time.Anyway the carbon build-up really made it run like crap.Every month he'd get out the hose and after the car was warmed up good,he'd trickle water from the hose down the carburetor and rev the snot out of it!Really upset some of the neighbors, since huge billowing clouds of black sooty smoke would roll out of the back of this 396 Monte Carlo.After a few minutes, it would be cleared out and would run good again.....for a while.
....................................................................................
So, yeah it does work!
-Rich-

 

First time I saw it done the mechanic was pouring the water in from a cup hehe. He'd start pouring it in and go WOT, engine would bog down and all kinds of crap would come out the tailpipe. Engine ran a lot better after about 5 min of doing that.

 

Yes, water injection works, and works well. Water injection (full time) is also another way to improve the road octane of a fuel, since combustion chamber temperatures remain lower. That concept was first used in the 1930s.

And hard rice was once an accepted method of cleaning out chambers and removing valve deposits. Then again, this was back when the Ford guys were running flatheads and a "cat" was something you chased with your '54 210 coupe. I wouldn't advise it today.

 

Hey vader, Would the rice thing work for me, I've got no cat and true duals.

 

Since my car is MAF can I just disconnect the MAF sensor for better access to the TB? I really don't like the idea of letting water pass through the MAF sensor anyway

 

WOW! I think a little H20 just woke my little 305 back up. After reading the posts and especially since i admire vaders opinion i went to my workplace were theres a descent amount of light and nobody around and ended up pouring about 1/2 gallon into my TB. Before i was getting a ping around 1/2 throttle and on the way home i even lugged 4th doing about 20 and nothing....not to mention the donut i easily accomplished as i was leaving the parking lot. Throttle response is better and before it seemed to loose itlelf at wot..but in the little time home it seems like it performs on a REAL scale about 20% better. Only thing is that i dont have any pipe after my cat and after i cycled the water through the element inside was glowing red...i figure thats just from the water vapor. Seems like exhaust is still pushing out ok. Gonna run it a little tommorow and check to make sure all's well.

Brandon

 

Yeah, it really does. A friend drove a newly restored truck from TX to the bay area and it was jetted waaaaay rich, especially for the altitude here. We watered it good before he left and the driveway had serious skid marks

And they didn't make a 396 Monte Carlo. Only 402.

Matthew

 

Well, back when i first got my camaro, and didn't know a thing about it. I took it to a friend of mine back in hawaii.

They drove it, and said, "woah, injectors are dirty". Then they added an octane booster, and sprayed TB cleaner into the throttle body, about a whole can, revving it up and down as they did it. Then, once they finished, they misted water in the TB with a spray bottle, while revving it. didn't sound too good when they did it, loud thumping and so forth, but my engine sounded much much healthier after they did it.

Just my exp with this...

 

I think this has been brought up a few times, and from what i remember the general concensus was that a little water might not hurt it but a lot could. I may be wrong, but there are all kinds of engine flushes, treatments etc.
If you use that Zmax stuff and send in your registration card I think they'll guarantee your engine for the life of the car, as long as you do what is required. (putting in more Zmax stuff every once in a while).

 

Okay, so w/ a proper running CCC Q-jet, or MAF TPI, assuming I get up to operating temp, and run 70mph for a stretch, and especially after a trip to Santa Fe (100 + miles round trip) I shouldn't need to do this?

 

I stand corrected....
They called it a 396, but 1970-1972 396's were actually 402's.
I have one in my 70 Nova SS.
-Rich-

 

tizzdizz,

i think if your engine is modified it voids ZMax's warranty so most of us are out of luck there

 

So I can do this with my TPI, Just do it after the MAF sensor and keep it revved up at the throttle body?

 

what if I pee in my tbi?

hehehe just kidding.,,,,

thats really bizzare folks.....
I might add.. if you buy some of the
cheap gas at these rinky dink gas
stations now-a-days, you are probably
getting more water misteed in than gas
anyways.. hahahaha

 

I tried this today, not one puff of smoke, only thing I can figure is that my ram air lets water through and it is cleaned regularly,

how much water do you use, I was pumping a hand help spray bottle into the throttle body with it revved up to like 3.5 grand.

 

i just sprayed about 8oz through my carb, didnt see any smoke or soot. hard to tell if it made a difference cuz the car's only been running a couple weeks so i dont have much to compare it to.

 

My friend and I will try it on his dads 93 chevy P/U with 280,000 miles on the original 305TBI. Last weekend we replaced the water pump and re-gasketed the intake because it was leaking oil. While doing this we noticed alot of crap built up in the lifter valley from what seemed like the exhaust crossover port leaking exhaust into the lifter valley. The intake runners on the heads were all black and sooty looking too, like alot of carbon deposits. It idles pretty rough for a stock TBI engine, so we are gonna try doing this to smooth the idle out some.

 

So...let me get this straight. All you have to do is get the engine to operating temp, take off the air filter, rev it to about 3k or so and mist some water into the throttle body and if there is any crap in there, it will shoot out the back end? Well hell, I may as well give that a try. I've got 145k miles on my car, couldnt hurt it. Let me know if i'm missing anything cause i'm gonna try this tonight.

 

As far as MAF engines go, just use the PCV hose to inject the water. Pull the PCV valve out of the valve cover and leave it attached to the hose. With the engine running at 4-5000rpm, stick the pcv valve in a cup of water in very short bursts. Don't just stick it in the cup and let it suck the whole thing down. You only want a little bit at a time.

 

I tried this on my 71 Impala. Absolutely no black smoke came out. Perhaps I didn't use enough water or rev the engine hard enough? I used a small cup and poured small amounts several times. I'm not exactly easy on the car. I do open the 4 barrel on occasion because it sounds so cool. But the car is 31 years old so I try and take it easy on her.

 

Normally what happens is the water turns to steam immediately, and bakes off the carbon deposites on the pistons, valves, etc.

In big chunks, they can cause problems with the cat.

-- Joe

 

do you think it would make any difference in my V6 that sees 5 grand regularly?

 

Zmax has been discoverd to be nothing other than mineral oil

 

Yeah, I just thought it was worth mentioning.

 

how much water are we talking about misting with?

 

A mist of water, enough to make steam, not the motor to stall.

-- Joe

 

i can Pee a mist.

or i can drive thru a mist....


How many OZ? how long of time?

 

It's not like there is any accepted time or volume to use. Just do it and see if anything happens; you'll know if you're putting too much in.