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Interesting.... PCA vid with Lake Speed on fuel additives... he notes that the carbon buildup on our piston crowns should be removed. The carbon retains heat and then can pre-detonate fuel... knock. The car's computer recognizes knock and backs off timing therefore robbing power.
Hey man, happy new year! Hope you had a good one, saw that movie Ferrari and wasted all yesterday watching football, it was awesome.
Lake is a knowledgeable guy on what he talks about and the information he is giving is accurate. About carbon build up, there are a number of things going on there. Carbon build up in the combustion chamber can limit the transfer of heat and cooling. This leads to elevated temps and also research on LSPI has shown that it is hypothesized that auto-ignition and super-knock can result from this as well as from super hot little pieces of carbon. Like you said, most modern cars have knock sensing and it will adjust the timing with the vane cell camshaft adjustor. This is why it's not smart to run low octane fuel.
I think the solution is pretty easy and cheap, just only use high quality gas (I use Shell V-power 93 because I cannot get ethanol free) and oil. It is also a good idea to run a treatment of something with PEA once every OCI in one of the last tanks of gas. I usually use Driven Injector Defender because it has additional benefits but since it was sold out with all the supply chain stuff and I ran out I just bought a few Techron CFSC 32 oz for $14 from NAPA recently. We had a pretty lengthy discussion on this with many smart people offering information in the 996 forum recently that touched on many of these topics:
Yeah, carbon build-up on the piston or the top of the combustion chamber can cause problems. You can get hot spots that cause pre-ignition, or if you get enough it can effectively increase the compression ratio and cause detonation (knock). That said, with modern fuel injection systems and detergent gasoline additives it's not typically something you need to worry about on modern cars: I just throw a bottle of Techron or BG44K in now and again. Also it's not like your cylinder and pistons need to be squeaky clean or anything, there's always going to be a little carbon there and that's no big deal.
Note that pre-igntion and detonation/knock are two different phenomenon: pre-detonation isn't a thing. Also note that what we're talking about here is different than intake valve deposits: that can be an issue on DFI cars, but it won't cause preignition or detonation, just power loss or running issues from the flow restriction.
When compared to the mentioned fuel additives, can anyone comment on the use of Seafoam Motor Treatment to address removal of carbon buildup?
As I understand it, the most effective chemical to remove carbon is polyether amine. It appears that Seafoam Motor Treatment does not contain this chemical but does contain other solvents. Is this bad? I dunno, but using the Google, I found the best solvent for carbon is polyether amine. Techron and LiquiMoly products use this as their primary ingredient.
I'm not sure where I read this but I read that the Red Line fuel additive product has the highest PEA content. Maybe someone derived it from the MSDS.
Does anyone remember adding (a "poor man's) water injection (using a windshield washer pump and crimped metal tubing at the carb) to their cars, way back when, to increase engine power and "steam off" carbon build up?
I've tried all the usually recommended products for this and nothing has worked as well as Redline Si1. It has one of the highest % content of PEA and here is how my pistons looked after running 1 or 2 bottles in a full tank of gas (not 2 at once!) With it, it's not uncommon to puff a bit of smoke on start up as the carbon starts to soften up and burn off. Once I stopped using the product no more smoke on start up.
With it, it's not uncommon to puff a bit of smoke on start up as the carbon starts to soften up and burn off. Once I stopped using the product no more smoke on start up.
That's how I know the BG44K stuff works. I had an old Alfa that was prone to carbon buildup. When I added the BG stuff to the gas, about halfway through the tank I'd get a big cloud of black smoke out the exhaust while accelerating hard. It would only happen after adding the BG stuff and it would only happen once during the tank.
Since the 80's I have used Chevron because it contains Techron. Now Shell and Texaco have it also. Exxon claims to have similar additives but I have not explored it. Easy solution.
Lake Speed Jr is a wealth of knowledge. I picked his brain when him and Charles were guest speakers at PCA SoCal Tech Tactics before covid.
Those in CA, unless you can find a pure gas station, to sum it up, he prefers Shell V Power 91 or any Top Tier gas. Now that I'm in Knoxville, they many 100% gas stations and Shell V Power 93 octane and even race gas. Gas prices in Knoxville are about half of what CA's 91 gas prices are.
01-02-2024, 12:04 PM
Cleaning your piston crowns of Carbon - PCA Vid
