Top Engine Cleaner/Treatment

[Jack C.]

I noted in an earlier post that a top engine treatment was recommended to clean off the tops of the pistons. Has anyone had any success with this and if so, what brand was used?

[Michael W.]

Re: Top Engine Cleaner/Treatment

What difficulties are you having with your engine that makes you believe that this is required?

[Jack C.]

Re: Top Engine Cleaner/Treatment

Mike. Nothing to speak of. This was more of a preventitive measure. I run Avgas 100% and guess this would be a non-issue with carboning up.

[Michael W.]

Re: Top Engine Cleaner/Treatment

I would think that Avgas would be the fuel most likely to cause deposits due the presence of TEL. The vast majority of cars run perfectly well on high octane E10 which is inherently cleaner than just about any other consumer grade fuel on the market.

At worst you might need a small addition of avgas to bump the octane up a few points over pump octane, but I can't imagine why 100% avgas would be required.

[Timothy B.]

Re: Top Engine Cleaner/Treatment

Jack,

You could also try a fast idle and pour some water into the carburetor. This will steam the top of the pistons and the combustion chamber.

[Dick W.]

Re: Top Engine Cleaner/Treatment

Jack,

You could also try a fast idle and pour some water into the carburetor. This will steam the top of the pistons and the combustion chamber.

A mist is a lot safer. Too much liquid and you could hydraulic lock the engine and possibly bend a connecting rod.

[Philip P.]

Re: Top Engine Cleaner/Treatment

Some call it "snake oil" but Seafoam has made a pretty good living selling their product. You suck about half a can thru a vacuum ie PCV and dump the rest in the tank, if I remember correctly. If you use it be prepared for a lot of smoke the neighbors may not see the humor however.

[Joe C.]

Re: Top Engine Cleaner/Treatment

Good god!
Why do you waste your money on LL100?
Drop by my place in Ocean Township and after I kick your butt, I'll give the engine the old water down the carb treatment, set your timing and mixture and I won't even charge you nuttin.
How can you say there's no issues with your engine if you haven't checked it with pump gas?

[Jack C.]

Re: Top Engine Cleaner/Treatment

I'm game. It's been nearly 3 years with this problem. PM sent.

[Michael W.]

Re: Top Engine Cleaner/Treatment

Some call it "snake oil" but Seafoam has made a pretty good living selling their product. You suck about half a can thru a vacuum ie PCV and dump the rest in the tank, if I remember correctly. If you use it be prepared for a lot of smoke the neighbors may not see the humor however.

Much like WD40, Seafoam is an excellent product for it's original design purpose. In the case of the latter, this was for unclogging carburetors and stuck piston rings on post WWII 2 stroke outboard engines. Also similar to WD40, their marketing department spun the product beyond it's original concept into other uses claiming it can fix anything short of male pattern baldness and impotency. The key word is 'fix', which implies that something is broken. It's extremely rare to see a healthy SBC or BBC with a sufficiently contaminated combustion chamber. This is not through use of 'keep bad things from happening' gas or fuel additives from that special aisle at the FLAPS, the vast majority of drivers don't use them and suffer no issues. Any petroleum product poured down the carb will produce clouds of smoke............