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Cleaning carbon off

5K views 12 replies 8 participants last post by  Killmonr 
#1 ·
I have a 12 ex. Now in past cars I have had a carbon cleaning of inside of engine. I know this may be a heated debate. Just looking for help on best way to clean carbon build up in the r18 motor. I have 175k on motor must be alot of carbon buildup.
 
#2 ·
We used to do top engine cleaning by metering a stream of (shaken) ATF and water through the carburetor; yeah it was a while ago...
Today I would be concerned about damaging the cat converter, thus would not attempt top engine cleaning.
 
#5 ·
I guess I'm old. The last time I personally worked on car engines was 50 years ago. My boss (car mechanic) told me to just run my car as fast as it could go (90mph) for a half mile and I'd be fine.

Do I have to worry about carbon build up on a 2012 Civic LX (1.8 liter)? Fast speeds are discouraged nowadays - at least where I live.
 
#6 ·
Carbon build up really should not be a problem on port injection engines, especially smaller Honda engines. If you are changing oil regularly and maintaining the car properly, there shouldn't be any need to "clean carbon".
Carbon build up is a concern on newer direct injected engines though

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#8 ·
Its only heated if those ignorant on the subject chime in.

Carbon is still a thing on modern engines,however the amount of carbon comes down to a few things:

1. Oil change intervals
2. Quality of oil
3. Quality of fuel

and a distant 4th is engine design. Even if the above 3 mentioned were optimal,some engine designs are just prone to carbon build up.

Ive pulled the heads on 300k miles vehicles with almost no build up and 75k mmiles vehicles with massive build up. It really comes down to maintenance.

If you are insistent on doing a carbon clean skip all the fancy chemicals and use Seafoam. It absolutely works and is virtually harmless to cats and O2 sensors(at least in my experience)
 
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