Bad mpg... Cleaning out carbon?

[MPGranger]

Originally Posted by kennybobby

So how does that snake foam/sea oil supposedly work--i'm not aware of any solvent for carbon...

There are hundreds of carbon solvents for firearms, not that I'd use them in a automotive.

[kennybobby]

Originally Posted by MPGranger

There are hundreds of carbon solvents for firearms, not that I'd use them in a automotive.

Just name one that can dissolve carbon.

Cut and paste from the world wide websticle:
"Gun Cleaning Product Tests ...
The solvents advertised as "cleaners" that were tested included: Accubore, Barnes CR-10, BreakFree CLP, Butch's Bore Shine, Ed's Red (a home brew), Hoppes #9 (current formula), generic brand household (3%) ammonia, generic brand janitor's strength (10%) ammonia, KG12, Kroil, Marksman's Choice MC-7, Marksman's Choice Copper Solvent, M-Pro 7, M-Pro 7 Copper Remover, ProTech, Sweets 7.62, and Sam & Dave's #1. These tests were done in 4 parts. A copper solvent test, a copper fouling test, a carbon removing test, and a rust test test. ...
Carbon Removal Test - A clean, grease free, steel strip was covered evenly with smokeless powder and the powder ignited. This was repeated 3 times.... None of them magically dissolved heavy baked on carbon."

[brucepick]

I can believe that.

I Seafoamed my Civic at least twice, maybe 3x, before taking the head off for a valve job. Plus I had a shop do a similar treatment with a setup much like an I-V drip going into an intake vacuum hose.

When I saw the piston tops they had a hard thick carbon coating. None of the cleaners had done anything to remove it; I had to use a small power brush.

Marvel Mystery Oil uses phosphates as the cleaner instead of solvents; hopefully by using that I'm preventing buildup now.

[MPGranger]

Gun Cleaning Product Tests

I'm guessing this is the article you are referencing. I am now going to discuss carbon solvents through the firearm cleaning perspective. (which I am intimately familiar with)

Carbon Solvents are applied chemistry, which means you are using chemical reactions. These reactions require time, heat, or agitation to work. I did not notice a time of waiting for these "tests." I have cleaned machine guns that I have run thousands of rounds through earlier in the week. Use of carbon solvents has literally saved me hours during maintenance. To speed up the time for reaction, companies could add ammonia. But ammonia can easily eat the chromemoly off the barrel if left on too long.

Now for an automotive application, the time available for these solvents would not be long and a strong solvent would prematurely wear the powertrain.

[ron]

I may be getting old but you cant replace good old H2O it cleans and if done properly has no side effects and the cost is 0$

[ps2fixer]

I can say sea foam works, but there are cheaper ways to do it. Nice thing about sea foam is you can throw it in your gas tank to help clean carbs. Diesel is a very good cleaning agent, my dad's parts cleaner is full of a diesel type of liquid (kerosene i thnk).

I would say to try water first since it is cheaper and not hard to apply.